Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diapers and all of their glory

They’re not as scary as you might think they are!  Promise. 

A lot of moms ask me about cloth diapering- I am by no means an expert, but after cloth diapering for 16 months, I suppose I have some experience to back up the hours of research I did before my daughter was born.  So I am here to blog today to testify that cloth diapering is simple- yes. SIMPLE. Contrary to popular belief it doesn’t take hours out of my day, it doesn’t make me gag, and it doesn’t make my house smell.

When I first notified my family and friends that I was planning to cloth diapers almost every single one of them gave me grief—“yeah, goodluck with that” seemed to be their motto, only expecting me to do it as a phase- maybe a month- tops!  If you are getting this same reaction, let me be your friend and tell you that you can do it!  And It will be awesome.  Promise—do you trust me?

     
     Getting Started

It took me a while to decide which cloth diapers to choose- since there are a plethora to choose from.  I finally decided to go with BumGenius 3.0!  They now have a BumGenius 4.0 (I bought a lot of those when they first came out).  I think you’ll agree with me, cloth diapering is addicting, and you’ll want to buy ALL OF THEM!  Hehe Some advice? Don’t get too carried away… Oh who am I kidding.. Go nuts! ;-) This website  came to my rescue when I got carried away, myself. 

BumGenius 3.0/4.0 is wonderful, I chose to buy the hook and loop closure – which is Velcro.  It performs like a disposable diaper, really; when putting it on baby you pull the Velcro tabs and wrap it around baby- and close- easy peasy.  This came especially handy over snaps (the other option) when my daughter turned – oh 8 months old and changing her diaper became a wrestling match. 

      When It Comes To Washing

EBF -If you are EBF (exclusively breast feeding) no need to rinse diaper, just throw in w/ the rest of the pile.

If baby is eating solids and makes a messy diaper- just pop the poop in the toilet, or wash off in the sink- nbd – I do this immediately, I don’t wait until laundry day.  

Wash cycle – You must do a rinse cycle first, then add detergent, start the wash regularly- with a rinse cycle at the end.  Wash water must be hot. 

Detergent – I use rockin’ green detergent, it is made for cloth diapers- I got lucky and won this- You don’t have to go out and buy any special detergent, it is likely you have what you need at home- a dye-free scent- free detergent- I use All Free and Clear- just use half as much as you would normally use. I bought a big bottle for $10 before my daughter was born and used it on her diapers and her clothes and it lasted me 15 months. wowzers!  ps. do not use fabric softener- it will cause your diapers to leak.  

To Dry – I line dry my diapers, always have, they have never seen the inside of my dryer – actually none of my clothes have.  But it is perfectly okay to use the dryer- just 86 the dryer sheets – this will cause the diapers to repel pee pee and leak. 

Assembly—Once everything is dried, it’s time to stuff the diapers- this takes me like 15 minutes to stuff the inserts into the liners, big woop. And I’m done!  Not too time consuming, right? 

     Accessories 

Diaper Sprayer…. Waste of money.  Seriously. Lol I have been cloth diapering for 16 months and not one time have I used a sprayer- I have heard mixed reviews on them.. but for me; it looks like a pain- they attach to your toilet water- so each time you use the sprayer you have to adjust the water pressure.  Poop can be gross, sure- gag worthy even—but I never had a problem quickly rubbing the ends of the diaper together and washing the poop down the sink. 

Diaper pale…. I use this pale. I bought at Babies R Us for like 15 bucks.  It gets the job done- line with a trash bag, or not- whatever.

     Benefits of Cloth Diapering

The Benjamins - we all know diapers are a major expense when raising a child- With cloth being able to last for multiple children it is a major relief for your pocketbook! {did I just type pocketbook? I’m awesome.}

So I will crunch some numbers for you- I spent $250 on 24 diapers, 24 wash cloths, and a spray bottle.  I use the {cheap} wash cloths, nothing fancy, and the spray bottle instead of wipes, and I got my diapers on sale- I got a little lucky- nonetheless That is my cost for diapers until my daughter is potty trained.  And they will still be usable for my second child, yay!

After some major googling, I discovered the average cost of diapers per year is $864/year ($72/month) not including wipes (about $10/month right?) and diaper cream (which is super expensive).  Craaazy!

Babies Bottom – My daughter has never had diaper rash- never.  This is because cloth diapers are free from all the chemicals that are found in disposable diapers - here are a couple that creaped me out--
        --traces of dioxin, a toxic by-product of the paper bleaching process, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer- linked chemicals.  It is banned in most countries, but not the US.
        --Tributyl-tin (TBT) a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals
        -- Sodium polyacrylate, a type of super absorbent polymer.  also known as the substance that increased the risk of women getting TSS from tampons.  Gross.


Go Green! recycle!  The statistic is like; up to 60% of our landfills in the US are filled with disposable diapers!! eek!  What's even worse is that they take over 500 years to decompose!  Yikes!  Can you put that picture in your head for a moment!?  Seriously. 

 I could talk {type} about cloth diapers all day- there is so much information to learn about them!  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask :)