Changing to Cloth Diapers: Any Advice?

Hi A.,
Congratulations on going cloth. I've cloth diapered both my girls, there are more options now than with my older daughter 13 years ago.
I suggest 2 - 3 dozen Diaper Service Quality Cotton PreFolds (DSQ CPF's) and 5 - 8 covers depending on how often you'll wash. I wash a full load of 24 - 30 diapers every third day. Covers can be alternated between use until smelly or dirty then tossed in with the regular laundry. I like Bummis brand covers, LiteWrap is another decent and resonably priced cover.
I use a dry pail. Shake solid BM into the toilet (just remove the soild stuff, the rest will wash out fine) then store wet/dirty diapers in a dry pail until wash day. First do a cold water rinse, then a regular cycle with 1/2 the usual amount of detergent, and finally an extra cold water rinse to remove all detergent residue. If diapers begin to retain an odor I add baking soda to the wash cycle along with the liquid detergent (I use Planet), and vinegar to the rinse cycle in the fabric softner cup or a downy ball. Avoid fabric softners and Bleach. Bleach wears out the diapers quickly and isn't effective in removing stains (I learned that the hard way with daughter #1). I like to toss the diapers in the dryer for 10 - 15 minutes so they'll dry soft, then hang them in the sun to finish drying. The sun disinfects the diapers and removes stains.
I too use FuzziBunz at night (and some other brands of pocket diapers like Happy Heiney's and BumGenius). I add an extra insert for night time, I love that the microfleece pulls wetness away from her sensitive skin.

www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm and www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html have good information on detergent choices for cloth diapers. You can find a retailer that carries Bummis by going to www.bummis.com and see the different products they make. www.1cascade.com carries litewrap covers and some cloth diapers. The March/April 2008 issue of Mothering Magazine had two informative articles on switching to cloth, back issues can be ordered at www.mothering.com if you're interested.
Best wishes finding the routine that works well for your family. - K.

2 moms found this helpful

I think cloth diapers are the most responsible way to go. Since you work, you may want to consider Tiny Tots diaper service.
http://tinytots.com/ds/price.html
They serve all of the bay area, and the price per diaper is less than half if you were to buy disposable. I used the service for both of my children, now ages 4 and 5.5.

Tiny Tots will set you up with a pail, and these amazing deodorizers, and some diaper covers and the amazing "snappy clips". They send you the diapers appropriate for your child's size. The best part is that they take all of the soiled diapers in the pail, and you are left with a bag of clean diapers every week, at your doorstep!

Now if this cost is too much, you can discontinue service, yet keep the pail, and continue to buy those deodorizers,and stock yourself up with your own cloth diapers, and covers. This is what a friend of mine did and it worked out fine, other than she then had to rinse the poop out of the diapers for laundering herself.

I found that the basic nylon/cotton covers worked fine. But I liked the wool for night time as my kids were super soakers. There are many resources on line for wool covers, but they are definitely more expensive.

good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

Great choice!!! "paper diapers" are chock full of chemicals, and I only use them when we travel. I can't stand the smell of them!

For the diapers: Get about 3 dozen prefolds.
For the covers: About 6. I like the bummis super whisper wraps.
For fasteners: Get Snappies--about 3-4

For a pail: get two liners (so one can be in the wash, and the other in use) and any large, lidded trashcan. I got mine from "organized living" You do not need to put any water in it. Just having the lid on will control odor.

AND--get a cheap spatula to help you scrape poop into the toilet.

If your son is a big pee-er, you'll need some liners, too. Same as the number of diapers.

And when he gets older, you'll need some "toddler sized" diapers to "double bag" him at night.

For detergent: any locally available no dye-no perfume will do. Wash 1 wash (no rinse) with soap and some Oxy Clean on cold/cold. Wash a 2nd time (wash and rinse) with a little soap on hot/cold. Then dry. If you're good, you'll pull out the covers before putting them in the dryer, but I only do this 1/2 the time....

