Advice on Cloth Diapers

Hey K.,

I recently switched my 3 month old over to cloth diapers to save a little money and the environment. To start with, I went to Sunspot and found a diaper called the G diaper. Now, It is basically a cover with a pad that goes in the middle and it is flushable. Kinda nice for on the road or people who are cloth phobic. What I've been doing with quite a bit of success is using the plain ol 12 pack of Gerber prefolds you can get at any store (Meijer, Walmart, and Target) and a little device called a snappi (you can get them on Amazon.com for $2.50. They work instead of pins. It's like a little claw that catches the fabric and not the baby. Anyhow, I use this and cover it with the G diaper cover while at home and use the flushables for the road. It is a lot cheaper than the other cloth diapers I've checked out, and so far so good. As for night, you could try adding a doubler, but once they get toddler size, nothing really contains it entirely. We are using a disposable at night for my oldest. Haven't had near the trouble with diaper rash. My oldest had a lot of problems and he was in disposables much longer. He too is doing better with cloth.

As far as maintaince the research I've done recommends to use a detergent with few irritants or a soap like castile and 1/2 cup of baking soda. Whatever you do, do NOT use bleach. It will break down the fabric and make the diaper less strong. Also, do not use fabric softener. It makes sense that you want the cloth that touches your baby's bottom to be soft, but the softener actually forms a layer on top of the cloth making it less absorbent. Instead, use vinegar in your fabric softener cup or downey ball. Another tip is this awesome product you get in the baby section of any of the above mentioned stores and it is called Totally Toddler. It is AMAZING!! Basically it is an enzyme cleaner that gets out pretty much anything organic if you put it on a stain right away. The final thing I'd recommend is this groovy little liner that goes in the diaper by Kushies. You can get them the cheapest at Walmart.com. They do not carry them in the stores. But it is like a thick roll of toilet paper. It collects the solids quite nicely and you just flush it. It prevents the stains from being so bad. No nasty dunking and swishing. Then spray your diaper with Totally Toddler and pop it in your diaper pail until laundry day. Hope this helped you out! Good luck!
Jaime

You can use "snappis" with your prefolds...they just stick on to the diapers. Very easy. Or you can use pocket diapers. DON'T use diaper cream or ointment with pocket diapers though.

I used cloth diapers for 15 months with my son (then he went to daycare and they won't do cloth :( ). Here's what we used:
newborn-3 months: Kissaluvs fitted diapers (these have snaps)
3 months - 15 months: Sugarbritches fitted diapers.

Basically, all the "Fitted" diapers have snaps and elastic around the legs and waist. They're great. You still need a cover on them like you do with the pinned prefolds. We usually used the Motherease Airflow covers.

A great place to check out reviews is at www.diaperpin.com
You might consider "one size" type diapers too. We actually used Motherease One Size diapers for a long while too, but my son is so skinny that they didn't really fit him that well. My sister has been using the One Sizes on her son for the last 16 months. You can also get used diapers for a lot cheaper - check the Motherease forums, and also www.diaperswappers.com.

As for washing etc, here's what we do (we have a front-loading washer) - this is the routine I came up with after quite a lot of experimentation:
1. Wash in cold water with Tide detergent (yes, it matters - we use the regular blue scented kind but it can be "free and clear") and about 1/2 cup baking soda.
2. Wash again in hot water with NO detergent but with 1/2 cup vinegar in the rinse cycle (I add it to the fabric softener dispenser).
3. Dry
The baking soda and vinegar mostly take away the urine ammonia smell.

If you have a top loading washer you can also try doing a cold soak with baking soda, then drain, then do a hot wash with the Tide and vinegar in the rinse. My front loader just doesn't really have enough water to do the soak effectively.

As for night diapers, we tried a bunch of different combinations - putting a doubler into a regular diaper etc. But once my son was sleeping through (or even when he was just down to 1 snack) we found that nothing really worked. We use disposables at night.

Once your baby starts eating solids their poop needs to be removed from the diaper before you wash them (with just breastfed I just tossed the dipes, poop and all, into the wash and they came out fine). You can either just plunk it in the toilet if it's solid enough, get a sprayer to spray them off in the toilet, or get some rubber gloves and swish them in the toilet to get it off. You can also get "diaper liners" (I know "Diaperaps" makes biodegradable ones that you can actually flush and reuse if there's just pee). We never got these to work as well as we wanted, though.

Good luck! Congrats on cloth diapering! We really loved it and will go back to cloth when I have baby #2 in June and am home again.

