Cloth Diaper/ babyG's

I loved cloth diapers (Fuzzibunz) but I stayed at home. The reality is that you do have to wash them every day or 2 at the most, unless you can afford to really buy a lot. I hope this isn't a negative comment, but you do also need to have your childcare to agree to do cloth, even though, tossing them in a bag isn't too hard, but then you will have to take the poopers out at night and soak in toliet, if they won't do it. I do think cloth diapers are easy (if you are at home,) but not as easy as disposable. I just would hate to see you even more overwhelmed. Maybe when the baby is 1 and not using as many diapers and the other one is 4 and easier to manage. (3 is a tough year) you can switch to cloth. Good luck.

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My husband was against it too, so we did not do any sort of cloth diapers. I had one friend that was SOOOO for it, I swear, it was like she was marketing for them...and she kept telling me how great it was, how it didn't smell, etc etc...and I just want to be honest with you. I visited her house ONE time, and I had to go to the bathroom...and it just smelled SOOO bad, like ammonia, from her pail of soaking diapers. And she laundered almost every day. So I just want you to know that there is the potential for a terrible smell...I know you said no negative replies, but I hope you don't take this as negative. Just trying, from an outsider point-of-view, to be helpful. I honestly thought it smelled so bad, and she couldn't smell it because she was just used to it, I guess. In my young adult single years I had a cat who peed on my couch every day before I got him fixed, and I swear, her bathroom smelled worse.

I am so sorry, but I just had to tell you that...maybe it will help as far as deciding how you are going to soak them, launder them, etc. I'm all for it, but I think you must have to be very dedicated. Good for you, seriously!

In order to maybe turn mrslavallie sort of negative into a positive, her friend maybe didn't strip her diapers. Stripping is a really deep cleaning to get rid of detergent buildup and ammonia residue. When you strip diapers, you usually leave them in a solution of your detergent of choice or there are stripping products out there and lots of hot water. You soak them for several hours and then wash and rinse. It really isn't any harder than washing the diapers.
I haven't had any chance to use gDiapers, but I have heard a lot of great things from them. I would suggest getting on to a diaper forum so that you can ask more people about them. Sadly there are only a handful of CDer on here.
I do have a blog that you can also go look at to see if other cloth diapers might peak your interest.
largebummies.blogspot.com

There are many reasons her friends diapers probably smelled. For one, she was very likely not washing them with a cloth diaper friendly detergent. Enzymes in detergents can cause all kinds of problems. We use Country Save. It's about $12 a box and lasts us 5 months. Detergent is VERY important with cloth diapers. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me :)

Here is what I do with my cloth diapers. When my son has a poopy diaper I spray it out (with a sprayer that attaches to the toilet) and put it in a pail. When he has a wet diaper, I put it the pail. Every 2 days, I wash them. My washing cycle goes like this. Cold rinse 1/4 scoop detergent. Hot wash 1/4 a scoop detergent. Cold rinse no detergent. Cold rinse no detergent. (You can opt not to do a second rinse, but I find they are cleaner that way.) Once a month or every 2 months, I strip them. This simply involves washing them on hot many times.

One note: We noticed no significant raise with our water bill. We would throw in my son's clothes with the diapers, so we didn't create another load.

i bought my cousin some for her baby shower. she says she loves them for her baby. she did say she had to wait till the baby was a little bigger. the inside is neat they have a plastic sling to hold the pad . i will be using them with my next baby :) i can under stand the smell part so maybe keep the dirty diapers in the garage or something :) i know i would be doing laundry every night with them :)

Baby G's are awesome diapers. I was like you and wanted cloth sooo bad, my husband wanted what was easiest. We bought one of four types of cloth diapers to try and see which one worked best. When our son was born we couldn't use any of them! I can't explain why but they just didn't fit right, the poor little guy just leaked through and saturated everything around him, we even took hi to a local cloth diaper store to make sure we were using them correctly.
So unfortunately, we used the same pampers that the hospital used and they were fine. Once our son became a bit bigger, the Baby G diapers won out. The only complaint I had was that the inserts, when filled with a full bladder shrink out of their little slot and wad together between his legs. However I think this has more to do with my son's hip configuration than the diapers ( its like he's not meaty enough to hold the diaper against his skin correctly), but I still highly recommend the Baby G diapers, they are a great concept and an affordable option over disposables and under the full laundry consumption of cloths.

