Sadly, I am not really a “green” person. I love paper towels and use them much too often, I didn’t start recycling until I first lived with Andrew and he made me, I prefer AC to windows and I almost always prefer driving to walking.

Don’t judge.

Despite the fact that my daily life would probably make most environmentally conscious folks cringe, I am a huge fan of cloth diapers. My motivation for cloth diapering was more economical than environmental, but it is still a nice little bonus to know that we are not contributing to the billions of pounds of diaper trash that sit in landfills each year.

Originally, I was skeptical about this business. I pictured the saggy looking cloth diapers I remember my little sister wearing, which consisted of giant pins (for real) and a rag, and I wasn’t feeling it.  After doing some research and seeing my sister cloth diaper her little one, I found that for me, the pros (saving $, better for baby’s skin, never having to worry about not having diapers etc.) outweighed the cons (more work on our part, and literally, more poop on our hands.)

A few months before Reese was due I added bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers to my shower gift registry. I was attracted to these diapers because they were one-size-fits-all so I could use them from birth until she was potty trained, thanks to the adjustable snaps. I’ll have to see how well they hold up but I hope to use them for future children as well.

Here they are.

And these are the inserts that come with them, a newborn insert and a regular sized insert. These get stuffed into the pocket at the back of the diap. At night we use both inserts, but during the day the regular sized insert works fine.

These bad boys aren’t cheap at $17 a pop (diapers.com) but when I decided that I was going to do this, I was committed.  I made up my mind made up that we would not be using disposables at home if we could help it.

I received about 10 diapers as gifts and bought seven more on my own. The website recommends having 24 diapers for one baby, but that is crazy expensive and in my opinion, definitely not necessary. With 17 diapers, we have to wash them about every other day in order to assure that she always has a clean diap.

Reese has been wearing these diapers for about a year now and overall we are very happy with them and with the cloth diapering process in general. However, there are definitely some things to think about before making the investment.

Things to Consider

I must confess that I get a LOT of help with the diaper laundering and I know it would be much more difficult to do on my own, so that is something for moms to consider. My mother-in-law washes, folds and puts away the diapers every other day while she is home with Reese so we just have to take care of them Fri-Sunday. The washing process includes a pre-rinse, a wash and then dry in the dryer. I will say that the directions recommend that the covers be line dried but I only do this when time permits, which is pretty much never. Directions also recommend two rinse cycles, one before the wash and one after. I have found that one rinse cycle in the beginning is fine.

When we travel I usually use disposable diapers. It is easier to be able to throw away a dirty diap than to carry it around in your bag all day.

Snaps > velcro. The velcro takes a beating in the wash.

Cloth diapers are extra bulky and they make Reese look like she has a mayjah booty. I think it’s cute but it’s something to consider when buying baby clothes; sometimes she busts out of the pajamas that button from foot to crotch if they aren’t one size bigger.

This part is kind of gross.

We have a diaper sprayer that attaches to the side of our toilet. We use this to spray off the poop diapers after we dump the poop in the toilet. I know this sounds crazy, but it helps with keeping the diapers clean. I have noticed a few times when the diapers weren’t sprayed that the poop stains didn’t come out as well.

Isn’t it beautiful?

$$$. Word is that most people spend $1500-$2000 on diapers for one child before he/she is potty trained. Thus far we have spent (even though some were gifts, I’ll just assume we bought all of our diapers) $289 on diapers. I’m not going to lie and say I actually went back and checked our electric and water bills to see how much they increased since we started cloth diapering, but I will tell you that I pay those bills and I haven’t noticed a major change.

In short, we’re giving them two thumbs up.