Our Cloth Diaper Journey

So many thoughts on cloth diapers, where do I begin!? It's been a fun journey deciding to cloth diaper. So far we are glad we did and love our experience with cloth! I started cloth diapers in November and have been going strong ever since.

I was reminded of my desire to cloth from a friend here in town that uses Mother Ease. She loves these diapers and explained to me the benefits of cloth and why there were so great for her boy. She said he had sensitive skin and the cloth helped him no longer get diaper rash! I was pregnant at the time and decided I should start my research on cloth diapers. You see, back in 2007 I posted this blog about gdiapers which sounded great! Don't get me wrong, gdiapers are great but we decided to go all out! Gdiapers are covers you wash and reuse and then put an insert in and the insert is biodegradable so you can flush, toss or even recycle through the dirt in your own yard!

Once I started my online research I was immediately overwhelmed! I thought the task would be fun and I would soon know what I wanted. After reading some reviews and doing research online I decided to take a cloth diaper class that was offered at a store here in the Springs. Once at the class I became more overwhelmed! They were using many many terms that I read online but did not understand like: hook & loop, fitteds, AIO's, pockets, PUL, snappis and prefold! Whoa! When I went to the class I thought I knew what I wanted and then by the end, I felt unprepared. It's amazing (and overwhelming obviously) how many types of cloth diaper systems there are and how you can mix and match. Oh and then you have to decide which fabric you want to use, organic, bamboo, cotton, hemp, micro fleece, microfiber terry and I'm sure there are more but you get the my drift!

After the class I made the plunge and bought me some great diapers! I tried to do the prefold (prefold pictured below (not Norah) with a snappie (what is used to hold the diaper on, no more pins!)) with a Thirsties cover. I personally do not like the bulkiness of the prefold. Some of my friends use them and love them though.

After that, I went all out and got me some great diapers. Let me introduce you to Thirsties!

Here is a Fab Fitted and a Duo Wrap. The Fab Fitted goes on the baby first and then covered with the Duo Wrap. The Duo Wrap grows with the baby and the Fab Fitted above fits from 7lbs-12lbs.

Here is Norah modeling the Fab Fitted in November at about 7lbs

And, here is Norah last week in the same size Fab Fitted at around 12lbs.

Here's Norah the week she met her Dad :) in early December with the Duo Wrap at it's smallest size (you can see the snaps in the front).

And, here she is last week in the same cover with one of the snaps undone and one still to go. These covers are up to 18lbs.

I know this seems gross but I thought I should address the poo issue. One of my huge questions was ummm, "so you literally throw a poopy diaper in the washing machine?! Sick." The answer is yes and it's really not that gross :) I wanted to show you how the diaper on the left looked like after being used (fresh :)) and then how a clean one looked after being washed! I have had no stains and am proud of it! Norah's bum is against a stain free cloth diaper :)

My washing regime: I usually wash Norah's cloth diapers every three to four days. In between washes I have a leak proof bag (called a wet bag or pail liner) that they are stored in sitting a garbage bin. on the 3rd or 4th day I stick all the diapers in the washing machine with a tiny bit of baking soda and special chemical free soap and soak them for 1-5 hours then finish that wash cycle. After that a run a short cycle to make sure all the soap is out of the diapers so they don't stink from having soap left over. Then I hang dry them and they are ready to go in the morning! I honestly feel likes it's so easy!

I have had no leaks when I use my cloth diapers. On the otherhand, when I've had to use some disposables I have had some nasty blow outs and therefore stains on Norah's cute clothes! I highly recommend cloth diapering, it's fun and environmentally friendly!

Here are some of the reasons to cloth:

• No chemicals on your sweet little ones bum. A major disposable diaper company said the incident of diaper rash rose from 7%-61% between 1970 and 1995 coinciding with the increase of disposable diaper use.
• You won't be adding to the land fills! Disposables take 250-500 years to decompose, yuck!
• $$$!!! There are many charts out there on the web about the cost saving of cloth diapering. Here's some great info from THIS site where they even factor in the cost of laundry washes being done at home! Here's the breakdown based on a child using diapers for 2.5 yrs.:

1. Disposables (the least expensive brand) $2577.35 or $.36 per diaper change
2. Pockets (Knickernappies) $1677.66 or $.23 per diaper change
3. AIO or All in Ones (Bum Genius) $1413.48 or $.20 per diaper change
4. Fitteds (WallyPop fitted & Angel Dry covers) $1263.46 or $.18 per diaper change
5. Prefolds (The Stock Warehouse) $381 or $.06 per diaper change

Some of the other fun cloth diaper companies and there clever names:

Happy Heinys

Fuzzi Bunz

Bumgenius

GoGo Natural

Snooty Booty Diapers

Baby Beehinds

Scuttlebutts

Nanipoos

Monkeybuns

Hey! You could always go this route with the elimination communication and use NO DIAPERS!!!

Any questions? Comments? I would love your feedback!


*Update, we now use Organic Cottom Bum Genius since Norah grew out of the Thirsties and we didn't want to do a pocket diaper (no stuffing involved).  I have also tried and like Kawaii pockets (cheeper and work great) and Grovia!