Any Experts with Cloth Diapers or Cloth Wipes?

I personally think she should research EC (elimination communication aka infant potty training). It works nicely hand in hand with cloth diapers. I couldn't imagine having done cloth without also doing EC. My 3 girls have all been "potty trained" by 14-16 months.

I used both cloth diapers and disposable diapers with my kids. If you have the time, cloth diapers are a wonderful way to ensure your child is not exposed to anything unnatural. If you cannot devote a lot of time to scrubbing by hand or cannot afford a diaper service, stick with the disposables.

To make easy an inexpensive baby wipes, take a 92 ct. roll of Bounty paper towel (other types will not hold up) and cut it in half using an electric knife so that you have two mini rolls. Put one half roll into a 1 quart pitcher. Bring to a boil approx. 2 1/2 cups of water. Add 2 Tbsp of the baby lotion of your choice and 2 tsp of the baby soap of your choice to the boiling water and stir until dissolved. Pour this mixture over the paper towel and after a few seconds, remove the paper towel's cardboard core. Let the wipes cool. Pull from the center.

You can add more water or use less depending on how wet you like your baby wipes and can adjust the amount of soap and lotion as well. I almost always added more lotion because I liked my sons having the softest wipe I could make them.

With two children in diapers at the same time in the early 90s, this saved me about $100 a year and allowed me to use products that didn't irritate my children's skin.

L.,
I have a friend who used cloth diapers and swore by it. She also had a receipe for baby wipes that I shared with her from some household products we use.
You can check out the products at www.saferforyourhome.com
since many household products are caustic she liked using this receipe knowing she was using products that were non cuastic, it also was a great feeling to use safe products around her child! They also offer a great product that's natural for diaper rash. Which hopefully won't occur but if it does, works great! I wish I had known about these when my children were little.

Hey L.,

I don't know if I would call myself an expert, but we used a diaper service and I made cloth wipes out of old tee shirts (very economical!) I just used warm water with a few drops of baby lotion in it to wet the wipes and keep it smelling fresh. It work well, and I could use the disposable ones when we went out. Saved a TON of money. If you think that you will ever wash the diapers, I recomend that you do it when your baby is a newborn, then let the service do it once they start eating food! I did it the other way around, and it would have been easier to wash them early on. They are not that difficult to wash if you take care of it every day and use diaper liners once they get a little older.

Good luck!
M.

L.,

I use cloth diapers and cloth wipes and I think they're great! I purchased mine from

http://www.clothdiaper.com/

You can order package deals that include diaper pail, cloth wipes (which I love!), diapers and a mini shower that you attach to your toilet (which I also love!) to clean off poopy diapers and rinse out my baby's potty.

Another thing I've bought are diaper liners

http://www.diaperaps.com/home/dp1/page_9/Flushable_Liners...

These are flushable and washable. When you have a poopy diaper, you can just peel it off and flush it. I've washed some of them many times and the three rolls I've bought seem to be lasting me forever

For cloth wipes, you can take any diaper wipe container and fold the wipes in a zig-zag overlapping pattern (like a box of tissues) and put them in there with a homemade wipe solution (1 cup water + 1 tsp baby body wash + a few drops tea tree oil). The tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic and smells clean and fresh. You can buy it at Nature's Bin (kind of pricey, but it will last a long time and think of the money you save on not buying nasty wipes?). You can modify the recipe to add some aloe as well. I found recipes when I did an on-line search. Now when I use store-bought wipes they feel slimy and nasty to me.

I also practice elimination communication with my daughter. Since the age of 4 mos, I've been putting her on the potty. It got easier once she could sit up on her own. First we just did timing (after naps, after meals), now she has learned to let me know when she has to go. My nanny does it as well and we both think it's great. Sometimes we miss, but most of the time we catch pees and pos. Right now my baby has diahrea and its so nice to have most of it end up in the potty instead of smeared all over her bum and diaper.

There are some excellent books on the subject:

Diaper-free Before 3: Jill M. Lekovic, M.D
Diaper Free: Ingrid Bauer
The diaper-free baby: Christine Gross-Loh.

It's not about toilet training, but about recognizing that your baby has to go and that they don't want to do it in their diaper/pants. Out society trains kids to use their pants as toilets for 2-3 years and then wonder why our children have a hard time breaking this "habit". I see so many posts on this website about 3 year olds who won't use the potty. My little girl WANTS to use the potty.

Tell your friend not to worry, there are a lot of people and a lot of resources available to help her use cloth diapers and practivce EC if she desires. Good luck!

