Really? Cloth Diapers? It's the 21st Century not the 1940's!
A diaper will be in contact with your baby's skin, 24 hours a day for the next 2 to 3 years; therefore the diapering choice that you make is an important one.
As parents ourselves, we learned early on that disposable diapers weren't for every baby's sensitive skin. During the first few weeks of our oldest childs life in diapers, we battled a persistant allergic reaction to disposable diapers, that even included a chemical burn.
Many people do not realize that a baby's skin is 5 times thinner and much more porous that an adult's. A large percentage of the products we put on our skin are directly absorbed into the bloodstream. Considering that single-use diapers (of all brands) have approximately 60 known chemicals in them, the consequences can be staggering to a child, when a series of chemical filled disposable diapers are held in close proximity to the skin much of the time moistened!
We here at CNY Cloth Diaper Express, we believe that having cotton against a child's skin is much healthier (not to mention more comfortable) than the paper, plastic and chemicals in single-use diapers. Plus, cloth diapering has come a long way over the past several years making cloth diapering your baby as simple as any single-use diaper on the market today!
How Many Cloth Diapers Do I Need and How Much More Will I Be Changing Baby?
Cloth diapering is no different than using disposables. If your baby currently is going through 10 disposable diapers a day than you will go through 10 cloth diapers a day.
If you are expecting a newborn the bottom line is that they "go" a lot because they lack the ability to control their bladder and bowels. It may or may not be a lot when they "go" but they do "go" frequently and you can expect between 12-15 diaper changes a day on average those first few weeks/months.
However, the older your baby gets the more control over his/her bladder and bowels he/she will gain and the fewer diaper changes you will have.
What About Overnight Diapering?
Most parents are hesitant to cloth diaper at night and we can understand why, with disposable diapers that leak at night, who would really think that a cloth diaper would hold all night long.
Well, cloth diapers are actually better for overnight diapering because they DO hold more based on how you customize the aborbancy!
In disposable diapers I cannot tell you how many times we woke during the middle of the night to a soaked baby and a pee-pee drenched bed! It was horrible (hence why someone invented those zip off sheets for these type of middle of the night emergencies!)
Our personal tried and true overnight cloth diapering system is a pocket style diaper such as bumGenius, Happy Heiny, or FuzziBunz, with the microfiber insert that comes with the diaper and an additional pre-fold used as a doubler. This will keep your baby dry overnight and personally kept our toddler dry for sleeping stretches of 12-hours!
But I Am Afraid Of Diaper Pins I Can't Cloth Diaper!
Diaper pins??? Are those even still around?
Diaper pins are DEFINATELY a thing of your grandmother's day! Nowadays the popular option is an invention called a Diaper Snappi. Think an ace bandage clip that is attached to a sling shot.
Other options involve diapers that already have velcro sewn to them or snaps that securly keep the diaper in place.
Traveling With Cloth Diapers? Many families find it necessary to travel long distances at least once a year, rather to Grandma's house or for vacation you can make your trip with cloth diapers! Trust me, in my 4 yrs of cloth diapering I have traveled by plane, long distances by car heading south for vacation and even camping in the Adirondacks all with a cloth diapered baby. It is completely do-able!
We've called relatives that we were staying with ahead of time to ask if they'd mind if we washed our diapers in their washer while we were there and when not staying with family we always try to book a condo/vacation house that has a washer/dryer on premise. We've even stopped by a laundry mat to wash our dipes before! Now that's dedication!
Potty Training?
Washing Cloth Diapers
|
