Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Diaper a Day Giveaway Day 5!

Congratulations to Hilary our day 4 winner who says in regards to going green, "We steam-mop our floors (no chemicals), we use cloth grocery bags, we recycle, we re-use plastic containers (i.e. sandwich meat, etc), we try to line dry as many things as possible, we try to conserve energy usage."

Question for Day 5 Giveaway:

Share your first cloth diapering experience.

Just for fun I'll share mine. I had my baby who was a couple of weeks old and my diaper stash consisted of a few prefolds with pins and plastic pants. I didn't know any of the fancy folds like the jellyroll back then so the fit wasn't great but got it pinned on and under the plastic pants who could tell. I remember matching up my sets of dritz pins so I would only use a matching set with each change. I remember feeling so proud of that first diaper. I was terrified that I would poke the baby and those dritz pins were SHARP! I got myself a few times but never the baby so I was happy about that. Eventually I loved using prefolds and pins but ultimately I developed a much more modern easy to use and inexpensive system which has evolved into Smartipants today!

63 comments:

  1. I decided to give cloth diapers a try when my first was 2 1/2 and not potty-trained, and my second was almost a year old. So not only did I jump into cloth diapering after over 2 years of using disposables, but I also started off with two kids in diapers. It was a challenge at first to find the right fit and absorbancy, but the first is now potty-trained and we are still going strong with the second in smartipants. It's not nearly as hard as I thought it might be - I wish I had started earlier!

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  2. My first experience was when I was babysitting (this is in the late eighties!). I didn't think anything of it - they didn't make a big deal of it, and neither did I. As far as I was concerned, it was a no-brainer (I wasn't the one doing their laundry, either :) ). So it's not a drama-packed experience I have to share, which is kind of why it's nice. Just a normal thing to do!

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  3. My first cloth diaper experience was last summer. I ordered a trial pack from a website and a yellow Smartipants was in there. I went with that one because of the "cute" green insert....LOL. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out the whole snap front though. Imagine a 10 minute diaper change on a 6 month old screaming baby. But it's all been up hill since then!!

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  4. I had bought infant prefolds and diaper covers. But my LO was too chunky for the prefold to fit, even though he was a newborn! I ended up laying the prefold in the cover, but poo would get on the elastic almost every time he went, completely defeating the purpose of me getting the system I did. These days I've pretty much switched over completely to pockets. I'm hoping once he's on solids we can go back to using prefolds and covers more. Or that I can just get enough Smartipants to complete my stash! ;)

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  5. My absolute first CD experiance was online! I'd never even seen a "modern" cloth diaper until someone posted a picture of their child in one. I instantly feel in love. As soon as I saw that I told my husband I thought we should CD. He gave me the normal 'male' response: No Way! After many days of hounding him, he said show me a Mom who does that and I'll consider it. So that Sunday I signed us up for a Cloth Diaper 101 class. The rest is history. I love cloth diapers.

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  6. My ODS was 2.5 years, and YDS was 2 months. The very first CD LO wore was a Flip. I was hooked right away! Nothing funny or gross to share, but a very fond memory for me b/c it started my CD addiction;)

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  7. I expressed an interest in CDing when I was pregnant with my 3rd child. My inlaws surprised us with 3 months of a diaper service. It was great to get to try out many different diapers and covers to see what worked best for us. And I didn't have to get bogged down with more laundry during those precious first months!

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  8. When I was pregnant with my first child I made it known that I wanted to cloth diaper and my MIL got me a stash of old fashioned pre-folds and diaper pins. When M was 3 weeks old I decided to start using them. I was shocked at how HUGE they were and how difficult to get on! Eventually, I got used to it and liked them but now I am pg with our second and M is still in diapers so DH got me 24 smartipants. I LOVE them and am so excited to use them!!!

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  9. I never was too fond of the actual idea of cloth diapers, but I had a friend that started and she let me try some. She had a huge variety. Prefolds, Bumgenius, Fuzzibunz. She let me try some and I started researching cloth diapers. I found Smartipants and a diaper sprayer. I have been hooked ever since, and my husband said, "Why didn't you start this to begin with?" I don't know. But I know I won't go back to disposable.