N.

I don’t consider myself an expert, but I used cloth diapers and wipes with my son until he was about 7 months old. I stopped when I went back to work b/c the sitter didn’t want to mess with it.

For baby wipes I bought a very cheap package of thin baby wash clothes and some pieces of old T shirts. I mix one tablespoon baby shampoo and 1 tablespoon of baby oil with 2 cups of water. I put this in a regular wipe container. I LOVE IT! I still use it when we have a bout of diaper rash b/c the solution doesn’t burn the bottom.

I have a few snappi diaper fasteners. They are these stretch clips that attach to regular prefold diapers. They are great. I couldn’t get the hang of regular pins. I was afraid I would poke me or the baby. We also had about 5 of the Kissaloves diapers that are Velcro with elastic legs. I LOVE those too but are a little expensive-that’s why we only had 5.

I will cloth diaper again when I have another baby. The wash wasn’t bad. We used a “dry” pail. When he got older and was eating food, I used liners to make the poopie diapers easier to clean. My washing machine has a soak cycle and always rinse at least twice. I washed every other day. There is a lot of info at this website http://katieskisses.com/ .

Hi L.!
I used disposables with my first 2 (didn't know about cloth-somehow!). Boy I wish I had used cloth with them! My 3rd is now 17 mos. and we have only used cloth with him and I am expecting my 4th in July and will only use cloth with him, too. I LOVE THEM!!!!!! I'll briefly tell you my history. I and my first 2 boys have lots of allergies. Latex and Corn are my worst which is bad for feminine products and toilet papaer, even. Because of this I had to switch to cloth sanitary napkins and was disturbed by the thought of this. They are so wonderful, that when I got pregnant for the 3rd one, I figured if I was so much more comfortable with cloth rather than disposable, a baby certainly would feel the same. I did some research on cloth diapers and found out there are so many different kinds and recommendations on care and such that it is scary. But, still I knew it was worth it. So much better for baby, and environment. We have very hard water and even with the softener and iron remover, still have trouble with our laundry sometimes. Because of this, I found that all-in-one diapers do not work well for us. I like the concept, though. Fuzzi Bunz are by far the best for us. They wash wonderfully. I have to do a little extra with our wash because of our water, but essentially, I cold rinse the diapers, wipes and inserts all together (even if there is poop on them), then do a super Hot wash cycle with Charlie's Soap (not soap, but natural detergent that is wonderful for all laundry) and then do one extra hot wash with nothing. Then dry in dryer or on clothes line (my favorite!). The cloth wipes was a no-brainer for me. I tried disposable wipes with the cloth diapers, but was a pain as you have to throw those away and put the diaper in the diaper pail. With the cloth wipes, they just get washed with diapers. I keep a water-tight "tupperware-style" container with wipes and solution together in diaper bag. At home, we have a wipes warmer filled with solution and wipes. I make my solution (very easy) which washes the baby so much better than disposable wipes. The solution I make is, 1 gal. distilled water (again, hard water here and distilled will not go bad) some liquid castille soap squirted in (I don't measure) and some oil or your choice, calendula, olive, or even the baby oil you like. Shake well and that's it! The soap helps wash, the oil softens and protects baby. If baby has a rash (rare with cloth diapers) or has had diahrea, I put a couple of drops of Tea Tree Oil in the solution also as a disinfectant and to help heal. My family and friends were sceptical about the cloth diapers and thought I was nuts, but have found for them it is just as easy and for me, it only adds a little laundry. I do diapers every other day (just because that's all I own). So much cheaper than disposable and disposables use 1 cup of crude oil to manufacture 1 diaper. GROSS! Add to the fact that they have bleach and other bad chemicals and let's not forget what diapers do to our landfills! Sorry this was so long-winded. Hope it helps. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions because I love the cloth diapers and want to help anyone who is considering them. I now have lots of friends who use them, too!

I used Fuzzi Bunz diapers with my daughter. I just loved them. They were easy to care for, kept her dry, and they were colorful, too. They are a pocket diaper and you have to buy inserts to go in them (cloth, usually cotton, hemp, or microfiber) and they launder as well. I used them on my son, too, but for some reason he leaked practically every one. My daughter hardly ever leaked. As far as care, I followed the recommendations, even for laundry detergent, and they came pretty clean, even with poop and blowouts. !! I used cloth wipes -- soft cotton wash clothes. They worked well. You can find Fuzzi Bunz on the internet. They come in different sizes and colors.

Hope this helps! Good luck!