When Archie was about six weeks old, we switched him over from disposables to cloth primarily to save some cash (as is the case with most of my cloth diapering friends). The first route I tried was cotton cloth diapers I had made from a local seamstress shop with diaper covers bought locally (native brand). These worked quite well while he was young but as he got bigger, they started leaking badly...
Archie in disposable diaper at 2.5 months
Archie in a locally bought cloth diaper around 3 monthsNext, we got some Proraps Classics from the Internet. These are still my favorites as far as ease of use. These diaper covers work great and really have low leaking. I don't like prefolds and pins so I just do a simple fold and let the cover keep the diaper in place. (I also don't have to do the insert stuffing Bum Genius requires.) They run about $8.95 so they're a more affordable option for starting. Here's the drawback: if you start at the beginning, you'll probably have to buy a complete set in several different sizes which will cost more than other more expensive brands in the long run. If you're thinking about trying cloth, this is a good one for experimenting because the investment isn't too heavy. If you're baby is already in one of the upper weight categories, you might want to go with this one, too. They get excellent reviews on the Cotton Babies website.
Leslie's easy folding techniques with Proraps (using any cotton material)What gets bad reviews in my book? The Bummis Whisper Pants. To use these covers, you have to use pins or clips and do fancy folding! I'm really not a fan!
What are the best diapering resources? I think Cotton Babies (www.cottonbabies.com) is the most comprehensive as far as reviews and product lines available.
My friend really likes Diaper Swappers (www.diaperswappers.com) because you can buy used cloth diapers for cheaper, but I find this site a little difficult to navigate. Diaper Pin (www.diaperpin.com) is one more alternative.
7 comments:
I'm glad you like the proraps. I hate ours! :) haha...I prefer the thirsties...they feel much less "plasticky!" and hooray for diaperswappers! yay!! love that place! :) I'm so glad you like the BG! I think they are the "gateway diaper" into the addicting world of cloth diapering. so just get ready! :)
I never knew diapering was this complicated. When I change Archie again, I will have to bring my own disposable diapers. I don't think I could figure it all out.
wow, thanks for sharing all your findings! this will be helpful for us as we will need to go this direction in the future.
Have you checked out my reviews on cloth diapers? I won't write it all here, you can check it out.
we don't like the proraps (we had some hand me downs...so they leaked), but we love the bummis whisper wraps...but we use them with the kissaluvs snap diapers, so we don't have to use pins.
Our favoite all time is the Bum-ware.com cloth diaper!
Glad to here you are part of the cloth mamas!
Leslie,
I love reading about what you are trying and your success with Archie. Most of all the pictures. To be honest, I did not have time to read the blog today. But will. The "diaper thing" was very interesting and I think your information for other mothers would be very helpful. Archie is beautiful. Spinning off of what grandma said, I don't see how we could vote on the best picture of Archie because they are all perfect.
Auntie Pat
Fun post :) We love the BG :) I'm not a big fan of how bulky they are though... they look funny on her if she wears pants... but we usually let her just wear her diaper and a shirt when we're at home (it's hot here anyway) :)
We usually let her wear disposables when we're out - what do you guys do?
Cloth diapers have saved us a lot of money already :) - we definitely ahve a lot less waste too - which is great! I used to be so embarassed with how many diapers we would throw away every day - especially when you seem them all in a pile on street later that day - :) We're not only saving money - but saving the environment ) whoo hoo!
oh, and we have blue BGs too - but they look different than the ones we have - ours are lighter blue - but maybe it's just how it looks in those pictures :) We got yellow, blue and green :) - I wish we had a couple of pink ones, but we couldn't spend money on pink ones, in case our next baby is a boy :) (although a boy could totally wear pink to sleep in :) haha!)
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