Cloth diapers and baby legs!

It's been a long time since I said I would do a post on our decision to cloth diaper Jack's little tush. We've been doing so since he was about four months old and wow, has it saved us money! Lot's of people choose to cloth diaper to save money. Some choose to cloth diaper to save the environment. I guess for us, it was a reason to do both. Although, for anyone looking to make the switch to cloth diaper, keep in mind there are pros and cons to that just like there are to using disposables.

I am by no means a cloth diapering expert, but here are some ways I've incorporated cloth diapers into our life with a baby and how we've been able to save money doing so.

First, we started with pocket-style cloth diapers. To use these, you need the shell and you need an insert. Inserts are made of a variety of fabrics and fibers, but we use bamboo style. I'm not going to mention a preferred brand of cloth diaper because we don't really have one. The style we use I ordered through a cloth diapering co-op group on Facebook for about $3 a piece, with about $1.20 spent on each insert. We purchased 20 shells and 25 inserts. This cost us about the equivalent to what we were spending each month on disposable diapers. And these are the one-size variety, so they have snaps that are adjustable depending on age. These *should* last Jack until he is potty trained. (Oh, what a glorious day that will be.)

Cloth diapers can be expensive to purchase if you go through a common retailer, but if you choose to go through a co-op, you can get them a LOT cheaper. Average of $12 retail compared to $3 or less co-op. The biggest downside with the co-op is that it took me two months to get my order. If I would have considered doing this before he was born, I could have ordered them while I was pregnant and it would have been a lot better. Oh well! We've still gotten a solid four months of use out of them.

Or if you don't want to go through a co-op, consider buying them on eBay. There are lots of styles and brands to choose from.

Plus they are super cute. We have all kinds of patterns and colors for Jack. 

Now when it comes to washing them, I know this is typically where people get intimidated. I usually wait to wash a load of cloth diapers when I have about 10 dirty ones. I take out the inserts and wash both them and the shells together in the same load. I wash mine with hot water, but you don't have to. I then do an extra rinse cycle and then either hang to dry or toss them in the dryer on fluff.

People have asked me if cloth diapering is hard or expensive. And I would say no to both. I got mine for cheap and I know our utility bill is a few bucks higher from the extra laundry loads but not enough to be noticible to our budget.

And the process of washing them is easy. If you are exclusively breast feeding, you can toss those diapers all right in the wash since the poop is still water soluble at this point. Now that we're doing solids, I do have to rinse them in the toilet first. But they make these diaper sprayers. I still need to get one. 

The one downside of cloth diapers is that they are so "fluffy." Jack's pants need to be larger, and his onesies longer when he wears cloth. That's actually why I just bought some of the super cute baby leggings. That way you don't have to worry about the pant issue. 

All in all I am super pleased with our decision to cloth diaper. It's totally worth the financial savings. We still put Jack in Huggies disposable overnight diapers though, but I know there are cloth diaper inserts that are more absorbent for nighttime if you want.

Definitely worth the savings, both economical and environmental, plus they're cute!

If you have any other questions about cloth diapering that I haven't answered, feel free to message me or leave a comment below!