Good luck! You husband may be surprised to find that he really likes them!

I love my cloth diapers! I use all types. I have prefolds, fitteds, pockets, sleeves, all in ones, all in twos. Basically, if they make it, I have it! LOL! I didn't know what I wanted, so I just got one of everything. :) It was SUPER intimidating at first. I had no clue what I was doing. I just decided one day to take the leap! It's not as difficult once you get going. My daughter was a teeny weeny baby, so we used newborn size prefolds from Green Mountain Diapers with Bummis extra small covers at first. When she filled out, I was able to use more of the one size pocket and sleeve diapers. It's a lot of trial and error, to be honest! And what works for my baby might not work for yours.
I store my diapers in a dry pail. A wet pail is a HUGE no no. First of all, storing diapers in nasty water? Ewwww! And it's also a health hazard once the baby starts crawling. I use a trash can with a lid. I did have a large wet bag that I lined the pail with, but after almost 2 years it finally gave out. The trash can works just fine. I wipe it out with a Clorox wipe when I throw the diapers in the wash.
I prefer Rockin' Green detergent for my diapers. You definitely want a cloth diaper friendly detergent. I've heard good things about Country Save too.
The laundry isn't really all that bad. I wash every 2 or 3 days, depending. I do a warm rinse, a HOT wash with cold rinse, a Warm wash (no detergent) w/ cold rinses. Then I toss them in the dryer. It takes me about 10 minutes to sort and stuff my diapers. I do it while I watch TV at night.
I highly recommend checking out The Cloth Diaper Whisperer blog. They have LOADS of great information!
Good luck on your journey! I'm always happy to talk fluff, so feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Hi Momma-
I am not completely educated on all the cloth diapers nowadays because I don't have little ones just quite yet, but my mother used cloth diapers on my, my older sister, and for the first half of my baby sisters diaper days. So I knew how to pin one of those bad boys when I was 5! Anywhoo, my mom didn't have a diaper service...I am sure from the sound of it she would have LOVED babyGdiapers. What she did was, each morning she would fill the washer with detergent or baking soda and vinegar or something soakable, and when a diaper was dirty, it got rinsed or emptied into the toilet, and then dropped in the washer. When dinner was finished and the babies went to bed, she started the washer. 40 minutes later, she tossed them in the dryer and went to bed. Next morning, fresh nappies!
In the summer, they all hung on the laundry line with the rest of our clothing to save money on energy costs.
Those inserts sound awesome.
Keep a large ziplock baggie for dirties when you are out and just toss/rinse them and put them in. When you get home, drop them in the washer. If that gets to be too much, there are some really great/ supposedly very green disposables that you can use when you will not be home during the day, and that may be a good "outing" option.
Good luck, and congrats on the newest little one! It will all work out and your husband, I am sure, will turn a positive note. It probably seems a little daunting to him which is why he is having a hard time with it. He'll come around!

All the best,
E.

I didn't use G diapers, but Fuzzi Bunz. (You wash the entire diaper). One work of advice: rotate with disposables if you get overwhelmed! I am still using Fuzzi Bunz and my daughter is 19 months old. (also have a 4 yo). I absolutely LOVE the option of having cloth diapers and inserts because I am saving so much money! Use a free and clear detergent, do a rinse load and then a hot load. It also helps a lot to buy a little sprayer that attaches to your toilet to spray off the solids before washing them. Good luck!

Hi H.-- I used cloth with both of my kids now. I had started with my son when he was about 8mos b/c he had a diaper rash that was constant and we couldn't get rid of it.... cloth cured it. So, I have a bit of everything... I used prefolds and a few different types of pocket diapers to start. It is intimidating... there is a lot of info out there, and more and more companies making diapers all the time. The big thing to know is that not every diaper is going to work on your particular kid. Some that I loved on my boy do not work on my little girl. It all can change as well as their poop changes (I know, gross but true).

I tried gdiapers with a cloth insert but the outside covers weren't strong enough on my boy... I gave them away fairly quickly. They look cute, and are somewhat thinner than the other covers, but they leaked. The velcro tabs on the back also rubbed him a lot so I had to put fleece over it.

