A few weeks ago I spent five straight hours looking at cloth diapers. Five. And I didn't accomplish anything other than become extremely overwhealmed and confused. I ended up creating two registries that acted more like lists to help me figure out which diapers will hopefully be the diaper of choice when Little Guy comes along.
I told Hubby you could make registeries specifically for cloth diapers. His response: do I need to build a house in a tree so we can become hippies?
I guess to understand his response I should make it known that not only do I want to put our babies in cloth diapers, but I want to breastfeed, and I want to labor as much as possible naturally before getting drugs. I've signed us up for a natural child birth class and Hubby is not looking forward to it. I think the only thing he agrees with me on is the breastfeeding. And that is because he has seen the price of formula. Everything else has him thinking I'm trying to turn us into hippies. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
I don't blame his hesitation with cloth diapering. Growing up I was pretty sure I would use disposables. The biggest reason being I didn't have to use pins to fasten the diaper. I had visions of stabbing my babies with the pins. Ouch. And how convenient is it to fold up the dirty diaper and toss it in the trash? Very.
But one day, while reading one of my friend's blogs, I was introduced to the wonderful, albeit overwhelming, (new) world of cloth diapers.
Before reading my friend's blog, the only thing I knew about cloth diapering were those handkerchief-size pieces of fabric (also known as pre-folds), pins, and a plastic panty-looking covering. My mom cloth diapered us this way so I can sort of remember what they were like back in the 80s when my brother was a baby. It was really the only way to cloth diaper back in the day.
But now! Now you have so many options! And some work just like disposables and you only have to use pins if you want to.
There are all-in-ones, or AIOs, which are just like disposables, but you wash them instead of toss them. They have snap or velcro closures and fasten just like a disposable.
There are hybrids. These have a lining that snaps into the diaper cover. When the lining gets soiled you take it out to wash and snap in a new one. The best part? You have the option of using a reusable lining or a disposable one. It's the best of both worlds!
There are pockets. You stuff the cover with a reusable lining and everything into the wash when the baby has soiled the dipaer.
You can still use pre-folds, and I have read that is still the best way to cloth diaper a newborn. But for those of us afraid of stabbing our babies with pins, have no fear -- the Snappi is here!
The Snappi is a flexible, three sided piece of plastic that has "teeth" to grip onto the fabric on each hip and the crotch area. Slap on an adorable waterproof cover over it and you're good to go. After discovering the Snappi I have become a lot more open to using pre-folds and diapering the old school way.
Unfortunately there is no way around having to scrape or shake out poop from the diapers before washing -- another reason why disposables are appealing. But there are sprayers on the market now that you can hook up to your toilet to help make that job easier. And bonus: I read they can also be helpful in keeping your lady parts clean as things heal down there after birth.
With so many options and needing to find a diaper that Hubby would agree to use, I had to seek advice from my cloth diapering friend. That helped me narrow down my choices a bit and, after several weeks of researching, I have finally completed my official diaper registry.
I've got a few of every type of diaper on there. I mean, I have no way of knowing what we will like using or what will work best on our baby. I think a hybrid is going to be what we try first; they seem like a good way to ease your way into clog diapers. gDiaper gives you the choice of using reusable liners or disposable ones. They are the only diaper that I've seen with a biodegradable disposable liner you can flush. Hubby seems cool with that and we won't have to buy a separate trash can to toss disposable liners in (although I plan on using resusable inserts - the whole point to wanting to cloth diaper is to save us money).
One thing I do know for sure though, all the cloth diapers I've looked at are so freakin' adorable! Screw spending my money on clothes and shoes. I want to spend it all on diapers now :)
No comments:
Post a Comment