Tips on Cloth Diapers

Hi A. -- Congrats on making the switch to cloth diapering! We've been cloth diapering our son since he was a couple weeks old and love it (he's 6 months old now). It's so nice to not have to spend money every week on disposable (and not dump in the landfill).

We have a top loading washer, so I can't offer any tips for the front load... other than use a lot of water.

We use the bumGenius 3.0 and love, love, love them. They have kept explosive poops in check (we breastfeed also). I will be honest that every so often, we'll have some poop leakage out of the leg area if he is resting on his side and I haven't heard that he's had a poo (so wasn't able to change him quickly enough). But we've experienced this with FuzziBunz, GDiapers, disposable, and bumGenius. I will say that with the BumGenius, when he has had an explosive poo, the elastic waistband keeps it all inside the diaper.

The bumGenius also size up, so you only need to purchase one size for the diapering-life of your little one. That was a big financial and environmental boost. We had some FuzziBunz and I did love them, but we couldn't put in our dryer and it became stressful having enough of them on-hand, waiting for them dry, etc. But the bumGenius can go right in the dryer.

The soiled diapers go in a dry diaper bucket (with a lid) until we're ready to wash them. We use Allens Naturally detergent and have been happy with it. They go through a 20 min. cold soak, followed by a full cycle wash on hot (with very little detergent), then an additional cold water rinse.

We have about 18 diapers total and that seems to work nicely with having some in the wash, some clean. We do have to do diaper laundry pretty much every day -- but it's just become part of our routine.

We also use flushable diaper liner/shields and that helps a lot with the poop mess.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, clarifications, general support, etc... I'm happy to help!

-J.

The plus side of cloth diapers is they make excellant cleaning rags and are virtually dust free when the baby is done with them! The initial cost is there, however, and you generally have to double diaper. Great for windows, cars, dusting, etc. The other plus sides is they don't add to the environmental waste problem, and I only had two diaper rashes that cleared up in a day with all 3 children.

I generally used Purex on the cloth diapers. I have used Arm and Hammer and a lot of people like Ivory but it dried out our skin.

The down side is they can leak as well. Trying to find good plastic pants to fit correctly to avoid leakage can also be a problem.

The diaper genie to hold the dirty ones could be better than a diaper pail the smell is down some because diaper pails can smell badly! The plus of the diaper pail is the diapers are soaking in bleach water until you wash them so a lot of the staining just doesn't occur and the bleach comes out in the wash so doesn't affect the baby. My sister-in-law has a front load washer and they just made sure they set it on the large load setting so there was plenty of water, no problem.

The other plus side to cloth is when I tried disposables on my son he got an infection in his private area from wood splinters. This was not a good thing!!! The physician told me it wasn't an uncommon problem which was a scary thing!!! My son is 26 so I know there are been a lot of improvements over the years!

I used cloth for my 10 year old when at home and disposables when we were out. This seemed to work out well. Although I think the daycare facility wasn't liking my decision very much, they just had to adapt to my way of thinking about the matter because I wouldn't budge!

I just washed the diapers every three days. Threw them in when we first got home from work, etc., after changing the child, tossed them in the drier after dinner, folded them before I went to bed while watching the news. Probably only took an additional 20 minutes of my time.

P. R

I've just started cloth and love it and got most of my info from here http://www.mothering.com/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=221
I've learned more about diapers from this site than any other. You also might try diaperswappers.com to find them cheaper.
Good luck!

Hi A.!

I used disposables with my first 2 and cloth with my 3rd and will with my 4th due in July. I wish I had used cloth all along. They are SOOOO much better for baby and environment. Plus, they are so easy. If you are in Indiana, visit www.notyourmamasclothdiapers.com You can still visit it if you are not in Indiana, but Jennifer gives a discount for Indiana residents. She is wonderful.

I recommend using Charlie's Soap (not a soap at all) for detergent. It is all natural, will not cause any problems with diapers and extremely safe for baby. You can order directly from www.charliessoap.com or also another site that is very helpful and you can order from is www.sunshinediapers.com

I have tried several kinds of diapers and my favorite (by far) is Fuzzi Bunz. They are the easiest to wash, too. I have very hard water (even with our softener) and this causes problems with the diapers from time to time. I don't have trouble with Fuzzi Bunz.

