Have Anyone Ever Used Rubber Pants or Plastic Pants When Cloth Diapering?

I had my first child in 1983 and I was also a stay at home mom and decided that cloth diapers and rubber pants would be the route I took. It seemed so much more economical and enviromental friendly. My daughter kept developing yeast infections and I was washing her diapers in Dreft a baby safe detergent. I never let her sit in a wet or dirty diaper. I spent probably hundreds of dollars on pediatric visits and medications. Finally when she became so raw and inflamed that she was screaming in pain and another visit to the doctor. He told me to try disposable diapers. I got the medications for her poor little bottom once again and got the disposable diapers. In two days she was a compleatly different baby. And a happy one. The doctor told me that the rubber pants hold in amonia and that the disposable ones were more breathable. At that time the diapers were not as contoured and light as they are today. I don't know if there have been any improvements made in rubber pants. I did not even try cloth on my son when he came along. But if your child is not getting rashes and it is working out for you, Cloth is good. I will say though that the disposables do pull moisture away from the babys skin much better than cloth.

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No, I never used rubber or plastic pants. I did use nylon pants occasionally and they worked fine, but I really prefer Velcro or snap-closing covers (Bummis, Mother-ease, Blue Penguin) because they are easier to get on a baby who is lying down and/or already has pants on. Also, they hold up better in the wash and are more breathable.

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S.,

I used cloth diapers and rubber pants. At the time I used Sears rubber pants and found that when you did put them in the dryer they kept soft and the elastic stayed great - no cracking around the legs! I used triple fold diapers. My children are 27, 22 and 20 so I know products have changed. I did not use liners - there were none at the time. What I did after ever diaper change, I washed my child with Safeguard soap (antibacterial soap) and used diaper cream. I did not have problems with diaper rash using cloth diapers. I also used regular training pants for all my children in the beginning and then switched to regular panties for the girls and underware for my son - I had no problem - they did not like the feel of peeing in their pants! On the economical side of cloth, I agree with you, I did not have a diaper service, my husband at the time was in the military and we needed to save where ever we could and like you I was also a stay at home Mom, another thing I did was ground my own baby food. You can save a lot of money this way also. I just bought the baby cereal and baby prunes. Enjoy your 7 month old! Good luck with diapers.
S.

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I used them with my two children when I first started because I didn't want to make the investment in other types of cloth. I found that they worked and were very economical. The draw back that I found was that you need to change more often and they are not as absorbant. I do know that hemp and babmboo diapers are more absorbant but are also a bit more costly. They are so worth every penny! Good luck and hope you find a system that works for you.

Hey S., LOL, i didn't think anyone used cloth diapers any more. I used them with my kids but they are 29 and 21 now. I used plastic pants and what can you say, they work for what they are designed for. my hat's off to you for doing the cloth....take care R.

S., I have 5 children all grown now. With the 2 oldest, I used cloth diapers w/plastic pants. Pampers hadn't come out yet. It meant more laundry, but hey, there was no alternative. The younger of the two boys was almost ready for potty training when Pampers hit the market. I used disposables on the other kids. Actually I was satisfied with both. Of course, disposables are more expensive for the pocketbook and the environment.

Hi,
I used cloth diapers with rubber/plastic pants, and sometimes nylon pants with 7 of our 9 kids (we didn't have a washing machine at home with the first two). They worked fine. They actually kept the clothes drier than the velcro closure covers (my baby is 8,so things may have improved). my babies had much fewer rashes in cloth than in disposable, although I did use disposable for trips and long days out. Especially if you plan to have more than one child, the cloth diapers become even more economical.

My children are grown, but when they were babies I used plastic pants, with my girls they had the cute little fancy pants ones, not sure what is out there now, as i am a 56 year old grandmother. My experience was a good one with the plastic pants. Enjoy that baby.

no, i used AIO's, but you might check out www.diaperpin.com to see what they think. there are tons of diaper wraps out there.

I tried using the cloth diapers on my oldest grandchild who is now 16. I found that he got a diaper rash more quickly than when we used the disposable diapers. I did use the rubber or plastic pants while using the cloth diapers. Maybe if you got some liners to put in the diaper it would keep the moisture away and not cause a diaper rash. I find that the disposable diapers are just easier and you can throw the mess away.
good luck

Oh yeah! I waited til my babies were a bit older and eating solids a lot. That way their bowel movements were much more regular. So-- what I did- don't laugh---is, AFTER they had a BM in their disposable diaper- then- I would put the cloth diapers on. Doubled up. Used those liner things too. That way I could always try to only have to wash out only pee diapers!!!! I would be able to cut the pamper costs in half at least. I did use plastic pants. Got real big ones. Used them later for potty training! Never used pull-ups. They liked to potty in them!
J.

I didn't do cloth diapers but used them with the thick training underwear and that really works well. The only thing I can tell you is don't put them in the dryer even if they say you can. It causes the elastic around the legs to get hard and hurts their little legs.

Hi S.!

We cloth diaper but I don't use the old-style plastic pants. We use a variety of covers that are made with PUL and also some pocket diapers which are a diaper/cover combo. If you want to talk about other variety of cloth diapers and covers feel free to message me. Good luck, and good for you for your interest in cloth diapers!!

S.

you mean covers? oh, totally! They're great! Mine are polyester, actually, but they look plastic. Thirsties never leak a drop and the colors are lovely. But i like the bumgenius 3.0 pockets best, over using covers + prefolds or fitteds or anything else. they're so easy, and great for overnight/naps/being out and about (i hate diaper changes on the go). Plus, cloth diapering, i'm saving about $2,000 in disposables. I've only had to buy 1 pack of disposables for a long trip (came in handy during the ice storm power outage, too, when we couldn't do laundry).

L.

ps i just read Deborah's account, and I really feel for her and her daughter! But I'd like to stop a myth from spreading. Good cloth diapers will keep the moisture away from that baby's skin. A Bumgenius diaper feels almost completely dry in the morning after 7-8 hours of my daughter being in it. The moisture goes straight to the inserts, where it remains. Other diapers are great, too, but, sure, you will probably have to change them every couple of hours. This is a good thing. For hygiene reasons, no baby wearing any diaper should go for hours on end without a diaper change. Even if mom and dad feel they can "get away with it." Maybe it is for this reason that cloth-diapered babies (these days, anyway) tend to get far fewer rashes than disposable-diapered ones. They've done studies! Now, I can imagine that rubber covers or other non-breathable materials would usually cause problems. Fungus, for one thing! But the covers on the market today generally deal with that using PUL (polyurethane laminate, I believe) and other breathable materials.

I'm not planning on using the plastic pull-on pants until the new baby is potty learning. I am going to use cloth--prefolds and wrap-style covers until she/he (due in sept) is big enough for my pockets and AIOs. We are slowly building our stash with clearnace and sale products, this way we won't be out a whole bunch when baby comes, we'll have it already. Part of our income tax return will be for diapers...two packages, one from greenmountaindiapers.com and one from divadiapers.com and then some OS pockets by nature's love from ebay, they are 20 dipers for $145 and I've had several people recommend them (both locally and online). When potty learning begins we'll use either gerber training pants or whatever style I get recommendations for to order from online...and hopefully my pockets will still fit and I can stuff them full for overnight.