April is Earth Month so I thought I would share an earth friendly tip that will also save you a little green! 

Before my baby was born I looked into using cloth diapers.  They are both good for the environment and for baby’s behind, as well as WAY cheaper than disposable diapers.  After making my mind up I realized I had forgotten to run it by my husband!  Oops!  So, one day I sprang it on him.  At first he was a little hesitant and had a few questions like, how do you get the poop out. But, he was willing to give it a try.

I did a lot of research, and I must say it can be very overwhelming!  There are so many options out there now – not just your typical cloth diapers and rubber pants your mom may have used!  I had no idea what would work better and where I should order them from to get the best buy.  I read a lot of articles and even posted questions on Twitter to pick other moms’ brains.  Finally, I ran across a great article by a fellow ElevenMom, Amy Clark, at MomAdvice.  (You can read it HERE).  She did a great job explaining what the difference was between the various diapers and covers.  I also found the website www.greenmountaindiapers.com very helpful. 

Finally, I decided on prefolds (your typical cloth diaper) and diaper covers.  For now, I have ordered 2 dozen infant-small sized prefolds and 4 diaper covers.  I also have 2 size small Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers.  I decided to skip the newborn size prefolds to save a little money.

I have to say that the newborn size prefolds would probably fit better and be a little trimmer.  The small sized ones are pretty big on my newborn baby but they have made do.  I haven’t been able to use the Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers yet because they are too big.  I do think I will like them though, and will probably order a few more.  I have heard they work really well, especially at night, and don’t have any leaking or ‘blow-outs!’  I bought every thing new and so far my cost has been about $140.  I have heard of people buying them used and actually when you are finished with them you can resell them at a really good price.

The cost breakdown is what made me make up my mind to give cloth diapering a whirl.  The average cost of cloth diapers if you were going to use them from birth until they are potty trained is between $400 and $1300, depending one what you decide on – believe me the cost really varies!  But, compare that to the cost of disposables at about $3000!  If you use the same cloth diapers for baby number two your savings gets even better because it won’t cost you another penny to cloth diaper versus another $3000 to use disposables!  With each baby you use them with the savings just gets better!  And, with cloth diapers you can expect them to hold up through several babies. 

Once I ordered my diapers and they arrived, the next hurdle was determining how to launder them. It really isn’t as scary as it sounds!  There are a hundred different ways to do it and everyone has to decide what works for them.  But, here is what I do.  I have a diaper pail that has a lid.  I put wet diapers straight in.  For poopy diapers, I swish them around in a clean toilet bowl and wring them out, then I add them to the pail.  About every two days I dump all of the contents into the wash and do a cold rinse cycle.  Then, I do a wash cycle with Biz detergent.  After the washer fills up with water and it swishes the detergent around I turn the washer off and allow the diapers to soak in the water for several hours (and sometimes over night).  Then, I turn the washer back on and let it finish washing.  I put all of my diapers in the dryer except for the diaper covers.  I lay them out to dry and they dry in less than ten minutes.

The final chore for me was taking my baby out with cloth diapers.  It seemed a little scary to me.  However, it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought!  I just packed my cloth diapers and an extra cover along with a wet bag (I have used a grocery sack when my wet bag was dirty) and away we went!  They change just like disposables and we didn’t have any leaks! 

So, if I can do it, anyone can!  And, I have to admit I have used a mix of cloth and disposables for a while just so I could get used to everything – you know being a new and totally inexperienced mom!  But, the task of cloth diapering hasn’t been any harder than using disposables, except I am doing a couple more loads of laundry.  But, I have found that I am doing laundry non-stop with the baby any way so who’s counting?

For more information on how my family is using cloth diapers you can see my video all about it as well as other money saving videos and articles at my blog: www.thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com