A friend of mine was asking some questions about our cloth diaper set up the other day and I told her I would send her some pictures, but then decided maybe I will just write a blog post about it. I love our cloth diapers and found as I entered the world of contemplating cloth diapers that I was overwelmed and very under educated about them. So I hope, for the few people that read this, and maybe future readers that this post brings a little bit of clarity and takes away some of the fear of the cloth diapering world. As a child, my mom put us in something that looked a little something like these:
She used these latched with pins and plastic pants. Heck yeah I was styling. I knew that if cloth diapering was anything what like my mom did there was no way I would even consider it. Financially my hubby and I wanted to do whatever we could to make it possible for me to stay home and at least stay home part time until we could afford for me to stay home full time so one of the steps we knew we wanted to try to take was cloth diapering. I started educating myself on the different types of cloth diapers....there are hundreds now! Not even sure
plastic pants even exist anymore...they kind of do but in a much cooler way now. Cloth diapers of today are so much nicer. I am a very practical person and I knew that whatever cloth diapers we chose needed to be easy, efficient, and actually work like a disposable (as in they don't leak a lot, etc). So after much research we chose to purchase the Bum Genius 4.0 Pocket Diapers. I love these things! Even my husband likes them a lot. Here is a picture:
You can't see it from this picture, but they actually have several snaps in several rows all along the top. This means that this diaper fits from when they are a newborn all the way to potty training age. You just adjust the snaps to fit them perfectly as they grow. I have had very few leaks...actually none. Abbie soaked through her diaper one night, but that was because she slept so long. It comes with two different size absorb able inserts- newborn and toddler. So now I just put a toddler one on her for overnights since it is thicker and we
haven't had a soak through since. She has had a very mild blow out....rarely, but it does happen, but I think that is going to happen at times with any diaper. I couldn't be happier with our purchase. I heard lots of good things from friends and read great reviews online. They cost about $18 per diaper and we ended up deciding to get 25 all together, but they are so worth it. So initially we spent $450 on all our diapers, but these will last until she is potty trained and through multiple children. We may have to replace a few in the future, but probably not very often. We use about 6-7 diapers a day right now. Used to be more, but the newborn phase doesn't last long. I think the cheapest I have seen diapers is at Sam's club. The sizes of diapers vary in price as well as number of diapers in them
vary...I am going to just go off of the price I saw that would have been for the diapers I picked.
Pampers 200ct about $43
It's fair to say that this box would have lasted me about a month. Kids are in diapers until lets say on average 2 1/2 years or 30 months
30 x $43 = $1290
Plus I just checked our water bill....no difference so we really aren't using that much more water to wash diapers.
So I am saving $840 approximately using cloth diapers with Abbie. That doesn't even take into consideration the amount we will save with future children cause we won't have to buy an entire new stash of cloth diapers again.
www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com is a great website all about cloth diapers, care of, and you can order pretty much any supply you may need for cloth diapers there. Sarah, the owner is very helpful. I have found that she tends to be somewhat biased and opinionated about what she thinks how things should work with cloth diapers so take
her with a grain of salt. Don't be afraid to educate yourself and come up with a system that works for you even if it is different then what she recommended.
You do have to be careful what detergent you use. Here is the link to the safe detergents list on pinstripesandpolkadots website:
http://pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoicesataglancepspd.htm
We chose to use Planet detergent....
One of our local whole foods stores carries it. It's under $10 a box for 64oz and I have hardly even made a dent in it. With cloth diapers its so important not to overuse detergent or it causes build up and water (aka urine and poop) start to repel, and who wants to have a repellent diaper!? So you hardly use any detergent and I seriously think this box will last me at least 6 months probably longer.
I must say I found the whole choosing a detergent, making sure I was washing and caring for my cloth diapers a little overwhelming so if you want to have the problem solved for you. Here is my formula...no thinking, just do what I am doing and you shoul
dn't have to worry about detergent build up etc in your diapers...
