Cloth Diapers - Brookfield,IL

Hi M.,

I actually am looking to sell my whole supply from newborn up and it includes diapers and covers. I don't have the number of all of it right in front of me, but if you are interested, I could give you all the details. I even have 2 diaper pails, diaper sack for when you are out etc...

Stace
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I would suggest going to Be By Baby and taking the cloth diaper class. Its very informative and I found it really helpful when I was just starting out. They also carry a full line of cloth diapers in the store and the staff is very knowledgeable.
Good Luck to you!

http://www.nossgalenbaby.com/

Try this website--the husband and wife team who run it have twins, used cloth diapers, and will personally answer your email!

M.,
Congratulations on the decision! I hope more parents make the same switch for the health of our children and planet!
Timely, the most recent issue of Mothering magazine have an article about cloth diapering with an in-depth info on the different types of cloth diapers. So I recommend to check it out. www.mothering.com

Our son is 19 months old and have been using cloth diapers since day one. We use chinese prefolds, which is most economical of all the diapers, and Bummis Super Whisper covers. I always buy cloth diaper supplies from www.nickisdiapers.com because the shipping is free if you buy diaper covers. Again, Mothering magazine has a ton of ads for websites where they sell cloth diapers and honestly, they are all really good.

For newborns and young infants (0-6 months), you usually need 3 dozen prefolds and and 6-8 diaper covers for twice a week wash routine. When the baby gets older, you only need 4-5 diaper covers since he/she soils the cover less a day. We also use flashable diaper liners, which is a thin tissue paper that catches solids for easy cleaning. Even though it says flashable, many parents claim that it could clogg the plumming, so we throw it away after shaking the poop off in the toilet. It still helps the cleaning a lot. Also, we put thin insert to double up the diaper for the night since our son wets diaper heavily. We use newborn size prefold as insert inside premium size prefold for night time. We use infant size prefolds during the day. As the baby grows, you will need to buy larger diaper covers to fit him/her. Some parents use wool covers for night time as it is breathable and less maintenance, but they cost a lot more than regular covers.
Each prefold is about $1.00-2.00(depends on the size), so for 3 dozens cost about $60 at the most, and each cover cost about $6.00-10.00. You pay up to $250 and you are all set for the first 2 years.
I heard that average baby uses 8000 diposable diapers until he/she is ready to potty train. That is approx. $2000. Imagine all that goes into landfill.

Many web shops where they sell cloth diapers have tips on how to fold prefold diapers as well as common cloth diaper care info. They are very helpful.

Hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, let me know!
--M.

M.,
I've made the same decision although I haven't decided on which ones yet.
I've gotten my info from the babyworks catalog. www.babyworks.com

Good luck

PS. If you're making your decision for environmental reasons, Target carries Nature Baby care which are biodegrable. I've been using these and they work just as well as other disposables. The only thing is that they don't have the stretchy tabs for adjusting. www.naty.com

I'm happy to hear your decision, M.!
We use diaper service and it's wonderful! I think there's only one in the area, and it's called Bottoms Up. The website is www.bottomsupdiapers.com
Then, you just have to get diaper covers to go over the cloth. I really like the Prorap classic covers. They're easy, cheap,and sturdy. You can also order the covers through the diaper service, or I also like getting diaper covers at www.timetochangethediapers.com. I got a great reusable swim diaper there.
Good luck! I know it's overwhelming, but you'll get the hang of it and then never go back to disposables again.

We use Motherease Airflow covers (about $10 each) and prefolds. We don't use snappis or pins...never have. We wash every 5 days now that my daughters 17 mths (got there at about 8/9 months). The cost is minimal and the ME Airflow covers are fabulous! They are difficult to get used since they are so nice and last so long, but occasionally you can pick one up on diaperswappers.com. It's much easier to get the small size (up to 15 lbs)...but the others are harder to find. Our dd has been in the mediums for almost a year. They are still in terrific shape (and we bought them slightly used) and she is still fitting them and is over 22 lbs. They are great!!! You can get them new from www.motherease.com. The ME one size diapers are also wonderful to have for night. We have 5 and use them at night. You can get a trial pack for under $20 for a MEOS dipe w/ extra liner and a cover to try. That's how we got addicted to the covers. The dipes are close to $10 each too and are so nice as the kids turn and flop in their sleep.

We wash with 1/2 oz of Melapower scentfree detergent with a cold prerinse sometimes and then a hot/cold heavy wash once, and throw them in the drier. The sun is great for the stains if your worried about getting them out.

