If you haven't heard yet, I've jumped on the cloth diapering band wagon, yup...cloth diapers! I was first introduced to this ludicrous-ness by my greenie sister-in-law Ashley. You can read more about her greenie ways
here! But after I first heard that moms out there still use cloth diapers I've come to know many mommies who cloth diaper their babies bums. So by request, here is my cloth diaper routine!
There are several different types of cloth diapers out there. My favorite are the all-in-ones (AIO). An AIO diaper has only one part. In this setup, the absorbent material is actually sewn into the waterproof diaper wrap. This type of cloth diaper is the closest in form and function to a disposable diaper. While AIOs are somewhat expensive -- in the area of $15-20 per diaper range -- they usually end up being cheaper than disposables over the non-potty-trained long run!
A few cons that I've come to know is the most obvious -- Laundry! My current inventory of cloth diapers allows me to go about 3 days before I need to do laundry. Also, cloth diapers absorb more liquid than disposables so I need to change Norah more often than if she were in a disposable or there can be some leakage, no bueno. But as a stay-at-home mommy I don't mind doing an extra load of laundry or keeping my babies bum nice and dry!
Here's an inside peak at the all-in-ones
See how they snap to adjust for size
So when Norah's due for a change I clean her up with cloth wipes which I keep moist and warm in my wipe warmer
If her diaper is icky I rinse it off in the loo with my nifty diaper sprayer
The wet/dirty diaper and cloth wipes then go into my stink free diaper pale (yes it really keeps the stink out). The pale is lined with a cloth liner so when laundry day comes the liner, diapers and all, go into the wash. And then you wash, dry, repeat!
Here's my sweet Norah modeling a cloth diapered bum bum
I'm not a huge greenie-pants but I have come to appreciate becoming educated in what we can do to help the environment, and it is MUCH cheaper in the long run! Cloth diapering works for me, it doesn't mean it works for everyone. It doesn't even work for me all the time. For example, we just got back from a 2 week long vacation in Missouri and we resorted to disposables for pure convenience of being away from our home. But once we got back to Michigan, it was cloth diapers for Norah!
So there you have it! Hope that answers some questions my friends!