It reads as follows:
-Rinse poopy diapers into toilet
-Cloth wipes can be washed with diapers (throw in diaper bin)
-Use warm water on wash cloth to wipe babies butt (or
use regular wipes just throw them in garbage)
To wash diapers:
1st cycle prewash in COLD water- do not add any stain removers. Only use planet detergent. For a small load use 1tsp- large load use 2tsp
2nd cycle set on casual on hot cold setting and add a second rinse
I made this little index card with all instructions th
at hangs above our washing machine....its foolproof. Now my hubby and I can look at it and know exactly what needs to be done. We have an HE washer so if you don't have one just double the detergent amount. Many times I throw the load of diapers in at night for the prewash cycle, and then run the second cycle when we get up in the morning. Feel free to browse the pinstripes website though. She has lots of great tips and you need to do what works for you. I just know it all overwhelmed me a bit so for those of you who don't want to think about it....I just did it for you :)
Now I am sure you saw on the index card the thing about cloth wipes....yeah that whole thing came to me about my third trimester and all the sudden I realized...what do you wipe with when you use cloth diapers. Whenever I use disposables babysitting etc...I always tuck the wipes inside the diaper and throw it all away. Well you can't do that with cloth cause you aren't throwing them away. I started researching cloth wipes. Soun
ded gross to me at first but I have to say I love them! They work so much better than disposable. A dirty diaper that I would normally use 3 disposable wipes on typically only takes one maybe two but rarely...cloth wipes. I researched online before doing so and found recipes for cloth wipe spray that you spray on the cloth before wiping the
ir bottoms. We were told to just use water and it works really well. Abbie's skin doesn't get irritated at all, and things come really clean. Better with the cloth wipes then the disposables actually. The thing with using water is...you can't just leave the cloth wipes soaking in water. Minerals etc are in our water and you know how water smells when its been stagnant after awhile...you don't really want to wipe your babies skin with that. All the tutorials online say to change the wipe solution that you make every like 3-5 days or 5-7 days (something like that) So I came up with my own solution. Distilled water. I bought a spray bottle from the hair supply area at the store and filled it with distilled water and just refill it when I need to. Now I don't have to worry about minerals, and harmful bacteria growing in it, and I don't have to remember to go to the sink and wet down wash cloths every ti
me I change a diaper. I just throw these in the diaper pail after use and wash them with the diapers...so easy!
Now for my diaper organization system.
Here are some pictures of our changing station:
If you look to the left of the changing pad you'll see the cloth wipes. I took 2 containers from regular disposable wipes...one has disposables in it for when we need it and the other is where I stack my cloth wipes.
Above the changing table is a shelf that has lots of stuff..lotion, baby qtips, etc. On this shelf I store my bottle with distilled water, diaper rash creams, corn starch and coconut oil (I'll get to the reason for those in a minute...)
Now this is an important picture....this is the top drawer of the changing station. Has all the cloth diapers in it. Reason its important...we have pocket diapers which means you stuff the absorbable insert into a pocket. I quickly decided that stuffing these every time I do a load of laundry would get old really quick so instead we stack the outer covers into piles, the inserts go into another pile, and its so easy to just grab one of each when changing Abbie. Makes for less time folding laundry in the long run. Now of course when w
e send her to daycare we stuff the diapers for them but for at home use...it seriously takes two seconds to stuff it with an insert, and you might think having them ready to go would take less time, but my hubby and I hate folding laundry so this just works for us, and it's still really neat and organized. Oh and yes...I did just say she goes to daycare which means...you don't have to be a stay at home mom to use cloth diapers. It's really not hard at all if you simplify your system to what works for your household.
Everyday we just stack the diapers at the end of the changing table and we "sort" them later. She is getting longer though so I might just stack them on our diaper pail. What I mean by this, is before we go to bed we put the diapers in the pail...pull
out the inserts from just the wet diapers and the covers and put them in the pail them dump out the poopy ones. Bum Genius makes an awesome hose that connects to the water on your toilet...it takes water from your toilet tank to spray out onto the diapers to get the poop into the toilet. I highly recommend having one if you are going to cloth diaper. Here is a picture...
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Also for a diaper pail we just use a garbage can. I put a garbage bag in it...change it when needed (it still doesn't smell so I will leave it in there until it starts to bug me, and toss an arm and hammer scented thing in the bottom...
November 16th, 2011
Just wanted to post a quick update since I wrote this original post. We started having some "smell" issues with our diaper pail awhile back. It wasn't keeping the smell in like we had hoped. I did learn after this that plastic absorbs odors. Also they do make diaper pail liners which are made from an material that keeps odor in, however the top of this liner would still be open. Because of this we chose to go with what is called a wet and dry bag by planet wise. This bag also has the odor containing material only it zips at the top and holds all smells inside. One side can hold clean diaper and the other holds dirty diapers. We only use it for dirty diapers on a daily basis until we are ready to wash them. This bag will hold 24-25 diapers total and they can all be wet or all be dry. This works great since I only own 24 diapers and typically wash them when it gets to about 18-20 diapers. You can find these bags on www.pinstripesandpolkdadots.com. I highly recommend them and we haven't smelled a thing since we switched!
And last but not least diaper rashes. I found out from a friend (luckily before I learned the hard way) that you can't use creams on your cloth diapers...again can cause repelling. So either use disposable diapers and whatever creams you need to during this time, or I also researched and found that you can use small amounts of coconut oil on your babies bottom during this time with the cloth diapers. Coconut oil has natural antibacterial and antifungal properties...thus helps to treat/prevent diaper rashes caused by bacteria or fungi. It's worked well for us so far if Abbie has a slightly irritated area. Also the pinstripes website recommends this as well if you would like to keep using your cloth diapers during a rash...
Diaper rashes should be treated according to your physician's recommendations. If you need to use a rash cream, you should use a stay-dry liner or a piece of fleece between your baby's bottom and the diaper to prevent the cream from transferring onto the diapers.
