Before having a baby, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to go out of my way to make my kid organic. I may have even rolled my eyes at the Crunchy-Mom-type who treats high-fructose corn syrup like poison, who puts flax in her kid’s birthday cake, who refuse to purchase Johnson & Johnson baby products, and who carries around wet bags for poopy cloth diapers. I was never going to be that Mom. In my opinion, kids deserve treats in moderation. My house always had juice and soda in it while we were growing up, and my sisters and I are relatively healthy. And cloth diapers? Come on! Do people seriously expect me to handle and wash my kid’s poop on top of all the other parenting crap I have to deal with? All of it just sounded too hard.
And then I had a kid.
Everything about my first baby was beautiful. His tiny little fingers. Those wiggly little toes. That round little belly. I couldn’t keep my lips from kissing his chubby cheeks. His skin was softer than anything I had ever felt and his butt was unbelievably cute! (Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks a nekked baby is the cutest thing in the world!?) My baby was perfection.
But, he started to get diaper rashes. Then, we started to notice rashes all over his body. He’d get hives for reasons we still can’t figure out. Even those perfect, kissable, incredibly soft cheeks started showing signs of eczema. Slowly, the products we used in the house started to change. I started using a Calendula soap to help combat cradle cap and skin rashes. I found a besswax ointment that helped with the diaper rash. I even switched to a hypoallergenic laundry detergent after an outbreak of hives that we couldn’t place (my favourite smell is fresh laundry, so this was a big sacrifice for me).
But I didn’t mind these changes. They were making my kid’s life better. I would do anything for him. And honestly, although my clothes didn’t smell like anything and despite missing out on that “new baby” smell that is actually Johnson’s baby wash, these changes were really easy to implement. They just required shopping in a different aisle of the grocery store, or looking one product over from my typical purchases. I didn’t have to do much at all to make life a little healthier for my entire family.
Still, there were some changes that still seemed too hard.
Like cloth diapers.
People told me cloth diapers were no harder than regular diapers. They told me that in the long run, they were cheaper than disposable (it never seems cheaper when you’re investing hundreds of dollars into starting a stash though!). And I could already see how fashion forward the fluffy butts were.
So, I dabbled in them. I bought one here and one there when they’d go on sale on the baby deal sites. Even those discounted prices seemed like a lot once they started to add up. I never really got into cloth diapering because I never really amassed enough of a collection to get started. But I could say I tried. Go me!
Cameron started getting older, and I got pregnant with Gavin. As I started to pull out the baby clothes, I found my very tiny collection of cloth diapers. A thought flew into my head. Maybe, just maybe, I could cloth diaper my second child. Maybe, just maybe, it would actually be cheaper in the long run if I started right from the very beginning. Maybe, just maybe, I could actually convince my husband to get into the cloth diapering action. Maybe. Just maybe.
This led to another problem. There are so many cloth diaper types and companies! How would I choose which one was right for me? When faced with multiple options, I get stressed out! Thankfully, my obsession with buying discounted baby items paid off because thanks to the small stash of diapers I already owned, I could narrow down the possibilities. I knew I preferred one-size diapers. I knew I liked the idea of pocket diapers with inserts instead of prefolds. So I looked into my options and wanted to cry when I realized that the going rate for the diapers I wanted was about $20. Each.
There was no way I was going to get my husband to agree to that price! I needed another option.
Enter Hipkiddo.
I came across Hipkiddo after my sister started using them for her newborn. I instantly fell in love with the company.
First of all, Hipkiddo is a Canadian company. I know that might not sway many of my readers, but I love to support local. And sometimes, in the age of the Internet, local can mean 6,000 km away. Secondly, Hipkiddo sells the type of diaper I wanted: Gorgeous, one-size pocket diapers. Finally, and most importantly, these cloth diapers are affordable! I was pretty sure I could even get my husband enthusiastic about cloth diapering at their prices! While other diapers are $20 each, Hipkiddo‘s diapers are as low as $10. As a bonus, Hipkiddo isn’t even just a normal Mom and Dad run company (who doesn’t love supporting those?) but they are a nice Mom and Dad run company. In fact, they’re so nice that they use some of their profits to send cloth diapers to an orphanage in Zambia!
See? Even my husband is excited about the cloth diapers!
Sometimes, choosing the right path is actually really easy.
People? I just love these cloth diapers. I love cloth diapering my kid. But those stories are for a different time. And trust me, they will come. You’re reading the first of a monthly feature about my cloth diaper journey. But before I start that, I want to encourage you to start your own cloth diaper journey, if you haven’t already. And to do so, Hipkiddo and I am giving one of my readers a FREE HIPKIDDO CLOTH DIAPER! How cool is that?!
