I’ve had several friends ask about cloth and I wanted to give a concise reference material for them as well as anyone who has any cloth questions. If I haven’t addressed a question you have, please post it and I will do my best to answer it.

Why did we do cloth?

Honestly, price. When Boaz was born we were in a very desperate financial situation and simply couldn’t afford disposables. They weren’t even an option, it was always cloth. Now, a year and a half later, we choose to continue in cloth because of the environmental factors as well as health benefits, the cost now is just a bonus.

What is our diapering story?

My mom really started it all. As a baby shower gift she had paid for a year of a cloth diapering service. The service supplied the prefolds, diaper pail and bags and all we would have to buy would be the covers. At first we bought 3 Bummis Whisper Wrapcovers which I ruined very quickly by washing them incorrectly (using Tide – Free and Clear built up detergent residue which caused wicking). We then bought 4 more which I ruined (again!) by improper washing techniques (bleach = no-no).

When Boaz was 4 months old we decided to go with pocket diapers. The prefolds and covers were not working for us. They leaked, had wicking issues, and seemed to be giving Boaz a rash. As a last ditch effort I researched pocket diapers extensively and we gave them a go. We bought 6 FuzziBunz and 6 BumGenius 2.0’s.

The pocket diapers solved all our problems. No more leaking, no more wicking, no more rashes. They were almost perfect.

They just weren’t very cute. Colorful yes. Cute? Notsomuch.

Since we were back on the cloth diapering bandwagon we decided to experiment with various types of diapers. I bought a few of each: SOS’s, Sumbuns, esbaby’s, Lovelybums and goodmamas. For the obvious cute factor.

Unfortunately, fitted diapers (diapers that need covers) don’t work well for us. Boaz would always leak out the sides or top – which might have had something to do with his size (he was always in the 90th percentile for height and weight) or  how he moves. All-in-ones were great but never had the absorbency we needed either. I tried using a doubler or a prefold to help but they were too restricting and made it very difficult for him to move.

We have been 100% FuzziBunz for the past 9 months with Boaz and Gideon is now in a mix of FuzziBunz and BumGenius 2.0’s (the ones we bought for Boazlast year). Pocket diapers gives us the flexibility the boys need while allowing us to stuff them with extra inserts to prevent leaks (since they both are the heaviest wetters in the world).

How do you store the dirty diapers?

We use goodmama wetbags which are probably the best wetbags on the market. We don’t use them as a wetbag though, we just throw the diapers in there and viola, stored diapers. They keep the smell contained very well and it is usually about day 4 or 5 before you can tell they even have diapers in them.

How do you wash them?

This is a very important question. Washing diapers becomes a science and one that I did not master for 8 months. It took me a while to get into my grove and stop ruining my diaps. We do a cold rinse with1 c.  vinegar (this gets rid of the ammonia smell), next we do a hot/cold  wash on the longest cycle set to the largest load with 1/4 c. detergent (while you can use a variety, I use Arm and Hammer for Sensitive Skin and have not had any repelling) and several drops of Tea Tree Oil (this helps get rid of odor as well as sanitizes) and finally one last cold rinse (to get rid of any detergent residue left over). I do not wash more than 15 diapers at a  time.

Since I have used this method of washing I haven’t had any problems with wicking and almost all my diapers are in amazing condition.

Most sites recommend drying your diapers on low-medium heat in a dryer or line-drying, but we have dried ours on high-heat with no issues. The higher heat gets rid of any bacteria and is essential if you have problems with yeast.

If you have stains, I have heard that sunning is the best method for getting rid of them. Since we live in Seattle and only see the sun a few months out of the year, I’ve not tried that particular method. A bit of lemon juice in the final rinse does the job for us, but really, the stains come out very well without any added stain-removing methods.

What do you do with the… you know….

There are several types of baby-poo and several different ways to handle them in regards to cloth diapering.

Breastfed poo – nada. You can just put the soiled diaper right in your wetbag. It is water soluble so you needn’t do anything special with the diapers before washing them.

Formula poo – You soak them. This is when the wet-bag should become a wet-bag. Add water and baking soda into the bottom of the bag and soak your diapers. I have heard that you can just treat the diapers like breastfed poo diapers but have not tried that myself.

Toddler poo – If you can’t just shake it off into the toilet, soak the diaper in the toilet (disposable gloves are my bff) for a few minutes, then put it into the wet-bag. If that idea irks you, buy a sprayer. The fleece lining of the diapers is created specifically so that the poop does not stick to it (unless they’ve been sitting in poo for a while) so it comes off, 95% of the time, without any effort.

What would you tell someone starting out?

First and foremost, know that each baby and family is different and what works for us, may not work for you. Buy a variety of diapers to start and see which ones you like more. Many people prefer fitteds (kissaluvs 0) for infants because they fit better, while others prefer all-in-ones because you don’t have to worry about inserts or covers.

Buy used. Either on diaperswappers.com or on the clothdiapering community on Live Journal. You can save hundreds of dollars buying gently used diapers from other mama’s.

If you are not comfortable buying used, I recommend Abby’s Lane or Cloth Diaper Outlet. I have had tremendously great experiences with both and usually get my diapers in about 1-2 days after I order.

I would buy 2 of each: fitteds, prefolds, covers, all-in-ones and pockets. And see what you like best and what works best for your baby. What doesn’t work you can always re-sell on the communities listed above and get a very fair price for them or pass them along to a family who is considering cloth.

I don’t use a sprayer but if you feel more comfortable with one, by all means, I’ve heard good things about them.

I don’t use diaper liners but have in the past. I think they would be helpful if your baby had a stomach flu but they are pretty unnecessary the rest of the time.

Make sure you don’t buy more than your baby needs. I know it may sound odd, but you can only use so many before you have to launder them due to smell, so more is not necessarily better in this situation. I would recommend buying 24 diapers to start (which is about one wash every 3 or so days) although you could get by with as little as 12 if you don’t mind washing every other day. Infants use more and toddlers use less so also consider the age of the baby when buying. Boaz uses 18 every 3 days, Gideon uses 24 every 3-4 days.

What diapers are most husband and grandparent friendly?

For those who have a hard time with all those fandangle-snapps and inserts, my husband recommends FuzziBunz. Honestly, we are probably 100% FuzziBunz because they are so husband friendly. I do all the washing and inserting and just leave a pile of diapers under the sink, all he has to do is snap them on and put the dirty diaper in the wetbag. It’s absolutely no different than using disposables. 

What do I get out of it?

The RDA has some great facts for those that want to know the nitty-gritty of what the benefits are, but I’ll break it down to: knowing you are not filling land-fills with thousands of diapers, a rash-free baby behind and living more organically.

And a lot of money. The reason we started cloth in the first place was money. I would like to say we were trying to save the environment, but really, it was all about the money. It costs about $1500-$2000 to diaper one baby in disposables (for their entire diaper-wearing life) [this number is based on my personal estimate, we usually need 1 1/2 packs of disposables per week per baby but my dudes are heavy wetters. I've seen the number higher and lower than what I am giving you]. We have two babies which would cost us $3000-4000. Cloth diapering has cost us $800 (this is on the higher end of cloth diapering, you could spend as little as $300 and have enough diapers for your babe!) and we don’t have to pay for another diaper again – ever, moreso, whenever we decide we are done with cloth we can always re-sell them and probably get about $300-400 for my entire stash. $400 for 2 babies in diapers for 2.5 years? Come on, how can you beat that??

There are tons of trials with cloth and we’ve experienced them all. Wicking diapers, yeast rash, leaks. But we really wouldn’t do diapering any other way.