Cloth Diapering 101 - Our Basic Gear

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!