Check out the yahoo group: Cloth diapering is Natural. BTLdiapering You get a whole bunch of info and can ask all your questions of lots of CDing mamas.

Welcome to the club! We really love it.

H.

I also offer my congrats! It is a great, yet hard decision. We have used the Chinese pre-folds and bought them at different web sites at different times. The stores (Wal-Mart, Target or even Babies R Us) do no carry real cloth diapers. We have used the Bummie wraps as well and love them. With my son, we just folded the diaper in the wrap, but with my daughter we have used the snappies. The bummies were 8-10 several years ago and have fun patterns for a dollar more each. We usually use one wrap a day and use the cheep plastic wraps at night for added leak stoppage. As for the laundering of the diapers, Bleach is not recommended for environmental reasons as well as skin issues. We bought pre-folds that were not bleached so the staining was not as noticeable. It is also only one extra load a week for us and with 5 children that is probably not too much more than you already do!

I am not sure where you live but Be By Baby, on the northside of the city, has cloth diaper "workshops" that they show you and teach you the ins and outs of cloth diapering. It cost $15 but may provide you with good information.

http://www.bebybaby.com/

HI M.. We have used Bottoms Up Diaper service for that last 7 monts. They are so great. It is $16/week and we get more diapers than we need, delivered to our door, fresh and clean, every week. We give them dirty diapers, they bring back clean ones! The only thing that we had to buy were the plastic wrappers, about $6/pc. We have 4 of them and it is fine. We also purchased a "snappi" closure thing to keep a better fit of the cloth, like $2, but optional. We love these diapers. They deliver all over chicagoland.

Go to: http://www.bottomsupdiapers.com/
Snapi: http://www.snappibaby.com/generic0.html

I have one daughter who is now 13 months old and we have been using cloth diapers since she was born. The least expensive diaper covers that I have found are "bummis". They work very well. You can purchase them online or at Be By Baby, which is in Chicago. They are between 11 and 13.00 each I think. So, for each 6-9 month period (you will have to go up a size about that often), we have had 7 or 8 covers. We find that, by throwing them in the washing machine every few days, that is enough. I am also saving the ones that our daughter has grown out of for our next baby. Be By Baby is a great resource for cloth diapering. They have several options, all of which work very well. I went with the least expensive option. We chose to use a service for the cloth diapers themselves, rather than washing them ourselves. Overall, given that they wash them in bulk, etc., the water and detergents that are used are not more than you would use doing it yourself at home. Bottoms Up diaper service ###-###-####)is the only cloth diaper service in the Chicago and suburban area. They drop off clean diapers and pick up your dirty diapers once a week. It depends on how many diapers you use, but it is about 15.00 per week for us. Overall, when we looked into it, we found that it was about the same cost, or a little bit less, than disposables and the environmental benefits (disposable diapers take 500 years to decompose) make it worth the little bit of extra work. Once you get the hang of it, it is really very easy. If you have any other questions, please feel free to e-mial me at ____@____.com luck!

Hello! I love using cloth diapers. We get the chinese prefolds and I wash them myself. It is really not that much work. The covers I love by far are the Thirsties. They work really well and are cute and fun. It is very inexpensive when you do it this way compared to buying diapers. My favorite diaper website where I have gotten all of my stuff is baby cotton bottoms, their website is:
http://www.babycottonbottoms.com/
They are so good about mailing their stuff out quickly, the shipping is inexpensive and if I have any questions they always email me back personally within 24 hours, usually less. They are great. We also use the bum genius pocket diapers at night which are great because you buy them once and they last from 7lbs to 35 lbs. I like these because they have the microfleece next to my baby's skin so they don't feel the wetness at night. So these are my favorites, I learned all of this from a friend who started this before me and now I do it and just love it and love these diapers. There are so many to choose from it can be overwhelming. Oh, and at baby cotton bottoms I love the diaper pail liners. I have two and just throw it in with the diapers to wash. I just have a tall rectangular trash can that has a lid that opens when you step on the pedal and put the diaper liner in this. If the diapers start to smell a little in it, put in some baking soda which is good for them in the wash and some essential oil that you like such as tea tree oil or lavendar and the diapers smell good again. :) Have fun!
H.

