Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Rashes, and other odd things

There are always odd things that come up when cloth diapering. One is the dreaded diaper rash. Some people say that you are less likely to get diaper rash with cloth. I think that depends on why your kid is getting the rash. If you child is sensitive to the chemicals that are in paper diapers then yes, they will get less rashes with cloth. If however your child gets diaper rash from having pee against their skin (like my children) then you may get more from cloth diapers. The solution to this is fleece. You simply get some fleece (from the fabric store or an old blanket) and cut it in to diaper sized rectangles and place them in the diapers. This will keep your child's skin dry and rash free. You can wash the liners with the diapers and reuse them.

For wipes I use white wash cloths. We use white because our other wash cloths are not white so we can tell the difference. I went to Target and for $5 I got a pack of 12 wash cloths. I bought 3 of these packs. Then I just use a squirt bottle of water to get them wet and wipe the baby up with them. They can be washed with the diapers just the same way. Really why not use cloth wipes when you are cloth diapering anyways right?

Some babies are super heavy wetters at night. For them it would be a good idea to get some overnight diapers. Many different bands make them. They cost a bit more but you only need a few of them. I got 3 because I do my wash every 3 days. I got the Happy Hempy pocket diapers. Hemp is very absorbent and works well for overnights. They cost $18 but like I said, I only needed 3. There are other hemp diapers that will work too.

Cloth diapering is really not as hard as it sounds and the pay off money wise and environmentally are huge. So give it a try! If it does not work out you can sell your stash and make back at least some of your money. Some websites even have a "try it" package that will let you return all or part of the diapers and get your money back.

Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Amassing your Stash

Cloth diapering has long been seen as a good way to save money as compared with paper diapers. I will not debate whether or not it is more environmentally friendly then paper (although the WHO has declared cloth the winner due to the ability to wash and reuse on multiple children) but it is almost always cheaper. But how much cheaper is up to you. I started cloth diapering my son when he was born with the idea of being as cheap as possible. Cloth diapers come in many different brands and types, it can be very overwhelming to a newcomer to decided what to get. I will go over the CHEAPEST (in my opinion) way to cloth diaper.

First you start with what diapers to buy. There are three types of cloth diapers: Prefolds with covers, pockets with inserts, and all in ones. Prefolds are the cheapest to buy, last the longest, and are the easiest to wash. These are what I went with. You simply need to buy a bunch of prefold diapers and wash them three times to get them nice and fluffy and they are ready for use. Prefolds come in Indian and Chinese, bleached and un-bleached. There is no great difference in price or quality, you can get whatever type you want. DO NOT buy Gerber prefolds. These are not meant to be used as real diapers no matter what it says on the package. You can buy prefolds used as well. A good website to help you with this is diaperswapers.com. It is sort of like Crag's list for diapers. How many should you buy? That depends on how often you want to wash. I have three dozen small sized and that is about three days worth of diapers. As for sizes, that is also up to you. I did not bother with the new born sized diapers. My new born fit in to the regular ones with only a few poop blow outs until he was 8 lbs. Then we had no more blow outs unless he was put in to paper diapers.

Next you need to decide what covers to get. This is entirely personal preference. You can buy used covers but be careful not to get them too used. They ware out much faster then the prefolds themselves. Many people choose to get a verity of covers and then decide what their favorites are and buy more of those. I personally love the Bumies Whisper Wrap covers. I love Velcro for middle of the night changes (I can't handle snaps when I am tired) and love the cute pictures on the covers. Some people really love snaps though, it is up to you. I also have some Thirstys that are good too but they are not as cute. Six covers was enough for me to get though three days before I needed to wash. I have small covers (8 lbs - 15 lbs) and medium covers (15 lbs - 30 lbs). My son is almost two and we have not needed to buy the large size even though he is over 30 lbs now. I do not use pins or Snappies but if you prefer, Snappies are the way to go. They are pretty cheap and really easy to use. Just look them up on YouTube for instructions.

If you want a nice all in one package that has everything you need until your baby goes over 15 lbs I would recommend the Bumies Cotton Diaper Kit. You can find it on Amazon or through Thanksmama.com This kit has three dozen diapers, six covers, and a roll of liners for about $150. This is enough to go for about three days before washing. They also have a 15-30 lb kit as well. And no, they are not paying me (although I wish they were!) Next time I will go over the cheapest way to take care of them.