I have been asked to create a post about cloth diapering. I am more than happy to share our experience thus far, but keep in mind, what works for us may not work for others. A few of our friends/readers (Steph, Sarah, Jae, Amy, and Jillian) also cloth diaper and I would love for them to comment with their experience, preferences and tips...
We're using bumGenius 3.0s. They can be found on a variety of websites and usually cost around $17.95 a piece. I recommend looking around for deals, they can sometimes be found cheaper when bought in bulk. I have a membership to our local natural baby store so I get 10% off of every purchase and when buying the 3.0s, if I bought 12 or more, I got another 10% off. Either way, it's a significant amount of savings as compared to disposable diapers.
bumGenius 3.0s are known as one-size pocket diapers
our beautiful model, Cassidy
We have a total of 29 diapers which lasts us around 4 or 5 days between washings. There are 9 different colors to choose from. We love them all!
Each diaper comes with a shell and two different size inserts. The inserts are microfiber and super absorbent. So far we have only had a few leaks and it's always because we just waited too long between changings.
Our favorite part about the 3.0s is that they will grow with Cassidy. They are designed to fit babies 8 to 35 lbs. There are three sets of snaps on the front of every diaper. As she grows bigger we only need to expand the rise. Therefore, you only ever need to purchase one set of diapers, EVER.
Here's the view inside the diaper. At the top there is an opening in which you slide the insert.
Here are the two insert options. On the left is the newborn and the right is the adjustable insert which is also much thicker. Right now we use the newborn insert during the day and the thicker one at night.
Because the shell adjusts to grow with Cass, so does the insert. Here it is snapped to fit the smallest rise.
Cloth diapering has come a long way since the time we were little ones! No more pins and no more plastic pants! The 3.0s are designed to work just like disposables, except you wash them.
Once soiled, we fold them back up and put them in our diaper pail. This is a super cheap one I bought from IKEA. The most important part is that you want a secure lid. Inside is a diaper liner. I bought two Wahmies, which you can also find in a variety of places on the internet. They're cloth bags made with a waterproof fabric and an elastic top. These also come in a ton of different colors.
I also purchased two waterproof bags. The larger one will come with us on big trips and to daycare every day and the smaller fits in my diaper bag for small errands. Once again, look online, there are many different brands, styles, and patterns.
Now, everyone has a different technique when it comes to washing their diapers and here's what we do...
First, I separate all of the liners from the shells and toss them into the washing machine (yes, poop and all!) We originally rinsed each one in the utility sink, but soon found out that wasn't really necessary. That may change once we start adding more than breastmilk to Cassidy's diet. Anyway, I set the washer to cold and on the largest capacity. I do not add any soap and set the dial to just rinse.
Once the rinse cycle is complete, I add a tablespoon of Charlie's soap (see below), set the temperature to hot and change the capacity to medium. Our washer automatically does another cold rinse at the end.
To dry the diapers I put all of the inserts in the dryer and put the shells on a drying rack. You're not supposed to use dryer sheets because of the chemicals.
So, that's it! Did I forget anything? I hope that was helpful...
8 comments:
WOW! Thank you, that is awesome. And very thorough. The cleaning process is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Those diapers are really cute, and they look very comfy, much more so than disposables.
P.S. Steph and Amy Fream, I'd love to hear what you girls use, and how the diapering experience has adjusted as your kiddos' diets have changed. So message me if you have time! :)
Thanks again, AJ!
Great 101 AJ. We've found that Charlie's has caused leaking to happen eventually. After a while you need detergent, not just soap, unfortunately. We use a knock off Tide Free and Clear. We've been using our bum genius for about 2 years and they are on our second baby. They didn't work for her at the low weight (bum genius says they work at 8lbs- she was born 9.3lbs and it took a couple months for them to fit) and they we're a stretch to get on our son once he was 32lbs or so.
All in all we're very pleased.
We purchased ours from cottonbabies.com. If you sign up for their newsletter you get 10% (or maybe 5%- can't remember) your first order. They send notices when they have seconds and if you buy them in lots of 10 they end up being $9 each. We bought all of ours as seconds and haven't had any trouble.
As poop becomes more solid we dumped (scraped as necessary with a plaster scraper) into the toilet before putting them in the bucket. Gross? a little- but we're supposed to be dumping poop from disposable diapers in the toilet before throwing them away (read the diaper packaging). Hope this info helps.
Thank you for posting this great Cloth Diapering 101.
I'm so happy to see that our friends are using cloth diapers and that more people are realizing that it isn't that much more work. We use Fuzzi Bunz and are on our second child with the same diapers. Our Fuzzi Bunz use the same inserts as your diapers. As they get older however we have added different inserts for different things like errands or overnight. We use Joey Bunz Hemparoos and Chinese prefolds. A good tip for once they start eating solids is to use a rice paper liner. That way all you have to do is pick up the liner with the solid waste on it and throw it in the toilet. The liners biodegrade better than toilet paper. For the rise paper liners we get the toddler size from Imse Vimse and then cut them in half. I actually put my diapering system on our blog a long time ago. Here is the link http://willardfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/fuzzi-bunz.html
Keep up the good work wicked awesome Weigands!
joy, i don't know if you'll read this on here..but.. we used the diapers from 1 month until noah was a little over 2 years old. We bought 17 and the initial investment was about $150 (which comes out to about 4 of the jumbo boxes of disposables). We kept a rinse bucket in a laundry sink and just threw them in there when he wore them. As they grow and are eating solids and drinking milk they start to smell like you wouldn't believe.. the same smell as if you had peed your pants and let it sit around. But, you just wash them! We had some staining but either laid them in the sun for natural bleaching or used Oxy Clean Baby which isn't harmful to the babes but isn't super environmentally friendly. We started with one insert but ended up moving to 3 or more at the end. At 2 he was simply peeing too much to keep them on and that is when we moved to potty training.
We did use disposables from time to time. Our parents simply could not figure out the cloth and would consistently put them on wrong so that they would fall off or be really messed up.
We also used Fuzzi bunz which they don't sell anymore. We bought ours on Ebay.
It honestly was never a big deal and never really a pain or an inconvenience. We just looked at it as another item of clothing to wash.
I highly recomend it to everyone!!!!
oh, and one more thing. we also used cloth potty training underwear instead of pull-ups. You can get them at one step ahead. they are just underwear with leak proof barriers in them. I believe they work better because children don't think they are wearing a diaper and noah never wanted to get his underwear wet.
Great post! I always wondered how that worked nowadays..My parents used cloth diapers with me. Still seems like a ton of work. I guess when my time comes I'll think about the pros and cons. But this was great!
This comment is a bit belated, but thank you so much for passing this info about cloth diapering on to me! I am due in a little more than a month now and have my bumgenius 3.0 diapers on-hand, and am right now about to order my wet bags and then I should be set! I hope I can be as successful as you with it! Thank you Amy!
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