I love the cloth baby diapers I bought before we moved to Indonesia. They have worked out really well. I bought 12 of the regular diapers and 2 of the night time diapers. My daughter hasn't seemed to mind the transition from disposables to cloth diapers. Additionally, she tells me when she is wet or stinky because she can feel it. I think that will make potty training just a little bit easier.
So disposable diapers are available here in Jakarta as well as pull-ups. However, western brands such as Huggies and Pampers are not of the same quality as they are in the U.S. They contain more plastic. I have used a S.E. Asian brand called Mama Poko that is manufactured in Thailand I think. I use those just for when we are headed out of the house for an extended period of time.
I wish I would have used the fitted cloth diapers a long time ago. When my oldest was a baby, I tried the pre-folded kind using the safety pins and that just never worked all that well. I don't know why I never tried again. I guess the infant potty-training ended up working well so I didn't bother.
In retrospection, it would have worked really well to combine the infant potty-training with the cloth diapers. I think I would have saved a lot of money plus spared the landfill of some disposable diapers.
Showing posts with label Diapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diapers. Show all posts
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Cloth Baby Diapers
So I have been thinking about potty-training my youngest now for a couple of months since she turned 2. We are also moving to Indonesia in a few weeks so I thought it might be best to wait until we've moved to begin potty-training. I hate using disposable diapers and I think pull-ups are just as bad and more expensive than diapers. On recommendation from a friend, I ordered the Kawaii baby diapers from theluvyourbaby.com site. They are very reasonably priced, environmentally friendly, and received very positive reviews. The diapers are good for kids from newborn (8lbs. to 36 lbs.). My youngest currently weighs around 27 lbs. so I think these should be good for awhile.
I just didn't want to mess with disposable diapers anymore for a variety of reasons. When we went to Taiwan, I had a hard time finding diapers except at a few large grocery stores. They were also very expensive. I didn't even see training pants. I'm not sure diapers or training pants are readily available and I know that they would be expensive. Hopefully in the long term, the cloth diapers will be a good investment. I think DH is skeptical, but I will post again about this once I receive the diapers and start my baby on them. I have high hopes that this will be a good thing. I have a lot of friends that use cloth diapers and love them. If this works out and we end up having more kids, I think I may use the infant potty-training in conjunction with the cloth diapers. It seems like a good combination...both for financial reasons and for environmental reasons as well.
I just didn't want to mess with disposable diapers anymore for a variety of reasons. When we went to Taiwan, I had a hard time finding diapers except at a few large grocery stores. They were also very expensive. I didn't even see training pants. I'm not sure diapers or training pants are readily available and I know that they would be expensive. Hopefully in the long term, the cloth diapers will be a good investment. I think DH is skeptical, but I will post again about this once I receive the diapers and start my baby on them. I have high hopes that this will be a good thing. I have a lot of friends that use cloth diapers and love them. If this works out and we end up having more kids, I think I may use the infant potty-training in conjunction with the cloth diapers. It seems like a good combination...both for financial reasons and for environmental reasons as well.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Guilty of Using Disposable Diapers
I exclusively used disposable diapers on my firstborn (don't ask me why...I claim temporary insanity). When my second child was born, my conscience had kicked in and I decided to minimize the use of disposables by trying to use the Elimination Communication method (EC). It worked out rather well. In a nutshell, after careful observation, I was able to figure out when my daughter needed to go to the potty. Then whenever I took her, I would say pee-pee or poo-poo (some people say shhh...or make some other sound). The baby becomes "conditioned" to going whenever the sound is made. In between potty sessions, I used disposable diapers to prevent "accidents."
In the beginning, when I was trying to figure out the elimination patterns of my baby, I used cloth diapers. I finally gave up on the cloth diapers because newborns need to eliminate quite frequently and I just couldn't keep up with the demand. I had bought 12 cloth diapers to start out with...definitely not enough. I was also unwilling to have my baby go diaperless around the house as some people do when using EC. After a few weeks of using cloth diapers, I finally gave it up and used disposable diapers in conjunction with EC. By the time my baby was a couple of months old, she used on average only 2-3 disposable diapers a day. On bad days, I might have used 5 diapers. I also used baby sign language with my baby and made the "toilet" sign each time she showed signs of needing to potty.