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  10. I had wanted to cloth with my son but it was out of the question with our expensive coin-op laundry we had to use back then.
    It took me the whole pregnancy and till my daughter was almost 4mo old to talk hubby into cloth diapering her. We first used gerber prefolds and a bummis cover we got at a consignment shop (for $2.99!) and we're lucky they didnt' turn us away from cloth. She peed through them super fast. My next diapers were fitteds that a friend made. The were OS snappi ones and I was super confused on how to use them. I finally found a love for pockets though and it made diapering so much easier, it seemed even easier then sposies!

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  11. My son was almost a month old and I had a small array of cloth diapers. I tried the Gro Baby AI2's on him first. I LOVED to CD.......and I've been addicted ever since. I thought I'd hate snaps, but tried them anyways and I am a snap lover now!

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  12. My first experience was going to a cloth diaper shower for a friend. They were so cute and easy I decided to look more into it and we decided cloth was for us before our first was born! I'm so glad we did!!

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  13. The very first diaper our daughter wore was a 3 layer hemp insert with a cover. She was about one hour old at that point and we haven't looked back since. That was Oct 9th 2010 :)

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  14. My first cloth diaper experience was with my third baby and we started with Smartipants. He was about 3 months old and the day I finally decided to take the plunge I was so nervous. I think back 7 moths and have to laugh, it was like I was waiting for a black hole to open and suck us in or something. At the end of the day I was so proud of my "bravery" loved how easy Smartipants where and we have not looked back.

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  15. Can I still enter even though I haven't officially started CDing because baby hasn't arrived yet? I used sposies with my first 6 yrs ago but now I'm really motivated to do CDing and have a small stash of all kinds of diapers to find out which kinds I like using. In another 2 months I'll get to try them all out! :)

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  16. I had bought two cloth diapers before my son was born, but then he came prematurely (7 weeks) and everyone in the NICU told me I was crazy to consider cloth diapering. Nevertheless, as soon as we were home from the NICU and he hit 7lbs I put a FuzziBunz on his skinny little frame and loved it. I even posted a pic on facebook and got a lot of positive responses from friends who also cloth diapered but I had no idea! I ordered SmartiPants soon thereafter... What great diapers.

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  17. Our first experience went smoothly, but I attribute that to the months of cloth diaper research I did while I was pregnant :oP

    Our guy's first diaper was a fitted WAHM dipe—Woollybums is the company name. When I bought it I was feeling strong "girl baby" vibes, so I thought nothing of picking up a flamboyant, primarily pink, fuzzy diaper. Turns out that we had a little boy, but we weren't turned off by the pink. He is too young to care, so we just embrace the wild colors and refer to it as his party diaper. It's sort of a shame that we have to put a cover over it!

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  18. I guess to be technical my first cloth diaper experience was being in them myself. Right? But actually my Mother got a cloth diapering service when my nephew was born. My sister never used it, said it was too difficult. My Mother bought me some prefolds and covers when I found out I was expecting. I had no intentions of using them, however baby's behind had a different theory. He was so allergic to the disposables he got a severe rash within an hour of wearing them. We switched right away to cloth and never looked back. That was almost 6 years ago, we have since had two daughters and both wore cloth (well, one still does).

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  19. I started when my little guy was 15 months old and got the flip day pack and some grobaby's. While I waited for the mail to come, I made some insert socks out of microfleece and stuffed them with microfiber auto towels. The Flips arrived first and once I got them washed and ready to go it was bedtime! Excited as I was, even after hearing some night time wetters need extra absorbency, I stuffed the flip with one of my insert socks filled with 4 microfiber towels and a gerber prefold under it. Poor little guy looked like he was sore from riding a horse he walked so funny =) I was determined not to have any leaks! This little guy used to wet through 3 stacked pampers extra protection diapers, or 2 stacked huggies goodnites, heck I'd put on 4 baby drys and he's still wet through! Night time in the flip was a success!! No leaks, lol, and the following night we went down to just 3 towels, so he could move a little better.

