Why We Chose Cloth Diapers

3 weeks: newborn cloth diaper

Before our daughter was born, we had TONS of decisions to make. One of those included what kind of diapers to use. I have worked in childcare many years, and my only diapering experience was with disposables. You put the clean diaper on the baby, take the soiled one off, wipe the baby and throw away the diaper. Bam, done. I never thought about using cloth diapers. My preconceived ideas about them were that they were too complicated, that I would have to touch a lot more ick than I would like, and that they'd be too much work with diaper pins, plastic pants, all that washing and clotheslines. Besides, Daniel would never go for it.

Boy was I wrong.

I visited my friend Carolyn, who was using cloth diapers on both of her little girls. They looked like a MUCH cuter version of disposables! Just as easy to put on and take off, the only difference being that you washed them instead of throwing them away. I thought, "I can do that!" So I did what I always do before making a really big decision: research! Turns out there are lots of kinds of cloth diapers, including the old-fashioned ones you have to fold. But there have been many technological advances in cloth diapers in the last 5 years!

5 weeks: Flip diaper & cover

I looked at many different factors as to why or why not to use cloth diapers:

Convenience: For both disposables and cloth, you velcro the diaper on the baby, take it off, and throw it in a pail. For cloth, you wash them. For disposables, you throw them away. I felt like I do so much laundry anyway, what are a few extra loads a week? Plus, it is illegal to toss human waste into landfills. If you read the box of disposable diapers, the instructions say to shake waste off into the toilet before disposing of the diaper. If I'm going to do that anyway, it may as well be from my cloth diapers. We received a diaper sprayer from our baby registry. It's basically the same thing that's attached to your kitchen sink, but attached to the toilet and with a variable pressure to spray out poopy diapers once our daughter started solids. Much more convenient! We have even traveled with cloth diapers. We decided, however, that for car trips, we will use cloth, but for plane trips, we will use disposables. It's just too difficult to find convenient and affordable washers/dryers in hotels.

Bulkiness: Cloth diapers are more bulky, so the baby often wears one clothing size larger than s/he would have in disposables, since today's baby clothing is made to fit over disposables.

Baby's health: Most disposable diapers contain chemicals, including the bleaching chemical, dioxin, which is known to cause cancer. Even if you buy the natural cotton unbleached disposable diapers, they still have the gelling chemical to contain liquid matter. Cloth diapers are much more natural, cause less diaper rash and feel better on baby's skin. Also, cloth-diapered babies are often potty-trained sooner because they have the ability to feel the wetness.

Environment: Though cloth diapers do cost more in energy and water to wash than disposables do, disposables have way more of an impact both in manufacturing and in disposal for our planet. A disposable diaper can remain in a landfill for 500-600 years. (visit the link on dioxin to see more statistics). So all those disposable diapers my mom used on me in the 80's are still around somewhere. Yikes. A cotton diaper takes around 6 months to biodegrade. This is the one that got me on board.

Cost: This is the one that really got Daniel on board. For about 4 month's worth of the cost of disposables for one baby, we could buy enough cloth diapers to last from birth to potty-trained. And then reuse the same diapers for ALL of our children! And then sell them when the last child is potty-trained to recoup some of the cost. On average, disposables cost about $66/month per child, which is $792/year and $1584/lifetime, assuming your child wears diapers for only 24 months. Per child. The cloth diapers we bought cost us around $250. For our baby and any siblings she may have. We got a middle-of-the-road option; there are much more affordable diapers out there, and many more expensive ones as well.

