Hello all,
Today I am going to tell you about my new cloth diapers. And give you a basic lesson in cloth diapering.
I started off using g Diapers with prefold cloth inserts and Seventh Generation disposables. This worked well for us for a while. And then we also used Thirsties covers with larger prefolds. I really liked this too but now the prefolds are not holding enough liquid.
This weekend my husband and some friends of our went with me to http://punkernoodlebaby.com/ 's showroom. Which is a room at her house that a stay-at-home mom has transformed for her business.
This was great. We got to see the diapers in person which is really hard to do, most places are only on-line. And because of that we picked out a diaper that I hadn't before considered. Fuzzi Bunz.
These diapers are a "one size" pocket diaper. And the genius thing about these is the way they adjust. Instead of a series of snaps in the front to adjust the rise. These have elastic in the legs and along the back that can be adjusted through a series of holes. Awesome. I think I have found a good fit but it may be too tight in the legs so I may try adjusting them again.
So my system to cloth is really simple.
1. I used the diaper, toss it into a regular kitchen trash can with a liner like one of these.
2. Then when I am about to run out of diapers I take the bag out of the can and empty it into the washer and then toss the bag in along with everything else.
Do a quick cold rinse (washes away all the nasties).
Then I add a Tablespoon of Charlie's Soap and do a hot wash with a cold rinse.
3. Put everything but the can liner into the dryer on low heat. This will not get the inserts or prefolds all the way dry so then I hang them. The less you use the dryer the better for any fabric but if you don't put them in either before or after hanging them to dry they get crunchy.
4. Then I take them all back upstairs and stuff the covers with the inserts and they are ready to go.
(These are the stuffed ones on the left all ready to go and the doublers on the right for added absorbacy. We can go 8 hours without changing his diaper at night)
I also use cloth wipes. I started doing this because some of the baby books say not to use baby wipes for the first few weeks for sensitivity reasons. And my baby did react negatively to baby wipes in the beginning. And now I love them. They clean better than the commercial baby wipes (especially for that sticky poop in the beginning) and I just toss them in with the diapers. Birth and Beyond sells a wipes warmer that opens enough that you can put cloth wipes in.
I just wet the wipes with water and stick them in there. I bought 24 cheap wash clothes and cut them into quarters and surged the raw edges to keep them from fraying.
You can even make your own wipes solution if you want. There are many recipes on the web if you are interested. Personally I just use water.
As far as how many diapers to get, I would get enough for 24 changes. ie 24 prefolds and 4-6 covers or 24 pocket diapers. This will get you two days so you don't have to do laundry every night.
For diaper cream (as well as laundry detergent) make sure you get something that is safe for cloth diapers. I was surprised at what was not "safe" to use. This site has some suggestions. I am sure there are many others that can tell you what to use or not use. I found I like virgin coconut oil the best. I use a cotton ball and get a little smear of it then wipe it around on baby. It cleans up poopy residue and keeps him soft and protected from moisture. It is also an anti fungal so it would help with a yeast rash. I also have California Baby's diaper cream but I find that I don't really need it unless I am using prefolds that don't have any kind of moisture barrier. But still virgin coconut oil is my favorite.
I hope this helps and encourages you to consider cloth diapers. It really is easy and there are so many options out there to make it right for you.