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  20. My very first cloth diapering experience was about 20 years ago when I was babysitting for a family who used them. Between the pins and plastic pants, I vowed NEVER to use cloth diapers! Fortunately, we haven't had to use a single pin with my son. It helped that the hospital that he was born at uses cloth diapers, so we got a little practice there before venturing out on our own.

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  21. I had thought about CDing with my second before she was even born, but didn't get around to it until about 5 months, in October 2009. My cousin sent me a few BG 3.0s to try out. While they were not my favorite diaper, I just fell in love with cloth diapering. I even enjooyed washing them! I proceeded to try out almost every major diaper out there, until finally landing on Smartipants and BG Elementals. And I still love it.

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  22. My first experience was with Chinese prefolds and a Snappi on my son when he was a few weeks old. I wanted to start with cloth right away, but I had to stay in the hospital for a while due to some complications after my c-section. After I was (literally) back on my feet, I jumped into a cloth diapering system and never looked back! I love SmartiPants for daycare!

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  23. My first experience was awesome. I bought them off of a friend who was a missionary in Africa and they had gotten them through her first three kids and now they are on #3 of ours and soon on our little Uganda girl we are adopting! They have been GREAT diapers, but we are ready for some NEW diapers:)

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  24. My sister-in-law started using cloth diapers on her 3rd baby, and she encouraged me to give them a try as well. She purchased a leading brand of diapers from a friend, and loved them, but I wanted to really do my research and find a high quality, yet economical pocket diaper that I could give a good try. So, I researched and found Smartipants. I was hooked after I saw both the price tag and the "Smart Pocket," which answered two big questions for me..."how can I afford this", and "do I have to put my hands in poop and pee all the time?"
    From the first day that they came in the mail I have been so pleased with cloth diapering our 3rd little girl. They are very easy to use, they wash well, and I am almost certain that my little one prefers them to the disposables! I only wish that I would have started cloth diapering with our first child!!

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  25. Our plan to homebirth our daughter, Hannah, didn't happen as she decided to turn breech on her due date. So we started out using the disposables the hospital provided and brought home what was left. Needless to say, the disposable supply ran out at a 2am diaper change. So I, never folding a flat diaper before in my life, proceeded to do so with one eye open to a crying newborn. It wasn't a good fold at all, I didn't think to pin or snappi it (it was 2am, remember?) and she was pretty much swallowed by the cover, but somehow everything stayed in until the morning when i was able to laugh at what a poor job I did. We're still in flats and covers now at one month, and still keeping it all inside (the cover, at least). We did switch to smartipants for nighttime, as I could never seem to get a good fold on at 2am!

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  26. My first experience was with GroBaby diapers and sadly (for us) they leaked everywhere and I was thinking that maybe cloth wasn't for me. At the same time, my baby was transitioning to cow's milk and had an allergy I wasn't aware of, so she developed a terrible rash. It was a nightmare. THANKFULLY I decided to give a 2nd brand a try and I clicked on a link for Smartipants! New diapers combined with some medical information and we haven't looked back since. Lovin' our cloth!!

    I'm SO GLAD I stuck with it.

    Disclaimer: I did wash and sell the GroBaby dipes and the new mama said they worked great for her. So...nothing against that brand... like I said, they just didn't work "for us"> :)

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  27. We bought 15 used diapers from a friend. I am SO happy they were smartipants! We couldn't have chosen a better brand to start out in. I had done a TON of research and was fully prepared to use them! Ofcourse it was a little daunting at first trying to find the right fit and wondering if I was doing everything right, but I was! It was easy!!!!!

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  28. my first cloth diapering experience was learning to change my baby brother's diaper when i was only 7 or so. learning to use the pins without poking him was hard! i first used modern cloth diapers on my first baby - using prefolds and covers. he was pretty little, and started out in the premie sized diapers and covers - and they were still huge on him! keeping the covers tight enough around his skinny little legs was a challenge, but totally worth it. he had an allergic reaction to the disposables in the hospital, so i was so glad to go home to cloth - and to diaper service for the first few weeks! =)

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  29. I don't know why I was so nervous about using cloth diapers, despite really wanting to try them for eco-friendly and financial reasons. Actually, my mother in law was my inspiration, since she used pre-folds with my husband when he was a baby, out of financial necessity. I figured if she could use prefolds, pins, and rubber covers, I could certainly manage with all-in-one diapers.