2.5 months: bumGenius diaper

Our Stash: I thought the best blend of cost and convenience was a "pocket" diaper, like bumGenius. I then discovered how much I love the convenience of the 2-piece Flip diaper system. So our "stash" consists of 13 velcro bumGenius, 5 Flip diaper covers, 1 Econobum diaper cover (that I got for free for spending $50 at cottonbabies.com), 5 Flip stay-dry inserts and 24 regular-size unbleached cotton prefolds. The only ones I got new were the prefolds and half of the bumGenius. I do have a few random borrowed diapers that I rotate in our stash occasionally from my sister-in-law and my friend. We also spent about $40 for cloth newborn-size diapers so our daughter could wear cloth diapers from birth (the one-size ones SAY they fit from 8lbs, but they really fit from about 6 weeks old, or whenever your baby gets some leg fat). I was glad to have this more comfortable, natural option for our daughter when she was so tiny.

7 months: Econobum cover over prefold

For all my disposable-using friends who are actually reading this blog with interest, thank you! I hope this has been informative. I understand that not everyone wants to or can use cloth diapers. If you are willing to think about it though, there is a great movement out there on facebook called Change 3 Things that challenges non-cloth diaper users to try using just 3 cloth diapers a day. The impact on your wallet and our planet will truly be significant. And if you have any questions at all, this is something that I'm very passionate about and would love to talk with you about!

7.5 months: bumGenius diaper

Baby Legs on a Budget (How-to)

I love those baby legwarmers that are so popular right now, especially since I have a winter baby! Diaper changes are much easier without having to always take off pants, undo onesies, remove socks, etc. But at 12+ dollars a pair, who can afford them??

So I decided to try my hand at making some. Another benefit to this is that they will actually fit my daughter now, at her current dimensions, instead of waiting for the perfect 5 minutes that bought ones will fit her.

Now, I do knit and crochet some, but what I can do is very limited, and I can't even come close to knitting or crocheting socks or legwarmers! I'm much more at home in front of my sewing machine, so here's what I did.

1. First, I bought a pair of christmas socks from walmart at their after-christmas clearance sale. They cost 75 cents.

2. Then, I tried one of the socks on my daughter while she was content on the changing pad after a diaper change. I pulled the sock as high as I wanted it on her thigh, then marked where I wanted the length and width of the legwarmer at her ankle. (Note: I marked it with my finger until I took it off her. Then I marked it with a pin.)

3. I then cut from about an inch below the top of the sock (leaving the top cuff intact) at an angle until I got to the pin, then cut straight across where the ankle was going to be. I left about 1/4" seam allowance. In retrospect, sock material is VERY stretchy and hard to sew, so I should have tried to leave a larger seam allowance, like 5/8". But I typically prefer a 1/4" seam allowance, so that's what I did for this project. Once I had one sock cut, I used it as a template to cut the other sock the same.

4. I sewed the ankle cuffs next. I used a LOT of pins and my iron to help me turn the seam twice, then I stitched it with my 1/4" seam allowance and a straight stitch on my sewing machine. I repeated this step on the other sock as well.

(How I pinned it)

5. Lastly, I turned the sock inside-out, then straight stitched the seam for the back of the legwarmer, maintaining my 1/4" seam allowance. I had to sew off the edge of the sock as I got near the thigh cuff, to make it look smoother. I repeated this step for sock 2.

(left one pinned, right one pinned and sewn. Yes, I sewed over my pins. Bad me.)

And here's the final result! Baby Legs! They only cost 75 cents, plus the thread that I had on hand. My machine was already threaded with purple, so that's what I used, since I was too lazy to change it.

Finished Baby Legs!

And if you want to see them on my beautiful model, here they are:

Naomi wearing mommy-made baby legs!

BONUS!

I was looking at the leftover sock bits thinking I could make something with them, so I did a bit of prowling, and used this tutorial to make Naomi a sock monkey! (I did modify it a bit, since I prefer the traditional embroidery-thread monkey face to button eyes, and I prefer the more traditional rounded ears, too.) She adores it (waaaaay more than the baby legs!), and now she can match her monkey, too!

Hope you enjoy my little how-to on making your own babylegs! I actually have 2 more pairs of knee-high argyle socks that I've worn holes through the feet on, so I think I'm going to make her some more.