**All you have to do is head on over to Hipkiddo’s website and let me know which cloth diaper you’d choose. They have three types: Classically Hip (standard cloth diaper for an awesome price), Intelligently Hip (high quality, excellently designed cloth diaper made of waterproof PUL fabric and polar fleece), and Naturally Hip (cloth diaper made out of bamboo and organic cotton). Pick your favourite diaper and your favourite colour, fill out the Rafflecopter form below and you can be on your way to a new cloth diaper!**
If you’d like more ways to get some cloth diapers, jump on over to Hipkiddo’s Facebook page where you can enter to win an Intelligently Hip diaper.
If you’re like me and have horrible luck, you can still get a great deal on these dipes! Until August 15th, Hipkiddo is giving my readers a 10% discount code on your next order (limit one use per customer). Head on over to www.hipkiddo.com, check out the deals (they have a special deal where you can get a free cloth diaper if you order multiples) and use the code mm72012 when you checkout for 10% off!
And come back next month to hear how my cloth diaper experience is going!
The Small Print: Hipkiddo is generously providing the coveted cloth diaper prize. Hipkiddo has also graciously provided the materials necessary to cloth diaper my baby for the purposes of this blog series, but they did not provide me with my opinions. All opinions are 100% my own (for more information, see my disclosure policy). As you can see above, I sought Hipkiddo out because I truly believe in their company. This giveaway is open wordlwide so make sure you enter! Contest ends Wednesday, July 25th at 12:01 EST. The winning entry will be verified and then the winner will be contacted within 24 hours. The winner has 48 hours to reply before another winner is chosen.
I love my cloth diapers too! We went with pre folds though, partly for price, partly because it seemed like less laundry. But I can just imagine how much money it would have cost to use disposables. Yay for saving money and the environment too! :)
I am totally in love with the Classically Hip Denim Dipe. I toyed with cloth with Caleb, but I jumped right in with Braeden, and I have had no regrets.
Shannon recently posted..Pin it, or lose it
I love the Naturally Hip in Kinder Kiwi. I am about to have my first baby and I am lucky because my family members have all handed down their cloth diapers to me and my mother in-law made homemade diaper covers. The only thing I lament is not having any in colours or patterns I like – but I love this bright green diaper! Thanks Laura for running this contest and I am very excited that you will be posting more often about cloth diapering.
I’m so happy you’re giving cloth diapering a try. It was never a question with us when we decided to have children. A friend of mine had cloth diapered her first baby and to see how far they had come in design was mind boggling compared to what I knew of them from my childhood. When we told our families we were going to be cloth diapering our first baby they all gave us a “you’re crazy” look and tried to talk us out of it. The key to their buy-in was educating them about the advancements that have been made with regards to cloth diapering, the types, how easy they are to use, etc. Once they saw them (we use one size pocket diapers) and saw they really were like disposables but so much more cost efficient, healthier for the skin of our baby, so cute and soft and so much better for the environment they were sold too. We started out stash with 30 diapers and then added an additional 20 more when we found out we were expecting our second child as we’d have two in diapers at the same time. We used them from 6 weeks-3 years old with our first son and my second son is now 20 months and they still look like they are brand new. Not once did I ever regret our decision. I admit, my husband was skeptical at first too but I took him to the local cloth diapering workshop put on by Nurtured and within 5 minutes he was sold. His answer to “what do you think?” was “it is a no brainer…how could we not?”. He’s as much an advocate for cloth diapering as I am now. In fact, one of his employees had a baby a few weeks ago and he came home and put together half of our stash for her to borrow as she had expressed interest in trying cloth diapering. So, if you have any questions about cloth diapering feel free to ask!
Ha! I got so excited about talking about cloth diapers I forgot to mention I adore the Classically Hip – Go Fish design :-) Super cute!
How many did you order? I heard from one mom that she has 15, but most people like to have about 25.
I ordered 28 to start with. I think I’ll be getting a few more Natural ones in the near future too. Hipkiddo told me that some people get by with 12-20 diapers whereas others prefer at least 30 to minimize the laundry. You’re starting to cloth diaper, right? Have you purchased yet? How many are you going with?
Laura recently posted..Mommy Gets Fluffy
I ordered 12 to start…. and I’m still waiting for them to come in.
Also, what detergent do you use, and where do you gt it?
I’m going to be doing another blog post on this as part of the series. You can check out hipkiddo’s site, they sell detergent. A lot of people I know who CD use Rockin Green detergent, but I have also heard it can be a bit tough on the diapers (I don’t know enough about this yet, you may want to google reviews). Right now, I’m using soap nuts as detergent (I ordered them online). I’ve also read that if you don’t want to try to find a different detergent, something like Tide Free & Gentle, or whatever it is called is an adequate choice. Not ideal, but it works.
