{some opinions about cloth diapering}

My cousin Julie Gunby put together a massive composition about how she cloth diapers.  For the most part I followed her plan with only a few tweaks here and there.

More diaper info than you ever thought possible!

Cost:

The total cost up to 28lbs, which is about the first year of life is $463. 

The next year is just another $108, for a total of $571, 

this is versus the $1600 it would cost to use disposables for 2 years,

plus, most will stay in good enough condition to reuse for another baby.

Shopping list:

**new baby bundle This is a great, great deal. It lets you start with cloth super early, as early as 6lbs, also includes 6 little g pants (which themselves would cost nearly $80-100, and gives you 80 disposable liners to start off with and see if you like them/ want them on hand for if you run out of laundry or decide to go camping with your newborn

**extra liners One extra pack in small and one in medium/large will be plenty. Super helpful since sometimes you don't need to change the whole diaper. You'll see what I mean.

**g flappers  You only need to buy 2 sizes of these. The smalls work with the newborn and small gpants, and the medium/larges work with, you guessed it, the medium and large gpants. I got 18 in small and then when E was three months and went up to the next  size, I got 18 in med/large and I can do laundry every 2-3 days without stressing. 

         You may want 1-2 xtra gpants in small, I think I had 2 more than what came with the bundle, but I really did that just to get a few other fun colors, such as blue or pink The only time I needed that many pants was when she was outgrowing that size, and leaking around the edges, and I hadn't bought the mediums  yet. So, if you go ahead and get the mediums, you may avoid that trouble.

          If you went ahead and registered for 6 medium g pants in whatever assortment of colors you wanted, you'd have enough to last you through the first year.  If you also registered for 6 larges, you'd pretty much then make it till 2 years.

          Check out this lady's cloth diapering info. I found it really helpful.

**Extras: (what I used)

2 laundry bags

1 delicates bag, this is because of the one real inconvenience of the g diapers system, that it's in three parts (g pant, liner, and diaper) and that the liner bit can't be dried in the dryer...so, I just try and put it directly into a delicates bag in the laundry bag, so I can toss it all in the wash without picking through dirty diapers, and then can pull it out before tossing them all in the dryer.

wipes you could easily make these... I didn't though. I only have 20 wipes... kinda think 30 would be nicer.

wipe solution bits these things are lasting me FOREVER. Just mix them with warm water and add to a spray bottle (just scroll down on this page... they also have options for wipes)

For out and about:

I got one of these travel bags that are insanely overpriced, but i do use it EVERY DAY. it's usually the only diaper bag I carry at all, I just wad up a nursing cover in it and I'm ready to go, but I can also stick it into any bag and it's instantly a diaper bag. I know there are cheaper versions of this out there... i have a wet bag that i attach to my travel bag for dirty diapers. I haven't used cloth wipes when out, but I know you could. I just like having such a small little bag, that I don't.

Finally:

you need laundry soap you can just go with something like all free and clear from the grocery store, but, this stuff is super cheap, and extremely gentle on baby skin.

          Even with all the little extras on my EXHAUSTIVE list, you'd still come in Way Under Budget compared to the $1600 worth of disposables, it's all reusable, and really, really simple to use once you're started.

Here's what I do differently:  I bought a delicates bag, but have found that I rather prefer to leave all my parts unsnapped, but together in the same pail, then I dump it all into the wash at once.  This allows me less touching of the dirty diapers and I find that to be worth the inconvenience of pulling out the liners before I put the covers and flappers in the dryer.  I also don't use cloth wipes YET.  I plan on starting sometime, just haven't done it yet.  I use to not like the idea at all, but especially when traveling with cloth, it's much easier to put all your dirty stuff in one place rather than finding a separate place for the wipes.

I also use a full-sized diaper bag because, well, I don't travel light. 

So far my soap has been the earthy stuff from Kroger, but I've just ordered Rockin' Green Soap this week.  I'll be posting in the future about it as well as about stripping diapers.