What is elimination communication?

Sarah's note: Infant potty training. You can read more here. Last time we asked about diapering, some parents had mentioned they try to do elimination communication instead, so we included it in the poll this time.

Great post. Just to add a few more celeb names:

Brooke Shields Loves Happy Heiny's.
So does Melissa Joan Hart and Holly Robinson who both have had their pictures taken with Happy Heiny products. You can see them here: www.happyheinys.com
Jaime Pressly also loves her HH.
Just a few more celebs who have received and use HH are:
Julia Roberts, Marisja Hargity, Marcia Cross, Nancy O'dell, Tori Spelling, Katie Holmes, Denise Richards, and Heidi Klum.
Sheryl Crow has told US editors that she loves the Happy Heiny's she has received for her new son.

According to Fashion guru Jayneoni Moore, Happy Heiny's are the most popular brand of cloth diapers available to Hollywood A-listers.

With twins, there was NO way I was going to attempt cloth diapers. We were going through cases of Pampers like you wouldn't believe and I hate to say it, but if I had it to do over again, I'd still use disposable.

We use cloth at home and for short trips, chlorine-free disposables when out all day. We've used a mix of cloth: prefolds and fitteds with covers when they were little babies and then Fuzzi Bunz once they hit the medium size.

I think that Terri & Steve Irwin cloth diapered at least their son. I remember reading, when he was a little baby, that they had custom-made khaki Fuzzi Bunz. I don't remember where I read it though.

we used disposable with our first child- I wanted to do cloth, but i thought that the only way to do that was with a delivery service, which was really costly.

Now that I know more about the cloth alternatives, I really want to do it with our next child. Has anyone here made their own? If so, do you have a pattern that you could pass along?

My son got a horrible rash as soon as the Seventh Generation diaper touched his butt. I remain unimpressed with their products, of which I've tried many.

In all this cloth diaper lovefest, people forget to mention that using a cloth diaper service is actually worse than using disposables because of the amount of chlorine and other chemicals those services use, and let's not forget all the emissions from trucking the diapers around.

I do not have any children yet, and have not decided how I'll diaper my children. I've always assumed I'll use disposables, because that is the only way I've known, but this site has introduced me to the alternatives and has me considering cloth as a viable option.

One question though for anyone who uses cloth: what do you do with soiled diapers when you're not at home? Perhaps I'm naive from lack of experience with cloth diapers, but I'd have to imagine it is a great deal more inconvenient to have to carry stained diapers around in a diaper bag or car until you can return home and put them in a soiled diaper pail. Does anyone use cloth at home but disposable for the road?

Why use a cloth nappy_service_? Waste of money...wash your kids' nappies yourself, all you need is a couple of large buckets suitable for soaking them, and a decent washing machine. They dry on the line...or in the dryer. I guess there's always a trade-off - either you contribute towards non-biodegradeable waste with all those disposables in the landfills, or you use litres and litres of water and washing detergents etc. I guess there's no such thing as a truly environmental option.

We used a combo of Fuzzi Bunz and sposies. If I have another baby, I want to look into the 'G' diapers. they are inserts that you put into their special cover, then you flush it and use their 'swish' stick to break up the material in your toilet so that it flushes well. Here is the website to read more about it. They sell them at Whole Foods.

Hey, whatever works for whomever. Either way, diapers aren't great for the environment.

Disposables (which is what we used) will sit in a landfill for eternity, not to mention whatever is involved in the production of the materials they are made of. With cloth, you still have to use the water and energy (energy meaning when you machine-wash them), and as Tannit mentioned, there are the emmissions from the diaper services.

It's 6 of one and a 1/2 dozen of another. I think we should just continue to do whatever it is we can to better the environment, regardless of diaper choice.

I was my nephew's nanny during the summer when he was 11 to 13 months old. My sister is a die-hard cloth diaper fan and she used fuzzibunz. Before I started watching him, I thought they were kinda cool, that is until I had him for 40 hrs a week. I soon decided that I HATE CLOTH DIAPERS!!! They were so much work and I gagged everytime I had to clean the poop out. And after they were washed they still had a nasty pee funk to them. I got so frustrated that I picked up a pack of disposibles...I was so excited that finally I could just throw them away. So my mind is made up, my kids are gonna wear disposibles!

