Over 3000 disposable diapers avoided

Well, we have hit another cloth diaper milestone. Last week we went over the 3000 disposable diapers avoided mark. Here's a link to the post I did when we hit 2000 diapers. Every time I wash a load of cloth diapers (which is about every three to four days now) I make tick marks on a piece of paper taped to the wall to keep track of the number washed. I've been doing this since we started using cloth diapers when my daughter was three and a half weeks old.

By my count, we have saved $450 if we had used Target Up & Up brand diapers (about 15 cents each) and $750 if we had been using Pampers (about 25 cents each). Not to mention the money saved by using a cloth swim diaper rather than disposable swim diapers at 75 cents each.


Cotton Babies, a cloth diapering website, has been sponsoring a program called Change Three Things to have parents pledge to use at least three cloth diapers a day instead of disposables for one year. So far through this program they have avoided over a million disposable diapers going in the trash. Check it out!

2004 Diapers- Another Milestone

Chilling on the dock this summer

Well, we have made it to another milestone. Our 10-month old daughter started climbing stairs recently, but I am talking about a cloth diaper milestone. Yesterday we reached 2,004 disposable diapers avoided! As I wrote about here, every time I wash a load of cloth diapers I count them and make hash marks on a piece of paper posted on the wall in my laundry room. Here's what it looks like now:

My cloth diaper tally sheet

By my count we've saved about $250 if we had bought Target Up and Up diapers and about $450 if I had bought Pampers. We own 32 diapers, mostly BumGenius 3.0's, and received most of them as gifts, registering for them at Target and at Cottonbabies. We've also saved on buying disposable swim diapers, as my mom found an awesome cloth swim diaper at a garage sale that we used for all of her swimming lessons and at least once a day for swimming while on a recent vacation.

I haven't been on my cloth diaper soapbox for awhile, but I am still convinced that they are the thrifty, easy, environmentally responsible way to go. We were recently on a two-week vacation and brought 14 or so diapers along. We did a load of laundry every two days or so. We even used the cloth diapers while on the plane. They worked great as usual, no leaks or issues.

New cloth diaper prints

Today is a big day, BumGenius is announcing their new printed diapers this afternoon via a YouTube video. I'm hoping there will be some cute stripes and polka dots. If there is a print that I must have, I think I will try their Growing Up in Cloth program. You can send in your clean, used diapers and get a credit towards a future purchase. Maybe I'll trade in a couple boring white diapers for a printed one! A thrifty way to try the latest product.

More info to come once they make the announcement.

** Update **
Well, I must say I'm not too thrilled about the prints. It's basically five different colors of the same print, kind of a tribal/modern look. You can see them on the BumGenius site. Guess I won't be trading in my old diapers for new prints!

Baby products- what you need and don't need

I recently found out that a friend is expecting her first baby. It got me thinking about what items I couldn't have done without for the first few months and which I could live without...

NEED

• Gilligan and O'Malley Nursing Tanktops- I have three of these, in pink, black, and white and basically rotated between them 24 x7  for the first three months of our baby's life. They are comfortable and convenient.
• Boppy or other nursing pillow
• Swaddles with Velcro- We swaddled the lower half of our baby's body, always leaving her arms out, most of the time for the first few weeks. After that we swaddled for sleep only for about another month.
• Breast pump- I love my Lansinoh but I know many who swear by Medela.
• Mam brand pacifiers- they look cute and are the right shape
• The First Years Breastflow bottles- the only ones we have used, are supposed to be more like breastfeeding.
• Kimono style onesies- Babies, especially newborns, don't like having things put over their heads and generally don't like being dressed and undressed. Our friends gave us a pack of these in newborn size and they were our go-to outfits for the first few weeks.
• Diaper Champ- Can be used with disposable or cloth diapers. You can use regular plastic bags with them so you don't have to buy expensive refills.

DON'T NEED

• Wipe warmer or bottle warmer
• Baby lotion, baby oil, baby powder
• Crib bumpers and thick blankets
• Bumbo

Also, as I have mentioned in several past posts, we are using cloth diapers (BumGenius brand) which are awesome! I would call them a "need" too.

