Why we chose cloth for Jackson: when I was pregnant with Jackson I had several friends who were cloth diapering and very passionate about it. I thought the diapers were super cute! When I looked more into them they claimed to be better for baby because they didn't use any chemicals, that sounds good. Babies didn't get as many diaper rashes, all about that. Adults don't wear paper underwear so why should babies, never thought about that. But mainly, they were super cute! So we made the plunge. I even bought newborn cloth diapers, super super cute!
I did enjoy using cloth. They were cute and I didn't mind the wash. I got a strange satisfaction with each load of cloth diapers. Not having to worry about running out of diapers and making a last minute run to the store was nice too. While financial savings weren't a motivator for me, we saved at least $2500-3000 for the two years we used cloth. That certainly was nice. I told all my friends about how great cloth was and how much I was enjoying it. That wasn't a lie.
Why cloth wasn't all it was cut out to be (for us): leaks. Jackson has very slender thighs and even when the diaper leg openings seemed to fit him well he still would leak right around the edges at times. Not every diaper by any means, but more often than when he wears disposables- whenever he is in nursery for church, mommy groups, or vacation. Jackson almost always got sore buns when he pooped in the cloth diapers. Even if I changed him immediately after he went his buns would still be red and sore and he grew to hate diaper changes. He also got ammonia burn a few times. We would switch to disposables for a couple days and it would dry/clear right up. Strange, since cloth is supposed to lessen diaper rash. Even though I was pretty good at rinsing the diapers without making a mess, it is a hassle compared to just throwing away a dirty diaper. Some of our diapers began to lose their absorbency. While we still got two years worth out of them, I expected Daniel to be able to use them too. So I was disappointed.
So instead of replacing the leaky diapers, I decided to start over with this new baby. I ordered a trial for Jackson of The Honest Company diapers after getting good personal reviews from two friends who use them. Oh goodness, I already love them!
They are Eco friendly, which means less chemicals. While I'm certainly not a very green minded person, Jackson does react to a lot of things (soaps, washes, certain diaper brands like Huggies) so Eco friendly is a good option for us. The designs are super cute! Not that important all things considered, but as I decided to use cloth largely because of how cute they are it makes sense that the honest diapers appeal to me. They cinch in the back, which is one of my biggest concerns with using disposables. We only had one cloth diaper blowout in our whole 25 months! And that was an abnormally large poopy! Hopefully the cinching in the back of the honest diapers will help keep poopy explosions to a minimum.
The monthly subscription isn't that much more expensive that regular disposable options I've looked into. Of course, if you find sales or have coupons then you can find less expensive diapers at the store. But there aren't always going to be sales and coupons. I like the convenience of having the diapers delivered to your doorstep too. I also like that you can customize your deliveries so if you don't use all the diapers you can move your shipment back and you don't pay until your shipment is mailed out.
They feel soft and comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they absorbed. All around, I am satisfied and cannot wait to get our first full shipment!
So, we have moved from being cloth diapering family to a disposable diaper family. Matt is thrilled because he likes the convenience of disposable. We bought plenty of disposables throughout Jack's first two years anyways, so it's not like cloth was an end all to not using any other form of diapers.
I mailed out most of my cloth diapers to three friends this morning. It makes me kind of sad and I did wonder if I would regret this decision. But overall, I think it will be a better option for our family.
Another more ridiculous reason I made the change- certain aspects of the "crunchy" lifestyle have been making me extremely peeved lately. Enough to make me want to distance myself from it as much as possible. Because I practice extended breastfeeding and used cloth diapers crunchy moms would assume I agreed with them in other areas. Not true. So it led to some confrontation. So definitely not the full reason we switched, but it was on the "pro" side of my checklist for making this decision.
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