So just some advice...if you decide before your baby is born that you will use cloth, try to find parents who have experience with cloth diapers and listen to their advice, but also see if they could lend you some before you buy a whole bunch. In conclusion, babies are hard enough and I'd rather not have to worry about cleaning diapers, too.

I'll be using Fuzzi Bunz and bumGenius pocket diapers with this baby.

I used diposables for my first child and this time round I use cloth nappys. They are great and are shaped exactly like disposables with velcro. On an economical point of view, the savings we have made have been astrinomical! In england they have money incentives to encourage you to use cloth. They tend to give you a reduction on the cost of set up. Each council has different incentives. I got mne at a very reduced price through SureStart which is a government run group designed for low income families. They run classes and meetings for low income and isolated mums and dads. Its a great success over here and one of the best things this government has done. As for cleaning my nappies, I just shove them in the washing machine and dry them like my normal clothes. My girl loves them and rashes up if we use any other sort of nappy for an extended period.

I think it's great that modern cloth nappies are finally getting some exposure through the celebrities using them.

There have been several studies that have shown that contrary to what some people believe, the environmental impact of disposables is much higher than for cloth, even when the energy and water waste of washing and drying cloth is taken into account. Disposables require over 26 times the land area
for growing raw materials compared to home washed cloth nappies, and just over 10 times the land area for commercially washed cloth nappies. It also takes around 35 litres of water to produce one single disposable nappy, far more than you'd ever use washing a single cloth nappy.

The production of disposables also uses 8 times more non-regenerable materials, uses 90 times more renewable resources, produces 60 times more solid waste, takes a cupful of crude oil to produce the plastic for just one disposable nappy, and uses 41/2 trees per baby. This doesn't even take into consideration the environmental cost of distributing disposable nappies to retailers and transporting them to your home. Disposable nappies also account for half a family's weekly rubbish, which adds up to nearly half a tonne each year...

Go cloth!

I use gDiapers and FuzziBunz. gDiapers are an excellent alternative to cloth. If you have really old plumbing, you can always just toss in the trash or compost (not the poopy ones though). The liners breakdown in about 10 days. I use FuzziBunz (the one you pictured!) at night since they hold more than the gDiaper. Both gDiaper and Katie's Kisses (where you can buy FuzziBunz) have excellent customer service too!

Oops, forgot to add:

Cass,

When I travel via airplane I use a disposable. However, they do have "wet bags" for cloth diapers. I have a trip coming up in Sept. out to the West Coast and I am going to try not to use disposables. It is much easier when in an airport to use disposables.

Tannit,

You are right about diaper services. I don't use a diaper service. I just throw the dirty cloth diaper in the machine with the washcloths I use to clean up with instead of baby wipes. I would be doing a load of laundry anyway so I don't see that it is a waste. Most of the time my son poops in the gDiaper, which is flushed..and happily the poo smell goes away quickly unlike disposables and cloth.

I like the Fuzzi Bunz Cloth Diapers the best (pictured above). I have used them since they were first invented. I have tried every other kind of diaper out there the Fuzzi Bunz are the best. They keep baby dry with the fleece inner, the cotton inserts are removable so they get cleaner and dry faster. And they are soooo easy to use. I got mine at www.doodlebuckets.com A little expensive up front but they will also buy back your diapers when you are done with them and you can save even more because their resale value is so good. Ebay no longer allows the sales of used cloth diapers...

I know two people who use and love g-diapers.

We started out with a diaper service for our daughter & used disposables at night, went through a few months of using disposables only (both the 7th Generation ones and Huggies or Pampers), and now use only cloth and launder ourselves. We far prefer cloth diapering, although our daughter doesn't seem to care either way! Disposables are easier, but cloth diapering isn't hard AT ALL.

The discussion on CBB has centered around environmental issues, but what we haven't been talking about is how nice cloth diapers feel. There are so many really great options these days. Everything is fluffy and kooshy, as opposed to plastic & paper with mystery chemicals that turn pee into gel. And when you care about your diapers, it's fun to change them, to wash them, and to shop for them.

Yay for giving cloth diapers some exposure! WE use cloth and it's NOT hard and not a lot of work.
I sew my babies diapers myself and my son loves them. They have got to be more comfy than wearing paper.