I've bought all my diapering stuff from GreenMountainDiapers.com, and the owner gives GREAT advice, even if it means she refers me to another vendor!!!!!!!

Congrats on making such a wonderful choice for you, your child and the environment!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi A.,
I use bum genius inserts in G Diaper covers. - you can also get disposable/flushable/compostable g diaper inserts for when you are on the go.

I use bio clean or country save laundry soap. For super soiled loads I add a little oxy clean, and to the rinse cycle a little vinegar.

I soak the dirty diapers and the wash clothes( I do not use wipes) in a pail with soil love laundry stain remover.

My local raleys carries all these items.

I have priced around a lot and found www.800diapers.com to be the best for diapers.

Good Luck, A.

1 mom found this helpful

HI A.,

I have used cloth diapers for my son who is now two. I bought my supplies from www.diaperaps.com. They are a great company with great products. I use a dry diaper pail. When it's time to wash, I throw all the diapers in the washer and do a rinse and spin on cold. I then wash the diapers (with detergent) on hot/cold with a double rinse on the end. They come out great and don't smell. I have never had to use vinegar. For detergent I used to use Tide before I switched over to a non-toxic, eco-friendly brand. If you are interested I buy all my house hold products from www.melaleuca.com. All of thier products are environmentally friendly, non-toxic and biodegradable.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

J.

1 mom found this helpful

I have no advice on cleaning the diapers as we used a diaper service, but on the rash - what works well for us is simply rinsing the rash with water after the baby voids, and then letting him run around pantsless for as long as you can stand. Even simply allowing air drying should help.

My experience with cloth diapers was that anything with a solid plastic shell was actually warmer and more rash inducing than plain old pampers. They also keep the wet close to the baby - unless you get fleece lined cloth diapers.

Best of luck!

I recommend Bummi's super whisper wraps... mine get washed on hot and dried on hot and have survived to tell the tale. We started with 7th Generation delicate laundry soap in our front-loader but WholeFoods stopped carrying it... we now use Planet. Our choice in laundry soaps was driven by the research shown on pinstripes and polkadots... here's the site for front-loading washers:

http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/hedetergentchoices.htm

We use two capfuls of vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. When a diaper gets wet or soiled the solids go in the toilet and the diaper gets thrown directly into the washer. Depending on volume we did laundry every day or every other day... I have two boys parktime clothes to wash so making a full load is very easy. I do a prewash with just the diapers/covers/doublers and then throw in the rest of the clothing to fill out the load for the regular wash cycle and include a 2nd rinse. All my laundry gets the same treatment... diapers, covers, hemp/cotton fleece doublers (for heavy wetting), and clothing. Please do not use Dreft for your diapers... it builds up and causes them to be less absorbent. This I know first-hand. With my boys' sensitive skin I was washing the entire family's laundry in Dreft before putting 2:2 together with the terrible diaper rash :<

I used cloth diapers exclusively for my daughter over 25 years ago. As for diaper pails, I put water and a little pine-sol. when it was time to wash, I would pour the entire contents into the washer, spin it out and then wash. I always used Dreft laundry detergent. the cloth diapers will be much better for your son's diaper rash - my daughter never had a diaper rash. First, you can tell that the diapers are wet so you change more often. Also, more air gets to your baby's skin which helps alleviate rashes. As for covers, your standard rubber pants work fine although my daughter-in-law recently told me she's been unable to find rubber pants at either Walmart or Target. I doubled the diapers so I made sure I had about two dozen - that would cover 12 diaper changes which would last about 1-1/2 days so you do have to wash quite often. Good luck! I love to hear that moms are using cloth diapers again - better for baby - better for mother earth - better all the way around!

Have you thought about using a diaper service? I loved having a diaper service!! I have no idea if it would be cost effective in this day and age vs you doing it all yourself, but it was so nice not to have to deal with all that. Just dump the solids in the potty and pitch the rest in the pail!!