Any items that you want to add/delete from these lists?

1024 Diapers- We did it!

We have been using cloth diapers ever since our daughter was three and a half weeks old and big enough to wear BumGenius. You can read more about our experiences on two of my past blogs here. Once we switched, the only time we used disposables other than some one-off times was when we were in San Diego in a hotel for five days. Other than that, it's been all cloth, all the time. Each time I wash and dry a load of diapers, I count how many there were and mark my handy tracking sheet taped to the wall in our laundry room. This week we hit a major milestone, over 1000 diapers!

Here are some of our diapers (We have 31 of them) hanging on the drying rack. I usually do a load every two or three nights and leave them to dry until the next day.

And because I couldn't resist, here is a picture of our daughter at about a month and a half with her diapers.

I'm estimating that we have saved about $125 by using cloth (since our diapers were gifts we don't have to earn back the $18 cost per cloth diaper). This is based on the price of 50-pack Up and Up diapers. I can't wait to keep saving more money! Plus, we've avoided putting 1024 diapers in a landfill and our daughter looks so darn cute in them.

New BumGenius 4.0 and travel with cloth diapers

For those of us who cloth diaper, yesterday was a big day. Cottonbabies finally announced their new cloth diaper product, which replaces the BumGenius 3.0 diapers. As I mentioned here, we have been using cloth diapers since our baby was a few weeks old.

New BumGenius Video

I am excited about the new features and three new colors, and if I was looking to expand my cloth diaper supply, would definitely buy some 4.0's. The main updates are new colors, a choice between velcro and snaps, and the ability to fit bigger babies. One other cool new feature is the ability to easily replace the elastic on the diapers yourself if needed.

Cloth Diapers and Travel
Some people have asked me how I travel while using cloth diapers. Our daughter has gone on three trips so far. I used cloth for two trips and disposable for most of one trip. The main decision point is access to a washer and dryer. When we travel somewhere and stay in a home instead of a hotel, it is easy to travel with cloth diapers. I just bring about 10 diapers, enough for a day and a half, and do laundry a couple times while we're there. When we're in a hotel, I don't use cloth. However, I bring a few cloth diapers and use them on the last day, then just wash them when we get home.

Day to day I carry a couple extra cloth diapers, along with a roll of plastic bags, in my diaper bag. If she needs a diaper change, I just put the dirty cloth diaper in a plastic bag and knot the end. When we get home, I put it in our Diaper Champ along with the other dirty diapers. You could also use a "wet bag" when on the go which is a waterproof, reusable bag.

Do you have any other questions or comments about using cloth diapers? Let me know!

Cloth Diapers?!

While we were planning for the arrival of our daughter, my husband and I talked to a lot of parents about their experiences. A few of them mentioned that they used cloth diapers. My first thought was: cloth?! Aren't they messy and leaky and don't they use big pins? Then we started looking into it and realized that cloth diapers have come a long way since the ones our parents used for us in the 1980's and before. They come in cute colors and many have adjustable snaps and velcro. We then started crunching the numbers on the cost of disposable diapers vs cloth and came to the realization that we could save some serious money, especially since we registered for the diapers and received most of them as gifts. Also, we will be able to use them again if we have another child.

Here's what we ended up doing:
- We decided on the BumGenius 3.0 cloth diapers. We registered for them on our Target baby registry and on the Cottonbabies website.
- We bought a Diaper Champ on Craigslist for $5 to hold the dirty diapers until I do laundry. You can use regular kitchen size trash bags with it.
- We wash a load of diapers every two to three days, using the Target Up and Up free and clear detergent

I'm sure there will be more posts to come about the details and day-to-day of cloth diapering. We've been at it for four months now and it's working great!

Some Useful Cloth Diapering Links:
Great overview of cloth diapering: Lazy Moms Guide to Cloth Diapering
Website that sells several types and offers a gift registry: Cottonbabies
BumGenius Website: BumGenius