Cloth Diapers! I love them. When I was pregnant with B I briefly thought about cloth diapers and did some research but a newborn goes through a lot of diapers in a day and lets be honest I didn't want to deal with the hassle. Fast forward to a couple weeks after B was born and I got into babywearing with my Moby and as I did more research on babywearing, Cloth Diapers popped up again. As I read more and more I thought, maybe this would work. I researched what I liked and what I could afford and decided to try. Well I'm telling you, they are awesome. Not only are we saving money but they are so cute!Who needs a picture outfit when you have a cute diaper to wear.
Cloth diapers are not what your mom or grandma may remember, they've changed a lot since then. You have many different types like pocket diapers (my favorite), All in Ones (J's favorite), prefolds, flats, etc. Do your research and find out what works for you. I started out with prefolds and covers, because they are the cheapest. From there I bought some pocket diapers, and then some all in ones. A lot of the time I buy when they are on sale, or some that are preloved. The nice thing about cloth diapers is that when they are properly taken care of, they will last a long time. So whatever I buy now is going to last for the next baby.
Washing cloth diapers is not bad. When your child is breastfed only, you just throw it all in the wash, breastfed babies poop is water soluble. When your child starts solids or is fed with formula then you must rinse the poop into the toilet. We are just starting on that part of our journey. A diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet is a good investment and makes rinsing easy.
Everybody has a different wash routine, mine is a cold soak (usually overnight), then a hot wash-cold rinse with Country Save detergent, and then an extra rinse. I have been trying to do a splash of bleach at least every couple of weeks because I was having a problem with some ammonia smell sticking around, especially from the night time diapers. But with the bleach that has seemed to resolve itself. I then line dry anything with PUL and all the inserts and prefolds are thrown in the dryer (no dryer sheet).
Nighttime diapering has probably been our biggest hurdle with cloth diapering. Some people have problems with leaking, but that wasn't our issue. We had a problem with ammonia smell. But like I stated above the splash of bleach has been helping with that issue.
For me once we started cloth diapering I hated using disposables, I hate the feel of them and all I see when we use them is money going in the garbage. That said I send disposables to the sitter with B because it's just easier for the sitter and me. When I was home with B during Fair no disposables touched her cute little bum for 6 days! So B is cloth diapered probably 80% of the time, and that's OK because we're saving money. I buy disposable diapers quarterly and buy a new cloth diaper or two when I can, because really they're too cute to resist.
If your thinking about cloth diapering do your research there are a bunch of great sites out there and I'll list some below.
If you cloth diaper what do you love/hate about it? If you don't why didn't you think it was right for you? Post in the comments below. Any questions ask away?
Adventures in Fluff
I like Chana she has a lot of great advice and reviews.
All about Cloth Diapers
One of the first websites I visited
Diaper Pin
Great articles, great active forums
Diaper Junction
My favorite place to buy cloth diapers
Cloth diapers are not what your mom or grandma may remember, they've changed a lot since then. You have many different types like pocket diapers (my favorite), All in Ones (J's favorite), prefolds, flats, etc. Do your research and find out what works for you. I started out with prefolds and covers, because they are the cheapest. From there I bought some pocket diapers, and then some all in ones. A lot of the time I buy when they are on sale, or some that are preloved. The nice thing about cloth diapers is that when they are properly taken care of, they will last a long time. So whatever I buy now is going to last for the next baby.
Washing cloth diapers is not bad. When your child is breastfed only, you just throw it all in the wash, breastfed babies poop is water soluble. When your child starts solids or is fed with formula then you must rinse the poop into the toilet. We are just starting on that part of our journey. A diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet is a good investment and makes rinsing easy.
Everybody has a different wash routine, mine is a cold soak (usually overnight), then a hot wash-cold rinse with Country Save detergent, and then an extra rinse. I have been trying to do a splash of bleach at least every couple of weeks because I was having a problem with some ammonia smell sticking around, especially from the night time diapers. But with the bleach that has seemed to resolve itself. I then line dry anything with PUL and all the inserts and prefolds are thrown in the dryer (no dryer sheet).
Nighttime diapering has probably been our biggest hurdle with cloth diapering. Some people have problems with leaking, but that wasn't our issue. We had a problem with ammonia smell. But like I stated above the splash of bleach has been helping with that issue.
For me once we started cloth diapering I hated using disposables, I hate the feel of them and all I see when we use them is money going in the garbage. That said I send disposables to the sitter with B because it's just easier for the sitter and me. When I was home with B during Fair no disposables touched her cute little bum for 6 days! So B is cloth diapered probably 80% of the time, and that's OK because we're saving money. I buy disposable diapers quarterly and buy a new cloth diaper or two when I can, because really they're too cute to resist.
If your thinking about cloth diapering do your research there are a bunch of great sites out there and I'll list some below.
If you cloth diaper what do you love/hate about it? If you don't why didn't you think it was right for you? Post in the comments below. Any questions ask away?
Adventures in Fluff
I like Chana she has a lot of great advice and reviews.
All about Cloth Diapers
One of the first websites I visited
Diaper Pin
Great articles, great active forums
Diaper Junction
My favorite place to buy cloth diapers
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