Wow! What changes to the cloth diaper scene since I was using the old Bird'seye diapers on my kids 35 years ago! All my preschool/daycare experience in the past few years has been with children whose parents use disposables, so I'm not familiar with most of the newer diapers mentioned here.
I will second Jill W.s recommendation of the Melaleuca products. We have been using them for laundry and all other cleaning products in our home for the past few years and find them to be effective and safer than most of what you can purchase in the stores. They have a whitener called Brite that should keep the diapers nice and white. Someone mentioned putting the daipers in the dryer for ten to fifteen minutes to soften them, then hang them in the sun to finish drying. That's a great idea too. We also bought some of the little dryer balls like you may have seen advertised on TV. They have little 'spikes' sticking out all over them. We found ours at the Dollar Tree store (I believe they run about ten dollars for two of them in a package most places, but ours were a dollar for the two... maybe these are 'seconds' from the company, but they have worked fine). The balls help fluff the clothing up and make them softer without damaging the fibers.

If, even with cloth diapers, you end up with an occasional rash, I highly recommend the product Boudreaux's Butt Paste. I was most amused at that name when one of my parents brought it to daycare for her son, but soon realized it works much better than most of the other products and is safer for their delicate skin.

A.,
Lots of folks are advising eco-friendly detergents in their responses. Thought I'd throw mine out there too. I have used Ecos for about 4 years and LOVE it. I used to get it at Trader Joe's but found that Costco sells a container that is two and a half times the size for the same price.

I use the bumGenius 2.0 One-Size (now they have the 3.0).

I made the switch with my last baby now 16 months old. I couldn't decide wich ones to get either until I read all of the raving reviews of the bumGenius Diapers. They had more great reviews than any other cloth diaper I found.

I LOVE these diapers over all others because I only need one diaper size to fit my child from birth through potty training. I spent a total of $425. for 24 diapers and 20 cloth wipes. That is all I will ever have to spend from birth through potty training and I can use them on my next baby.

I am such a believer in the ease of use, cleaning and cost. There is free shipping on cloth diaper orders over $75. at www.naturalmomandbaby.com You will find a great video there also that shows you how they work.

Shalom!

I switched to cloth almost a year ago (my daughter will be 2 soon) and I am so happy I did it. I feel that they are much better for her and the enviroment. I can't really help you with the prefold questions because I use AIO (All In Ones) or AI2 diapers. But I also use Country Save laundry soap that if you live near Roseville you can get at Sunrise Natural Foods.

I hope it all works out for you.

I use the Bum diapers as well. The 3.0 I love them they are so nice to use. They are not as bulky as prefolds. I spent around $300 for 18 diapers, a diaper sprayer, cloth wipes and a wet bag for the diaper bag. I don't use a pail at all. I just have a luandry basket in teh garage and wash every other day. I want to get a few more so that i can wash every 3 days but we wellsee. I use arm and hammer dye free powder soap. It works pretty well but i want to try Charlies Soap. I use 1/2 cup of bleach once a few as well to keep stains under control. This diapers are designed for babies who get diaper rash really easy. They pull the mostiure away from the skin. Worked like a charm on my son. We still have to use diaper rash cream once and a while. When you do with these diaper you must use a liner so the cream does not get on the diaper. Once the cream is on them it never comes off.

Good luck with the swicht

biocleen works very well and is suggested by green mountain diapers. It is available at whole foods and other health oriented stores. If you can hang dry in the sun the diapers stay fresh and white! Good luck!

We have been doing cloth diapers since birth, and I'm really happy with them. I will admit, I use a diaper service :)
So I won't be your source of advice about laundering them. But, I have loved the store, Tiny Tots in Campbell for all of our diapering needs. I got the basic $20 hamper, and haven't had many problems with smell. There is a slot for a little deodorizer disk which seems to do the trick wonderfully. The only time we had odor issues was in the dead of summer. And when we started changing the bag out twice a week instead of once, the problem was solved. And now we are back to once a week, and no smells.
Good luck. I too chose them for the benefit of the environment. I couldn't handle knowing that each diaper takes 500 years to decompose! Yuck!!!
The staff at Tiny Tots is wonderfully helpful as well.