The Great Diaper Experiment starts today.
Before Abigail was born, I decided that I wanted to use cloth diapers. My reasons were twofold. One, I wanted to save money. Two, I thought it might be better than throwing away thousands of diapers over the next two years.
I talked to my sister-in-law, R, and decided to purchase some Fuzzibunz. I liked their name, and I thought they looked fairly easy to use.
But here's the thing. You can't start a newborn on cloth diapers. They're too small. Those little legs aren't chubby enough for the elastic. And who, pray tell, wants to do extra laundry in those first 6 weeks postpartum? Not I.
So we started off with disposable diapers. As we hit the two month/10 lb mark, I found myself saying at each diaper change, "I really ought to start using the cloth diapers." Only, I never did.
I never knew how dependent I was on disposable diapers. They're so great in so many ways. They start out small and puff up when they're full, so you know, without having to smell (a huge plus with my faulty nose) or stick a finger in a leg hole to check. Heck, the swanky disposable diapers even have a little yellow stripe down the front that turns green when the diaper is wet. Wow! What's not to love? I couldn't let them go.
Until today. I bit the bullet. I cinched and snapped a VERY large cloth diaper on my VERY skinny kid, and am awaiting the results. There are gaps and puckers, despite my attempt to make it as small as possible. I am expecting leaks. And mess. Not due to the diaper, perhaps, but to how skinny my kid is. I would really LIKE to be able to use the diapers. Who doesn't like saving money? And I have to admit, I really will feel better about myself as a human being if I am not creating so much waste. But if she's too skinny, disposables it will be.
And it sounds like Abigail is filling her diaper right now. So I guess I'll have my answer momentarily.
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3 comments:
i started using the cloth diapers at one week when her belly button fell off. i've cut the circulation off her little legs from the top with them a couple times (oops, bad mommy) but there have only been a few leaks. nothing like the exploding poo at the back of disposables with nicolas.
i really have no complaints with them. i use less wipes, too since i can use the front of the diaper to wipe down the worst of it.
she's still pooping a lot - i'm guessing abigail's bm has "leveled off" - so we can go through a dozen diapers in 18 hours! i have 24, so i cant wait for the load to be every other day...
good luck...i was never a brave enough to switch to cloth. and i've read that the detergent used to wash all those diapers is about as bad for the environment as the disposables i'm still using. so if it doesn't work, console yourself with that. if it does...hooray! i have also heard about some sort of plastic or rubber pant that you can put on over the top of the cloth diaper to keep leaks in.
Well, that's an encouraging comment about detergent... :P What if we use something "green"? Think that would help? (Does green detergent even exist?)
No leakage yesterday, but I still have to set all the diapers to the correct size. So she's back in Pampers today.
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