going green: cloth diapers

So, I'd like to start a reoccurring post about how our family is going green. This might be being more organic, being energy saving, saving the planet or saving some green :) My first post is on cloth diapers.

Years before we had Caleb, I had looked into cloth diapering and thought it was a great idea. You spend some money, buy some diapers, and never have to pay for disposables each month, saving tons of money (and making a lot less waste). But I didn't know how the idea would go over with the family.

You see, I have some pretty opinionated people in my life. And a lot of them know quite a lot about taking care of kids. So I could just hear them laughing at me, saying "You want to do what?! Don't you know what a hassle cloth diapers are?! Are you crazy?!!!" So since there was not a baby in my near future, I kept my mouth shut.

Soon though, my sister-in-law became pregnant and began registering and talking about baby things. And to my wonderful surprise, she wanted to use cloth diapers! Ha! What wonderful news! SHE would have to be the one to get everyone on board! But the thing is, everyone loved the idea. They were really open to seeing how far cloth diapers have come and that they really could save us some money. Laurren also wanted to use Bumgenius ones and I'm so glad she did. She loves them so we decided to use that brand as well.

We were able to take advantage of their buy 5 get one free deal and bought 6 diapers. Alan's parents bought us 18 and my mom bought us some too! We ended up buying some extra small all-in-ones for when he was a newborn and used these for about 7 weeks I think. Now he's in the one size ones with the snaps. We really love the fact that we can adjust the absorbancy to his needs (like doubling up at night). But we might get some AIOs too and might try some other brands as we have other friends who use cloth diapers and like different brands for different needs.

The bumgenius ones are a great all around diaper. The one size ones aren't very trim though, but he has still been able to fit in all of his pants with them. They come in super cute colors, but you probably notice them more with girls as they can wear them with dresses and you don't even need a diaper cover. He of course won't be wearing dresses so you don't really ever see the diapers. Just know they are cute :)

They don't take too long to clean as the covers line dry really fast and the inserts can be tumbled dry. I would never try to cloth diaper if you had to go to the laundry mat though. We do diapers about every other day or 2 days. We use the bumgenius detergent but I have had some stains on the inserts. I haven't tried drying them in the sun as it's been cold. But I've heard it really works.

Caleb seems to love his diapers, but we do have to make sure they are not snapped too snug. It's much nicer on his skin than disposables and he never gets rashes from the cloth ones. We do use disposables when we visit family in Indiana and occasionally when mom doesn't keep up on the laundry (I like Luvs, they really don't ever leak! But I would like to get some more natural disposables) :) But for the most part, we can use cloth exclusively and use bags when we are out and about.

So this is one of our first steps to being green. For those of you who are thinking of using cloth, let me know if you have any questions. We liked buying them on cottonbabies.com but Babyland in Savoy, IL sells them in their store and also sells some other brands. They might not have a huge selection of colors though. I know they have a trial program where you can try out different brands of cloth diapers. That would be a great way to start! Bumgenius ones are around $18 a piece but you can buy bundles to get them cheaper. They also sell organic ones to be even greener, but that ups the cost too.