Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Choosing to Cloth Diaper

Did you know that Disposable diapers take at least 500 years to break down?  What about the fact that 18 billion disposable diapers are sent to American landfills every  year?   My first thought is "Ewwww".  
These were a couple of the facts shared by  Whole Living Magazine's April issue.

Luckily, I had already made the decision to try cloth diapering before reading this.
I will admit that I'm not perfectly "green", but I do try to make a few differences in my life.  I will joyfully admit that I use reusable menstrual products.  I know it freaks people out a little, but after doing some research and talking to people, I learned that it's so much better for me, our city sewers, and the Earth in general.  Since I already do that, it isn't a huge leap for me to use cloth diapers.

I'm still in the midst of doing a ton of research on which diapers to use, which detergent to use, the best way to store dirty diapers, and many other details.   We did stop into a local natural baby store to look and ask a few questions. We walked out with a dozen prefolds and 3 diaper covers - just in case we need them in the near future or for an unexpected quick match.  I must say, I'm excited about the covers because they are pretty darn cute.

My favorite one we bought has little owls on it.   Some of you know that I have a new obsession with owls, since we will be decorating the nursery with them.  
http://www.thirstiesbaby.com/products/cloth-diapers/duo-diaper/

If any of you have favorite brands, tips, etc to share - feel free to leave them in the comments!  I'm pretty excited about our choice to cloth diaper and look forward to growing my stash! 
Now I just need the cute baby butt to put in them.

3 comments:

  1. Reusable menstrual products? I have never heard of such a thing!!

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  2. Oh boy- this might be long :)

    I have a mixture of Fuzibunz, Bumkins, CharlieBanana, and AppleBottom's. We are a pocket family and only use pockets for Eliana. I like pockets because they're easy and I can change the insert for whatever outing we're doing (bamboo/hemp for overnight, microterry for day time use, etc).

    For Eliana we use "perfect sized" diapers. So this is different then a Onesize diaper. She is so tiny with chicken legs that the onesize diapers are not tight enough on her legs. Perfect Sized diapers are great for this, however they are made to fit a smaller weight range (the size we're in right now is 15-30 pounds). For her this will last her through potty training.

    In terms of dirty diaper storage we use wet bags. I have two (one hanging in the upstairs restroom, one hanging in the downstairs restroom) and then a back up smaller one for if those two are in the wash, and an additional smaller one for her diaper bag.

    We use Rockin' Green laundry detergent because its cheap, easy to come by, and made locally, but there are tons of great ones out there.

    Let me know if you have any questions :)

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  3. Doh- AppleCheeks not AppleBottoms!

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