My daughter is not quite 2 yet. She is able to talk and tells me when she needs to go potty (my children never quite took to the infant sign language). She still is not totally consistent, but she averages only a couple of diapers a day. I think she will be diaper-free fairly soon.
My son was potty-trained by age 2. He has been pretty-much accident free both night and day. I never had to have him wear pull-ups at night. I also didn't use pull-ups for potty-training because they are too much like diapers. In the beginning, I did use pull-ups when we traveled or went out. He was always good about going so I didn't bother with using the pull-ups after a very short while.
Potty-training early (by age 2 or 2.5 years) is being touted as a way to "go green." It significantly reduces the number of diapers that end up in landfills. The average age at which a child is potty-trained is around 3 years of age...a little earlier for girls, a little later for boys. Nowadays, it is not unheard of for children aged 4 and older to still wear diapers. Diaper sizes now range from newborn to size 7! My son only used up to size 3 diapers.
I read that the average number of diapers used before a child is potty-trained is around 5000. The average number of diapers used weekly by the average 6-month old is 70. Apparently some 18 billion diapers are used in the U.S. annually.
By using EC, I estimated that I used roughly 20 diapers a week for each child. That is a little more than 1000 diapers for the year, and around 2000 diapers by the time my child was potty-trained by age 2.
My third child was born a few months ago. I have been using the EC method with her as well and trying to decide if I would like to give cloth diapers another go. There are many articles and studies detailing the pros and cons of disposable vs. cloth diapers. I think that because using EC and disposable diapers worked so well with my other daughter, I may go that route again.
I might be guilty of using disposable diapers, but I think I have made a good effort at minimizing the amount of diapers that my family contributes to landfills. I also try and dispose of any solid waste in the diapers before I throw them in the trash. This method has worked well for me and I think it is a good compromise between going green and maintaining my sanity.
In the beginning, when I was trying to figure out the elimination patterns of my baby, I used cloth diapers. I finally gave up on the cloth diapers because newborns need to eliminate quite frequently and I just couldn't keep up with the demand. I had bought 12 cloth diapers to start out with...definitely not enough. I was also unwilling to have my baby go diaperless around the house as some people do when using EC. After a few weeks of using cloth diapers, I finally gave it up and used disposable diapers in conjunction with EC. By the time my baby was a couple of months old, she used on average only 2-3 disposable diapers a day. On bad days, I might have used 5 diapers. I also used baby sign language with my baby and made the "toilet" sign each time she showed signs of needing to potty.
My daughter is not quite 2 yet. She is able to talk and tells me when she needs to go potty (my children never quite took to the infant sign language). She still is not totally consistent, but she averages only a couple of diapers a day. I think she will be diaper-free fairly soon.
My son was potty-trained by age 2. He has been pretty-much accident free both night and day. I never had to have him wear pull-ups at night. I also didn't use pull-ups for potty-training because they are too much like diapers. In the beginning, I did use pull-ups when we traveled or went out. He was always good about going so I didn't bother with using the pull-ups after a very short while.
Potty-training early (by age 2 or 2.5 years) is being touted as a way to "go green." It significantly reduces the number of diapers that end up in landfills. The average age at which a child is potty-trained is around 3 years of age...a little earlier for girls, a little later for boys. Nowadays, it is not unheard of for children aged 4 and older to still wear diapers. Diaper sizes now range from newborn to size 7! My son only used up to size 3 diapers.
I read that the average number of diapers used before a child is potty-trained is around 5000. The average number of diapers used weekly by the average 6-month old is 70. Apparently some 18 billion diapers are used in the U.S. annually.
By using EC, I estimated that I used roughly 20 diapers a week for each child. That is a little more than 1000 diapers for the year, and around 2000 diapers by the time my child was potty-trained by age 2.
My third child was born a few months ago. I have been using the EC method with her as well and trying to decide if I would like to give cloth diapers another go. There are many articles and studies detailing the pros and cons of disposable vs. cloth diapers. I think that because using EC and disposable diapers worked so well with my other daughter, I may go that route again.
I might be guilty of using disposable diapers, but I think I have made a good effort at minimizing the amount of diapers that my family contributes to landfills. I also try and dispose of any solid waste in the diapers before I throw them in the trash. This method has worked well for me and I think it is a good compromise between going green and maintaining my sanity.
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