Cloth Diapers for Your Baby

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Why Should You Use Cloth Diapers Over Disposable Ones?

By the time your child is two years old, that one child has used almost 13,000 diapers if you're not using cloth diapers. You may feel like you've been drowning in dirty diapers. Multiply that times a city full of children as well as the older adults and disabled persons who use disposable products for incontinence and you have a serious environmental impact from disposable diapers.


Happy Heiny's Pocket Diaper
(Small, burgundy)

Just to take this back to your family, the cost of disposable diapers quickly becomes as much as half of your weekly grocery budget. In Grandma's time, the cost and problems of disposable diapers wasn't an issue. Her children were raised with cloth diapers.

Grandma will also tell you that her kids didn't have diaper rash because the soft cloth wasn't irritating to their delicate skin and the cloth allows for air circulation. As for recycling, cloth diapers are washed, dried and reused for years.

One set of quality cloth diapers cost about the same as one package of plastic baby diapers and can be used for every baby you ever have if you want to pass them down like clothes. If you hate the idea of washing diapers, you can get a diaper service to pick them up and deliver clean diapers to your home.

The artificial fibers and scents in disposable diapers are responsible for skin rashes and allergic reactions in children as well as adults. Disposable diapers are even more harsh on the environment by requiring 10-20 times more raw materials and 60 times more energy to produce one disposable diaper than it takes to produce a cloth diaper.

Using cloth diapers saves money and reduces environmental waste. Those are benefits worth considering, so let's look at how you can make your own and how to take care of them!

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How to Wash and Care for Your Baby's Cloth Diapers 

Your cloth diaper washing task is easier if you start with the wet pail method. Add water with baking soda to the diaper pail. After flushing the child's waste down the toilet (hold tightly to one end of the diaper - plumbing bills for clogged toilets ruin the savings - add the diaper to the pail and close the lid.

When you're ready for a diaper wash, drain the water into the toilet before adding diapers to the wash.


Mommy's Touch Wet Bag

The soaking process is like a pre-wash, but if you only wash once a week, the presoak becomes stagnant water, which is disgusting. If you wash several times a week, this works well.

Avoid over-stuffing the washer. About 24 baby diapers or 15 adult diapers are enough for a wash load. Use two wash cycles, the shorter cold water wash and the second - a regular hot water wash.

Make sure you use unscented detergent that is hypoallergenic. You can add a half cup of distilled white vinegar to help with odor elimination. Remember to fasten the side closings so that you don't end up with a diaper chain where the closing create little pills on the fabric.

Baby Wearing a Cloth DiaperUse medium dryer heat, unless the cloth diapers are made from wool, and then follow the manufacturer's directions. When possible, hang diapers to dry in the sun. The sun's heat sanitizes even better than the dryer - plus, the cloth diapers get that clean, outdoors smell.

If a cloth diaper has a lingering order after a wash and dry, that suggests the presence of bacteria. Soak that diaper in bleach, rinse several times, and then put it in the wash cycle again. Add a safety pin to that cloth diaper to remind you to check again for scent problems.

A Single Cloth Diapering Kit That Has It All! 

Bummis Prefold Cloth Diaper Lot 8-15 lbs

Bummis Prefold Cloth Diaper Lot 8-15 lbs

Amazon Price: (as of 12/16/2009)Buy Now
List Price:

"My son has not had a messy leak since we started using these. I put him in disposables one time after buying cloth and the diaper basically exploded as soon as he had a movement. I have only used a disposable once since then and it was for half an hour while his diaper covers were drying. These are fantastic."

Release Date: 12/31/1969

Avg. Customer Rating: Amazon Rating

Want to Know How to Make Your Own Cloth Diapers? 

It's Easy, Frugal, and Rewarding!

Making cloth diapers is easy - Grandma did it and so can you! You don't need great sewing skills. If you can sew a straight stitch or use a serger, then you can make cloth diapers for children or adults.

Start with a diaper (cloth or disposable). Place it on paper and trace for a pattern. You can also search online for free diaper patterns. Flannel or cotton are good fabric choices for cloth diapers. You can also use cotton knit interlock, terry cloth, micro-fleece or organic cotton fabrics.

These fabrics come in a variety of colors and prints. Buy one yard (36", 45" or 54") and experiment with how to get the maximum number of diapers per yard. You may want to double or triple the layers depending on the fabric thickness.

Sew around the edges, and then apply Velcro for side closings and you're done! In an hour or two, you can sew a dozen diapers. You can also save money by making your own baby wipes. Use lightweight cotton fabric and cut into 8x8 squares (or any size you want).

Serge or zig zag stitch around the edges. Fold them and place inside a similar size plastic lidded box that disposable wipes come in. Make a solution of 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, and 4 drops of Lavender Chamomile or tea tree oil.

Pour just enough over the wipes to keep them moist and save the rest in the refrigerator. You can also use 1 cup of water and 4 tablespoons of baby wash. Making your own cloth diapers is easy and saves money, but you can also buy some pre-made ones online to have as a back-up whenever you need them!

Cloth Diapers on YouTube 

See cloth diapers in action through the power of video!

How to Use Cloth Diapers : How to Change Cloth Diapers on the Road

Learn how to change cloth diapers on the road. Change a cloth diaper while on the road using the diaper changing tips in this free video. Expert: Erin Sheppard Contact: www.austinbabystore.com/ Bio: Erin Sheppard is the co-owner of Austin Baby and a mother of two. Austin Baby is a natural parenting store in Austin, Texas that sells many environmentally friendly baby products. Filmmaker: Drew Noah

Runtime: 2:24 | 7590 views | 7 Comments

 

automatically generated by YouTube

Celebrities Use Cloth Diapers! 

It's not just invogue for Tinseltown to use cloth diapers - it's popular everywhere thanks to the green movement and more Moms and Dads being conscious about what they're doing to the environment.

Look who uses cloth diapers in Hollywood:

1. Madonna
2. Maggie Gyllenhaal
3. Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams
4. Dave Matthews
5. Mariska Hargitay
6. Juila Roberts
7. Anna Belknap of CSI New York

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Baby Shower Planning & Gift Ideas 

Party games, baby shower gifts, favors and cakes!

Planning a baby shower and don't know what to prepare? You're in luck! Head on over to Baby Showers 24/7 - We have dozens of baby shower game ideas, printable party games, baby shower invitations as well as guides to help you plan the best baby shower ever!

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