As a mom of two boys in diapers, cloth diapering has been extremely beneficial to my family. I am a stay at home mom and so we are on one income. We try to cut costs as much as we can so that I can continue to stay at home with our children. Cloth diapering is one of the ways we reduce our expenses.Before I started cloth diapering my boys I had a very negative view of cloth diapers. I pictured the "old-timey" diapers with pins. However, after doing some research, I learned how easy cloth diapering could be. I began when my older son, Carter was a little over a year old, and my younger son, Evan was 5 months old. I decided pocket diapers were the best fit for our family, so I started out with Bumgenuis pocket diapers. I used those for a while with great success.
However, once my little one started putting on a little chub around his belly, I had difficulty keeping the velcro tabs attatched. I then began using Fuzzi Bunz and have been with those ever since. I have built up a decent size stash, so I do laundry every two days or so. I am expecting our third baby, and will cloth diaper them as well. All in all, with these three children, we will have saved thousands of dollars on diapering and we also have the satisfaction of knowing we are not filling up landfills as well.
- By Amanda C., Virginia Beach, VA
34 comments:
LOVE LOVE LOVE the picture!!!
I also have trouble with the velcro on BG's with older children, but have found sliding a pair of underwear (or those diaper covers that come with dresses) over the diaper, or a pair of pants, keeps everything in place. I have a toddler who likes to take her diaper off, so placing a pant over the diaper prevents her from removing it. Unfortunately, she also pulls the FB's off, too!
Sounds like you have it down.
I think a lot of the newer generation has that negative opinion of cloth diapers. I get strange looks sometimes when people find out we cloth diaper. But I am glad that things are changing and that cloth diapering is becoming so popluar amoung new parents. I certainly love our fluff and like to tell others about it.
Thanks for your story I always like to hear other moms and how they get started doing CD.
I love that picture of your kiddos looking out the
window :) So cute.
You are saving a lot of $$ especially when #3 arrives :)
The savings w/ just one child have already been tremendous for us (and that's w/ starting late too.) So I can just imagine how great the savings will add up when we have more children in the future.
I'm always amazed that these families you hear about on TV, who have large sets of multiples...6, 7, 8 children all in one shot, don't do cloth. Can you imagine how much they are spending on sposies not to mention what they are adding to the land fills?
Congrats on expecting your third! I started with fuzzi bunz, but my baby got a little too tall and the mediums didn't fit his as well as the smalls did, so we switched to bumgenius. I just hope he can fit in these ones for a while!
It's amazing how many of us out there started cloth diapering with our second child. I too started out with Bum Genius, and then moved to Fuzzi Bunz for my oldest when he outgrew the BG's.
Looks like you have a good system. I think that cloth diapering two children would actually be easier than disposable. Just the financial savings alone.
Thanks for sharing your story. It definately is beneficial cloth diapering on one income. I am a stay at home mommy too (working from home with my own business, but the income isn't reliable as of yet). I look forward to seeing what it is like cloth diapering a newborn in August. I can't imagine cloth diapering 3 children all at once. Right now I cloth diaper my first & only child.
Cute picture! Thanks for sharing the story. It's really helpful to hear these stories for someone like me who's getting ready to cloth diaper for the first time.
such cuties in the window. Congrats on baby #3 (Here is to an easy pregnancy!). Yeah to saving money!
Just wanted to ask how you manage to fasten FBs quickly?? My DD (4 months) is a wiggler and it's really hard to snap the snaps quickly. My primary dipes are the touchtape/Aplix but reading her.I end up using my FBs as last resort or backup nighttime dipes) Any tips?
I love the picture! How cute!
The main reason I started cloth diapering was to save money, because while we only have one now we do want more. And the thought of putting all those disposables in the landfill just makes me cringe! It's so nice to stories about other CDing moms who felt the same as me about cloth before doing research!
Awesome! I've never used Fuzzi Bunz, but I hear great things - I may have to check them out for Baby#2 (due in Aug.)
Amanda, I love that photo! I'm so glad our family decided to CD with our first child. It seems like we'll be able to use/reuse the CD's we bought for Brendan.
I cloth diapered my 1st from the time he was born and have never looked back. Now I am getting ready to have two in diapers (#2 & #3) in a couple months and can't even imagine what it would cost to have two in disposables at the same time. I am so glad I decided on cloth so early on.
Amanda, I had the exact same view of cloth diapering before I did actually look into it. I would get almost upset when my mom and my friends from Belgium (where I come from) would try to talk me into using cloth! See, in Belgium, you have to buy your trash bags from the city and it's over 1 euro a piece... Makes you think twice about filling a couple of those a week with sposies, huh? Plus, a lot of cities give you money up to 200 euros when you purchase cloth diapers. Anyway, after weeks of persuading, I caved in and said, okay, I'll look into cloth diapers, mom... Well, I can't thank her enough for being so persistent! It hasn't proven much of a saving so far, because of the initial investment - I've just started, but oh boy, doesn't it feel good to diaper your baby in such soft and cute fabric AND to know that you're not adding more to the landfill?
