Anyone know of a cloth diaper service?

[sugarplumclarey]

I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve been using disposable diapers for a year. Eek! Time to switch to cloth. Does anybody know of a local diaper service? I could only find one but would like to know if there are any other options. Thanks :)

[ernesto]

We used a cloth service until about last March when the company stopped the service. I believe they were called Precious Dignity but I’m not positive. If you are price shopping, the prices on the Bundle of Joy site are much lower than we paid. I believe we paid $22 plus tax and the price never dropped.

I bet Sprout Soup[/url] might be able to provide you with more resources.

[rekhilperts]

Yes! There’s a new cloth diaper service called Bundle of Joy. I don’t know when it started but it’s the only one in town. The previous poster is referring to Clean ‘n Green cloth diaper service, which was discontinued about 9 months ago. The owner stopped the service portion of her business to focus on making cloth diapers. Sprout Soup does sell some cloth diapers, as does the Whole Foods in Dublin.

I’ve become a total CD addict and am working up to starting a CD related business where I help folks make the transition to cloth. But I haven’t started yet. If you have any questions or want any advice about making the switch, let me know! I’m happy to help (no strings!).

[AmyD]

i cloth diapered all three of our kids. i started doing it because we had no money, then just kept doing it because it was so easy. i just washed my own.
the benefit for me was that we never ran out of diapers. if we were getting low, we just washed them. i taught a class at stratford ecological center about it. it’s so simple. just takes a little getting used to if you have already been using disposable.
and this is the truth, they smell way less! i swear to you!
and it’s not like what most people think. there isn’t a lot of swishing a diaper in the toilet or anything like that and there are covers now that use velcro and are leakproof.

sprout soup is a great resource for all kinds of cloth diapering stuff.

[KSquared]

Another vote for Sprout Soup. A co-worker of mine attended a cloth diapering class there and raved about it and said they have some good deals on sets of diapers.
I cloth diapered too and washed my own. This was way back in the olden days and it was pretty easy and inexpensive. :) I wish I had all the cool stuff they have now!

[geigondis]

Also, who has used Gdiapers[/url] as another option? It is a cover with a flushable insert (like a pad but flushable). I thought they looked like a good option, even if you are cloth diapering. For those times when you are out and need a bit more convenience. Or, when grandparents or others are watching your munchkin and can’t be bothered with cloth. I don’t know if they work though….anyone?

[Roland]

Sprout Soup is a great local resource.

We are using cloth diapers for our son and we’re having a great experience with them so far. There was some worry about cloth not being able to absorb like the disposables but actually had those problems when using the disposable diapers.

I don’t know of a cleaning service but we are cleaning them ourselves at home with a double wash cycle routine.

Cotton Babies, Inc. makes bumGenius and they are one of the popular brands. You can buy direct from them and save a bundle. If you go with the bumGenius Deluxe Bamboo fitted diapers, you’ll never regret it. They are also on sale currently.

http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=98&products_id=895

[Roland]

I should also say that you don’t have to go with options that take insertable pads. Those Bamboo ones I linked above are all self contained and there is nothing else to fuss with. Put the diaper on just like a disposable, then a diaper cover. If someone else is watching your baby, just give them a diaper bag to throw the dirty diaper in.

Diapers have advanced much since the days of a square piece of cloth with safety pins.

[spookygoddess78]

so cool that you guys do/did cloth diapering. i think that the disposable diaper industry has done a good job at convincing people that cloth diapering is difficult, messy and overly time consuming. from everything i’ve seen, that’s really not the case.

[KSquared]

Roland wrote >>
Diapers have advanced much since the days of a square piece of cloth with safety pins.

Ha ha that is exactly what I used! Now there is no more poking the baby :)

[asil]

I’m excited to see so many people cloth diapering! That was the intent at least in tandem with some disposables for our baby. We have a small stock of the Bum Genius One Size 3.0. Unfortunately our daughter was too small to use them right off the bat without duct taping them under her arms. She’s almost 3 months now so they should fit but it’s become a lazy habit to keep doing disposables. No time like the present to start the transition. :)

@Roland – Thanks for the Bamboo endorsement, I haven’t known anyone that’s tried those yet. Our friends have tried a few different systems (prefolds, Thirsties, etc) and the Bum Genius products win on ease of use and absorbency.

I’ve not tried the flushables. Call me crazy but that just seems like a clogged toilet waiting to happen.

Also, regarding a diapering service, I’ve heard that it’s actually environmentally worse than washing at home or even disposables because of 1. delivery trucks and 2. numerous hot wash cycles with heavy duty cleaners to make the diapers shiny white again otherwise they’re perceived as dirty. Note the “I’ve heard”, this may be totally untrue but I have a 3 month old and don’t have time to research statistics to back this up.

[sugarplumclarey]

Some quick praise for Sprout Soup. I just bought Fuzzi Bunz and Bum Genius from then and we are especially happy with Fuzzi Bunz. I was really intimidated to try cloth diapering, I did a ton of research on it, and my only regret is that I didn’t start sooner. If you want to skip reading a million different books and blogs, here’s my ‘everything you need to know’ spiel:

Cloth diapering is exactly the same as disposable diapering, but instead of putting dirty diapers in the trash can you put them in the wash hamper. Invest in Fuzzi Bunz* and wash them with Charlie’s Soap. That’s it.

Unfortunately, many Fuzzi Bunz are made in China. You can contact the company if this concerns you: 1 (866) DRY-BABY (379-2229), [email protected], or http://www.motherofeden.com/contact.php.

Thanks to all for the great advice :)

[AmyD]

also, if you contact prowrap via their 800 # you can get great deals on seconds. when i have done it, it was just something had dropped on the floor and needed to be washed

[geigondis]

I was thinking about the water usage/energy usage of washing your own cloth diapers versus diaper service. Seems like the diaper service people would have super efficient machines that do more with less water and energy since they can fit more in at once? If you are washing at home, do you have to run them through more than one cycle? How much have your energy bills and water bills gone up per month? Thanks for the help!

[geigondis]

P.S. If you have other child care providers, are they willing to use these? I have heard some places mandate disposables.

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