    I so carefully washed my diapers when I got them, even staring at the washer as they swished around, hoping they were ok in there! (yep, weirdo first time mom). The first time I put them on my son, I thought they would make him bow-legged! However, it went smoothly after that, and I can't imagine not using cloth with our upcoming second child. What makes me most happy about cloth diapering is that I was able to encourage 3 friends to use them, and served as a bit of a diaper guru for them. That really made me proud.

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  30. My first cloth diaper experience was changing my brother's diaper when I was about 7, which was 20 years ago. My mom was a committed cloth diaperer, and she can't believe how far they've come!

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  31. My first cloth diaper experience was HORRIBLE!!! My first son was born when I was just 17 and every disposable out there broke his poor little bottom out. We use to say he looked like a lepor with all the blisters and sores. So much to my dismay I began using cloth diapers to save his little bottom. We're in a small town so all we could get were those cheap Gerber 'prefolds' and safety pins. Thankfully, his bottom healed wonderfully and we never had another break out. We chose disposables with our second son and realized the cost was outrageous. By baby number three we were fed up and begain researching online for better cloth diapers. Thankfully we found Smartipants!!! They make life soooo much easier. It's even easy to potty train using the Smartipants. Our 18 months old is doing great so far. Expecting baby number five now and Smartipants will still fill our diaper pail!!

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  32. I started with cloth when my 3rd was born. My middle child was barely 2 so I had 2 little ones in diapers. I started with pre-folds, pins and pull on plastic pants. I quickly graduated to more modern diapers as I built up a stash. Whats funny is that when I started cloth I was shy about it and didn't want any one to know that I used cloth because I felt bad that we used cloth for financial reasons. That didn't last long. Now I talk about cloth diapers and their benefits all the time. Cloth diapers are inexpensive, easy and darn cute.

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  33. I didn't know there were any other cloth diapering options, so when I was pregnant, I registered for prefolds, pins, and covers. Not Indian prefolds. Or Chinese prefolds. GERBER prefolds from the grocery store. Which absorb absolutely nothing. :( Needless to say, that system prompted me to search for any other option.

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  34. My DS was around 8 months when I first thought I'd give it a try. I bought the cheapest ones possible but didn't realise I needed to buy a waterproof cover too! Whoops. :D Then I washed them in bleach. Yikes. Fortunately I've learnt a thing or two since then!

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  35. I was introduced to cloth by a friend with a newborn when I was about 6 months pregnant with #2. Since we were expecting a big baby (we were right....9 lb 5 oz) I didn't want to spend a lot on newborn diaps, but was concerned my stash of various one size diapers would be too big. So I purchased some newborn prefolds and a few used Thirsties fitteds & xs covers. Prefolds intimidated me, but I quickly realized that they weren't hard at all :) I even got the next size up when he grew out of the sm ones, but after that I gave up on prefolds cuz he's sooooo squirmy during changes. Smartipants were some of our first pocket diapers, and we still love them 18 months later!

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  36. I started out with prefolds and some not so great covers. My son had an allergy to dairy and soy. Before I realized and cut it out of my diet he would have these awful explosive poops. I got some other covers that worked better, but he soon grew out of them. When he did I did a ton of research. I ordered 3 pack of smartipants and haven't looked back since. I ordered 15 more. Then you have had several other colors I've ordered along the way. LOVE!

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  37. Our first experience was comical. there is 9 years between this baby and last one and this is the first baby we used cloth diapers. I had fitteds with a cover but we had no idea which way was up or inside out. It took both myself and my husband a good five minutes to get the prefold and cover on his cute little butt. We quickly decided fitteds and covers were not for us and started looking for pockets. That is how we found smartipants. I bought a 3 pack to try and we LOVED them. I will be ordering a 12 pack once we know what is up with colors.

