Cloth Diapering

Sometime after Anna was born I was introduced to the 21st century of cloth diapers. It was nothing like what I expected.

In all the book reading and preparing for Anna's arrival, I never read anything about using cloth diapers. And I didn't know anyone that used them. In my head all I could see were the prefolded diapers with pins and a plastic outer shell.

Anna was just about to be potty trained at the time so I didn't switch over and to be honest I wasn't sold on the use of them. A lot changed though in the 6 years since Anna was born. While pregnant with Nora I was hearing about them, reading about them, seeing them all over the Internet.

Then one day I saw on my Facebook a status update from Colleen Lindstrom (fm107 radio personality. she has a pretty great blog HERE too!). She said something about how much she was loving cloth diapering her twins and that you would be surprised how easy it is. I commented on her update that I was thinking about using them but have so many questions to sort out. She generously offered to answer any questions I had and I promptly sent her a message with 10 questions.

She took the time to answer my questions and more! Before the questions I was overwhelmed with all the options and information out there. Afterwards, I felt totally prepared to give it shot! I know some of you are considering it for the future and probably have similar questions so here is the info that I got from her along with what I have learned along the way. I have found myself to be pretty passionate about the use of cloth diapers and am excited to share my knowledge like Colleen did for me!

How in the world do you ever choose a brand or even style of cloth diaper?
There are many brands and types but for me it came down to what was recommended to me and what I was hearing most about. I did a lot of research and I found that the Bum Genius and Flip diapers came highly recommended.

Bum Genius has one size pocket diapers and all-in-one. The all-in-one's are sized so you buy new diapers as your baby gets bigger. The pocket diapers are adjustable to expand as your baby expands. People love them because they fit so well. With the pocket diaper the insert is put "inside" the diaper which causes the whole system to be a one use and then wash deal. Many, many love them and that is what Colleen used on her kids but she said if she could do it again she would go with a hybrid. We have both the Bum Genius and the Flip so have a good comparison.

Flip diapers are hybrids. This is what we find ourselves using pretty exclusively now. LOVE THEM! Here is why. This system is an adjustable sized outer shell that can be reused (doesn't need to be washed after each diaper change). Inside the outer shell you use a cotton or microfiber insert. At a diaper change you change the cotton part. They fit more slim. Less space in a diaper bag to pack up. And the kicker... There are disposable inserts that you can use with the shells for traveling!

Of course there are MANY others to look at and choose from but those are my faves! I have found that Kelly's Closet is a great website for seeing many different brands and other accessories.

How many diapers do you need?

This depends on how often you want to wash. What we have found is that by day 2-3 you will want to wash. They get a little ripe if you wait longer. So if you figure when they are small you change probably 8 times a day or more. Now at 5 months we only change about 5 times a day. You will want to have about 15 diapers in this case. I have a few more than that.

Also keep in mind that most of the adjustable sized diapers don't fit tiny babies so if you have a little little one then you may need to use disposables for a little while or use a sized diaper that can start smaller. Around the 8-10 lb mark is a good starting point but most people actually have babies that size to start with so maybe that isn't an issue! :)

Do you need to use anything different at night? Heavy wetters?
At this point we don't need to do anything different but as the babes get older many use a "doubler" or just another insert to have more capture to cover overnight.

What do you do when you are out and about? Or vacations?
With they hybrid system this is easy! If we are just out and about for the day I bring an extra shell and a few extra inserts along with a medium sized wet bag. No big deal. When we went to California this summer we brought the Flip shells and the disposable inserts.

You may ask why we didn't just bring regular disposable diapers for traveling. For one thing, the disposable inserts take up less room than regular disposables. Also, the disposable inserts (and actually I used the GroVia disposable inserts in my Flip shells) are biodegradable and contain a lot less of the gel that holds the liquid (who knows what chemicals that stuff is made out of!?!). We are super impressed with those disposable inserts. They hold so much and we didn't have any leaks and they contain the poop really well.

Is it possible to use cloth diapers with daycares?
This really depends on the daycare. We use an in the home daycare and are going to the same one that Anna went to. I just talked to Mary about it and explained how it worked. She was familiar with the concept having used cloth diapers with her children. But she was a little shocked with how different they are now. I basically just approached it as a trial run and if it works great and if it really doesn't work for her than we can adjust.

We are in our 3rd week not at daycare and she seems to really be fine with the process. Each day I bring new diaper inserts along with extra shells, liners (more on that in a bit), and a medium sized wet bag. At the end of the day, she has the wet bag with the dirty diapers for me to take back home.

What is the laundry routine? Wash separably? Special detergent? Poop?
Let me address poop first. This is probably the place where Chad and even I find ourselves questioning just a tiny bit why we do this. One thing that was recommended to us and we LOVE is the use of a liner. These are basically just like a dryer sheet that is placed between the diaper and the baby's bottom. The liner catches a lot of the poop (and will catch it all as she gets older and more solid). The liners are also flushable so you can take the poop and liner and flush it away. The cool thing is that the liner if only wet can be washed with the diapers and reused again until it needs to be flushed with poop.

When we have a poopy diaper, I flush the liner and then bring the soiled diaper to the laundry room where I have a bucket in the utility sink. I rinse the diaper out and then soak it in the tub of cold water (sometimes a little bit of detergent) until wash night. Others have talked about using a diaper sprayer. I could see that being useful but our system has been working pretty good.

I do use a detergent made for cloth diapers called Rockin Green. It has gotten great reviews but I also heard from others that just use a detergent like Tide Free. It just isn't supposed to have any dyes or other things like that. We do wash our diapers by themselves.

My wash routine for my front loader washer is to set it to "Normal" on the "Heavy" soiled level on Hot/Cold. Then I add an "Auto Soak" and "Extra Rinse". Then into the dryer with no fabric softener sheets.

Do they really stay nice enough to be used the whole time until potty trained?
I have only been using then for a few months but I know others that have used their set of diapers with multiple kids and then sold them on craigslist. As long as you take good care of them, they should last a long time!

What about leakage? Any issues?

Nope. We just haven't had any issues with this. There was maybe one time that she leaked but it was probably user error more than the diaper. And I remember having so many more issues with disposables? Just no issues that I can speak to.

Where do you keep the soiled diapers until they get washed in the baby's room?
Besides the wet bags for the diaper bag and daycare, we have a large wet bag that hangs on the closet door. I like it because it zips shut to keep most of the odor in. And they are super cute. Much cuter than our diaper pail thingy.

So to wrap up (sorry it got sooo long!), we love our cloth diapers. We have found it pretty easy to adjust and learn. I would do it again if we were to have another child. [Now Chad don't freak out, I know we said we are done with two. I am just making a point that we like it so much that we would do it again and not go back to disposables.]

If this post found you overwhelmed instead of helped, I am sorry. For me, information like this is what I needed to take the leap and try them out. That is what I would want for you too! If you have any other questions, leave them in the comments and I will answer them!!