You can get Rockin’ Green Detergent at some of the kid stores in Halifax – Nurtured definitely carries it.
Laura recently posted..Mommy Gets Fluffy
Googled some reviews: http://diaperpin.com/diapers/itemdetail.asp?id=2199
They are so mixed, I guess I’ll just have to try it for myself. Whatever I get I am hoping to use just one detergent on everything, too easy to make a mistake in this house. My cloth diaper order is in and we should get them tonight, so now I’m eagerly awaiting part 2! The reviews talk about soaking and stripping and I want to know what I have to do and how to do it :)
Another option to check out is The Laundry Tarts: http://www.thelaundrytarts.com
love the NEW Naturally Hip Bubbly Blueberry
I love my cloth diaper and have not tried Hipkiddo…I would love to try the intelligently hip kinder kiwi! I’m so glad you are enjoying it…I’ve been doing it for almost 2 years and love it!
Natalie recently posted..You Know You’re 9 Months Pregnant When…
I’d get the naturally hip Mellow Mocha since I don’t have any brown ones yet!
I actually considered cloth diapering with my first one, but it only occurred to me when he was over a year old and I didn’t go far with it.
Now that I have another, the idea does appeal to me, but I got overwhelmed with all the choices and options and still haven’t! We’ve been buying disposables in bulk on special to save money so I wonder if cloth diapering is the way to go now…. and they are CUTE!!
I prefer Naturally Hip – I love products made of bamboo.
(And a worldwide giveaway? How can I not give it a go?)
Alison recently posted..Brothers
Naturally Hip in Kinder Kiwi!!!!
We never even thought of cloth diapering with Noah. We were living in an apartment complex that had community laundry and there’s no way we could have kept up with it there. We briefly considered it here with Jonah, but after talking to a few other moms who have done it/tried it and live in base housing, we realized that we don’t have a washing machine that’s high powered enough to clean them (weird, right?). And since it’s a rule that if you live in base housing you have to use their appliances, there wasn’t much option. I’ve always thought they were super cute though!! And yay for no more baby rashes!
Courtney Kirkland recently posted..How I Organized my Life, Blog & Business
I like the Naturally Hip diaper! I love the Mellow Mocha the best! Brown hides dirt well! (No matter how clean things are around here the baby always seems to find the dirt!) :-) Yay for cloth diapers!
I would pick the ‘Naturally Hip’ in Confident Coconut. Love the names :)
We’ve decided to start cloth diapers pretty well from the start with this new baby coming in December! I would love the classically hip bumblebee yellow diaper :) Thanks for the chance!
Intelligently Hip Mellow Mocha
I have 3 of the classically hip, and am waiting for my first baby to arrive so I can try them out. I would choose the Intelligently hip in mellow mocha.
I am somewhat cloth diapering with my second, although I plan to get it going full time soon. I would love a Classically hip in Superstar!
I never thought I’d be the hippy mom that I am. I CD and love it! I think the Classic Polka Dot is way cute!!
I really enjoyed this post!!! Great information! My hubby and I decided after we found out we were pregnant to cloth diaper.
I am researching brands and really considering the Hippkiddo brand or Apple Cheeks.
I am still unsure of how many I need… And also when actually to start. I have received the advice to wait until baby is a month old….???
I have some Apple Cheeks, although I got them a while ago and I’m not sure if my opinion of them still count. Mine came in two sizes (not one size) and the inserts needed to be folded. As far as I can tell, they now have the regular, no folding needed inserts, but they still have 2 sizes. I MUCH prefer one size diapers. I want to use the same ones all throughout the child’s life and not have to worry about buying a whole new set halfway through their life. And let me tell you, having one size is SO MUCH EASIER when pulling those diapers out again for baby number two. I remember trying to figure out where the size was listed on the Apple Cheeks so I’d know! :) That being said, if you do want to start early, you might want to invest in some newborn cloth diapers. I’ve never had newborn diapers (plus, Gavin could fit right into regular cloth diapers right from birth!), so I’m unsure how many you’d need.
A lot of people start right from the get-go. Others chose to wait until the baby is past the meconium stage / can fit into the regular cloth diapers.
Newborns go through about 8-12 diapers a day, and cloth need to be changed a little more often than disposable. So, consider how often you want to do laundry. In my opinion, I would start with a minimum of 24. If you are interested in saving money, keep an eye on babysteals.com, babyheist.com and babyhalfoff.com as they sometimes have cloth diapers. Also, I can’t say it enough, Hipkiddo’s prices are awesome. Seriously, even if you go for the most expensive (all bamboo) you can get them for $16 a diaper, if you order in bulk (12 you get 1 free, 22 gets 2 free, 30 gets 3 free) plus use the 10% discount in the next month, you’re going to be saving a heck of a lot over Applecheeks. Good luck in your decision process! :)
Laura recently posted..Mommy Gets Fluffy
I`ve always known that I wanted to be one of those crunchy-type Mum`s!! :) Glad to hear you`ve joined the team!