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  38. I fell in love with smaripants when I did my research when I got pregnant. But also became a stay at home mom and my finances became tight. Before my baby was a year old, I got pregnant again. This time I had an idea, I sent out invites for a 'diaper shower.' Yes, taboo as it is, I had a shower for my second baby. The invites specifically asked that only donations for smartipants be given, with the website address as most people don't know how cloth diapers have evolved. I have only been using them for a few months but love them. They are easier than disposables because there is less diaper rash, the house smells better and we are not tossing our money in the trash with disposables. I even found smartipants to be more absorbant than a name brand disposable... thank you smartipants!

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  39. I decided to use cloth diapers while i was pregnant with my son, I had researched every brand and option and decided that Smartipants were the way to go. I bought about 24 Smartipants and also had a few Flips. The first time i tried to put them on my son they were giant on his little butt so i waited until he was about 3 weeks old and we have exclusivly cloth diapered except for out of state trips. And my husband is way more comfortable with cloth then disposables, he wont even touch sposies!

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  40. My first cloth experience was when my son was a mere 2 days old. I brought my supply of cloth diapers into tue NICU and attempted to use them on him there. Complete fail! He was too tiny and I didn't realize. After about an hour I went to pick him up from his bed and when I grabbed him I squished poo al over
    Myself! Everyone giggled. I felt like such a "new mom"! We tried again a month later and I fell in love with them!

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  41. I started CDing when my daughter was 14 months old. I bought a couple of bumGenius (either I hadn't heard of Smarti Pants or they didn't exist) since they had consistently good reviews. I loved them and increased my supply to 16 diapers so that we could cloth diaper full time. I haven't personally used Smarti Pants but if we need to buy more diapers for #2 (who is not quite 7 lbs yet) we will try Smarti Pants.

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  42. My first experience with cloth diapering was when a friend lent me two of her pocket diapers. I was totally picturing pins, gross buckets full of water/vinegar/poo and sticking my hand in the toilet. Boy was I thrilled to see modern cloth!

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  43. I used to work in a preschool and several of the families cloth diapered. It made sense to me then and still makes sense. We cloth diaper our two kids (11 months apart) and are constantly happy with our decision. We started with prefolds and gdiapers and quickly discovered Bumgenius and Smartipants. Once, we ran out of inserts and my husband was stuffing diapers with washcloths. It hasn't always been easy but we have our routine now.

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  44. My daughter was 6months old and I came across some gDiapers and decided they would be best to try out since you can use flushable inserts or cloth. I had wanted to try cloth for a few months but was dreading the thought of cleaning up a poopy cloth diaper. Once I cleaned one for the first time i realized it wasnt that bad. I began thinking 'Why the heck didnt I cloth diaper her before now?!' Now we exclusively CD and have built up a pretty significant stash, some of which i made myself!! Fitteds are so easy to sew!

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  45. I was attending a baby shower, and the young mom asked for gdiapers.... so found those online, ordered, and loved the look of them when they came in... so researched them more and put them in my "file" for when I had a baby one day. Fast fwd to last year, pregnant with first baby.... and while trying to convince my husband to try gdiapers, using various blogs and so forth for support in my argument... I ran across one who mommy who was comparing her fuzzibunz to her smartipants....googled both....due to the price and liking the concept of the insert coming out on it's own....I decided to order some smartipants as well....just a few to try..... well, now we have 26 smartipants, our main diaper, and gdiapers are the ones we use on occasion!

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  46. My first experience with cloth diapers would have to be when my mother used them for all of my younger siblings and me too. Although they were the kind with pins and prefolds and what we called plastic pants cover. I remember my mom forgot the plastic pants while away on vacation and she ended up using a milk bag ( milk in Canada comes in bags and we used the bag that carried the milk in it) it was so funny my sister had a picture of milk on her bum. Now I have my own baby and I use mostly Smartipants and they work great.

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  47. A good friend gave us a box of all kinds off different diapers to try. We first tried a fitted handmade cloth diaper with a cover. It was SOOOO huge on our tiny little girl. She looked hilarious!
    We were convinced about cloth diapers from the start though!