We use cloth and love it. My all time favorite is www.thegoodmama.com Her diapers will be in major production and available by the end of next month, but I was in her tester group and she is hand sewing some and making them available bit by bit on her site in the meantime. She does have amazing wetbags and wipes available now! They are high end like PWP or SOS, but totally worth it. Amazing fitteds!

We also love using wool covers, I learned to knit when we started cloth diapering and I love it

We use cloth (a mix of bumGenius pockets, prefolds and SOS fitteds) and in all honesty I don't find it any worse to deal with a poopy cloth diaper than a disposable, not to mention, the chemical smell of sposies is just nasty, and ingredients, at the very best, are questionable. It costs me about 13 cents a load of diapers to wash my own. We've already made our money back from the investment. Not to mention, but I do believe it is illegal to dispose of human waste in landfills - so whether you use sposies or cloth, you should be dumping (solid) poop into the toilet. I think it is great that CBB is posting about celebs who use cloth ~ anything that helps normalize cloth diapering is great!

I will be willing to put up with the extra
work of cloth diapers in order to be easier
on the environment. Think of the waste that
disposable diapers for one child generates.

People did just fine before disposables came
along. Cloth was the only option then, so
people were used to it.

Great post! Love that you included *the* most environmentally AND baby-friendly choice out there: ELIMINATION COMMUNICATION. We adore practicing EC with our babies, and our babies prefer it too. Why wait for the baby to poop in a diaper when they give us such obvious signs that they need to go (c'mon, admit it, you absolutely know your baby's "Poop Face" and have some idea about their regularity/timing)? No need to diaper-train your child and then UN-train them later (aka potty train them). You can use diapers (cloth or disposable) as a back-up measure, but simply offer your baby the potty. Newborns can do it, 6 month olds, 9 month olds (that's when we started with our first because we hadn't heard about EC until then)... it's lovely, fun, economical, very very hygienic (much more so than your baby sitting in their own waste for minutes or even hours on end), and eco-friendly as well. I can't imagine *ever* going back to conventional diapering -- it's so much extra work for both parents and babies on so many different levels.

EC is really easy to do part-time:
http://viviente.com/2005/10/how_to_do_parttime_pottytraini_1.html

And a huge high-five to CBB for being so forward-thinking and aware of the different diapering/toileting options out there that you included "Elimination Communication" as one of the options in your poll. You ladies rock!

For more info on EC:
http://www.diaperfreebaby.org

I think cloth diapering is like the cadillac in diapers for babies. once you have tried a cloth diaper on you baby how can you possible put a disposable back on? Cloth is so soft, so styling, what more could you want? My favorite cloth diapers are http://www.softbums.com which are AIO(all in one) which is the closest thing to a disposable. Easy to use, very trim, and daddies love them! If you haven't tried clopth diapering, give it a whirl, it's not that much harder(I actually think ist's easier) than disposables and it's better for your baby and the planet!

We love CDing. My son will NOT wear a sposie, he hates them now. Cloth is doable even on short trips, longer trips are a bit harder simply because we don't usually have access to a washing machine. Clean up is not that difficult. If wet only throw them in the DRY pail or bag until laundry day. If poopy rinse or use a diaper sprayer attached to your toilet and then loss in with the other dirties. There are so many sites to find good cloth diapers and instructions for use and washing.
Our faves are fuzzi bunz and snapEZ!!
Thanks CBB!!!

Cloth with 3 kids, washed at home. I put dirty diapers on the road in recycled plastic newspaper wrappers or plastic supermarket bags. I really like Japanese Nikky velcro diaper covers-no pins. I had 60 cloth diapers, I washed the diapers about twice a week-used a couple diaper pails in rotation. Sure it's stinky but it's far cheaper, way better for the baby and environmentally and you never run out of diapers. For the amount of money you save you can buy the most expensive washer and dryer that your family can use for years. Who says babies are expensive? If you breast feed and cloth diaper and 2 income parents work in alternating shifts so there's no sitter it costs NOTHING.

