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| These is NOT my stash, but can I be honest and say I'm jealous?! |
Laundry Routine
The laundry is by far the most daunting hurdle for people I think. They're worried about the quantity of laundry and the poop. First let me begin by saying that Kaiya is exclusively breastfed so I can't weigh in on formula poop, but breastfed poop is the most innocuous stuff on earth. It doesn't smell, and it literally just rinses off the diaper, even after a day or so in the wet pail. So, at least for the first 6 months while she's being exclusively breastfed, the poop is not a deterrent, even for John who some of you know has almost a phobia-level fear of poop. ;)
My laundry routine is as follows:
Step 1) Remove dirty diaper from baby and throw in wet pail.
Step 2) Every 24-36 hours rinse poop off diapers. They sell toilet sprayers for this, but I just use the kitchen sink and then clean it out real well, though like I said before, breastfed poop has pretty much nothing in it to be afraid of. I'll probably get a toilet sprayer when she starts eating solids. Note: you can go up to 48 hours if you have enough diapers, but you shouldn't go longer than 48 hours without rinsing.
Step 3) Throw diapers (and cloth wipes if you're using them) into the wash for a soak cycle on cold. No detergent necessary.
Step 4) Run load again on a wash cycle on hot wash/cold rise with detergent and no fabric softener. I currently use Nellie's because it had great cloth diaper reviews and I could get it on Amazon, but after checking it's safety rating here, I decided that we'd switch to Planet as soon as the Nellie's runs out.
Step 5) Tumble dry low, again no fabric softener. If they are still a bit damp when they come out, I throw them over a chair for a bit before folding them and putting them away. Note: The type of diaper you choose will also determine dry time. AIO's (All-in-ones, meaning one piece, nothing to stuff) take longer to dry than any of the other types. I used newborn diapers until she started peeing through them (meaning she had developed a bladder too big for newborn absorbency capabilities), then I transferred over to pocket diapers.
Other Stuff You (May) Need to Cloth Diaper
- Wet Pail & Wet Bag. A wet pail is like you're diaper genie for cloth diapers. There are a lot of cute ones. In an effort to reduce the amount of stuff that we needed to buy, I decided to just use a blue bucket that we already had. When they get stinky, I'll probably need one with a lid, if for no other reason than because I want this wet pail liner:
A wet bag is what you throw in the diaper bag so you have someplace to put the dirty diapers when you change them. It's waterproof (and smell proof) and they come in all sorts of cute patterns:)
- Cloth Wipes. You obviously don't need cloth wipes, but I read something while I was researching that broke it down easy. "If you're using disposable, use disposable wipes. If you're using cloth, use cloth wipes." This truly is the easiest way to do it. If you're already doing laundry and have the wet pail handy, just through the cloth wipe in there too. Plus, if you use disposable wipes, then you need a wet pail and a garbage pail where you're changing. That, or you have to fish through the wet pail later and throw out the disposable wipes.
You can buy cloth wipes from amazon, or there are a bunch of sellers making cute ones on Etsy. I just made my own (of course). I made 10 from flannel (double fabric) and 10 from terry cloth and flannel. I like the ones from flannel and terry cloth better because they're more absorbent. I'll probably need another 10 more since I tend to run out when I'm pushing the 36 hour mark on laundry.
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| How cute are these wipes?? |
- Flannel liners or Cloth Diaper friendly diaper rash cream. You can not use most diaper rash creams with cloth diapers because it reduces their absorbency. If you don't want to void out your warranty you can't use ANY diaper creams in a cloth diaper without using a liner. I personally don't care about the warranties, mainly because I got half of my diapers second hand (more on that below) but also because there wouldn't be any way for them to know if I used a diaper friendly cream or not because it washes away.
If you wanted to use something like Desetin you can buy liners, which you place on top of the diaper before putting it on baby's butt, or you can use strips of flannel. Cutting up an old receiving blanket is an easy way to make a few inserts.
