As we all know, I have used cloth diapers for a few years now (January 2010-present). Recently, a friend sent me a message wanting to know more about them. I was so excited to rub my cloth diaper addiction off on someone else, I grabbed my camera took some pictures and immediately sat down to write this post! In addition to her, I have 2 other friends who are expecting that I want to
brain wash think about cloth diapering (Sarah, Cassidy???) Anyways here is Cloth diapering 101.
Why did you decide to use cloth?
I would love to say it was to save the environmental or money, but the truth is....cloth diapering is sort of trendy now. I noticed one of my friends was using them (Yes Liz, thats you!) and I was a little jealous. Here she was, doing this super cool trendy thing and saving money...I started looking into it. I became obsessed with cloth diaper research I narrowed it down to two diapers and ultimately went with BumGenius since I knew of 2 people who used them and loved them. The financial and environmental factor were added bonuses to me. I was convinced, I wanted to switch to cloth! The hard part was convincing Brandon. At the time, no where in town sold them( now 2 places do, Target and a baby boutique. I'm telling you TRENDY). I made a road trip to a baby boutique across from olive garden in Fargo, to check them out. You can read about my trip, decision to cloth diaper and the financial perks
in this post I did 2 years ago. PS I am still using the SAME cloth diapers I bought on that trip, only I have added more to my stash.
How did you decide on the brand/style?
Brand: I did a ton of research and had read a billion reviews. I narrowed it down to BumGenius and Gdiapers. I knew people who had loved and used Bumgenius so I went with them. Also, at the time Gdiapers didn't have a cloth insert, they had a flush able disposable one which were spend y Now that gdiapers are offering cloth inserts, I might pick up a few because they are CUTE!
Back to BumGenius- At the time, they only offered velcro, so that made my decision pretty dang easy. I LOVE the fit of the velcro but when you have a less than enthusiastic husband doing cloth diaper changes, he isn't always careful to put the velcro down on the laundry tabs. After 6 months, the diapers started to get worn pretty bad in the wash from the velcro coming loose and hooking onto other diapers. After a good tongue lashing to my hubby, I replaced the velcro with kits provided for $1 a pop. The diapers have endured no more wear and tear then they did the first few months. I have recently bought newer velcro diapers and they are in perfect shape since me and my husband remember to put the velcro on the laundry tabs before washing!
Snaps or Velcro? With all that being said, when BumGenius decided to offer snaps, I picked up a few. I will always buy snaps from now on for 2 reasons. 1. They stay in like-new condition forever 2. Babies can't take them off as they get older( Benjamin and Annie both mastered this skill by 1 with velcro cloth diapers) The fit isn't 100% perfect with snaps as it is with velcro( maybe 90%) but I still have had zero leaks or blowouts so it works just as great.
Picture of the insert that goes in the pocket diaper. It has three settings, this one is snapped down on the 2nd setting. Benjamin will probably be moving up to the biggest setting before summer.
Style: BumGenius offers all-in ones and pocket diapers. All in ones have layers that do not come out, they are sewn at both end of the diapers. They are supposed to be less time consuming as there is no stuffing diapers. ( They are called free time due to this I suppose). I was leery on this idea so I went with the tried and true pocket diaper. The diaper comes with a insert that you stuff in the diaper. You pull the insert out before washing. I stuff mine with the tag at the opening so I grab the diaper by the tag to pull out the insert so I don't get anything on my hands. Even if you do, who cares, you are a mom now, a bit of pee residue or poo is the least of your concerns, wash your hands and get back to work :)
Pocket diapers hanging to dry, pant hangers work AWESOME. The diapers are meant to fit 8lbs-35lbs. I found for Benjamin that they fit best starting around 10lbs but did use them with Elias until he was near 32lbs or so. They are a work horse I tell you!.
BumGenius also offers a newborn diaper. I bought 14 size smalls for Benjamin when they were clearing out their sized diapers( you used to have to buy small, then Med, then large. They came out with the one size and phased out sized diapers) They worked great for about 3 months before they were too small. I also bought 7 newborn(up to 10lbs) on super clearance. I wouldn't have bought them otherwise. As flips (talk about in a min) work great for newborn diapers. Unless you are having a lot of kids the newborns won't save you much money, you will break close to even, but boy are they little and cute!
Newborn diaper, so little, so cute. It is one piece. You wash and line dry.
What other diapers are out there?
There are dozens of different cloth diapers It was almost overwhelming to do the research. The general styles are as follows:
1. Pocket diapers- There is a diaper shell with a absorbent insert that goes inside.
2. Diaper covers- Just a shell as shown below. You can use with prefolds(old school cloth diapers) or trendy made-for-cover inserts as in the flip(least expensive cloth diaper option)
3. All-in-one- There is no insert or pocket. All the layers are sewn into the diaper.
4. Flush-able inserts (as in the gdiapers) that go in a reusable shell.(most expensive in my opinion)
I have tried pocket and diaper covers with inserts. I like both of them but slightly prefer the pocket diapers. For newborns, the flip diapercovers and inserts are GREAT. As I previously mentioned, I want to try gdiapers because they are so dang cute and now come with the option of cloth insert. I have tried BumGenius, Flip and Charlie Banana cloth diapers( offered at Target) after 3 years, I still 100% prefer my bumGenius pocket diaper.
