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I'm having a bit of a dilemma, I can't decide whether I want to use cloth or disposable diapers. A few months ago, I started looking into cloth diapers. Brandon really wanted to use cloth because a family from church uses them and the mom washes them herself and they save a fortune. He's totally up for anything free :-)
However, I quickly crushed his dreams of saving hundreds on cloth diapers by refusing to wash the cloth diapers myself. For one thing, I think it's disgusting. But my main reasons are that we live in an apartment and have to share a laundry room with 5 other families and pay to wash laundry anyways. The laundry room is also across the hall from us, so I'd have to physically leave the apartment and the twins in order to wash them. I don't think this is too safe or practical so I told him I couldn't wash the diapers myself. And he wasn't quite as excited about washing our cloth diapers when I told him he'd have to do a load of poopy diapers every single night after work.
However, I am still considering cloth diapers if we used a diaper service. I found one called Modern Diaper Service in Virginia. The deliver to our area and seem to have great customer service. I think it would only cost us about $20-30 in start-up costs (for the diaper covers and other supplies). Then it would cost $24 a week after that. I did the math and it averaged out to nearly exactly the same cost as using disposable diapers. I have heard some benefits for using them, such as less risk of diaper rash and easier potty-training, however these seem to be pretty questionable. I haven't read or heard anywhere that these benefits are undisputed.
So I guess it comes down to the fact that my main opposition to disposable diapers is the thought that I'd be putting thousands of chemical-filled diapers each year into a landfill and that they could take hundreds of years to actually break down. However, a diaper service obviously uses tons of energy and probably lots of chemicals to wash all these diapers as well. I'd really like to give it a try, but I can't see any clear benefit to using cloth diapers. I've never met or heard of any twin mom who has used cloth diapers. The convenience factor would make it alot easier to just use disposable diapers. But still, I'm torn and I don't know which is best.
Does anybody have any advice on this? Do you know anybody who's used cloth diapers (recently, Mom, not 20 years ago)? Do you know any pros and cons I haven't thought of? I'd definitely trust a personal experience over an article I happened across online. If anybody has any light to shed on this for me, I'd be really appreciative!
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4 comments:
I haven't really even thought about the cloth vs. disposable thing yet - but my sister-in-law Tarena recently switched to using cloth diapers and did a whole bunch of research and made some really informative posts on her blog. I would definitely ask her about them, and if you do a search for cloth diapers on her blog several posts about them will come up. Hope that helps!
One thing my father-in-law told my hubby recently was that washing cloth diapers yourself is really hard on your washer. I'm not sure why (because I wasn't part of the conversation and my hubby didn't think to ask), but I think maybe it's because of the constant use and also using lots of hot water.
I personally use disposable diapers for now at least because when i have to clean a messy diaper it is disgusting... because it is anything but solid... one of my really good friends here uses cloth diapers she has a one year old and loves them... her daughter was alergic to the disposable diapers but now she says she would never go back even when she has another baby
hi!
I just read this and thought maybe i could help...start out using disposables...the little size fits them better, it will give you a chance to get into the swing of things around the house, and you can find out if poop still grosses you out in the same way (sometimes when it is your own kid it doesn't seem as bad). I chose to switch to cloth to help our family financially. We are using bumgenius and really like them (we started with gdiaper with a cloth insert and didn't like it as much)! I do have to touch the diaper more than disposables, and it does require a little more laundry. As you share a laundry room, i don't recommend that you wash them yourself-especially as you would have to leave your apt. If it will cost the same for you to do a diaper service vs. disposables, i would go with the service. You should be able to put them into a diaper pail (we have a Diaper Champ and love it!)with hardly touching anything...it would be very similar to disposables. We also use cloth wipes (washclothes)and I like them even better than disposable wipes. We just suirt water on them and they work great! If you do this you would need a good ziploc or other kind of bag for when you are out. We also do buy disposables for the diaper bag for the nursery helpers, grandparents, or on a long weekend away from home/vacation...but really the bumgenius are just as easy as disposables.
With a new baby (and especially with twins) you want to make things as easy as possible...I think if you start with disposables, and then use cloth w/a service-it would be just as easy...even could be easier if you just start w/cloth so there is no switching involved!
I hope this helps...feel free to comment back if you have any other questions!
Hope you are feeling well!
blessings to you,
tarena
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