Cloth diapering isn't for everyone, but it made a lot of sense for our family. A little green, a little DIY, and as it turns out not nearly as scary as I anticipated. But it definitely has the potential to be super confusing. Cloth diapering was one of those
things that required countless hours of internet research to figure out,
and even then I was left with a lot of trial and error. While some
guess work is inevitable as you figure out what systems work best for
your family, I wanted to share some of the lessons we've learned along
the way. Let's start with what gear we use and why we love it (or don't
love it so much).
When I initially made the
decision to cloth diaper, I was completely overwhelmed by all the
options available. Pre-folds? Pocket diapers? All-in-ones? What were
these things?! I needed a glossary just to go shopping. What I found the
most helpful was individual people saying exactly what worked and
didn't work for them, so now I'm paying it forward to you! Learn from my
mistakes, new diapering padawans.
I can't speak to the other
styles, but we ended up going with a combination of size adjustable pocket diapers and
all-in-ones. No safety pins here - these styles go on just like a
disposable diaper. Pocket diapers have a waterproof shell that you stuff
with an absorbent liner. To share one of my early clueless moments,
initially I was pretty confused and thought you had to reuse the outer
shells when you changed diapers. That would mean reaching into a yucky
diaper to swap out the dirty liners - Eeew. I'm not sure where I got
this idea, but it is completely wrong! You use a whole clean diaper for
each change. Changing a pocket diaper isn't any more gross than changing
a disposable. Thank goodness!
|
Here you can see the pocket opening, without and with the liner stuffed inside |
This pocket style has worked well
for us because you can customize the level of absorbancy by adding more
liners. Now as an active toddler, we use one full size liner for day
time wear, and one full size plus two newborn liners for nighttime wear
(our diapers came with one of each size).
|
Here you can see the outer shell and the full size liner compared to the newborn size liner |
The downside to pocket diapers
is that you have to stuff the liners back into each diaper after you
wash them, which can be a little time consuming. All-in-ones have the
same waterproof shell, but the absorbent liners are already attached to
the diaper. After washing, you simply fold the absorbent sections back
in and you're ready to go. The downside is that these diapers are less
customizable and usually take longer to dry. At toddler age the
absorbency of the all-in-ones is perfect for our daytime wear, but when
Little Plum was smaller these diapers were huge on her since I couldn't
remove any of the liner bulk. I also find the attached liners make poop
removal a little unwieldy.
|
Pocket diaper on the left, all-in-one on the right. Pardon my little helper's hands! |
As far as brands, we are a BumGenius
household all the way! We primarily use the 4.0 pocket diapers, but we
also have several of their all-in-ones. There are a couple of features that make BumGenius work particularly well for us. I really appreciate how
the waterproof outer shell folds over to make a barrier on the front
edge of BumGenius diapers - it keeps tummy leaks at bay. We have several
Rumparoos as well, but they are our least favorite. The covers have not
retained their waterproof nature over time, and they also have a
tendency to leak at the tummy, at least on Little Plum. Little Plum also
has the uncanny ability to shoot poop torpedoes down into the pocket on
Rumparoos! What the heck, kid? Does this happen to anyone else? So for
that reason I really appreciate the flap that covers the pocket opening
on BumGenius 4.0s. That's just our experience though. If you're new to
cloth diapering I would recommend trying at least a couple styles/brands
to find what works best for you.
|
BumGenius 4.0 on the left vs Rumparoo on the right. See the colored band at the top of the BumGenius? That's waterproof. It's difficult to see here just how open the Rumparoo pocket is, but you can definitely see the handy flap on the BumGenius pocket. |
We have 34 diapers in regular
rotation. This is a bit more than the amount generally recommended, but
we weren't about to turn down generous friends and family who purchased
them as baby gifts, and I am glad we have a healthy sized stash. For
the most part we wash every other day, but our large stash allows us
some flexibility. We never go longer than three days though - things
start to get stanky!
As far as dirty diaper storage, we have two
Planet Wise pail liners that we alternate in a large stainless trash can
(our can is from Target).
We also have two Planet Wise medium wet bags
that we alternate for Little Plum's diaper bag. The medium wet bags
easily fit 6 to 7 dirty diapers, maybe more. Little Plum goes to daycare
three days a week while I'm working, and daycare has never had any
difficulty with her diapers. We send them stuffed and ready to go, so
they are no more difficult to put on than disposables. The only
difference is that instead of throwing away the dirties, daycare sends
them home in her wet bag.
We elected not to use cloth wipes.
Initially I was just too overwhelmed with being a new mom to devote the
time to making my own wipe solution, but now that we've entered the
realm of scary toddler poop I just need to throw those suckers away.
Sorry landfills, but this girl's gotta keep it real! We use Earth's Best
wipes as a less chemical-y alternative.
|
Seriously, how cute is a rainbow of diapers? |
That's it for our gear. I'll share the details of our wash
routine in the next post. If you're considering cloth diapers, I highly
recommend it! Not only have we saved tons of money and avoided excess
chemicals, I'm pretty sure there's nothing cuter than a baby in a cloth
diaper!
Do you cloth diaper? Do you have a favorite brand or style? Let me know in the comments!
We are just now leaving diapers behind (woohoo!) until next baby, but have cloth diapered all the way. I bought a variety at first to try and ended up using mostly pre-folds with Thirsties covers because they are most cost affective. I also like Fuzzi Bunz and Kushis pocket and all in ones. The more of those you can afford for your stash, the better! :)
ReplyDelete