As for diaper-friendly creams. I use the California Baby diaper rash cream for sensitive skin. It washes away nicely and it's better at preventing and treating than the Angel Baby Butt Balm that I had been using before (which is also diaper friendly). Note: The review of the California Baby diaper rash cream are horrible on Amazon. I bought it from drugstore.com and didn't see the reviews. I will say, we have not had a problem with it, but we don't really use it to treat her, only to prevent her from getting a rash, so we haven't had any issues with her screaming in pain. That being said, the reviews for California Baby's Calendula Cream are much better.
- Wipe Solution. You are more than welcome to just use water, I use a little homemade solution with tea tree oil and lavender oil that helps prevent and treat diaper rash (recipe below) but you can get as creative with it as you want.
To get the solution on the wipe you can pre-soak your wipes in an old wipes container if you want and just ring them out prior to use, or you can use a spray bottle and spray the wipes. I personally use the little squirt bottle the hospital gave me (moms, you know the one I'm talking about).
My wipe solution recipe:Preferred TYPE of Cloth Diaper
3 cups warm water
10 drops tea tree oil
5 drops lavender oil
2 tablespoons soap (I use the Burts Bee's wash because it's what I was given so I had it on hand but I would also recommend Dr. Bonners Baby Mild Soap.)
1/4 cup olive oil
I'm not going to go through all the types myself because there are other sites that do this better than I could. I personally liked this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64os5I4_Z9Q
I will tell you that I have a couple types. I was gifted a couple AIO's, which are lovingly referred to as the "grandparent diapers" because they're super easy for anyone that might be babysitting or watching the baby as they have almost no learning curve. They function just like disposable diapers and are great to stick in the diaper bag. Her newborn diapers were AIOs, and I think most newborn diapers are.
I also have a couple hybrids, which I like because you can keep the cover and just change the inserts, which ideally mean less laundry. My favorite though are the pocket diapers because they can be pre-stuffed so that they function like an AIO if you stick them in the diaper bag or hand off a bunch to grandma, but they are two pieces and come apart in the wash. This means that they dry faster.
Preferred BRAND of Cloth Diaper
I'll start with the newborn diaper. There aren't too many brands that I've found with a specific newborn diaper, mainly because most claim they are OS (one size). Don't be fooled. I haven't found one OS diaper yet that fit our 8lb baby well. I decided after trying the various OS diapers on her to get a specific newborn diaper. The one I choose to go with was Bum Genius. I liked this diaper and thought it worked well. One thing I will say is that it said it would fit newborns form 5 to 12 lbs, but as soon as Kaiya hit about 10 lbs, she started leaking through it. Reviews on the diaper tell a similar story, but by that point, she was able to transition into the OS diapers without looking too ridiculous. They're still a bit big, but not ridiculously so.
I have a number of brands of cloth diapers, mainly because I researched the hell out of which were the best, and everybody gave a different answer, so I just bought a couple of a bunch. Some were larger brands like bum genius, others were smaller like Sprout Change. In the end, I fell in LOVE with GoGreen diapers.
The GoGreen diapers are made in the USA (Colorado), made with really high quality materials and are SO soft. I also really like the colored snaps so that it's easy to tell which snaps you need to use to size it appropriately. They're also one of the cheaper diapers at only $15 full price (compared to $18-$20 each for other brands). They come in lots of cute colors and patterns too. My personal favorite is this cow print:)
Where to Buy
You can get cloth diapers from any number of sites. I like www.cottonbabies.com, but my favorite place to get them is from the second hand sites like www.diaperswappers.com. They have great rules and regulations that protect the seller and buyer, and the 15 diapers I've gotten from them were in great shape and shipped quickly. Think it's yucky to buy second hand diapers? You are welcome (and encouraged) to sanitize them once you get them :) The ones I got were completely stain free and in excellent condition, and I paid 50% of what they would have been new. You can't beat that!
Ok folks, I realize by the length of this post that it really isn't possible to talk about the process of cloth diapering in an abbreviated manner, but I hope I at least "cut to the chase" enough to only provide the necessary and most useful information.
Should anyone have additional questions, or need further information, feel free to comment or email me. I'd love to see a couple more cloth diaper converts. For every baby that uses cloth it saves 1 TON of diaper waste from hitting landfills! Plus, it makes for cuter baby butts:)
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