I used disposables for a year with my first child (and still do use disposables on long vacations), so I am in a good position to compare cloth and disposables.
Why I love cloth diapers in order of importance to me:
- More natural against my baby's skin
- Almost no blowouts -- with my first child in disposables, his poop went up his back into his onesie about 90% of the time. I've found that I need a lot less clothing for my second child because of fewer blowouts. Even prefolds simply folded in thirds inside a cover contains poop FAR better than the luge-like interior of a disposable
- Cloth wipes are FAR superior to disposable baby wipes
- Less leaking at night
- Better for the environment (not everyone believes this, but I do)
- Cheaper
- Easier to potty train: my little boy has been dry at night for months and was completely potty trained on #1 in a couple of days (still working on #2, darn it) -- not a representative sample, I know!
- Cuter: they are cuter, but I honestly don't care that much about that
Why do you love cloth diapers?
Why would you NEVER EVER EVER use cloth diapers?
This post is part of Homemaker Monday.
I've considered using cloth diapers, but not sure I can handle cleaning #2. In fact, when potty training Sophie, when she had icky accidents, I sometimes just threw the underwear away so I didn't puke trying to clean it. How do you handle the poo diaps?
ReplyDeleteNisha, I laughed out loud when I read your comment. We are dealing with poopy underwear right now too as I am in the midst of potty training -- luckily, I can just throw in his undies with #2's cloth diapers!
ReplyDeleteNewborn breastmilk poop is completely water soluble and doesn't need to be removed at all before washing diapers. To deal with poop in older kids, I used liners, which are kind of like dryer sheets you put on top of the cloth diaper (closest to baby's skin). If the baby only pees, you can throw the liner in with the diapers, wash it and use it again. If the baby poops, you just throw the liner and poop in the toilet, and the diaper in the wash.
Other folks use a "diaper shower," which uses water from your toilet, to spray off the poop into the toilet. When washing diapers, most everyone does a cold rinse of the diapers before washing with detergent and that gets most of the poopy remnants off too.