Connor Chronicles: Cloth diapers and You

Cloth is not for everyone, if you are going to exclusively cloth diaper your child, there are a lot of things to consider. What kind of diapers do I use? What kind of soap do you use to wash them? What do I do with them when they are dirty? How do I wash them? Am I going to use cloth wipes as well? How does that work? Some of these questions you just have to answer on your own through trial and error, some you can figure out by reading articles online.

This is what we have found that works best for us.

When getting started, pick a couple of different cloth diapers that you would like to try, and order them, or find them used. If you are not sure that you are going to be able to continue cloth diapering, or are only going to cloth occasionally, don't spend tons of money on your starting diapers. If buying used, make sure the person you are buying from took care of the diapers correctly, and that you can see/feel the diapers before you actually buy them.

After choosing your diapers, decide what you want to keep them in clean and dirty. We use baskets under our sons changing table to keep them in when they are clean.

When they are dirty, we keep them in a trash can that we purchased at Target for around $15. In the trash can we use Planet Wise wetbags, that we purchased online for about $15 each. Planet Wise has a wide range of wetbags in a wide range of colors. We also use Planet Wise wetbags on the go, when we use it, we just dump the diapers in the dirty storage, and turn it inside out, and put it in our dirty storage can until wash time.

We have a variety of different diapers we like to use, My favorites are FuzziBunz and BumGenius. The FuzziBunz One Size version (adjustable to different sizes) run a little small, but if you chose the perfect size, they work really well. They are one of my least leaky diapers. I also like Kawaii diapers. Kawaii is my husbands favorite to use. Their one size diapers fit a wide range of sizes. They fit Connor when he was first born, and they still fit him now that he is 24lbs. We also have what are called "prefolds" which are more of the diapers that our mothers and grandmothers use to use, they are just... better! And you don't have to use diaper pins with todays prefolds, if you don't want to. We use what are called Snappies. We use our prefolds as back-up diapers for the most part, just in case some of them aren't dry by the time we need them, or we just get busy and don't get the washing done in time. Prefolds are an inexpensive way to try out cloth diapers. Econobum diapers are a great one to use if you are unsure. A trial pack is only $11.95, and that comes with 3 prefolds, and 1 cover. Other options are All in ones (AIOs) which are just a one piece diaper (so nice!) it just takes those a little while longer to dry, so keep that in mind when you are purchasing! My favorite option is the pocket diaper, which is a cover, and a removable insert. They dry more quickly, but they do take a little more time to put back together (stuffing the insert back into the diaper) than the AIOs, and the prefolds, I just pull off the rack and into a basket.

Here is our washing regiment:
-After diapers are soiled, we shake out any solids into the toilet and remove the inserts and place them and place them into our diaper trash can.

-I usually give myself 1 days worth of clean diapers. Depending on the age of your baby, you may been 5-10 left clean for 1 days worth. What we do, is once a month we count how many he uses in a day in his baby journal.

-When I'm down to the number of diapers I need for 1 day, I take my dirty bag into the laundry room and dump the dirties into the washing machine, and run a cold rinse to combat staining.

-Replace the wetbag in the trash can with the clean one. I usually spray my can with lysol, in case there is an odor.

-Once the cold rinse is clean, I pull the diapers apart in the wash if they are stuck together from the spin, and dump in my soap. We use Rockin Green Cloth Diaper detergent, which comes in different scents, as well as different varieties for different water. Run a warm wash cycle.

-Once the wash cycle is over, I pull the diapers apart once again, and we run another warm rinse to ensure all of the soap and solids have been removed, and to combat odor.

-Once all of the cycles are finished, I hang the diapers out to dry on a drying rack in our home (when it's cool) or outdoors when it's warm. If your child has any pollen allergies, you may want to keep your diapers indoors for drying. You also see on the drying rack, a couple of our different wet bags, and a variety of diapers, and inserts.