Cloth diapers

[stephrider]

Hello, 

I'm still looking for ways to reduce my carbon footprint and wastes. For so I'd like to reduce my disposal consumption by replacing with cloth diaper. I see lot of thing on web stores but I know nothing or most nothing about it. 

At first I wanna keep disposals at work and outdoor because it's more convenient and switch to disposals at home and night. 

What kind of products you recommend me? All in one, booster, folded, plastic pants?

How many should I buy at first?

How to manage, organize myself with cloth diapers?

[Stroller]

I take it you actually mean 'switch to washables at home and night'.

Firstly, I'd suggest you make the change gradually, so you can make sure you're buying the right nappies and plastic pants that work for you.

Secondly, there's quite a bit of stuff on wearing cloth nappies here on the forum, so if you haven't already done so, find it and read it.

Thirdly, you'll need to be able to wash your nappies and, crucially, get them dry as well.  Without a tumbledryer that could be tricky, and you'll probably want to air them after drying to make sure they're properly dry.  Wash as for babies nappies: there's plenty about that on the web.  I wash at 60 degrees, with enzyme-free powder.  Don't leave wet nappies unwashed for more than 2 days.  Get 2 plastic buckets with lids, for holding you wet nappies in - there's no need to soak them.  The lids keep the odour under control pretty well.  Two full buckets makes a washing machine load, and for me, that's about every 2 days.

I've tried some Bambinex all-in-ones, but I've not been impressed with the comfort and they tended to leak.  There may be others that are better, of course, that I haven't tried.  And the Bambinex ones may be OK for you.

I've tried Leak Master contour cloth nappies that I got sent from the US, but the shipping was expensive and they don't hold much.  I've included a link to a useful US site, but I don't think they send to Europe.

I sometimes wear a flat terry nappy (4 ft /120cm square - I've got a 34 inch/86 cm waist)), and can recommend the Chinese fold for flat nappies.  Good for overnight, but a bit bulky for daytime, and they don't always stay in place (for me anyway).  You might want to try these though, as they don't cost too much.  Get some Snappi toddler fasteners (on Amazon), & some pins as well.

My usual nappies are from Snuggleblanks, but they aren't easy to buy from.  I've been waiting 3 months for my latest order, which is typical, and they rarely respond to emails or texts.  The nappies are good though.  The Velcro ones are good, the pocket style ones are also good.  Get plenty of boosters to give yourself flexibility.  The pocket style nappies have got a PUL lining, but don't rely on it - you really need to wear plastic pants over them.

There are other pocket nappies around, and I haven't tried them all.

And, last but not least, I got a Velcro-style nappy from Dotty Diapers the other day, and I'm very impressed with it, apart from the colour running badly in the wash (it was blue).  I've ordered more, but white this time.

So I'd recommend you start with one of the white Dotty Diaper nappies, & maybe a terry square as well, and see how you get on with them.  Maybe try one of the pocket nappies too, for example the ones here.  I haven't tried these though.

As for plastic pants, comfort is the most important thing once you've made sure they're big enough to hold all your nappy.  I find polyurethane pants a lot more comfortable than pvc, and I can recommend the ones from Arizona Care, which I wear all the time.

I hope this is useful to you - good luck with it!

 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

While I am not IC, I am a regular user over  the years and this is true for ANY user of cloth diapers at the introductory level. If you are using all the time then at least a dozen, The more you wash in one load, the cheaper it is per unit and the less each one will be used per unit time. Flats are better since you can fold them to accommodate yourself.  I use nothing but fully waterrpoof pantis, To my knowledge, all textile-based  panties have had reported issues, usually of dampness on the outside where they contact clothes.  Cloth diapers have two advantages: used properly they do not leak at the sides unless something very unusual happens and, being reusuable many times over, the system costs less over time. Generally, the ratio of panties to diapers should be about 1 to 3 or 4 with some spares to double up at night. So fore newbies, a dozen diapers and 5 panties. ultimately, if you wish to go all in, you will want about 3 dozen. At first, you will double-diaper at night, then you will get "night-weight" diapers. and about 10 or so panties. The nice thing about Gary sna-on pantis is that the snaps are not exactly at the sides, they are noticelably towards the front. Also, thickness, I do not reccoment anything under 4 mil. Babykins rubber panties are very good too. The smooth material is generally of higher quality