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  48. I was cloth diapered as a baby and I babysat 2 boys who were CD'd too. All of that was prefolds, pins, and rubber pants!
    I just knew I wanted to CD when we had our kids. A friend of mine who sewed all her own dipes taught me everything she knew and I went to work! I made 24 size small pocket diapers. My first-born came out with super skinny legs and didn't fit any of them. I had to find a new pattern quickly and made Char's Newborn Fitted Nappies. They fit from 6-10 lbs. Finally but the time he was out of those (about 3 months) he sort of fit the other dipes I had made. My second child, however, wore the newborn diapers for about a week and was too chunky for the small diapers within 2 months of being born. He's now wearing the same size as his older brother! (My kids are 13 months apart) They even both wear Smartipants on the same waist setting. My 15 month old wears them on the medium rise and my 2 month old wears them on the lowest rise.

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  49. i heard about gdiapers on facebook and was very intrigued. Did some researched and discovered the world of cloth diapering! We ordered a trial sample pack which had several types and brands of cloth diapers for our 6 month old at the time. After prepping them, we haven't looked back. We have since discovered which diapers we like and which just don't work for us. =)

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  50. The 1st time I used CD's my 2nd child use 4 weeks old! I wish I could say it was Smarti Pants but it was not! The 1st CD's I used leaked ALL the TIME! My little girl was and is a heavy wetter and when she was smaller she also pooped every changing! There is nothing worse than having to change your childs clothes every 2 or 3 hours! All I use now is Smarti Pants!!!!! I wish I would have known more when my 6 year old was in diapers but Smarti's weren't around then!!!

    I LOVE MY SMARTI'S

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  51. My first is due in July- so I am hoping to start then! But my first experience ever seeing anyone use cloth diapers was prob 2 or 3 years ago. One of my friends was doing it and I had never seen a modern pocket diaper- I was hooked! I knew I wanted to use them when I had a kid!! I cant wait!

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  52. My first cloth diaper experience was when my almost 16 month old was 2 months, a friend of my used a hybrid diaper system (gDiapers), and we decided to give it a go. We struggled through the many pieces and constant need to hand wash the liners, but we knew the benefits and it got us hooked into cloth diapering, thus I did tons of research and discovered Smartipants. I never knew cloth diapering could be so easy, and my mom who watches our daughter was shocked and impressed by how easy they were being she had cloth diapered me. Now our stash is about 90% Smartipants and my husband gets upset if even thing about testing out another brand. Thank you for making cloth diapering so convenient and easy!

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  53. My first cloth diaper experience was when my little girl was 4 months old. My husband and I had finally woken up to the fact that losing my income so I could stay home and avoid daycare (which costs more than what I was making) meant we would have to make some pretty drastic changes. I dutifully decided that using cloth diapers wasn't that bad, and besides, it's better for the environment. I went to Babies R Us, bought a dozen prefolds, a three-pack of rubber pants, and no pins. I got home, went online to find out what to do next, and then promptly put a pin right through one of the rubber pants trying to fasten a diaper to my squirming 4 month old, who I'm sure just wanted to scream "What's taking so long?!" When I washed the rubber pants the next time, all three of them tore. I was ready to give up, but luckily I found smartipants! I still keep a set of rubber pants around, just in case of diaper rash or a bad washing day, when I need a quick change, but my whole family (husband, mother, myself, DD, and various and sundry family member babysitters) are very grateful to have mostly abandoned the hated rubber pants!

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  54. My first experience was my older brother and his wife who used the old school dipes and was always leaving prefolds in the toilet to soak. Gross! I was totally yucked out by that. But now, I don't even remember what made me want to try them myself... We have several different brands and I LOVE them. I even loved it before I got my diaper sprayer when my son was two. It's just not a big deal, and even with my prefolds and covers, there's no soaking and they work wonderfully! I can't wait until baby girl is here this spring so that I can start all over! We didn't start with my son until he was five months and I'm hoping to start much earlier this time.

