Question... Do/did you use cloth or disposable diapers for your children? And if you had the option, would you use diapers made out of t-shirts?
My ASG (American Sewing Guild) group does a service project every year for our June meeting. We've made pillow cases, bags for soldiers, cancer caps, etc. Typically when we decide on a project, it's items that can be used in our local communities. The pillow cases were made for a childrens hospital where they let the child pick out whichever one they want and they get to take them home with them when they're released from the hospital. The soldier bags were used locally and sent to soldiers overseas from our area.
But who could use handmade cloth diapers? Would a homeless shelter?
Any suggestions?
Here is the pattern in case you're interested in trying it out. Please let me know if you do.
There is also a little note from the sender that you put extra thickness in the diapers, to put sleeves or other materials inside the middle strip.Anyway, I started out with the best intentions of doing cloth, but after the triple pooper diaper changes, I relented and went disposable. THEN my sister happened to call to see the new baby with her family and asked if I needed anything. I was on the tail end of a bag of diapers, so I jokingly said, diapers?...
They stopped and bought out all the diapers the closest Walmart had and loaded up their van before coming to see us. Um yeah... We were stocked for a while!
If I had to do it again, now that I work from home... I'd probably put more effort into cloth diapers.I've three kids now... so I'm not afraid to put my hand in the toilet anymore...
13 comments:
I did the cloth route with #1. This was before the current cloth diaper incarnation, back with old birdseye cloth and diaper pins and plastic pants. Not pleasant but not undo-able. Alot cheaper, but #1 kept getting yeast infections because of the plastic pants so when #2 came along and I had 2 in diapers I caved and went disposable. If I had had these modern type cloth diapers I might have stayed with them for all 3 of my kids.
I love doing cloth diapers, and I'd probably be willing to do the tee shirt ones. I think it's a great idea as a charity item because they are reusable and so save BUCKETS of money over disposables. I was just saying to MacGyver the other day that more charities should give cloth diapers to families in need.
I'm not sure I could do it. But when thinking about the potential money savings - maybe I would need to reassess my decision. Just seems awfully messy :-(
Ummmm....I dunno. I used disposable but if I decided to use cloth I'd try the tshirt ones. Why not?
I used cloth diapers almost exclusively on my own daughter. Like Sluggy said, this was back when you either had flat birdseye weave or gauze we've diapers, or maybe some "pre-folded" ones, secured with pins, with plastic pants over the top.
When Kat was a baby, she was still living with my daughter. My daughter put her in disposables, I put her in cloth most of the time.
Yes, I'd cloth diaper if I had it to do over again. After all, I know I wouldn't want to wear paper underwear; I doubt a baby wants to, either.
And yes, I'd consider using diapers made of t-shirt fabric, although I'm skeptical they'd be absorbent enough. There are lots of new options compared to when I used cloth diapers; some are supposed to be really good.
Also, I still like cloth diapers for cleaning instead of paper towels.
Rebekah uses cloth diapers on Nora. It took me a while to get where I'd stick my hand in the toilet. Ha! Rebekah has found some cloth diaper tutorials online and wants me to try my hand at them when they have another baby. I think they're great! I would used them myself if they had been like that when mine were babies.
I wanted to use cloth on Amberly, but hubby refused. We've always used Pampers. Hubby said his little sis was cloth diapered and he told me horrific stories of using a spatula to scrape the dirty diaper off and then rinsing it in the toilet. I said SURELY cloth diapers have come a long way since then???? But, he scared me out of it. LOL. ;)
That's a neat tutorial, though. Hopefully y'all can find a way to do some good with it.
I used disposable, but that was back in the day...before green was in...my new mommy friends are way into the cloth ones.
I think even I can do these cloth t-shirt diapers! I may have to try it! I like the idea! (Not for my own, of course...sheesh! that would be a nightmare...to be pregnant at my age...yikes!) But, for my mom's ministry...that could be great!
I tried cloth diapers once... and only once. Unfortunately. But my daughter wore it for an hour and it was soaked through. I was so disappointed but I just didn't want everything to get wet with pee.
I know, I know, I should really try again (don't worry... I have quite a bit of time before either of my girls get out of diapers).
That story of your sister picking up all those huggies is hilarious. I love it!
PS I have no idea what organization you are working with to donate these diapers. I did, however, live in Uganda for four months and I saw quite a number of children running around bare bottoms because of the poverty situation there. Would the parents put their kids in cloth diapers if they could? I don't know. If they don't have water to wash the cloth diapers, they might rather let their kid pee on the ground. But, maybe they would like the cloth diapers... I guess it depends on the culture/area of people you are working with in Africa.
Wow you have a great sister!
I used disposable but now that I'm older and if I had another baby, I would probably use cloth. Well I say that never having used one. I would probably make it a day or two.
Have a great weekend!
I used disposables, but if I could do it over, we would use cloth. Course now that I am a crafty hippie (which has only occurred over the last 2 years), I would do a lot of things differently :)
I used cloth on my 2 boys and disposables on my 2 girls. The girls' skin was more sensitive and the disposables were less likely to breed diaper rash.
As for cloth being more green...don't forget the energy used to heat water and the detergent and bleach needed to get cloth diapers clean. Environmentally it really is a toss-up between biodegradable disposables (shake the poop into a toilet)and cloth that must be disinfected. I had to boil cloth diapers to get them clean enough to discourage diaper rash, even for my somewhat tougher skinned boys. So, for needy people, I would vote disposables.
4 years straight of cloth diapers led to early potty training for both boys. I loved washing them and was so proud of my white "didies" hanging on the wash line. Dumb hunh?
Leann
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