Raving About Cloth

My friend, TU-B, used them for her two boys and once we decided to go the same route, she took us to her favourite Bloor West Village diaper store, Diaper-eez(http://www.diaper-eez.com), for a bit of shopping. (The website has lots of information for those thinking about going cloth.)

The reason we decided to use cloth was mainly cost; I bought infant and toddler diapers, infant diaper wraps and a diaper pail for about $300. The only additional cost is the diaper liners, which can be flushed if you aren’t on a septic system, and larger sized diaper wraps.

Now that we have been using cloth for seven months, I also love the fact that we are leaving a smaller environmental footprint. We can compost our diapers here, but it is nice knowing we are purchasing and throwing out less.

I use Chinese cotton prefold diapers, folded in thirds (you fold differently for girls because boys and the sexes pee differently) and line them with a Kushies (http://www.kushies.com/) diaper liner. What is great about Kushies is that the products are made in Canada.

When another friend, AC, learned I was going cloth, she sent me unbleached prefolds, which we actually like better than the bleached variety. The unbleached diapers had to be washed a number of times before using but are super soft.

The diaper is held together by a Kushies diaper wrap with Velcro fasteners. My advice is to open the packages of wraps before you buy them. I bought six wraps and only two are true rubber pants that catch urine, allowing me to only change our son’s diaper once throughout the night.

I do laundry every other day or so, which isn’t so bad. And now that spring is here, the diapers get hung out on the line to dry.

I love my cloth diapers and encourage others to give them a try.