Just a thought since I struggled w/the decision on cloth vs disposable. If you are using cloth and NOT using biodegradable/environmentally safe soap, you are simply putting more pollutants into the land w/regular soap washing all the cloth diapers. Bio soap can be expensive so then are you really saving money? We went w/disposable, but either way I guess we mess up the world : ( too bad they don't come out potty trained!

i've been using cloth diapers for over a year and love it! i learned everything i know on diaperswappers.com. i use a variety of diapers but i love the cute diapers at pot belly pig designs: http://www.middleearthdiaper.com/catalog.php?category=116

my wash routine: (i have a top loading HE)
"ultrahandwash", heavy load, auto soak (this essentially soaks the diapers). if exceptionally poopy i might interrupt the cycle when it's full of water and leave it to soak for a few hours.

then heavy duty wash, heavy load, second rinse, hot wash cold rinse.

then normal wash, auto load, second rinse, hot/cold.

then dryer.

feel free to message me with any questions!

I use cloth diapers and love them.
Try Bumgenius diapers for a start. I use different kinds, but these are the ones I leave for babysitters because they are so easy and work so well. They fit babies from 8-35 pounds and go on just like a disposable.
You can see them here:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=98&amp...
Feel free to message me with any other questions you have :)

I used mother-ease diapers and covers. I can't remember exactly but the ones I bought were good for a long age range. I never had any issues with leaking. I used a mild powder detergent. You should never use fabric softener on them as it disrupts the absorptive qualities. They say line drying is better than in a dryer but I have never had the ability to do that. Good luck.

Definitely check out the Snappi! They are awesome, can be found on ebay very cheap, or I've seen them at Be By Baby in the city, or Gepetto's Toy Store in Oak Park. You can continue to use the prefolds you have, you just won't have to worry about the pins! Snappi's ROCK!

As for cleaning- we soak in cold overnight with a bit of baking soda, then spin, and then wash in hot with Shaklee soap and a bit of OxiClean Baby, or Shaklee's Nature Bright Laundry Booster. It's all good for the environment AND works well!

T.

I'm doing the same thing as Sarah. Motherease Airflow covers and prefolds. We don't use snappis or pins...never have. We wash every 5 days now that my daughters 15 mths (got there at about 8/9 months).

We wash with 1/2 oz of Melapower scentfree detergent with a cold prerinse sometimes and then a hot/cold heavy wash once, and throw them in the drier. The sun is great for the stains if your worried about getting them out.

Check out the yahoo group: Cloth diapering is Natural. You get a whole bunch of info and can ask all your questions of lots of CDing mamas.

Welcome to the club! We really love it.

H.

Wow I could really write for days on this.. we use cloth diapers as do all my mommy friends and we all use different ones. There are SO many now and there are so many options that you should never have to use pins. To save your "ears" i will just tell you ot go to toastybaby.com and look around. I know this lady personally and she will com to your house or wherever and show you all different types and how you use them and she is very affordable. We LOVE our cloth diapers and really hate having to use anything else on "daddy" days! SO honestly PLEASE call Renee (toastybaby.com) It will save you alot of greef and confusion! Good Luck!... Oh yeah and we started a "support group" for cloth diapers as well.. ask her about that too!

I am cloth diapering my third baby, and still using all the same diapers and covers that I bought with my first. I use chinese prefolds with mostly Mother-ease and Prorap covers. I use the Snappi (mentioned in PP), it helps a lot, it is kind of like a big plastic/rubbery ace bandage fastener. It grips the diaper with plastic "teeth" instead of using pins. I bought 24 each of two different sized prefolds, although at this point you could probably skip the smaller size. I don't do anything different for overnight and do not have any leaking with the Mother-ease snap covers. Now that my son is on solid food (and poops are much more formed) I dump the solid waste in the toilet and the wet diaper goes in my diaper champ pail (with regular trash bag liner). Every 3-4 days I wash them. By that time I am almost out, and they can start to smell if you go any longer. I run a cold water rinse first, then a hot wash with a "free" detergent (no dyes/perfumes) plus a 1/2- 1 cup of baking soda. I rinse in cold water with a 1/2- 1 cup of vinegar. The baking soda helps with whitening and removing odors, the vinegar helps restore a neutral pH and rinse away any detergent residue, leaving a very fresh, clean smell. In the summer I put any stained ones out in the sun before drying them, the sun is amazing at removing stains! You can also put them in a sunny window in the winter (if you can find a day the sun is actually shining), but winter sun is not quite as effective. You can also buy flushable, paper-y, liners to catch solid waste. They keep the solid waste from staining the diaper (especially with more formed stools) and somewhat reduces the amount of wetness against baby's skin. I have enjoyed CDing very much and hope you find a system that works for you. Good Luck.
S.