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  55. I knew I wanted to cloth diaper way before we had our little girl. I could only afford a few so I did laundry DAILY at first. I will never forget the process of trying to figure out which diapers worked for our infant and which didn't; the leaking out the leg holes, some leaking straight through, trying to find the right fit, learning how to properly wash and treat them... It was an interesting process for me, but now that she's 15 months I feel much better prepared for when our next child comes. I still enjoy trying new diapers and every now and then learn another lesson about cleaning them or keeping them covered so that my daughter doesn't rip them off.

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  56. So I decided to cloth diaper when my daughter was about 2 months old. Thankfully, my neighbor had some fuzzibunz I could borrow while I waited for everything of mine to come in (smartipants, etc). Well, I got so impatient that I tried one of my neighbor's fuzzinbunz on her one day, thinking my other diapers would come in soon and then I could wash them all together. WRONG! My other diapers didn't come in for over a week, meaning I had this nasty pooed in cloth diaper sitting in a tiny garbage can in my house that I didn't know what to do with. It eventually got moved to the basement and then to the trash outside! When I returned my neighbor's fuzzibunz, I confessed I threw out one of her diapers because I didn't know what to do with it :) I've come a long way since then :)

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  57. My first experience was with a borrowed set of prefolds and covers from a very good friend. She knew I was interested and was the one who got me started. My little girl was 6 months old. The first time we put the diaper on her I loved it, I felt like i was doing something good for my baby, our family and the environment. Nothing went wrong that first day, but the next day she had a terrible diaper rash. We got our own set of cloth diapers and found that she cannot use prefolds. A year later and look at me now, who would have known. Cloth diapering has changed my whole life in many ways.

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  58. I didn't know anyone else that cloth diapered, but I was determined to try it anyway (despite the strange looks I got from my husband... and my in-laws). When my daughter was just a newborn I searched and searched the internet trying to figure out what I would need to buy; I didn't understand any of the lingo (prefolds, AIO, pockets) and was completely overwhelmed. I gave up. About 6 months later I got a second wind and decided, hell, I am just going to get something and give it a go. I got the Bummis prefolds starter kit... and I will never forget that cute little doll of mine trying to walk with those gigantic bubble -butt diapers on... Thank you Smartipants for your slimmer and much more user friendly option :)

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  59. I had never even thought of cloth diapering until a bunch of mamas on my internet baby buddy group decided to jump in and start CDing together (this was 2009, with my first son). It was nice to have that support group! Smartipants was actually some of the first diapers we tried - a bunch of us tried them out together. Guess what? I loved them! We use SP's and BG's mostly now, with a couple hybrid systems as well. Now we have two in cloth! I'll never go back. I'm actually hosting a cloth diapering class this weekend at our local library - trying to get more mamas in my area into CDing (The SP's are coming with me! :)).

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  60. I used disposables on 7 children and before baby #8, a friend asked me if I ever thought of using cloth. she let me borrow her stash to see if I liked it. I of course was in love and Smartipants was the first diapers I bought! my baby is now 20 months and I still love using cloth and recommend it to all my friends with babies :)

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  61. My first cloth diapering experience was the day my daughter was born. I had had an emergency c-section, so my husband actually had many diaper changes under his belt before I was well enough to get up. We brought prefolds, snappis, and covers to the hospital. Since I didn't get a chance to practice different folds beforehand, I started out with the simple trifold, while my husband made up his own fold. (I'd call it the triangle fold!) We soon realized that not many people cloth diaper in the hospital. One nurse, who cloth diapered her kids, said we were the first she had seen in her six years working there! I have to say, cloth diapering in the hospital is doable, even for the first baby.

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  62. With baby number two we decided that I would be staying home so I had to find every way to cut cost. I knew some people who have cloth diapered so I was on a mission to give it a try. To my pleasure I have found that I really like it and have had way less diaper rash than I did with my oldest. Once I discovered Smartipants I was in it for the long run.

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  63. I had a few BG's, but I didn't get up the courage to try them for two months. and then didn't start CDing fulltime until he was 5 months old. but it went really well, and we haven't looked back since!

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