Cloth diapers coming back

Cloth diapering has come a long way since Mom had to dunk cotton rectangles in the toilet before throwing them in the stinky diaper bin.



Now cloth diapering is being crusaded as a money and time saver, and new products are making the practice more efficient, convenient and – face it - less gross.



Melissa Huynh of Coral Springs has cloth-diapered her kids Leah, 3, and Tai, 1, since birth. In May 2012, she opened Lalabye Baby, an online cloth diaper store.



Huynh got into cloth diapering after she lost her job and became pregnant with Leah. "We were looking for ways to save money," she said.



The average cost of cloth diapering is $300-$450, a savings of about $2,000 from birth to potty training, Huynh said.

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Limerick said that while any type of soft cotton, including an old T-shirt, can be fashioned into a diaper, "what’s hot lately are work-at-home moms who make their own diapers with custom features," she said.



Ashley Brown of Plantation, who makes custom cloth diapers for online retailer 3E Crafts, is one of those moms. She sells her diapers on a Facebook page.



Brown uses high-quality fabrics to make all-in-twos, an outer shell with a reusable liner. Customers can pick prints such as flowers or dinosaurs for the outside of the diaper. Inside is a custom-selected list of options including bamboo terry or velour, polyurethane laminate (PUL) and microfleece. "The options are limitless. I can make whatever people want," Brown said. The product line also includes cloth wipes and wool dryer balls. Diapers are $20 without the insert and $25 with an insert.



Brown said the biggest trend of late is hybrid fitted diapers - a cloth fitted diaper with a core of fleece that is used with an absorbent insert. The product combines maximum breathability without a need for a cover, she said.



If you can’t get into washing diapers, services like Mother Earth Diaper Service in Coral Springs, which serves Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, will do the dirty work for you.



Owner Mia McDonald said when she was pregnant with her daughter Melanie, 1, she wanted to follow the family tradition of cloth diapering. But she just wasn’t up to washing. She found Mother Earth Diaper Service, learned the owner was looking to sell and bought the business in September 2011.



Mother Earth uses prefold diapers, the cotton rectangles with a thicker, more absorbent layer running down the middle.



The unbleached cotton diapers are of higher quality that what you can buy in a store, McDonald said. "They use gauze weave. We use twill weave, which is a tighter weave that’s more comfortable and more absorbent." Plastic "snappis" hold the diapers closed, so there are no pins. The diapers are paired with covers made with a cotton exterior and polyurethane laminate (PUL) interior with a Velcro-like closure, the covers allow air in, but not wetness out, McDonald said.



For a $125 start-up fee, Mother Earth Diaper Service will deliver a diaper pail and liners, waterproof diaper covers, cotton diapers and other goodies to your home. Weekly service is $25 to exchange a bag of stinkies for a batch of laundered diapers.



Two Facebook groups: South Florida Cloth Diapering (Brown is an administrator) and the Real Cloth Diaper Circle of South Florida (McDonald and Limerick are circle leaders) offer support and education for cloth-diapering moms in a friendly forum.



"All these things make it so simple," Huynh said. "You’re going to be wiping poop anyway, but this way you’re nicer to the environment and saving money."

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This story was originally published June 11, 2012 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Cloth diapers coming back."