By the way, I live close to you, in Chesapeake, Va!
It seems a lot of people who don't know how much easier cloth diapers are now than they used to be have a negative reaction to the thought of using them. I thought the same way until I had friends that used them. Now I wish I had started with my first child, but I didn't look into it until he was almost 2 years old and my husband has not (and still resists to it) been convinced of the benefits to cloth diapers.
Even my Mom, who used cloth before there were disposables, commented on what a blessing disposables were when they came out. She was skeptical of me wanting to use cloth until I showed her some pocket diapers. She was amazed at the difference!
Wicked cute picture! I too have both fuzzi bunz and bumgenius 3.0- I use the medium fuzzis on my 3yo and the BG 3.0 on my 2yo... they just seem to fit into that certain brand of dipes the best right now. 2yo is right between 2 snaps on the fuzzis, but does fit in them better when they're double stuffed for night; 3yo just looks like she's a bit big for the BG 3.0s, but they still cover her bum and haven't leaked when used overnight... I just prefer the fuller coverage of the fuzzis on her! My hope is that 2yo will be better potty trained by the time DD#3 arrives in 8-9 weeks so that I can switch both of my older daughters into the fuzzis for nap and nighttime and use the BG 3.0s on the newborn... it would certainly make sorting dipes a lot easier! If she does start to have more accidents or decides she wants to wear dipes like the baby rather than panties like her big sister, I may just assign one color of the BG 3.0s to her and use the rest for our newborn, along with our stash of small fuzzi bunz and PFz and covers!
i love this post .. i have 2 boys in CD too :) i love my stashes for them but now i really want my older one to potty train but he is not their yet :0) thanks for sharing your experience :)
Amanda, I was the same way--before I started to CD, I only had a negative viewpoint. When one of my friends said they were going to CD, I said, "Why?" But then they started telling me all the reasons and watching our trashcans fill with sposies really killed me (not to mention handing over 40 bucks a box for diapers!) I'm glad it wored out for you and congrats on your third!
What a sweet photo....I love it!
Cecile! My sister lives in Belgium with her husband and son, and I was shocked at the incentives! I mean, really, why aren't we doing something like that here?
Too bad, and really incomprehendable, that in the end my sister decided NOT to cd. . .
:(
I tried to persuade, but what can you do, right?
I really love that picture as well. :)
I agree that it is a common misconception that cloth is outdated and difficult. When I told my mom I wad diapering my baby in cloth, she thought I was crazy. When I tried talking my sister in law into it, she thought there would be a ton of work involved (needing a special cleaning service). I still don't think I have convinced them though...In the end they need to be willing to do the research themselves.
I was surprised to find out myself that not only is cloth super easy, but they do wonders for your budget and your baby's health!
I almost want another baby just so that I can keep using my CD's!
Aww your boys are adorable! & I couldn't agree more!
Thanks for sharing! I honestly never even thought of cloth before. It wasnt a negative view, it was just something I didnt even think people did anymore (boy am I out of it!!). But DD#3 was arriving in a week when one of my friends from HS posted on facebook about being a "100% CD family" and then it got me thinking. I am really enjoying CD and it helps that my hubby is supportative. Not to mention the CD community, I have already met some great friends and DD is only 2 months. Not many moms can say they made friends by talking about sposies :)
I had the same problem with BumGenius. My 2 month old wears the diaper all the way open at night already because of using 2 inserts. I'm worried the diaper won't last long.
Love Angela Sundara's idea about putting underwear over the diaper!
I was talking to my husband's grandmother the other day about diapers and how I planned to use cloth with the new baby. At first, she reacted with shock - telling me how she used cloth diapers with her ten kids (40+ years ago) and how horrible it was to have to keep up with all the laundry, pins, and how they leaked, etc. Instead of just telling her about it, I pulled a couple of cloth diapers out of my diaper bag - a BG AIO and Dream-eze AIO. Grandma was VERY impressed - she asked, "THOSE are diapers?!" After checking them out, she ended up changing her mind saying, "Wow - if you use these instead of those disposable diapers, you'll save lots of money on buying diapers! And these are so cute and colorful! Where were these when I was a mother?!? These are almost fun!" Ha ha ha. Sometimes a demonstration/example works better than an explanation! :)
Adorable picture! Thanks for sharing your story.
Love the little climbers!! :)
We CD 2 also. BG's and Fuzzi bunz mostly.
threekstrio at yahoo
i have three in cloth. :0) i love the fuzzi bunz when we are out and about and for over night, but use the prefolds and bummis and swaddlebees at home. i also love the contour kissaluvs. i just wish someone would have told me about cloth diapering when i had my oldest four years ago! i just started cding a month ago. darn!
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