Cloth Diapers, Anyone Have Experience With Them???

[Unregistered]

I have a new family starting and they are using cloth diapers. I have agreed to try it out here, but very hesitant. I have never used them before and this is the first time in 10 years of providing care that anyone has even asked about it.
Pros??? Cons????

[Cat Herder]

I'd recommend having them provide LOTS of extras and ziplock bags to send home the dirty ones daily.

Otherwise they may expect you to do the laundering. This can get very expensive and time consuming.

Luckily (for me), my State now requires disposables for potential contamination risk.

Other than that, they are not much different.

[melskids]

I have had families who use them, and honestly, the new ones are no different then disposable ones.

The ones they used were all one piece, and had velcro or snap closures.

I didn't have any trouble at all with leaking, or anything like that.

I am not allowed to wash them, so they just went in a seperate plastic lined diaper pail, and went home with mom every night.

[cheerfuldom]

I disagree that they would assume you launder.

Anyway, try them out. The newer styles are super, super easy! I have cloth diapered my 3 plus two of my daycare kids. Have them bring one days worth of diapers plus a wet bag (waterproof zipped bag) and send home the dirties each day. Don't worry about cleaning the diapers off at all. Just fold them and tuck them in the bag.

Make sure you communicate that you will not be laundering or "prepping" for launder in anyway. Speak up if you have a specific issue with the diaper. There are tons and tons of options so the parents could always try another system if the diapers dont work for you. Dont feel that you have to say no cloth...at least give it a chance

Also, you will have to change baby more often. I know some people let babies use the same disposable diaper until it is full or don't change but a few times a day. I check all my diapered babies (no matter what type they wear) once an hour and then as needed if something is smelling. You can't let baby in a cloth diaper for hours because once the diaper is full, it WILL leak.

[youretooloud]

I'd recommend having them provide LOTS of extras and ziplock bags to send home the dirty ones daily.

Otherwise they may expect you to do the laundering. This can get very expensive and time consuming.

Luckily (for me), my State now requires disposables for potential contamination risk.

I disagree.

All you need is one empty bag that they take home each day. It's called a wet bag. Or they might provide a small diaper pail that they take home every day.

Don't offer to wash them. No parent would expect you to wash them.

If you don't want to, don't offer to stuff them or fold them... whichever diapers they are providing. Some need to be assembled (which is not time consuming) and some are ready to go with no more work than a disposable.

The only major difference is size. They take up more space.

http://www.cottonbabies.com/index.php?cPath=28 Here are some common cloth diapers. If the parents are bringing diapers that won't work for you, you can ask them to bring another type. (within reason) But, most cloth diapers are not hard to deal with, as long as they are doing the washing and folding.

And, BTW, I have never used disposables on my own kids. I could never even fathom buying disposables, and I cannot understand why parents WOULD spend that kind of money on disposables.

[Cat Herder]

Not sure what all the "disagree" is about..... It IS 100% possible and does happen. :confused: Hot button issue?

When I allowed cloth I OFTEN had parents question why I would not launder them if I was willing to bathe and launder other children's clothing after being ill or having an accident. (huge difference in occasional and everyday/all day ) I also do not use a diaper pail. Diapers leave the playroom immediately, outdoors.

Not all parents are the same. I have had them use disposables at home and only bring me the cloth; to save money.

OP said she had no experiences with cloth diapers.... I was relaying mine to her.


Edit: Sorry for being so short guys . Not having a great morning . 3 on anti-biotics AND they had whole kernal corn over the weekend.

I re-read my post and see what set wrong with you..... the "lucky for me" is because I can't afford to have a hand washing sink put into my daycare room (required for cloth undie/potty trainers within a couple feet).

Because of the cloth I would have to take (infants in cloth) them into my TINY potty training bathroom and change the diapers in the bath tub. Not sure my teens would ever forgive me for that one... The rules just got too hard and finally just went away.

I LOVE cloth for small infants, they do get harder once they get to age 2, though... I do still sneak and use my own stash when treating open diaper rash, FYI (shhh...)

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the info. They do not expect me to launder them. I wouldn't agree to that anyways! They asked and I told them I have never used them, but am willing to give it a try. They said if I don't want to mess with it, they understand and will get disposables. I have heard cloth diapers have come a long way, so we will try it out and see.