Flip diaper cover
Diaper cover with the insert in, the front and back tuck into the pockets. Some diapers have snaps for the insert to snap down into.
How the heck do you wash cloth diapers??
It really is pretty simple. With newborns you don't do anything. You change their diaper like a normal diaper, throw it in the diaper pail and wash every other day. You don't have to rinse out poo as it is liquidy when they are that age. For pee diapers you also just throw into the diaper pail. Once you start dealing with solid poops, I HIGHLY recommend getting the diaper sprayer. It attached to your toilet and you spray off the solids then throw the diaper in the pail. Click on this
youtube link to see a video of the sprayer at work.( ps I don't squeeze extra water out like she does, I just throw it in the pail).
The diaper sprayer attaches to the toilet..super easy!
Diaper pail- I bought a wet bag
shown here and a plastic medium size garbage can at the store. It works great for us! No stink so far. You can buy $50 heavy duty cans but we are doing good with our $5 one.
To wash:1. Every other day you dump the diapers into the wash. You wash them a full cycle on cold water with NO detergent.
2. Turn water to hot and again to a full cycle, this time add 1 to 2 scoops of dye free, perfume free detergent. I use bumGenius detergent as I have found it works best for us. You can use a cloth diaper detergent like rockin-green(spendy) something like arm and hammer or ALl free or even make your own.
3. Do a HOT rinse only
4. Dry the liners, hang dry the covers. ( I use pant hangers, works like a charm)If you have a all in one, I think you have to line dry.
How many diapers do you need for one kid?
That depends on how often you want to do laundry :) 14 will get you through a day/night but you will HAVE to do laundry every night. 18 is usually a good amount to start with and that should get you through every other day but some days you might run out. If you want to be safe, go with 20-24. If you do a diaper cover and inserts, go with 3-5 covers and 18-20 inserts. Even if you have 100 diapers, you shouldn't go more then EOD or Every third day without doing laundry, the diapers will start to stink and you will need to strip them to get the pee smell out. ( you will need to know how to do this easy step, but now is not the time to teach it). Diapers range so much in price depending on what you get its hard to put an amount, check out cottonbabies.com or gdiapers.com to get a general idea.
What are the biggest Pro's and Con's?
I will start with the cons first, those are the deal breakers right?
1. Clothes! if you are cloth diapering, you will find that your baby may need to wear a size up from what his weight says. Especially if you buy a lot of "real" clothes like baby jeans with buttons etc. We keep 2 sizes on hand. 12months for Benjamin when he is wearing disposable and 18 month for all other times. Its a minor inconvenience but well worth it.
2. People may think you are crazy- A friend of mine mentioned that she was going to try cloth and I called her crazy, less than a year later I started using them! What can I say, us girls think we know it all. My mom prefers I send Benjamin over in cloth, she loves them. Brandon's mom isn't a huge fan so we send him in disposables if he is going to her house.
3. You have to do laundry. This is a chore that HAS to get done every other day. You can't let them sit for a week like you can with adult laundry.
4. Learning curve to get the fit just right to make sure you don't have leaks. Usually only takes a few tries so its minimal.(sometimes its a matter of not pre-washing them enough before you start using them for the first time)
Pros's....where to start??
1. MONEY! Depending on the source you check and how long your baby is actually in diapers, you can spend anywhere from $2000-$3000 on disposable diapers for your child before they are potty trained. Your cloth diaper stash will cost at most $400-$500. I found the water cost minimal, it went up MAYBE $5 a month..maybe. You can keep your cloth diapers and sell them on ebay, at a garage sale or pass them along to a friend when you are done( or keep for another baby, they don't go bad in storage)
2. Environmental- no more diapers in landfills
3. Saving clothes! I have had ZERO. I mean ZERO blowouts while using cloth. ZERO. I can't even tell you how many of elias' baby clothes I had to throw out due to massive stains up the back due to blowouts. Disposables just don't contain the mess!
4. Cute! They are so cute and have I mentioned trendy now-a-days!
5. Most places will now accept cloth! The daycare at my gym will accept a cloth diapered baby, how awesome is that! Some day-cares will, others won't. Every dr. appointment I have ever taken my cloth diapered kids to, someone(dr. nurse etc) comments on them and how much they love modern cloth diapers TRENDY, PEOPLE, TRENDY!
What do the men think?
Brandon loves cloth diapers for a newborn( up to eating solids), he thinks they are way easier than disposables. He is a man and he is lazy so he doesn't like that he has to wash off poop ( one extra step) I told him get over it :) He does LOVE the money savings! Pee diapes are super easy, what is there for a man to complain about? I have a friend who recently started using cloth with his new baby. He loves them and prefers them to disposables.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!!!!
Growing up in cloth:
Click to see my diapers at work!
.JPG)
