How to diaper?

[norsegirl]

Today's debate du jour... how to diaper our future child? I'm pretty dead-set against disposibles. Despite the chemical company propaganda, I can't believe any of them are environmentally sound. And I'm honestly not thrilled with the idea of having them hang around the house until garbage day. It's fucking hot here, so garbage starts to smell real fast. I also just read something that suggested that one of the chemicals in disposables are toxic to pets. And if I'm not watching them like hawks, I can totally see the beagles tipping over a garbage and having a snack. That puts disposables right out, though we may use them for the first week or two while we're getting settled and I'm recovering. I'd rather not, but we'll see.

Let's then go with the assumption that we're going to go with cloth... what type to choose?

Diaper service
We could pay for a diaper service, which is nice in that you don't have to do to any more effort than using a disposable. In fact it's slightly less effort because you don't even have to go out to buy more diapers, they just show up on your doorstep. Though you do have to cart used diapers around if you have to change when you are out. Not as big a deal for me since we have only one car and I almost never go anywhere except maybe a quick trip to the grocery store anyway. I figure this will cost about the same as disposables, which is a pretty penny over the years, but it does save me some considerable effort.

Pre-fold diapers
The cheapest option, and the same sort of diaper as used by the service. Would require me to do lots of laundry and figure out how to sanitize them, but would save all kinds of money.

Fitted diapers
Easy to put on like disposables, but far more expensive than the pre-folds. Would of course require the laundering like the pre-folds, and would be a much bigger up-front cost to get a big enough supply to go this way, so it might wind up costing almost as much as the service.

Thoughts?

In other news, have already done a few loads of laundry and put a second coat of primer on the dresser, so today is off to a productive start. Going to go have a shower and see what else I can accomplish.

Comments

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

My sister used pre-folds and my first SiL and my cousin-in-law are both fans of fitted. Based on thier experiences, I'm leaning towards the fitted. The cousin suggested I put a dozen or so on my registry in case anyone would like to buy us some as a shower gift. Second SiL is using disposables just because they are living in a tiny one-bedroom in downtown TO with laundry facilites in the basement. They weren't sure they could swing cloth diapers under the circumstances.

However, one thing they all agreed on is using disposables for the first week. Apparently meconium leaves stains you can NOT get out. Ever.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

Good info on the meconium thing. All the stuff I just don't know is astounding. I guess I'll grab a package of "organic" newborn disposable diapers for the first week then.

[hel_ana]

For the first week, there are also g diapers. They're somewhere between disposables and cloth - the insert (the part that actually gets poop/pee on it) is the only part you get rid of, and can be thrown out, flushed, or (if it's only pee) composted in a backyard composter. Even if you're throwing them out, you're still throwing out a lot less waste for each diaper.

My suspicion, looking at them, is that the covers can probably be used as covers for cloth once you switch to that.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

I wandered around their site and their FAQ actually addresses the cloth diaper with their pants thing... apparently it tends to be leaky, so not really ideal. The cost of the inserts seems to be greater than the cost of simply purchasing a disposable diaper, even if one buys the slightly better for the environment and thus slightly more expensive disposables. And that's not considering the cost of the covers or laundering those bits. I'm not sure I really like having to rip up the liners to flush them, that seems like a yucky accident waiting to happen.

Good suggestion, and they certainly look cute, but I'm not sure they are a great solution.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Joel & Jeny looked at those and decided they were not a workable solution.

[rectangularcat]

I have a couple of friends who swear by them though. I was going to give them a try.