So we have been cloth diapering Reese since she was around two months old. We chose to use disposable diapers while she fit into newborn and size 1. The main reason behind that is I didn’t want to have to buy newborn size cloth diapers that we would need a ton of, and I would be washing all the time. If you have never had a baby or newborn, they pee a lot, and lots of times tiny amounts. However, you don’t want them in their own pee or poo otherwise they will get diaper rashes so we went through 12+ diapers a day, and they also have lots of dirty diapers at night as well. Also, at this stage in parenting, the last thing we wanted to worry about was running out of diapers. So, we waited until Reese was big enough size wise to really fit into her cloth diapers; we also plan to do this same approach with our second baby.
There are lots of different reasons for cloth diapering, and you really need to decide what they are to make sure it is worth it since there is some investment up front for cloth diapering. Cloth diapering is not for everyone! Also in some areas it is more expensive than others to cloth diaper. For instance, my friend lives in Cedar Park, TX, and they pay almost 2-3xs the amount per gallon of water than we do here in AL. If you plan to cloth diaper, make sure that your significant other is also on board especially before you buy a lot of stuff. Most of our diapers that we got used or brand new were from people who bought a ton of diapers, and then realized that their spouse was not on board. We also chose a diaper that could be air dried so we don’t have to pay to dry them in a dryer. Of course we can dry them in the dryer in a bind, but this also helps keep our diapers looking better since the heat of the dryer can wear out the fibers and materials faster. Are you in it to be green, save money, or use less chemicals on your child? There are so many reasons you can cloth diaper. For us it was money savings, but we started off very very small to see if cloth diapering was even a fit for our family before we really invested a lot of money.
