Any time you are talking or reading about cloth diapers online you are bound to come across some words or abbreviations you’ve never heard. We’ve compiled a list of these words so that these otherwise baffling terms will now (hopefully) make sense!

AIO  - All-in-one Diapers
AI2 -  All-in-two Diapers
AP  - Attachment Parenting

Aplix – a brand of hook and loop closure (similar to Velcro but much softer)
BF  - Breastfeed
BG  - bumGenius brand
BSWW  - Bummi’s Super Whisper Wrap
BTDT -  Been There Done That
BTW  - By the way
BNIP  - Brand new in package
CD  - Cloth Diapers or Cloth Diapering
CPF  - Chinese Prefold
Crunchy -  Living ‘Green’ or Eco Friendly
DD  - Disposable Diapers or Dear Daughter
DH  - Dear Husband
DS  - Dear Son
DSQ -  Diaper Service Quality
EBF  - Exclusive Breastfeeding
EDD  - Estimated Due Date
EC  - Excellent condition
EUC  - Excellent used condition
F&C -  Free & Clear (detergents)
FLer  - Front loader washing machine
FS -  For sale
FSOT -  For sale or trade
FYI  - For your information
FB  - Fuzzi Bunz
FMBG  - Full Moon Baby Gear
GAD  - Green Acre Designs
HH  - Happy Heinies
HE -  High efficiency (washing machines)
ITA  - I totally agree
IPF  - Indian Prefold
IMO  - In My Opinion
ME  - Mother Ease brand
ISO  - In search of
KWIM -  Know what I mean
LMK  - Let me know
LO  - Little one
LC  - Little Caboose brand
NAK  - Nursing at keyboard

OS  -  One size
PUL  - Polyurethane laminate
ROTFL -  Rolling on the floor laughing
SAHM  - Stay at home mom
SEZ  - Snap E-Z brand
Touchtape  -   a brand of hook and loop closure (similar to Velcro but much softer)
TLer  - Top loader washing machine
TTC  - Trying to convieve
WAHM  - Work at home mom

How Many Cloth Diapers?

When we started cloth diapering I did a little research on how many cloth diapers you should keep in your stash. We were tight on money so I decided to scrimp and buy less than the average recommendation. I wanted to hold out and buy some cuter, more expensive diapers later on so I figured I would just tough it out and do a lot of laundry. That didn’t work out very well and I ended up getting peed on a lot and having to make some emergency trips to the store for disposables. We slowly built up our stash and now I keep some gdiapers around for emergencies.

If you can’t afford to buy all of your cloth diapers at once, start with one day’s worth at a time. This way your disposables will last you longer so you should have some extra money on your next pay day to invest in a few more cloth diapers. Just keep working towards a full stash and before you know it you’ll be cloth diapering full time.

When deciding how many diapers you’ll need you want to take a few things into consideration…

How often do you want to do laundry? Every day, every other day, or every three days? You shouldn’t store wet or dirty diapers for more than three days. They can end up with gnarly stains and smells that may never go away and the urine breaks down the fibers, shortening the life of your diapers. We have about 18 diapers for our 3 month old, plus a few prefolds to use while the others are in the washer, and these will last us a good 2 ½ to 3 days. Our daughter is not a particularly heavy wetter though, which leads us to our next point to consider.

Is your child a heavy wetter? Our son is an extremely heavy wetter. He’s always gone through a ton of diapers per day and there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it. Obviously if your child is a heavy wetter you will want to have more diapers in your stash than we have in ours. If you don’t know whether your child will be a heavy wetter, you can keep several infant prefolds in your stash. This way if it turns out you don’t need all the diapers you can use the prefolds as doublers for your other diapers or even for an older sibling.

How old is your baby? This makes a huge difference in the amount of diapers you will need. Newborns are peeing or pooping every time you turn around and since their diet is exclusively fluids they tend to have more “blowouts”. Toddlers tend to require less diapers as they get older and their bodies prepare for potty training/learning.

Newborns – we recommend a stash of 24-36 diapers. This should hold you over for 2-3 days. If your diapers require covers you should have 1 cover per 4-6 diapers, but for newborns I would recommend more because they tend to poop on the covers. So for this stash we would recommend 8-12 diaper covers.

6 to 12 Mos. – Most babies in this age group have started sleeping through the night or are at least sleeping for longer periods of time, therefore requiring less frequent diaper changes. We recommend 20-30 diapers, laundering every 2-3 days.

12 to 24 Mos. – By this age babies are typically eating more solids than breast milk or formula, so again there will be a decrease in the amount of diaper changes needed. We recommend 16-24 diapers, laundering every 2-3 days.