One question, I have, where do you keep them until the parent arrives so not to stink up the house??? You mentioned a bag, but where do you keep it? garage??

I guess I should also be sure it is ok in my state. I am in Illinois.

[greenhouse]

I wish more parents did cloth. We saved a ton of $ using cloth. I'd rather send dirty cloth diapers home each night than let poopey disposables sit in my trash bin.

[AnneCordelia]

I wish more of my parents used cloth diapers!!! They are easy, from a daycare perspective.

I simply take off the used diaper, put it in the wetbag, and put on a new diaper. The wetbag gets sent home daily for laundering. I will drop poop into the potty if it is solid enough to fall off, otherwise, I bag it and the parent deals with it at washing time. All my cloth diapering parents have assumed they would do the laundry. I don't launder anything here that doesn't belong to me...all poopy, pukey and otherwise soiled clothing gets bagged and sent home for washing.

It's great because there is less waste in my home garbage. I have 4 1yos...this is a lot of diapers! My home is allowed 4 bags of garbage every 2 weeks and then I have to pay extra for more...cloth saves me money and isn't any more work than disposables, IMO.

[youretooloud]

It's great because there is less waste in my home garbage. I have 4 1yos...this is a lot of diapers! My home is allowed 4 bags of garbage every 2 weeks and then I have to pay extra for more...cloth saves me money and isn't any more work than disposables, IMO.

I think that's what I like about it the most. The disposables smell up my house, then they sit in my garbage outside for a week before getting picked up, so I have five days worth of other people's kids smelly diapers in my trash. I hate that!!! But, the cloth diapers go home every day, and the parents take care of it for me.

The cloth diapers don't smell any more than a disposable. So if you keep the disposables out in the garage, you would keep the cloth out there too. If you keep them inside, keep the cloth inside too. You just need a separate bag so you don't throw the cloth away. I use a bucket for the sposies, and a plastic file holder for the cloth. (the parents brought that for me)

[AnneCordelia]

A wet bag is made of polyeurothane laminate....plastic material to keep messes in. They usually zipper shut or have a drawstring. You can put a piece of cotton in it with tea tree oil to cover smell but I've never had to do that. The waterproof bag is enough to keep in smells.

[SunflowerMama]

I haven't read all the replies so sorry if I repeat.

I cloth diapers any dck still in diapers. None of my families do it at home but I provide the service here for them.

I use a diaper service ($60/month) so they take all the dirty diapers each week and leave me a stash of clean. I just use prefolds, snappis and covers.

I keep all the dirty diapers in a huge wetbag in the garage.

You do have to change them more frequently but it's totally worth it for me because I just can't make myself throw away that many disposables a week.

[christinaskids]

I am thinking about doing this since i will have 2 in diapers but the cost for the all in ones is so high i dont see a price saving when they are 15 each. Did they really save money?

[Meyou]

I use them for a dcg and they're super easy. I put the used liners in a wet bag and send it all home at the end of the day.

[SunflowerMama]

I am thinking about doing this since i will have 2 in diapers but the cost for the all in ones is so high i dont see a price saving when they are 15 each. Did they really save money?

I cloth diapered my own twins from birth to potty trained and it saved us probably a couple thousand dollars. We just did simple prefolds and covers with snappis and the cost is significantly lower for those compared to all-in-ones or even pockets. But granted you can't get all the cute prints and you have to change more frequently with just prefolds/covers but we did it save money so were fine with boring prefolds.

Total cost birth - potty trained for 2 kids: $200
Stash of about 4 dozen prefolds (1 size - fit birth to pt) - $100
6 - 8 Covers (2 different sizes) - $50 - $80
Snappis - $20

Average cost for disposables birth - potty trained for 2 kids: Average $3000 - using generic disposables
Here is a little chart that works the numbers of cloth vs. disposable including the energy/laundry aspect. I just used one size from birth to potty trained and just folded them a little differently, and I bought used snappis and covers, so my cost was about 1/2 of what this chart estimates. Granted it's from a cloth diaper company I think but it gives you a good idea of costs...even if it's taken with a grain of salt.

http://www.babymoonboutique.com/ClothDiapersavings.pdf