Here is how I wash them. When baby is only breastfed, don't worry about poo. Just skip the first rinse cycle. If baby is on food and has more solid poo, then try to dump poo in toilet (what can be dumped) and then put diaper in pail. This is a dry system. Keep this up until a day or 2 have passed or you are in need of some more diapers. Then take the whole pail (liner and diapers) and dump in washing machine. Do a cold rinse (to help with poo). Then do a super hot wash cycle with 1 tbls. of Charlie's soap. Most then recommend just a cold rinse, but with my hard water I need to do one more hot wash cycle without anything. Then hang on the line if weather permits, if not dry on high in dryer.

My 3rd son is now 18 mos. and we have used cloth since birth with him. I absolutely love it and feel so good about what I am doing for him, and our earth!!! We have never had a poo blowout and he has some food allergies which has caused some nasty poo.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Also, if you are in central Indiana, Jennifer at Not Your Mama's Cloth Diapers has started a group for other cloth diapering mama's and kids to get together and visit, talk about kids, and talk about any problems/questions with cloth diapers.

OH, and I make a wipe solution instead of just water. I use distilled water, liquid castille soap, tea tree oil and Burt's Bee's Baby Oil (or something similar). I find this makes washing really messy bums a bit easier and helps prevent any diaper rash. Most babies do not get rashes with cloth diapers, but my son is extremely sensitive, so at times has had rashes and this helps to treat them too. Plus smells nice!!!

Take care!
H.

hello!
I love cloth diapers! I was fortunate enough to inherit about 50 fuzzi bunz and happy heinies diapers from my sister in law, I already had experience using the regular type with my younger siblings, but find that these are much easier. However if I had not inherited them the cost would have been prohibitive. I don't have a lot to add, but wanted to tell you what I have discovered. Sometimes the washing doesn't seem to get the diapers fully clean. (I use Allen's Naturally biodegradable soap and if the load is particularly dirty I add about a T. of baking soda and 1/4 c. borax.) If they seem to be getting dingy, or getting a bit of a smell to them I find that boiling them for 10 minutes (start the time when the pot has reached a rolling boil) in water with 1/2 c. of Borax and 1 c. white vinegar will take care of it every time. Also if you do cloth over night make sure you double diaper! If using a lined diaper double line it!
Good Luck!
~A.

I am a home child care provider and one of my families uses cloth diapers. The pros are definitely the cost of using the same diapers over and over again but the cons are when you are going away for the weekend and are other people going to be able to help you change the diapers?! I am currently pregnant with my 6th child (3rd with my current husband)and I too am contemplating using cloth. As far as washing, regular detergent with bleach seems to be what the parent uses to wash. You will have to rinse the poo out in the toilet but other than that it is pretty simple. Good Luck!!

Try DREFT. Also....for keeping them white, instead of bleach, try using hydrogen peroxide.

Congratulations, on that big family, A.!! Nowadays, I only change diapers when I have the chance to babysit the grandchildren. We used cloth diapers for all of my children. We currently have an HE washer and it has a "sanitizing" choice on the washer dial. This uses hot water and a longer cycle. If you have enough diapers that you can just launder diapers, then I would recommend that setting every couple times that you launder. If you are washing diapers and sheets and baby t-shirts, etc, then I would use it more often -- maybe every time. If your HE washer does not have the sanitizing cycle, then just use your hot water setting. I would think that you can use warm or cold water for the rinse cycle if you have used hot water for washing. Happy Mother's Day, A.! from a Mom whose 6 are grown.

ALL ultra stainlifter & ERA worked best for me. i bought 4 packs of cloth diapers with my son to help cut down on how many times a week i had to wash them. i also got a 5 gal bucket with alittle bit of soapy water in it and put the diapers in there until laundry day. (once a week). it didn't stink up my house if that's a concern. good luck..

I use these cloth diapers and can't say enough good things about them: http://www.kushies.com/FAQ/faq.html They can be purchased online from Walmart (of all places!).