The naturally hip in kinder kiwi are adorable! We love our cloth diapers, and I’d love to try a new brand!
I would pick Naturally Hip Bubbly Blueberry. Thanks!
I would choose naturally hip in mellow mocha
My husband was the one who wanted to try cloth diapering and I was the one who thought it would be WAY too much work on top of everything else. After talking to a few friends who had cloth diapered, we were convinced that we wanted to try it. I was lucky enough to find 18 one-size fuzzibunz diapers with loads of inserts, a diaper pail and a wet bag on Kijiji for a great price – the family had only used them for a month before deciding the laundry was too much. Buying gently used is another way to enjoy the benefits of cloth diapering while cutting down on the initial expense!
Amelia @ House Pretty Blog recently posted..Nursery snapshots
We are newly pregnant and I have dreamed about starting cloth diapering since before we were thinking of having kids. I think it is such a wonderful idea and there are so many great products and advice out there now a days. The Naturally Hip Bubbly Blueberry would be my #1 choice but they are all so adorable.
Everything changes when you have a baby. I never thought I’d cloth diaper either, but here I am!
Rach (DonutsMama) recently posted..Where the Heart Is?
Oh and I like the naturally hip in Sweet Strawberry. :)
Rach (DonutsMama) recently posted..Where the Heart Is?
Yay fluffy bums!! My husband loves cloth too. :)
Lisa recently posted..The one with the importance of play
I am very excited about this post and contest!
My Hubby and I decided to cloth diaper and are looking at a few brands, Hipkiddo and Apple Cheeks are my favorite so far. I am a little confused about exactly how many I need, as well as when to start using them. Manu people say after the first month or two??
Hey Laura,
I’m in the same boat you were… had a few cloth diapers but not enough to go 100% cloth. I can’t wait to order some Hipkiddo!! I love the Intelligently Hip Optimistic Orange :) Cuuute!!
WOW, this article is really nice – and very true :o)
I love the Classically Hip (Denim Dipe). So cute!
We are just starting to cloth diaper our 4 month old son. I love that I am no longer throwing disposables into the landfill!
I love the naturally hip kiwi diaper! Thanks for introducing this brand!!
I love the naturally hip kiwi diaper! Thanks for introducing this brand!! I love that they support an orphange with some of their profits!
I love the naturally hip kiwi diaper! Thanks for introducing this brand!! I love that they support an orphange with some of their profits! I found your blog through She Reads Truth and have been really enjoying it!
I love the naturally hip kiwi diaper! Thanks for introducing this brand!! I love that they support an orphange with some of their profits! I found your blog through She Reads Truth and have been really enjoying it! Glad you are giving cloth diapering a try. It makes so much sense!
Classically hip retro dots!
I always knew that I would cloth diaper. I have two sisters with special needs who have been wearing disposable diapers for 23 & 16 years. When I think about all that waste, it really bothers me. So, I thought I could try to put fewer diapers in a landfill by using cloth for my daughter. I had severe issues with ordering my 1st batch of diapers from a company called “Cloth By Tel”, I was actually scammed. I saw a post one day that Amy had about Ella’s Hipkiddo diapers and decided to try them out. I LOVE them. I have 13 of the classically hip ones. I think that’s enough. I don’t like soiled diapers to sit around too long. If I were to pick my favourite on the site I really like the Intelligently Hip Bubbly Blueberry. It’s such a pretty color :)
I’m liking the mellow mocha :)
These diapers are so cute! And I love that rhey’re Canadian too :) If I were to win I’d want a Natural diaper in Mellow MOcha. SO cute!
These diapers are so cute! And I love that rhey’re Canadian too :) If I were to win I’d want a Natural diaper in Mellow MOcha. SO cute! I can’t wait to get my little boy out of disposables and into cloth!
I would love to try Hipkiddo! I just started my cloth diaper journey with my third kid about a month ago.
Naturally hip!! in Sweet Strawberry expecting a baby girl in October and would love to try out cloth never done it before and I already have 3 year old girl!! Thanks for the opportunity!
Amanda
I’m one month old today and have been using disposables since birth but now that I’m older I’m ready to pull my weight and contribute to saving the planet. I’d use the Intelligently Hip Optimistic Orange diapers if I had a choice. Can’t wait to try them out, I’ve heard great things!
I love the Naturally Hip in Sweet Strawberry.