A few months ago, Jared and I decided to put a ban on disposable diapers in our house and switch to cloth. We have talked about doing it for a very long time. Jared for environmental reasons. Me for cost effectiveness. However, with Jared being a student, we weren't able to afford the initial start up cost of doing cloth with Xavier and Shaela - it was just easier for us at the time to spend $30-$40 a month on disposables. However, at the Baby and Kids show in February, there was a cloth diapering store that had a booth there. And so, we ventured over to talk to one of the sales reps and get our million and one questions answered.
You see, cloth diapering is no longer the flannel pre-folds with pins and wet pants that our parents used back in the day. You can still get those kinds of cloth - although they have improved the fastening methods since then, so for those who are worried about poking their babies, you don't have to use pins anymore. But it seems there are a hundred and one OTHER kinds of cloth diapers available now as well - All in Ones, All in Two's, Pocket Diapers, Pre-Folds. And then there are the various kinds of inserts - microfibre, hemp, cotton. Which ones are best? What brand should you try? It can be VERY overwhelming for anyone who wants to try out cloth diapers these days to know where to start.
After a very long conversation with the girls at the booth and a little convo on the side between the two of us about which kind we thought would be best, we took the plunge and scored a deal on a 'start up' package at the show. We came home only to realize that we had forgotten one of the bags at the show! So I had to wait a few days for the store to be open to pick up the forgotten items....and when I came home I went straight to the basement to start washing the diapers in preparation for their first use!
We are now about three months in with Shaela and loving it! Cohen was in disposables for the first two weeks of his life until his cord fell off (and to avoid getting meconium stains on our pretty cloth diapers) but for the past month, he has also been in cloth. His little legs were so tiny at first that we ended up with a few blowouts those first two weeks. But now that he's chubbed out a bit, they are working GREAT to contain even the biggest of poos!
All in all, it has been a very wise decision on our part. We are saving a ton of money on disposables and I'm loving the variety of colours with the covers we have - I can mix and match to coordinate with the kids' outfits! It's loads of fun!
*To learn more about cloth diapering, and to see which ones we use (the All-in-2's), check out: www.ampdiaperstore.com*
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