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I love these. I have found 2 versions, one from Target years ago (and are harder to find) but the fabric feels like it has some slightly sticky quality to it and it is not smooth, it has a tiny grid pattern in the fabric and I still use mine 6 years and several washes later. To add to my stock I picked up the smooth surfaced yellow ones and they do work okay but they don't "grab" the dirt as well as my original. I still see them now and then and when I spot them again I'll be sure to stock up!
Yes, no cleaner on them but I doubt it would damage the cloths. But if you are going to use cleaner might as well buy cheaper rags. I do use the cleaners about once a month to polish things up but for a nice dusting job (especially on ceilings fans) these work great!
I LOVE these. You don't have to scrub so much! I keep buying the Scotch brand they have at the grocery store in the cleaning isle (2pk). I also like the microfiber towels, they really soak up water better than terry cloth. Next time I make diapers, I'll be using those instead.
I have a dozen or so of various microfiber cloths and dishtowels. I usually use the microfiber cloths "plain and dry" to do a quick dusting (they're great for getting dust off the stuff you're not supposed to use furniture polish on, like TV screens, oil paintings and gilt frames, etc.) I also use them with Pledge or Enddust when I'm polishing furniture - after several years of use, I've never noticed any negative effect from doing that (I toss 'em in the laundry when I'm done.)
A dear friend of mine gave me a huge packet of information on the subject. Resources, references for products and research backing up the health and enviromental benefits. I'll have make copies and send it to you.
My son is going to be15 this summer, and I still have old cloth diapers that are great rags for cleaning, soaking up spills, wiping moisture off the inside of my windshield so I can see to drive...etc. They are more work than disposbles as far as laundry goes, but I just liked cloth better anyway. Good luck.
Oh thanks for the info on cloth diapers. I am considering it more and more for the cost savings but DH is not thrilled. Of course we'd have disposables for convience of going out, etc. but I have heard of more people who have used cloth than I thought ever did!
I used disposables for going out and didn't feel at all bad about it. Cloth is catching on with a lot of people who are concerned about cost and environmental factors. Do google searches for cloth diapers and you will find tons of people who make their own and to sell and a whole community of mothers who have their own idea of what is easiest for them. I started out doing it for the cost and as soon as I went to disposables I realized how much I was filling up the local landfill! We have 4 garbage can for trash that we haul ourselves once a month and two of those are always full of diapers! What a waste.
Mu husband didn't like changing them either, too complicated! So I let him use the paper diapers when he had the baby.
I don't know if this is true or not but I've heard the chemical makeup of making plastic has been changed over the years in light of environment concerns and that diapers do not biodegrade over time? I'm not saying they are good one way or another...just something I heard. I think I might try cloth just for the cost savings alone.
Plastic does not break down. It may become brittle and disintegrate, but the last I heard, it took thousands of years for plastic materials to return to an elemental state.
I think plastics have their place. I'm not an environmentalist, so much as I am practical.
I made my own cloth diapers 2 children ago, and they are still going strong!
At first, I made the AIOs, but they take FOREVER to dry, so I ditched those in favor of the regular ones.
I only made one size of them, (M), and they work exactly like disposables, with the velcro tabs on the sides. Being the frugal sort, I had old flannel sheets that I used along with Dave's old tshirts. No one minds changing these, as it is just like a "normal" diaper, you just add a cover to them. They are super absorbant, and work great. If I ever need any more, I'll make more. I can see, however, that the elastic will wear out before the diaper does. (In fact, some already have).
If you go with the prefolds, get the chineese prefolds (do NOT get the gerber ones from big box stores- they are terrible). Also, get a "Snapi"- wonderful things. Along with 3-4 diaper covers.
I tried at first to do the wool covers for overnight use, but the babies really do wet too much during the night. Now I use the desposies at night and when we go out (if we'll be out for more than a hour or two).
I did tons of research into the best, longest lasting, and cheapest resourses before I made my decision. There are so many cloth diapering options, it can be overwhelming.
