Week 1:
How did you decide on what styles and brands of diapers to purchase?
As I mentioned in my Cloth Diaper Carnival article I started cloth diapering after seeing a Swaddlebees Econappi diaper in a parenting magazine. I started my search online for Swaddlebees diapers and stumbled upon many retailers who also carried other brands. I began learning about other brands by reading product reviews, more google searches and links that took me to other links, and so on and so forth. I spend countless hours while nursing or when the baby was sleeping soaking it all in and it seemed the more I searched the better (or cuter) products I found. I began learning about the popular CD fabrics, popular brands and all the CD lingo, which often seems like a foreign language when you are just starting out.
I chose a handful of diapers to try at first to see what I liked and to determine if this was really something to which I really wanted to commit. I recommend starting out this way before buying one brand in bulk in case you decide a different brand, style or fabric is better for your little one. There's nothing like buying 2 dozen diapers with microfleece lining only to come and find your little one has an allergy to fleece. And you may have your mind set on one style or brand of diapers, but after using them decide another would have a better fit, convenience factor or price.
Some people are happy with predominantly one brand of diapers, but others have one of two dozen different brands in their stash. I fit more or less in the second category and wouldn't have it any other way. Each brand has their pros and cons and different places for different ages, stages and purposes. I tend to use certain brands more during the day vs. night, at home vs. going out, dresses vs. pants, etc. I have not slowed down my research of different brands, but rather increased it over the years and love it. There are so many great brands both in the "mainstream" market and also WAHM made brands and there is a great fit for almost any family and child. Continue to visit my Cloth Diaper Reviews as I update it with even more brands!
We'd love to learn about how you decided on the brands in your stash! Comment on this post with your story or write a blog article. Bloggers may choose to write short articles/tips and link up weekly, or write one article for the month on the topic and link up each week so new readers can stop by each week to read your article.
November 2009
How to Build a Cloth Diaper Stash
Week 1: How did you decide on what styles and brands of diapers to purchase?
Week 2: How many cloth diapers are in an ideal stash per child? What is your reality?
Week 3: What was your budget and how did you spread it out? If you didn't set an initial budget how much do you think you spent per child on your stash?
Week 4: Where and how do you get what you want on a budget (i.e. buying used, making your own, swapping, etc.).
4 comments:
Thanks for writing this, and for opening it up to other bloggers! I wish I had had a little more input on this topic before I started CDing. I registered for mostly BumGenius 3.0s because I didn't think friends would buy more expensive diapers for me as shower gifts, only to discover they leak terribly on my little girl. I wish someone had told me how different the fit could be on different diaper styles and brands and that trying different styles wouldn't leave me with a bunch of diapers I didn't like; rather they all serve different purposes.
Laura
One question on this: I really hope to have all my diapers purchased before the baby gets here... but how do I do that if the advice is to "try out different brands"? I can't exactly do that with the baby still in utero...
Michelle,
Exactly! This bugged me too. I wanted to have everything ready to go. Who is going to shop for diapers right after having a baby? I would say try this: Go to
http://www.zany-zebra.com/cloth-diapers-101.shtml
for a good overview of the different diapering options. You might be able to narrow down the types of diapers you want to try before baby is born, based on cost or convenience (e.g. prefolds are economical, all-in-ones are convenient but take longer to dry, sized diapers are pricey but fit trimmer). Buy a small stash of whatever style(s) you want to try in a variety of brands, and then after you've tested them you'll know better what you want to fill out your stash with or try next.
Also, if you are trying sized diapers (and one-size won't fit until around 10 pounds usually), you could just get a full newborn-size stash and buy larger diapers later. Hope that helps!
Laura
P.S. Here are my favorite products, if it helps.
Thirsties Duo Wraps
Green Earth DSQ infant prefolds
Fuzzibunz one-size snap pockets
Happy Heinys one-size snap pockets
Thirsties hemp inserts (for doubling up under a regular insert at night)
Kissaluvs fitteds (but I couldn't afford these: I won two in a contest)
BumGenius xSmall all-in-ones (same as above: won them in a contest. I also suspect the absorbancy of all-in-ones wouldn't be enough for my heavy wetter now that she's bigger. I need to be able to adjust the stuffings. Perfect for newborn though.)
Dr. Bronners Baby Mild Hemp Castile liquid soap (see Zany-Zebra link above for cloth wipe solution recipe. Also works for baby shampoo, hand wash, etc.)
Allen's Naturally or Rockin Green laundry detergent.
Hi again Michelle,
Here's another option that lets you try diapers before you buy them. It's still not a complete stash ready before baby gets here, but it could save you money if you really don't know what kind of diaper you want:
http://www.earthangelsdiaperco.com/diapering_209/Try-Cloth-Diapers-One-at-a-time-Risk-Free.htm
Laura
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