Dry Bums

When I was pregnant with my son I mentioned cloth diapers only in passing and was shot down immediately.  My mother told me how horrible cloth diapers were.  They were inconvenient, they were messy, they were impossible to clean......30 years ago when she used them on my sister!!!  In the last 30 years there have been massive strides in the diapering community.  Gone are the days of giant diaper pins stabbing perilously close to your poor baby's squishy bits!  We now have elastic and Velcro and snaps and all manner of things to make life easier.  Furthermore we have fantastic waterproof materials so no more rubber pants!  Unless you want those things, because they are still available should you choose to rough it.

There are tons of different types of cloth diapers, everything from flat folding diapers similar to those of yore to diapers with removable, snap in liners and layers of absorbers.  There are some that even adjust with your baby as she grows.  I've listed a few sites at the bottom of this post if you're interested in checking some out.  Now, the real question....Why?

There are thousands of websites that quote figures of how much waste one baby creates with their own little landfill's worth of disposable diapers before they become potty trained. This does not concern me.  Again, this is not about the environment, this is about my bank account!  I want to know how much all those diapers cost.  The Walmart website has cases of diapers listed with their respective per case prices and the total of diapers in the case.  Do a little math and the Pampers diapers at Walmart at the time of this writing are between 20 and 25 cents each.  That's not too bad except that you will go through 10 a day (if you're lucky) for at least the first few weeks before things start to settle down.  So that 124 pack won't make it 2 weeks. Cloth diapers are much more expensive....to start.  Cloth diapers can range from $1 to more than $30 a piece!  Ouch!  But, once you've bought them you're done.  No more rushing to the store at midnight because you're out.  If you have 6 or 8 of the size your baby is in then you can get through a whole day.  Well, I guess that depends on how you do laundry in your household.  The more often you wash, the less individual diapers you need. 

I, for one, want a cloth diaper that is as much like a disposable diaper as it can be.  I want to remove the whole thing (no messing with liners for me) and place a new one on; the only difference of course is that I will be tossing it into the washing machine instead of the diaper bin.  And because I am the Homemade Mommy, I consider myself a rather crafty person, and if I can I'd rather make it and save as much as possible.

After playing with several cloth diaper tutorials online I discovered a couple that fit some of my needs.  I then combined them and edited them into this!

(The diaper, silly.  Not the cute monkey model.)

This cloth diaper has an elastic waistband, Velcro fasteners and an internal soaker pad that you don't remove before washing, and a waterproof lining between the soaker and the cute outer fabric to keep the yuck from seeping through.

Other sites on cloth diapering:
www.gdiapers.com
www.cottonbabies.com
www.econobum.com
www.bumkins.com