I reccoment against all-in-ones. If either the shell or liner tears, the whole is uselss. Second both the diaper and shell are held up by the same waistband. wht diaper and panties, each is held up on its own, This means that there is less likelihood oof sag. Back in the DPF days, AIO"s had a reputation as being the bottom of the barrel, with which I agree, unless your are changing after one wetting. The diaper and rubber panty combination has worked for over 140 years and surives today. There has to be a reason

[incondl]

I’ve constantly talked about going to cloth but have yet to do it. It’s probably based on fear of not getting it right as I am dual incontinent. I don’t know the thickness of the clothe diaper I’m to use or the size. I’d like to use cloth mainly to save money and cut back on my carbon footprint. I pretty much fill a garbage can every week and that’s been for years now. I can’t imagine what the garbage man thinks when he picks up that heavy garbage can every week. 

[rusty pins]

8 hours ago, incondl said:

I’ve constantly talked about going to cloth but have yet to do it. It’s probably based on fear of not getting it right as I am dual incontinent. I don’t know the thickness of the clothe diaper I’m to use or the size. I’d like to use cloth mainly to save money and cut back on my carbon footprint. I pretty much fill a garbage can every week and that’s been for years now. I can’t imagine what the garbage man thinks when he picks up that heavy garbage can every week. 

I suggest that when you are home for a day or weekend and not out or at work, try cloth diapers and see how they work for you.  That will give you time to experiment and practice at home to get it right instead of having to go to work or out daily and taking a chance that you have enough cloth protection on.  Rather than one thick adult cloth diaper, consider one or two thin adult cloth diapers and layer them inside with cloth baby diapers.  That will do several things for you.  You can add or subtract the number of cloth baby diapers for different situations so that you can be discreet when you need to be and well protected when bulk and discreetness doesn't matter so much.  Instead of a large bulky diaper from front to back, the baby diapers will be positioned in the lower area of your diaper where you need the protection the most keeping the upper front and back parts of your diaper thinner and more discreet  Also you will find that when you wash your diapers, they will come cleaner and take way less time to dry if you are washing thin adult size diapers and baby diaper inserts instead of one thick bulky diaper.  Thick cloth diapers take a long time to dry either on the clothesline or in the dryer, and running the dryer for a long time does not help the carbon footprint.

[stephrider]

Good to hear all these advices?. So to me as I don't have thumbledrier AIO would be tricky to dry. 

I don't want for pull ups diapers either because I don't like the concept.

So I'm still interested for the contoured and terry prefold diapers. Because it would be the more convenient for overnight as I don't really care of the bulk. Never the less on weekends or vacations I like the way to adjust more or less pads inside. 

Do they well hold in place?

Let's now to find a store in eu with moderate shipping cost.

Hope 3/4 diapers and 2 pants will be good enough for a try.

[stephrider]

Hi,

Just wanted to thumb up for your great advices. After a big search over the web I finally found my way and just placed an order at Cuddlz, that the only site I found which have fair shipping cost. Lot of US sites are very nice with a lot of choice but international shipping cost are huge and customs apply .

So I took 6 prefolds for overnight and 2 snap on diapers for day time. Plus 4 pants but they aren't PUL. Still I can buy new pants later, I can imagine with cloth nappies I will never have too much of those.

 

[dlnoir]

Well since you live in Europe I would suggest Save express in Germany they have a large selection of cloth diapers and plastic pants. That’s where I buy my cloth diapers.

[stephrider]

Thank dlnoir . In fact I looked at this site but I did not found prefold nappies there was some kind of but 60" x 60" which quite large to me and there was any description either. And also I looked for a site which has all nappies and pants so i could make a single order. So I looked somewhere else. 

Thing i like on save express is that they have a wide choice of plastic pants and PUL as well.

 

[Amber's Boy]

I really like ecoable cloth snap diapers.  No pins, really absorbent.  Inserts snap in.  They're currently out of stock though.