fox@nimbus.DEC (Roberta L. Fox DTN 297-2110) (01/24/86)
I used a diaper service for the entire time my daughter was in diapers, and recommend it to any one: It was cheaper than disposables. My daughter got diaper rash from one change of just about any kind of disposable. It was _a lot_ easier than doing it myself: I don't know if it's a function of breast feeding, but my daughter got dirty diapers several times a day. When the diaper service started me out with 96 diapers a week, I laughed. I wasn't laughing at the end of the week; I had used all those diapers!! Can you imagine _washing_ those "two dozen" diapers enough times to make the equivalent of 96 diapers? The diaper service makes a point of how many washes and rinses it puts the diapers through. I believe it! Despite the good advice about soaking in Dreft, washing in hot water, etc., I found that, when I washed the diapers, there frequently was a soap film on the diapers (we lived in a "hard-water" area) that irritated my daughter's skin. A previous poster mentioned that her child got a rash from diaper service diapers. The same thing happened to the child of a friend of mine. My friend called the diaper service, and they gave her diapers that had been "finished" with a special rinse (something to do with the pH). The problem went away, never to return, and she continued to use the service, with these special diapers, at no extra cost. A note about disposables: most people don't like to deal with disposing of the feces in the diaper, and the disposable goes straight from baby to garbage pail. I don't know about your neighborhood, but in mine, there were enough dogs, mice, and other critters who got into garbage cans with frightening regularity. So with disposables, not only are you using a lot of paper, unless you're a saint, you may be contributing to health problems. In general, I'd say Go For It!! Of all bills I had to pay, these were by far the ones I felt the best about. Bobbi USPS: 252 Aspinwall Ave, Brookline, MA 02146 UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-nimbus!fox ARPA/CSNET: fox%nimbus.dec@DECWRL