Potty training/learning – Usually during this time you can cut back to 8-12 diapers, laundering every 2-3 days.

Aside from diapers you will also want to invest in a diaper pail (you can store diapers in a dry or wet pail), 12-24 doublers, and since you are doing laundry anyways you may want to get 2 -3 dozen cloth wipes. Remember that these are only guidelines. Combine this information with your child’s specific needs and your preferences to come up with the right number of diapers for your stash. Don’t be afraid to buy too many, having a larger stash means that each diaper is used less in rotation and this will lengthen the life of your diapers.

When we were pregnant with our second child we were trying to find ways to cut corners cost-wise. We’d thought about cloth diapering before and decided to investigate further. Aside from saving money we found that there were a lot of other benefits to cloth diapering… and a lot of reasons to stay away from disposables.

Cost of Cloth Diapers vs Disposables

The cost of disposable diapers is roughly $2,694.54 per child.  Each child is unique, so the amount and frequency in which your little one eats, sleeps, poops, and pees will affect how much money you will spend on disposable diapers. Depending on which size your baby is currently in, disposable diapers range from $0.22 – $0.45 each.  When using cloth diapers, the cost is upfront, but  the diapers pay for themselves within about 6 months. After that, diapering is pretty much free.

Consumer Report estimates that the most inefficient washer and dryer system (sounds like mine!) costs approximately $0.78 per load,  more efficient models cost about $0.44 per load. So when you get past that six month mark your only cost with cloth diapers will be running your washer and dryer every 2 to 3 days plus the cost of detergent.

If you want to get more specific with your cost calculations, we like this cloth vs. disposable calculator that breaks down the cost!

http://www.cutofcloth.com/calculator/Calculator.asp

Rashes and Health Concerns

We all hate when our baby ends up with a diaper rash and there are so many causes of diaper rash that it’s hard to pinpoint the cause! Chemical and dye allergies, prolonged wetness, lack of air circulation, and soap can all contribute to diaper rashes.

Disposable diapers have plastic, dyes, scents, sodium polyacrylate, and dioxin. Sodium polyacrylate has been linked to toxic shock syndrome, allergic reactions, and is harmful and potentially lethal to pets. Dioxin is a carcinogenic chemical, according to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) it is the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals.  It’s banned in most countries, but not in America.  Some dyes and dioxin are even known to cause damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver. Disposables contain Tributyl-tin (TBT) – a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals. Problems reported to the Consumer Protection Agency regarding disposables include, chemical burns, noxious chemical and insecticide odors, babies pulling disposables apart and putting pieces of plastic into their noses and mouth, choking on tab papers and linings, plastic melting onto the skin, and ink staining the skin. Those convenient plastic tabs can also tear baby’s skin if the diaper is not put on right.

The Convenience of Cloth Diapering

Cloth diapers have come a long way since your mama was using them. Now there are many different styles to choose from. Modern cloth diapers fasten with snaps or velcro and even prefolds don’t require diaper pins (we like Snappies). Switching to cloth can be a little awkward at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy.

Consider this; currently it is 41 degrees outside, both of my children are napping, and the diapers are in the wash. Isn’t this more convenient than bundling up my babies and waiting for the cold car to heat up so I can haul them off to the store and spend 20 some odd bucks on disposables? You tell me…

As far as laundering goes, the hardest part for us was choosing a detergent. The rest is a cinch. With two small children and a husband I do a lot of laundry anyways so adding diapers to the load made no difference. I simply soak them with baking soda, turn the washer on when it’s convenient, rinse with vinegar, and dry. It doesn’t take long and it’s not hard work. I love the shock when people hear that we cloth diaper. “You wash their diapers?” Unless you’re washing your diapers by hand (which I’ve done) I’m pretty sure you’re washing machine is doing most of the dirty work. All you have to do is choose the settings and add detergent.

Scared to use cloth diapers while traveling? Don’t be! All you need is the basics; extra diapers, wipes, and a wet bag (for wet or soiled diapers and wipes).  If that doesn’t work for your family, there are more options than just cloth or disposable. When we need to run out and don’t want to pack a bag, we just grab a gdiaper. These hybrid diapers are cute as a button and have a flushable insert.

Environmental Impact

Roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills every year. It takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture disposable diapers for babies in America alone. Some disposable diapers claim to be biodegradable; for diapers to decompose they must be exposed to air and sun.  This is unlikely to happen while sitting in a landfill so you can count on those diapers sitting there for the estimated 500 years before decomposition takes place.