Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Cloth Diapering Journeys

We are in love. In love with our son, our life, the snow, the very decorated Christmas tree, and finally, our cloth diapers. We are VERY in love with cloth diapers. Despite the doubt and resistance we received from friends and family we always knew we would cloth diaper. For those of you who had doubts--we sure showed you!

For the first few weeks we used disposables and every day was a nightmare. I had poop on my legs, shirt, hands etc from EVERY single diaper explosion. I don't know if it was the breastfed poop or what but it managed to find its way everywhere EXCEPT Kannon's diaper. So when that disgusting umbilical cord finally popped off, we slapped on a prefold without ever turning back.

Kannon is almost 7 weeks now and we are still cloth diapering (cd'ing in my world) and looking forward to spending our Christmas cash on a new stash now that Kannon is growing out of the newborn prefolds. For those of you who are looking into Christmas presents, please send diapers! That being said, we have family in friends in town who will be introduced to the cloth diapering world, so I thought I would sort of do a diapering 101 so it wont be so confusing. Enjoy! If you have questions, feel free to ask!


Part of our stash

The Stash:
Our stash is pretty simple. We weren't sure what we were going to like so we started off with 24 prefolds, 2 Snappis, and 3 Thirsties covers which we got used for $48. Then we added 2 BumGenius 3.0s and 4 gDiapers. We also got 36 washcloths for $8 from WalMart which we use for wipes with a spray bottle. We can go 2-3 days between laundering. For our whole stash we spent $98 and our laundry costs are free since the cost of water and electric is already thrown into the cost of rent. Lets do the math: a 36 pack of diapers at $9 last us 3 days. Kannon is 7 weeks old, so had we been using disposables we would have already spent $130 on diapers...can you imagine how much we would have spent if using disposables for a year? Two? On other future children? So, our cloth diapers have already paid for themselves!


Our organization system

Washing:
Laundering is the best part. Instead of bundling up and heading to WalMart for disposables (which can sometimes take an hour or more) we just toss a load in. We run a cold rinse, hot wash, cold rinse with 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent and a little lavender water. Then we toss everything but the BumGenius and covers in the dryer with a dryer ball. All in all, this process takes an 1 hour and 20 minutes---plus, I get to stay in my pj's the whole time. For a complete list on washing diapers


Kannon in a Little Lions prefold and Thirsties Cover

Prefolds:
These are the most simple and straight forward. They are pretty absorbant and very forgiving, which with the millions of different ways you can wash cloth diapers, we like that simple fact. You can fold them in a variety of ways using the newspaper, jelly roll, angelwing, bikini twist or can fold in threes and stuff in a cover. We use snappis instead of pins and throw on one of our Thirsties covers. We love to use the bikini twist fold, as it seems to do the best job containing all the messy poop and fits the trimmest between our little one's thighs. For more information on folding.


Kannon in his gDiaper

gDiapers:
We were initially really excited about using gDiapers. For the first couple weeks, we used prefolds as inserts and it worked great. Then, Kannon got bigger and getting his gDiapers to fit was more of a problem, in fact, he peed everywhere but the diaper (including onto my 20 year old brother who was not so thrilled about this). So, we started using terry cloth inserts that I found onsale and now we are in love with our gDipes again. Dale likes these because we can keep them preloaded for nighttime changes. You simply place the insert into the plastic liner and snap the liner into the cloth cover and voila. You put it on just like a disposable and when the diaper is soiled, you just toss the insert in the laundry and place a new insert in. These are more expensive than prefolds but have a little more to offer in terms of convenience. For more info on gDiapers.


Kannon in his BumGenius 3.0


BumGenius 3.0:

This is your standard pocket diaper and we have a love-hate relationship with it. The diaper is made of two pieces, an outer cover made of PUL waterproof fabric and lined with microsuede and a microfiber insert that you place inside the pocket. These are easy to keep preloaded and you slap them on just like a disposable. The great thing we love about these is the ease, trimmness, absorbancy (great nighttime dipe!) and they are one-size so they can be used for years to come. However, we still have our issues. We are not crazy about pulling a wet, heavy, stinky insert out of the pocket, especially in the middle of the night. My husband often forgets this step, which leaves me searching through a pile of dirty dipes in the morning to pull out a COLD, stinky, wet insert. Dale hates the price of BG's which are $17 a pop (remember though, you will use these for years!). These are a little trickier to wash and every time I wash them, I feel like I am playing with fire. I am sure it will get easier as we go along. We are still in search of other options, I have heard SmartiPants are a good alternative but we shall see. Really, our complaints are small as these are probably the BEST cloth diapers. If I could afford a whole stash of these, I would probably go for it, but for now, these are our luxury dipe. For more info on BG's.

Dale and I fight every day over what our favorite diaper is. I love the BumGenius 3.0s but Dale likes the simplicity and forgiveness of your standard prefold and cover. We love our gDiapers but we ADORE our BG's. We havent tried your all in one's nor have we ventured onto fitteds. There are so many options from BSRB's, to GoodMamas, FuzziBunz, and more. The makers of BumGenius now offer Flip! and EconoBum. There is so much uncharted diaper territory! Yet, as Kannon gets bigger and in need of something a little more absorbent I am sure we will start exploring more of our options....I wish we could just ask him what he preferred....although, I am guessing he could care less as he has been spending more time pooping the bath than in his diaper!

1 comment:

  1. you should try the BG organics all in one!
    I love those diapers. Very absorbent with organic cotton and very trim. Plus, they have snaps which I love because the BG 3.0 velcro gets worn out. I also LOVE Tiny Tush Elite pockets with snaps, but you have to pull out the inserts with those.

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