Adventures in Cloth Diapers

I've been meaning to give an update on our experience cloth diapering and haven't gotten the chance, but since I was asked about what we've been doing here it goes. I will update this with links on Monday. Blogger doesn't support adding links when using a Mac so I have to wait until I get to work, but you can find most of this stuff at www.cottonbabies.com

So far we have used prefolds, Hemp Babies big/little weeds, kissaluvs, fuzzibunz, bumGenius 1.0 & 2.0, Bumkins All-in-one, diaper socks (from Cotton Babies), prowrap covers, Bummis Super Whisper Wrap, Bummis Whisper Pant, Dappi Nylon Pants, and gdiaper covers.

If I had an unlimited diaper budget I would have nothing but bumGenius 2.0! I love these diapers. They have improved on their original model and this one is great. It is a pocket diaper so you can determine how much absorbency you need. During the day and for naptime we use 1 of the inserts that come with the diapers from Cotton Babies, and for nighttime we use 2. I love these because the size adjusts as your baby grows so you don't need to keep buying diapers like you do with fuzzibunz. The best part is that poo comes off of the diaper really easy. Also these use Velcro instead of snaps to close which I find a lot easier. I also like all-in-one diapers, but you have to get various sizes of these as baby grows.

Since I don't have all the money in the world to work with my next favorite is using prefolds or hemp babies inside of a diaper sock. The socks are made out of the same material as the inner layer of the bumGenius pocket diaper so you get the same results with poo. You can also put pocket inserts in the socks. We also use stay-dry liners on top of the prefolds so Sweet Pea doesn’t feel wet. Prowrap covers are the best by far, but I also like the gdiaper covers.

I’m still trying to decide what I want to use for Little Man. Sweet Pea didn’t get into cloth diapers until she was around 5 or 6 months so we never got to cloth diaper a little one. And I have no idea how different boys are from girls. Based on popularity I may get some Kissaluvs size 0 with stay-dry liners, along with using small prefolds since we will be going through so many diapers in one day. I hope to keep getting more of the bumGenius 2.0 pocket diapers since they are my favorite and are only really bulky at night. Everything else gives Sweet Pea some serious booty padding. This was great when she was learning how to walk, but now sometimes all you see is diaper butt. It’s a small price to pay for saving some money. Plus, she has no clue that her butt looks big. If we could all be so lucky.

We finally got a XL Bummis Diaper Tote for our diaper pail (a.k.a. 13 gallon garbage can). This has made a huge difference in the stink factor. As for washing we wash every 2-4 days depending on the days events and how many Pampers we use. Our routine is simple. Empty the whole diaper tote into the washer, turn tote inside out and throw in too, do one cold rinse cycle, wash on hot, rinse on cold with an extra rinse. Purex Free and Clear seems to work best for us. You only have to use a tiny bit to get diapers clean. We tried using baking soda and vinegar along with detergent for a while, but it threw off the pH of the diapers and gave Sweet Pea diaper rash. Every other time or so I let all of the pocket diapers air dry to help them last longer.

I think that covers everything. I found a new site www.diaperkit.com where you can buy preshrunk, precut, cloth diapers that you can sew. I may give it a try before I try everything on my own. Since my machine can’t do a zig zag stitch and I don’t think I can invest in a serger anytime soon I don’t know how successful I can be at the whole cloth diaper thing.