Wednesday, April 11, 2007

More on cloth diapering

I've had a few people asking follow-up questions on my cloth diapering post, so here are my suggestions:

If you're starting out with an infant, this is what I would recommend:

36 regular chinese prefold diapers
4-6 small Bummi Super Whisper Wraps
4-6 medium Bummi Super Whisper Wraps

The links are to the items available at CottonBabies. No, I'm not getting any kickbacks for recommending them - I just think they have good products for good prices. Plus they give you free shipping for any order over $74.95. If you buy 36 diapers, and 4 each of the small and medium Bummi wraps, your order will come to $139.00.

I recommend getting the small AND medium wraps right away, because you'll get free shipping that way and because your baby will most likely grow out of the small wraps within about three months. I do not recommend buying the small "infant size" cloth diapers, because the regular sized ones work just as well. It is an extra expense you can do without.

If you have a washing machine in your home, I highly recommend using it as a "diaper pail". Just put it on a soak cycle and spin it out once a day if you haven't washed them yet. Baby poop, particularly if you're nursing, can just be dropped straight in - no swirling in toilets needed! For older toddlers just add a diaper liner to catch the poop, which can then be easily shaken off into the toilet, and the diaper dumped into the washing machine. Easy!

Cotton Babies also has a page of "everything you need to know about cloth diapering" that is quite informative and will give you lots more information than I can type out here. :)

1 comment:

Amber said...

I agree about the newborn size prefolds! My mom bought us some when Gregory was born and we only used them for about 3-4 weeks. They then got used as spit-up cloths for awhile, and now they just take up room. However, if she had given us them with Emma I probably would have used them for the first few months since she was so tiny!