I used a lot of different sizes of prefolds with my daughter until she was about 6mos, or started solids. Then I started using the pocket diapers as well (I mainly have Bumgenius, but I have some Thirsties, Grovia, etc. as well). You can message me if you want more info on anything-- the diapers, washing, pail, etc. You already have a lot of answers so I don't want to be repetitive if someone already answered questions for you.
Good luck!

I absolutely love my gDiapers! I just switched to this brand and have been really happy. I like that they aren't super bulky like most othe cloth diapers. I am still having trouble getting my husband on board though. He is grossed out by touching the dirty inserts to throw them in the pail. But I think they're awesome! I especially like the biodegradable inserts for when we're out and away from the house. I do use disposable diapers at night though because the cloth inserts can't really contain a full night's worth of pee (and I'm still trying to wean my husband from disposable diapers) but the compromise there is to use chlorine free diapers from seventh generation.

My DH was really hesitant about CDing, but I really wanted to do it. So I did a ton of research (I admit, I found it really overwhelming at first, bec. there are so many options!).

I do diaper laundry 2x per week, maybe occasionally 3 when he was small. I bought a lidded trash can with a step-open-lid, and sewed 2 washable/reusable liners from fleece I bought at JoAnn's (you can also buy them). We use prefolds and some fitteds and some all-in-ones (AIOs). DH uses the fitteds, with a cover, and the AIOs. I use the prefolds.

The must-have, though, has been the flushable diaper liners. When the baby poops, you just flip it into the toilet, liner and all, and it goes down, ta-da! Minimal handling of poop (that was what convinced DH to give it a go... he was utterly grossed out by the thought of scraping w/ a spatula or using a sprayer and spraying microscopic bits of poo around the bathroom! LOL).

Having a good fitting cover for the fitteds & prefolds is a must, imo, to minimize "blow-outs." We have mostly used the "seconds" covers from Prorap Diaper service, which cost $5.25 last time I bought some, a couple of months ago--way cheaper than other covers, and they are only listed as seconds because sometimes the velcro is the wrong color along one edge, or stuff like that; functionally they are fine!

I also used myuseddiapers.com and diaperswappers.com to buy used diapers. That allowed me to try various brands, etc. and also not pay the "new" price (it kills me how expensive some of the AIOs are, some at $20 a pop!). You might also see if there is a "natural" baby store around your area--the one in our area has a twice-yearly swap where mamas can sell used diapers (I believe the store gets a small commission on sales, but it's still really worth it).

Some of the diaper manufacturers offer sales or discounts or carry used diapers, too. Kissaluvs is one that does, and I'm sure that there are others.

If you want to try CDing, but are scare of the laundry, you could see if there is a diaper service in your city/area. They drop off clean diapers & covers and a laundry bag, 2x per week I believe, and you set the diry diapers on the front porch them to pick up 2x a week (on the clean diaper drop off day). YMMV.

If you're doing diaper laundry, it's a really good idea to get soap that is good for cloth diapers--most brands you find in the store leave a lot of residual gunk on the diapers that you can see and over time it will stop the diaper from absorbing. We use Charlies Soap & fragrance free Biokleen; I've heard good things about Allens soap. Avoid the 'free & clear' soaps in the grocery store. If you can't find or don't want to order soap (we just switched all our laundry to Charlies, really, it's cheaper & you use so much less--1T per laundry load most of the time!), choose the cheapest powdered laundry soap you can--the cheapest ones will have the fewest fillers.

We tried g-diapers for our twins and I liked them, but not for exclusive use. My babies were 6.5 lbs at birth, so we had to wait until they were 8 lbs to try the size small.

They worked well for daytime changes that were urine. THey were a little bit of a pain in themiddle of the night when you're sleep deprived or changing a diaper in the dark. Also when the babies get to a point where they sleep for longer durations at night, the g-diapers really cannot handle a lot of urine. And they REALLY cannot handle poops. It almost always leaked onto the plastic pouch or outer pant. We would rinse these and put in a plastic groccery bag hanging off the changing table and would wash them along with any other rinsed soiled items (including washcloths which we used instead of wipes in the first couple of months) in a small load of laundry with just these items every day (twins, ya know.) Though when we occastionally skipped a day it really didn't stink up the room, believe it or not.)

