We use disposables almost every day. Anywhere from 1–4. Usually closer to 2.

My son cant’ stand a wet diaper, so when I’m out and about (riding on subways mind you) with him, if he was in cloth, I’d probably have to change him 2x as often, as he can go longer in the disposables with less discomfort.

We have a very active and very urban lifestyle. I take him on trains and busses and have been doing so since he was 8 days old :) We go out for a few hours every day and changing rooms with tables are sometimes far & few in between in NYC. I actually have an iPhone app that will tell you the closest changing table to your location using GPS! LOL

We use around 10 disposables a week, I’d say.

My son is also exclusively breastfed, so for now his diapers are relatively easy to clean. For me, it’s less the issue of cleaning diapers, but the fact that I am usually carrying him in a carrier, with a backpack as a diaper bag. Carrying heavy, wet, diapers with me for several hours while I walk and ride the trains, is not ideal. It’s really more a weight and bulk issue since I already have a few teething toys, snacks for me (I’m hypoglycemic), a few diapers, a chaange of baby clothes, and the usual wallet, etc. in the bag. At hour three of your walk with 16lbs of baby strapped to you, with a backpack, the extra weight of wet diapers can get to you!

We use cloth for a lot of reasons at home — comfort being key, but also for environmental reasons. But I don’t feel a need to make myself a martyr to the cause! For some families, 100% cloth is the way to go. For us, 75% cloth is the way to go :)
.-= {nex0s´s shared blog entry… Daily Jaeger} =-.

For us the water/electricity don’t even make a dent, the water company thought our HOUSEhold had only one resident. I was shocked because we are always running a load of laundry (typically bath towels for me heh) and I take looonnng showers when I get the chance lol.

For potty learning I did NOT use a child’s mini-potty contraption. I bought a toilet seat cover, something similar to this one, and a step stool for him to get onto the toilet himself. I never did a reward system. Every time I was in the bathroom, around the bathroom, or just bored lol, I would have him go and “use” the potty.

For me the hard part came AFTER that, when he figured out he could STAND and urinate heh. I was constantly having to wash my shower curtain at that point lol.

@nex0s, with my oldest I lived in an apartment complex where it was over $1.15 per wash/dry in the laundry rooms (I am so thrilled to have a house with our own washer and dryer now!). I did pre-folds and covers with him.

For me, I’ve never cared much for dragging a lot with me, a BumGenius with a newborn insert is lightweight, good for a “just in case we’re out” diaper, fits easily in my purse, etc. Since we don’t have to worry about blowouts and well he’s breastfed of course, I don’t need anything else thankfully!

It was odd, I just watched my toddler niece the other day and she’s been in disposables since day one, and it was just weird to me, the perfume of the diapers, the stinky smell it gave once the gel chemicals came in contact with urine… plus throwing the diaper away hurt a bit because it felt like I was throwing away money (even though financially, it had nothing to do with me).

So how often, in general, do you use disposables per week as a guesstimate?

I live in NYC and we don’t have a washer in our house. Our building has washing machines, and every wash/dry cycle is 75 cents, so to do three washes we’d be charged $2.25.

I *do* cloth diaper part time! We use a diaper service who picks up our prefolds and delivers new ones once a week at a cost of $23/week. NYC diaper prices work out to about that anyway for disposables (the cost of retail and shipping drives them up — limited space in Manhattan!).

When we are out and about on the town, I use disposables simply because then I don’t have to cart around a lot of bulky diapers. We take the train a lot, so I carry everything in a backpack. Disposables are lighter in weight, smaller, and I don’t have to carry anything home if he needs a change when we’re out.

If we are staying in the neighborhood or at home, he’s in cloth all day and night.

This combo works really well for us, due to our unique living situation and my own desires.

My son has never had a diaper rash, and I attribute it to the cloth. We like him in it most of all — I notice that his genitals don’t get that waterlogged look if he’s in cloth. Even damp cloth breathes better than disposables!

We use the prefolds provided by our diaper service, and my favorite covers are the Mommy’s Touch covers! Good colors, very waterproof, and GROW with my baby! Awesome!

For disposables, we go to Costco and buy 1 case every 3 months. No biggie. Cheaper than buying then in the neighborhood for sure!

N.

We had our first gel explosion with Elias (morning change) maybe about a month ago and it was SO GROSS. We had to give him a bath and I had to vacuum immediately. That crap is sick.
.-= {Lynda´s shared blog entry… Grabbing and Scooting} =-.

The primary reason we went with cloth diapers initially was the baby’s comfort and the savings over time. A box of diapers costs about as much as a new BG and might last a week and a half at the most. With Elias, we cloth diapered straight out of the hospital, but I didn’t have my act together when Noah was born so it took me a few weeks to find and wash all the cloth diapers in storage. A disposable diaper feels a little like fine sandpaper in comparison to a cloth diaper.

I don’t buy into the environmental reasons too much. It takes a LOT of water and electricity to care for cloth diapers. We put out enough trash as it is though, so I love being able to cut down on the amount of trash.

We need to start encouraging Elias to learn to go on the potty so I can get him out of disposables. For an upcoming post, do you have any tips for potty learning from an AP point of view? Elias showed a lot of interest when we first got his potty seat (shortly before Noah was born) and actually went in it the first two times we put him on it, but never again. He’ll sit on the potty, but won’t go in it.
.-= {Lynda´s shared blog entry… Grabbing and Scooting} =-.

@Lea, really, there is no organizing or anything involved with washing diapers! It’s just yet another load of laundry to do basically. You’ll have to come back and let us know how you like your Itti Bitti D’lish cloth diapers!

@Echoia, ah I didn’t let cloth diapers be a “choice” when I found out I was pregnant with Tristan. I made that mistake with Daniel’s bio-father (until Danny was a year old anyway) and refused to let that mistake happen again. If you look online I bet you can find a LOCAL store that sells cloth diapers. Tristan gets changed 8-12x a day, Daniel (when he was that age in ‘sposies) was changed 8-12x a day too. You are doing the RIGHT thing by changing him frequently!

About the photographs, I shot them all with my 50mm lens I believe, I didn’t do anything PP ‘cept boost the contrast. I LOVE that lens. As for the boppy, it’s a hand-me-down from my twin sister. I have to say it’s quite useful if I am sitting on the couch/desk chair, or to let the baby chill on the bed for me to take photos lol.

@Kristi, why thank you! I think, like with anything else, you just need to jump right in with cloth diapering. We love how it contains everything, there’s no weird odor from chemicals, and just overall how wonderful they are!

@Damita, YAY! Cloth diapers are totally the way to go!

@Dagmar Bleasdale, I was never interested in the G diaper, they reminded me of prettier ‘sposies basically. I highly suggest a pocket type diaper, like the BumGenius.

@Cheryl, aww thank you, I do try!

@Noel, YAY for cloth! I have to admit, I know next to nothing about wool covers or anything of that nature, with Danny I used pre-folds/covers/some Fuzzi Bunz/some FullMoonBabyGear AIO’s. With Tristan it’s all BumGenius. I love that the cloth can be used for YEARS where as ‘sposies, it’s single use.

@Caity, thank you! I joke that I only birth squishy adorable boys from my womb. YAY for making the choice (for the future babies) to use cloth!

@Erin, YAY! What brand/type of diapers are you getting?