Hi M.-
We use Fuzzi Bunz and have loved them. I usually use a disposable at night because my son sleeps @ 12 hours and sometimes they would leak a bit but during the day they're great. They come in 2 simple pieces and you can add an extra pad inside if your child is a heavy wetter. What you can do to make it easir $$$-wise is buy one or 2 a month and transition to them from disposables. They last for a really long time so you could feel comfortable buying them used on craigslist and ebay. We used our size small until my son was 8 months and we're giving them to a friend. I use Arm and Hammer free to wash them and just have to say that they're good as long as laundry is convenient. I probably couldn't do it if my laundry was not in my house because I do have to wash pretty much daily. I think I bought 12 to start with and now that I use size medium I bought 6 or 8. I wash them with other white clothes - towels, socks, etc. Good luck to you. By the way, my son has never had a diaper rash!

I'm part of a co-op in the western 'burbs (but city and north shore moms are part of it) that gets All Together Diapers (ATD) for nearly cost (google to find their website). Diff moms in the co-op coord. getting fab deals on all sorts of natural parenting and natural living items. i went cloth diapers after being part of the group! email me offlist and i'll give you the link to join the group. we're doing an ATD co-op very soon here. i'm going to get some AIOs (All in Ones), which don't need covers and run less than $7 per diaper. also, i just went CD about 2 wks ago and got bumGenius diapers. They retail kind of expensive, but when i calc'd how much i'd save (www.diaperpin.com has a calculator), it came out to be about $300-$400 w/in 15 mos and any diaper wearing beyond that was additional savings.
HTH. --Jen S. (Naperville)

M.,
I just ordered the "started pack" from the BabyWorks online site. It gives you a few pockets diapers and a few all-in-ones so that you can decide which ones you like. I think its around $80. Their customer service is really helpful and you can return the individual diapers that you don't use. My son is 5 months old and we have just decided to transition to cloth - I wish we would have done it sooner!! I was so overwhelmed with new motherhood that I thought it would have been too hard but I am ready now!
Good luck!
T.

I just made the switch too. I am using prefolds and Bummis covers. I bought 24 prefolds at $1.75 apiece and four covers at $12.95 apiece. I bought a wet bag for the dirties in the house and one for the diaper bag. I think the big one was $17 and the little one $8. I haven't bought the sprayer yet, I have a newborn with BF poop and didn't find it necessary yet. I could easily use more diapers but he's still a newborn and I have to change him so often still. I'm doing a load of diapers about every 2 days. I also bought a package of 3 Snappis instead of pins for about $7 I think. I've already lost one so I think I should get another just to have backup. I did buy one fuzzi bunz to try it out and it's really nice but he leaked. I don't know if he's still too small for it or what. It's really nice though and soft and not bulky at all. I think I'll wait for him to gain a little more and then try it again. Diaperpin.com and Diaperswappers.com are great sites. Good luck!
Be By Baby in the city is wonderful and they have classes every few weeks that were really helpful and they sell everything you need there.

I find that Fuzzi Bunz are the best cloth diapers and have been using them since Jack was born (now he is about three months). They are pocket diapers so you put an insert or two in (if you need more absorbancy) and then wash it all when the diaper gets soiled. Depending on the size of the baby you will either use smalls or mediums- smalls are up to 15 pounds. They are an investment but in the end are much better for the baby and much cheaper than disposables. Research shows that if you use disposable diapers, the diapering cost per child is around 2800-3500 (depending on what type of diapers you use- generic v. brand name, and where you buy them- Jewel v. Costco). For example, the cost that I paid for cloth diapers (fuzzi bunz, abour $18 each + tax and I have 24 of each size- small and med.) was around $900 plus you can use them if you have more children or resell them if you don't plan too. If you are interested, I actually have a website where I can get a discount, so they are more like $15 each. I do laundry of the diapers every other day and they are very easy. The other nice thing about fuzzi bunz is no rolling, leading or need for additional plastic diapers, it is as easy as a disposable. Let me know if I can help you out with any of this. I did a lot of research and took several classes so I have a ton of info! Sam

I use a cloth diaper service -- Bottoms Up in Waukegan. It's about $16 a week. They pick up and deliver. You just put the diaper in a bag, no rinsing or washing or whatever. We used diaper covers -- I like "Thirsties" and "Kushies". There are some good reviews on some of the web sites that sell them. Overall, it's been pretty good.

M.

I'm a nurse and it is funny but my colleagues and I were just talking about our cloth diaper experiences growing up as kids in the 60's and early 70's! I can just remember how cumbersome it was to take care of those cloth diapers, but if your willing to do so then I admire you for it! I would try the discount stores such as Target or Walmart. Or just google it and you should find something. As far as the rubber pants you can definitely probably find those at a discount store. Take care, AH- Chicago