My favortie thing about them, in addition to being more enviro, was that I never had to worry about running out of diapers! We could always use them in a pinch, and using them stretched out our diaper supply. I liked to use disposables at night . I liked to put a g-diaper on them after a poopy diaper because they were less likely to poop in them. This stretched out my diaper supply and decreased our diaper waste.

IMPT!! If you are going to flush the insert, you have to separate the outer part from the inner and flush sepaarately or you could clog your toilet!

They are pricey. So I would suggest getting a small supply to try them, plus you will have to restock when they change sizes.

Hi, I think it is great you are looking for alternatives to plastic non-biodegrdable commercial diapers. I have cloth diapered my two sons, one is still in them at 2 yr old. Here's what worked for us: I used a cloth diaper service, Tiny Tots in the South Bay area, for the first 6-8 weeks, they supp;ied the folding diapers and took away the mess once/ week, at 8 weeks we started using Mother-Ease cloth diapers, these are great diapers, they snap to different sizes and have lasted through 2 baoys, and hopefully through on more baby in the future. We had a simple human stainless steel trash can, with step on lid opener to store the dirty diapers. I only washed diapers every 4-5 days, but that will depend on how many you have, and washing is easy, add some oxygen bleach or borax to the Hot cycle on your washer. One tip: have flat folding diapers stored near the toilet where you will dump/ dunk the poop so you can carry the soiled diaper to the bin. it is totally doable, and once your husband sees how much $ you save from not buying diapers all the time, he will get on board. We also used Baby Care disposables for long trips in the car or at night time, when my sons were sleeping longer hours- that's what worked best for us
Good luck

My neighbor is using g-diapers on her baby. She used cloth diapers with her first, and disposables with her 2nd and 3rd and is much happier with g-diapers than the others. She knows what it cost to do disposables and has figured the cost of a couple extra loads of laundry every week, and feels this is the cheapest way and its earth friendly at the same time. She has mentioned that it is harder when on a trip or gone from home for a long day. She doesn't like having to carry around the wet or messy diapers, and has to remember to buy disposables for those times. I chuckle everytime I go next door to vist and she has all these cute tiny diapers drying on her porch railing. She says the sunlight really cleans the yellow stains out better than any laundry detergent. I think if my kids were babies I might be tempted to try g-diapers too.

We cloth diaper and love it. Admittedly, I was against it at first because it seemed overwhelming with a first baby, but my husband was really into the idea. I found a mom who cloth diapered and asked her to just tell me what and how much to buy... I didn't want to research anything, I just wanted to be told what to do. It worked out great for us.

The smell can get bad for sure, but you'll figure it out!! Good luck! You won't regret it!

I also want to cloth diaper with this next child. I tried much later with my first (she was almost a year old when I tried - so it didn't work out. This time tho - I researched, checked out and am ready! I plan on buying 2 diapers from a few companies to see which I like best. Gdiaper, Grovia, Fuzzibums and 2 newer brands that offer bamboo fiber diapers.

Lotsa luck to both of us LOL - I'm not due till July

I didn't read the other responses but I used cloth diapers when my little girl (who is now 4) was young and I LOVED them! I used diapers that were called AIO or AI2 (All In One or All In 2) and those were the easiest for me and for anyone else who would be changing her. Then when you change the baby you just put the whole diaper into a container and don't even have to worry about touching much "icky" stuff. When you are ready to wash you just throw the whole thing into the washing machine.

I liked the Mommy's Touch diapers which were good from newborn to toddler (about 30 pounds). In fact... If you want I can look to see where I have my left overs and maybe we can make a deal if you would like to purchase some used ones or something then message me and I would be more than happy to meet up with you since you are in Sac and I am in Roseville.

Good Luck either way.

I love cloth diapers and used them with all three of my kids. It IS very easy and definitely worth it, in my opinion. My daughter hardly ever had diaper rash while she was in cloth diapers. That said, I used a diaper service with all three because there was no way I could possibly have kept up with the laundry. You might want to look into doing that. The cost worked out to be a little less than disposables for us, and we felt better using a resuseable product than filling up the landfill. (Disclosure - We did use disposables for going out and at night.) If you are interested in a recommendation for a diaper service, you can message me. Good luck and congrats on your new little one!