We have loved cloth diapering our kids. Not only does it feel awesome about reducing waste in the environment (well said Zara in the post above), it has been a huge cost savings! Plus, they are so cute & soft & natural for our pure little ones. Between cloth diapering, breastfeeding and co-sleeping, our babies have cost $0 for at least the first six months. Love seeing that celebrities are supporting cloth diapers!!!

I know it's not for everyone but it's not nearly as gross as some people may think. There are many great web sites that can give you the in and outs on washing and different styles to fit your budget. We have been happy with prefolds and bummis covers, fuzzi bunz, and kissaluvs. If your are even semi-interested, it's worth exploring to meet the needs of your family!!!

This is creepy! I've been wanting to, somehow, tell America that if we all switched to cloth diapers, it would help with the global warming situation, reduce our landfill mass, and save some trees. And here you are, doing a great article on cloth diapers. My wife and her siblings (5) had cloth diapers, and the youngest 2 were twins. No diaper service was available. Same for me as a child. Kudos to those commenting above who use cloth diapers. Thanks for the great post!

My kids are now 13 & 11 years old. I used cloth diapers on both. Yes, it is a bit of a mission to keep clean, but if you have the correct buckets and systems going, no problem! Let your nappies dry out in the sun, this is good for them. We moved when my daughter turned 20mths and I changed to disposables for a few months. Worst mistake ever, as it took forever to get my daughter off nappies, cos she never realised when she had wee'd as her nappy always felt dry. It took my son about a week to get off nappies in the day and my daugther about 6 months, due to the disposables. Look at the ages of kids still in disposables - Why! cos they don't know they have wet themselves, at least in cloth nappies they can feel the wet and this makes them want to get potty trained.

It's so great to see cloth diapering moving more and more into the mainstream. Celebrities can provide a great example to so many people who would not otherwise know about cloth diapers.

In response to the question, what do you do with the soiled diaper when you are out of the house? It's easy. You get a wetbag!

A wet bag is a zippered bag with a waterproof lining, designed to carry diapers, or any other clothing or apparel items you might find yourself carrying but not wanting to mix with the rest of the contents of your bag. These bags are so stylish and discreet, no one will realize you have anything remotely in need of laundering inside. Just carry home, unzip, dump the contents into the wash, throw the bag in after.

Sure, you could use ziplock or plastic grocery bags, but they are an environmental drain (and the ziplock bags can be a financial drain) but a wet bag is so much cuter and works so well. Old plastic grocery bags can be mistaken for garbage and your valuable cloth diapers can be thrown away. Wetbags are It!

You can find wetbags at thegoodmama.com in scads of prints and designs.

The environment is just one reason to use cloth diapers. It just doesn't make sense to put our babies in chemical ridden paper when soft cotton is available.
In addition, there is so much I want to give, show and share with my children. And,in our world today, money plays a big part in the opportunities you have available. I save money using cloth diapers so that I can save money for my children's future.

I switched to cloth with my 4th child and I can't believe I didn't try it sooner. The reason I didn't was the false information I read about how cloth was bad for the environment because you use water to wash them. Turns out a lot of those studies are funded by the disposable diaper companies. Guess what they use a lot of to make disposable diapers: paper, chemicals, fuel and water. So, either way water is being used. You wash your clothes and that takes water. Should you switch to disposable clothes?
Also, for those who say, "I like to just throw the disposables away, not mess with the poop." Read the package, you are supposed to flush the poop in them too. Most people don't, so that puts all that poop in the landfills. Is that better than in our sewage system with the rest of the poop?
Cloth diapers are really not that hard and I think the environmental benefits as well as the health benefits is well worth an extra load of laundry every few days.

I use cloth on my baby when at home, and 7th generation when travelling. Cloth is undoubtedly more work, and it can be stinky, but it is totally worth it--makes me feel happy not to be filling up landfills. We had a water shortage for a couple weeks last year so I switched to disposables, and I was dismayed at the amount of waste created. We use prefolds and Bummi wraps, so no pins to deal with, and there's never been a problem with diaper rash. The person who said the cloth diapers smelled after washing probably didn't wash them enough--a presoak and an extra rinse is ideal; they come out perfectly clean and sweet. Anyway, I highly recommend cloth. The only thing I would do differently is if I had more money I would go for fitted diapers rather than prefolds--they're that much more convenient.