Ok. I know what you are all thinking. So everyone take a deep breath, it's not what you think, I promise! When I say "cloth diapers," you think of your grandma's white, bland, cloth (burp cloth), pins-and-all diapers. Well, sisters...welcome to the future of cloth. In the next few moments I will take you on a journey to learn about the joys, fashion, and savings of cloth!
First let me tell you about how I was first introduced to cloth. It all began with my sister S telling us all at a family dinner one Sunday afternoon that when she had babies she was going to use cloth diapers. I'm not kidding when I say I pretty much choked on my turkey dinner right there. I was absolutely disgusted at the thought of cloth. And I will admit, I was thinking about grandma's cloth diapers. I must have argued with her for quite awhile, and I gave her a really hard time. (I may have been pregnant with little E at this time which will be my excuse for my outrageous behavior!). Then one day while I was at work one of my girlfriends also told me she was going to do cloth diapers with her new baby. I was astonished and shocked. However, she showed me one of the diapers and how much one could save each year by switching to cloth. Now I was listening. I went to the local cloth diaper store in our city and bought only 3 diapers, just to see if I could do it. Turns out, I loved it. Everything about it. There is the initial investment of buying all your diapers, but once you have them, you never have to buy a diaper again. They last until they are potty trained. Genius! My husband averaged out the savings to be about 1000 dollars a year depending on what kind of disposable diapers you buy. (the first year being a little less to take into account the initial investment). Gracious.. do you know what I could do with that kind of extra money!!! Not to mention babies get much less diaper rash with cloth and it is great for the environment. I also bought my diapers a few at a time so the initial investment didn't hurt our overall budget.
And yes, I did formally apologize to my sister S. She was right. I do love my cloth diapers.
(these are my thoughts after using cloth for about one year, if you are contemplating cloth I hope this is very helpful to you)
This is my little E strutting her stuff in her cloth diapers. My favorite diaper is the
Fuzzibunz (one size fits all). I will explain this later.
A few things you will need are:
* Wetbags: 2 large (for when one is in the wash) and 2 small (for the diaper bag) (wetbags are bags to store your dirty cloth diapers until laundry day. They are completely water and stinky proof)
* Diaper Rash Cream: Please note you CAN NOT use regular diaper rash cream on cloth diapers. They will form a film on the diaper that is impossible to wash off and will make your cloth diapers leak. A great alternative is an all natural diaper rash cream/ointment. I found the one in the
picture above to be wonderful. It's pretty much like a
chap stick, no need to get your fingers dirty! But there are many
different kinds out there.
Grandma El's is also excellent. You just want to make sure whatever you use is all natural.
These are all the different brands of cloth diapers that I have tried. Least favorite being the
Top Left: Happy Heiny's:
While they are adorable and come in all sorts of colors and patterns these are my least favorite because simply put, they leak! (Experts say all babies have different shapes so these may fit other babies perfectly, but not little E). Also, out of all my diapers these ones did not wash well, they frayed at the velcro straps and stuck to everything in the wash (even after sticking all the velcro to itself like the manufacturer told me to do.)
Top Right: Knickernappies:
These are my next least favorite because these tend to leak as well. Not as much as the happy heinys, but because of the way the snaps are it is too hard to get it snug enough around their thighs and bums to make it leak proof. These however wash very well because there are only snaps (a huge plus, I will only buy cloth diapers with the snaps from now on). I have heard from friends that have boys, that these are great for boys and don't leak like they do for girls.
Bottom Left: BumGenius:
My runner up. I like the
bumGenius because they don't leak (I did have to get the
fuzzibunz inserts to place inside them though in order for them to be
absorbent enough. A negative to the
bumGenius is the inserts they sell them with are too thin. But once I changed out all my inserts for
fuzzibunz inserts my
bumGenius diapers could soak up the ocean!) The other down side is that there is some v
elcro, not as much as happy
heinys, but enough to annoy me when I do the laundry.
Bottom Right: Fuzzibunz:
The ultimate perfect diaper in my
opinion!!! They don't leak, are extremely
absorbent, wash wonderfully, have only snaps, and when you buy the one size fits all style they have elastic around the thighs that you can tighten or loosen in order to get the best fit around your babies
heiny!
(photo from www.fuzzibunz.com)
Another note: I bought the
one size fits all pocket diapers in each brand. Each diaper came with two inserts as well. So no need to buy extra inserts. The one size diaper will fit them from when they are about 8 pounds to fully potty trained. I will admit they are a tad bulky around a little infant, so until little E was about 10 lbs I used disposables. However, this way I didn't have to buy size newborn, small, medium or large in the cloth diapers. I just bought the one size fits all and it worked beautifully and saved a bundle.
This is an example of the
fuzzibunz elastic around the thigh that you can size perfectly to fit.
This is a view of how the inserts fit into the pocket diapers. There is a little pouch or pocket in the rear. After they pee or soil a diaper, simple remove the insert and place both pieces in your wet bag to be washed. Wash each piece
separately. After washing and drying place your insert back into the pocket.
This is an example of a night time diaper. As your baby gets older you may need to invest in a night time diaper to keep them dry all night. This is a
DryBees diaper and you put a
fleece insert and a
hemp insert into the pocket for maximum
absorbency. The fleece will absorb fast and the hemp will absorb more
slowly.
Wash instructions for cloth diapers:
*You can't use regular detergents or bleach on your cloth diapers. If you do your little one will get diaper rash from the detergents. Use an all natural, unscented detergent. There are a lot of options out there. Also if your washing machine doesn't get out every stain simply put your cloth diapers outside in the sunshine and they will get "bleached" naturally and the stains will disappear.
*When you have a soiled diaper simply rinse the
poopy off in the toilet using a
diaper sprayer or take it to the utility sink in the basement like I do. I don some dish washing gloves that go up to my elbows and viola, the diaper is rinsed! Then place them in the
wetbag. For all
pee-pee diapers just place them in the
wetbag until laundry day.
*If the
poopy just makes you
squeamish there are
liners available. When your baby goes
poopy simply remove the liner and flush it down the toilet.
* It is recommended to wash your diapers every 2-3 days.
I use
Allen's detergent. I bought a box a year ago and I am still using it. It lasts forever!! And a little bit goes a long way. Follow the diaper's wash instructions for how much detergent to use.
*Rinse cycle on cold
*Add detergent and do a wash cycle on hot
*Rinse on cold
*Dry on high heat (I have to do it for 70 minutes to get them completely dry)
This has been my experience with cloth. Yes, they are a little extra work, but worth the savings. Call me crazy but I love them and can honestly say I will never go back to disposables.
P.S. This is a great website to visit regarding cloth diapers. It was extremely helpful to me and will answer all your questions:
