Cloth Diapers Suggestions?

Hi! Good job! You have made a smart choice for you and your baby and the environment! I have been using BG 2.0 for 10 months and I like them very much. There are washing instructions on the tag of each diaper as a reminder. Here is what I do. Shake solids or disposable wipes into toilet, remove insert with fingertips, tuck insert into center of dipe and fold in half for easy handling. Then I store them in a wet bag for no more then 2 days before dumping the bag in the wash. I waited too long once and I could not get the smell out of 2 of the inserts. You can buy wet bags online in very cute patterns that you will not mind leaving out in your laundry or bath room. I throw the bag in the wash with them. Run them through a cold rinse cycle. Wash hot in any free and clear detergent (Purex goes on sale often and works just as well as Dreft on these, but don't get Purex "baby" it has lots of fragrance in it, make sure it is "free and clear"). You do not need a lot of detergent, less is more in this case. If they seem to smell after the wash, you can add vinegar to the rinse cycle (use a downy ball). Tumbly dry low. The BG inserts take a while to dry, I have to run them through the dryer a 2nd time. Or, you can hang them to dry to save a few bucks. As for storing them prior to washing, you can sprinkle with baking soda, but I have a home made mixture I sprinkle on top of them: 50/50 baking soda and washing soda powder mixed with a few drops of essential oil (citrus and tea tree have the best odor absorbing properties but you can use anything you like, I sometimes use chamomile or lavender). Not only does this keep the bag from smelling while waiting to be washed, but I do not need to add detergent to the wash and it's very economical. I just mix it up and store it in tupperware then shake a little on top each time I put a dirty dipe inside. The diaper champ brand diaper pail works nice for cloth diapers, too, and may make more sense if you have a lot of diapers. Good luck with them. And feel free to email me if you have any other questions about BGs.

I remember I was once on the cloth diaper kick- got my first delivery- sent them right back!
Why put yourself and your baby through all that? The urine just sticks to the babys skin...
Do the other diapers.

I'm so glad to hear that you are using cloth! Your investment will save you money, and the earth. I have not used Bum Genius specifically, but understand that it's a pocket diaper. Do you have a diaper pail with a tight lid? For wet dipes, shake/pull the pieces apart and drop in. For soiled, shake the poo into toilet, and rinse with sprayer if you have one. If no sprayer, sprinkle baking soda and water onto soiled area, and drop into pail. DO NOT SOAK DIAPERS IN PAIL! That's what they did in the old days. Wash every 2-3 days: Drop all dipes into washer, and soak in cold water about 1/2 hour. Drain. Even if your dipes only fill the drum partially, set it for a large/extra large load. Then wash in hot water with only 1/2 the normal amount of detergent. Use something with no dyes/perfumes, not Dreft or natural oils. Hang in the sunshine to sunbleach. Dry 10 min. in dryer to get soft. No fabric softener! This will coat the dipes so they won't be absorbent. You may feel that you're spending a lot of time washing and drying dipes, but at least you're not going to work just to pay for diapers! Do you have a daycare that will agree to do the cloth when you return to work?

I agree with what everyone has said so far. I store dirty diapers in a dry pail. The pail is lined with a wet bag. At the end of the day..the wet bag is dumped in a bigger dry pail in the laundry room which is lined with a bigger wet bag. I wash every 3 days. I have lots of diapers that I rotate through. I use sandy's motherease diapers. When I wash I put in a small amount of sun and earth laundry detergent..run through a cycle and then run through another cycle with NO detergent. Then dry. When I can sun, it is worth taking the time. I also use wool diaper covers, which I love love love. (I also make them and sell them!) Anyway, good luck. There are lots of great websites out there with lots of great information!!!

This is right from the website:

Care Instructions for bumGenius 3.0/2.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper (polyester outer)

Shake solids into toilet and store in dry pail
Remove insert before washing
Fasten tabs to laundry tabs on inside of diaper.
Wash once in cold water with no more than 1/4 (high efficiency machines) to 1/2 (top loading, regular machines) of the detergent's recommened amount per load.
Wash once in hot (up to 120 degrees) water with no more than 1/4 (high efficiency machines) to 1/2 (top loading, regular machines) of the detergent's recommened amount per load. Optionally (and only occasionally), add 1/4 cup of bleach to this cycle.
Add an extra rinse to remove any lingering detergent in the diapers.
Tumble dry on the warm setting.

I cloth diaper as well, bum genius is our primary diaper.
For storing the dirty dipes we just use the diaper champ. I typically wash every other day. Be sure to use a cloth diaper friendly detergent (use may have gotten a list)
I prefer sun & earth this way I only have one detergent for all of my laundrering. And nothing w/ any fabric softners, this includes Dreft!
A great way to remove stains is by sunning on the line- it works wonders!
Good luck! Cloth diapering is wonderful!!

I'd highly recommend getting a diaper sprayer which attaches to your toilet. It makes cleaning the yucky poos off the diaper much easier. I don't know if it's because of it or not but I've been using the same diapers for 15 months and never had a stain.

If you get a strong annomnia smell I'd recommend putting vinegar in a cold rinse and then doing a hot wash with baking soda along with a little bit of detergent and then rinsing in cold again.

Hi, K.! Hooray for cloth! I've been CD'ing my son since his meconium passed & I LOVE it! I wish someone had told me how easy (and fun!) it is when I had my daughter. :-)

Generally, the wash method I find most effective is:
*wash in cold/cold with the recommended amount of Allens Natural detergent (I got mine from www.CottonBabies.com)
*Run another cycle of hot/cold with NO detergent but add some white viniger & tea tree oil to the rinse cycle (natural softener & anti-bacterial)
*dry in the sun (to bleach stains) & then soften in the dryer. If that's not possible, just dry (what you can!--NOT PUL) in the dryer w/ a beach towel to shorten drying time. Remember not to use any sort of fabric softener, including dryer sheets!

Hope that helps some!!!
A.

I have Bum Genius and the old fashioned prefolds w/ covers. We just used the Diaper Champ we had from disposables and a regular trash bag. Our diapers were washed every 2 or 3 days, I think (my son is now potty trained and I haven't started my newborn on cloth yet). There was absolutely no problem w/ smell. I was surprised. All diaper changes were done in my son's room, so that's were the diapers were kept until wash day. When we emptied the bag into the washer, our eyes watered from the ammonia smell, but nothing in our son's room. We have the wet bags as well, but they were only used for travel or if the Diaper Champ was too full and I wasn't ready to wash yet. They did smell unless the string was pulled really tight.

Good luck,
T.