Your input on this has been awesome! I might have to dmail you in the future for more info should I decide to try the cloth diapers. Won't need to til late fall. =)
I have a few AIOs. They are nice. I still like to assemble my diapers though, layer by layer as I change the baby. Kind of a ritual.
Warm diluted baby shampoo on a soft terry cloth washcloth to cleanse. Fresh cover (I LOVE the super whisper wrap and the Prorap) lined with a folded gauze or a prefold folded in thirds. At night a terry cloth doubler and then a fleece liner to keep the baby comfortable (and poop doesn't stick to it! also keeps the diaper from getting too stained). I like a baby that doesn't crunch when you pick them up.
I liked having one wool cover on hand for diaper rash. My daughter only got it a few times (she gets rashes WAY more often now that she wears dis. diapers) but a night in a wool cover will clear up a rash very nicely. Even if I have to wash the sheets the next day.
A good friend of mine that also does cloth diapers let me borrow one of each of the brands that she had so I could try them out. I aggree, NO GERBER. You'll just set yourself up for failure and frustration.
I make my own baby wipes- use Bounty Paper towels (accept no substitutions!), cut it in half. Boil 2 cups of water, and mix in a squirt of baby shampoo and a squirt of baby oil- mix and pour over the paper towels. In a couple of seconds, you can pull out the cardboard, and you'll be taking the "wipes" from the center. Walmart sells a container that is a tall rectangle shape (I think by Rubbermaid) that fits the whole thing absolutely perfectly. I think it was $7 or so...ouch, I know...but it has lasted 7 years now and is still perfectly new!
Cornstarch is the best thing ever for diaper rash.
I agree about the Prowraps- they are great. If memory serves me, I also have the whisper wraps. I bought several different kinds (3) just to see if there was a big difference. I'll double check for you if you want a real review...Anyway, the prowraps were the cheapest, and worked just as well as the others. In fact, the snap one (which I'm almost sure is the whisper wrap) just popped it's snap yesterday. I wasn't very happy about it.
The diapers that I made have the velcro tabs that were able to close on itself for the wash. A double plus because they don't get caught on anything else in the wash, and the velcro doesn't get all of that fuzzy stuff in it that just has to be cleaned out if you want them to last a good long while.
I found too, that the nice disposable wipes that feel like fabric (really thick, I can't remember if its huggies or luvs) can be washed two or three times before they start to fall apart. So I started washing and reusing those with my other wipes. I tried the paper towel way, but could never make it work right. Probably using too flimsy of a towel.
Proraps are the cheapest by far. The super whisper wrap has the velcro tabs too, so I don't have to worry about snaps or disassembling the laundry when it comes out of the dryer.
Have you noticed how you go through a ton of the disposable wipes and it only takes two fabric wipes to get a babies bum clean?
You young little whipper~snappers...when my babies (now 34 and 31) came along, we only had cloth. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven when they invented 'diaper liners' which were disposible paper thing-ees that we laid inside the diaper, and when the 'deposit' was SOLID you didn't have to dip the diaper in the commode, you just tossed the liner and the mess! I also had a 'diaper dipper' which was nothing more than a large molded plastic clothespin with a handle that you clipped to the diaper for 'dipping', so your hands didn't get in the 'stuff'.
Treasured times... but I'm certainly glad they're history! I keep disposables for grandbaby's visits and wouldn't go any other way, for sanitation if for no other reason. What we really need to do is create a CHEAP flushable, biodegradable disposable! You are right. Diapers these days are expensive.
The diapers came two shapes, square and oblong. I always preferred the oblong because they were easy to dry and also to fold. You just did a couple of quick double~over folds for thickness and top fold or bottom fold, depending on whether you're changing a girl or a boy. So easy... but of course, we also hung diapers on a clothesline and the oblong also took up much less line space! Gosh, I feel old now, and I've never thought about 53 being OLD! sr