I've been using them for 6 months and they're wonderful. We've saved so much money, and there have been times that we've stayed at relatives houses, forgot to pack diapers, thought, "Oh well." and asked to toss the diaper in with a load of their wash. We've made it entire weekends on one cloth diaper before, lol

Never bleach your cloth diapers because they will not last as long, plus it decreases the absorbency. My daughter has very sensitive skin, so I only use vinegar (1 cup per load) and Trader Joe's Next to Godliness detergent in the washer. For poopy diapers, I pre-treat with a product called "Bac-Out". I have found it at Nature's Bin in Lakewood and The Cleveland Food Co-Op. It's a bit pricey, so I'm not overly liberal with it, but it smells great and it sure does work on getting the poo out. Link: http://www.bi-o-kleen.com/general.htm

Now that my daughter is older, we've even started teaching her the concept of where the poopy should go. . . I change her and carry the diaper into the bathroom with her on my hip and we wave bye-bye to the poopy as we flush it down the toilet. I've done this with my siblings growing up and I truly believe that it has helped make potty training easier. Something that is totally lost when using disposables.

One thing that I do have to commend you on is trying to do it while she's this young. We did do disposables for the first couple of months just because she pooped so much (my daughter is breastfed as well). We switched to cloth once her poos started firming up around 4 mos (and once she started going once a day).

Good luck!

Oh my---you didn't mention the name of the diaper you were using, but can't believe that cloth diapers would be much cheaper, by the time you spend xtra money on different detergent and the water and electric drying them. I would stick too the disposable if at all posible, and try another brand to see if that didn't help.
good luck.

Hi A.,
I can't speak to whether cloth diapers are better except that they don't contribute to landfills and thus further polute the environment, but here's a link to the cleaning products that are the most economical, best working and safest for us and the environment of any I could find. They are very concentrated so don't be alarmed by the cost. You won't buy product again for many months and that's where the savings kicks in. If you'll read the testing, they outperformed many other brands but contain none of the ingredients we want to eliminate from our children's environments. Best of luck.
http://www.shaklee.net/changinglives/prodHou

I always used dreft laundry soap for baby clothes and the cloth diapers, you can get it at wal-mart. another trick of the trade is your diaper pins, if you put the point of the pin into a bar of soap when they are not being used it keeps them nice and sharp.

Hi A..
Sorry for the late reply, but I just read your request today. I wonder what brand of diapers you ended up buying? We use a brand called MotherEase (http://www.mother-ease.com/). We started using them when our son was about a month old, so for 3 months now. They are working pretty well; some friends of ours recommended them to us (they have 2 in diapers). Cloth is definately cheaper & more environmentally friendly, even with all the extra water & laundry detergent you use, especially if you use them for more than one child.
I like them because I don't feel like I'm wasting. They are pretty simple to use, especially because you don't have to use diaper pins (this brand has plastic snap closures).
They are more work as far as the clean up goes. I wash diapers 2-3 times a week. The diapers come with instructions on how to clean them. We use a wet pail; just a 5 gal. bucket with a lid. At first I was struggling with getting the poop stains out & was washing them more than one time & using stain stick to get it all out, but then I tried Tide with Dawn stain scrubbers laundry detergent & that has worked really well. I actually use it in combination with Dreft. I put the diapers in a load of hot water & detergent & let them soak for 15 min. or so & then wash & I only have to wash once. (We have a top loading machine).
The coth diapers do hold the poop in better than disposables. Our son has only blown out of the cloth diapers a few times. (I breastfeed too by the way).
Sometimes they leak (pee not poo) out the leg openings (mostly at night when he is sleeping through the night), so I just put a changing pad under him when he sleeps at night for extra protection.
One other minor drawback about the cloth diapers is that they are bulkier than disposables, so some of his cothes would not fit over the cloth diapers. But you just have to get things (particularly pants) a little larger size than they would normally use.
We take one day a week off from using cloth, just for a break, & we use disposables whenever we go out or travel somewhere.
I hope you enjoy using your diapers!
Happy Mothers Day.

Have you ever heard of GDiapers? They are flushable. Check out gdiapers.com
I have used them on both of my kids - the only thing is, they are not the best with poop, especially if your daughter is having explosive poop.
I am not a user of cloth. Good luck!

Hi- I am a grandmother. I have 4 kids 2 boys and 2 girls. I used cloth diapers for all of my kids. I had a diaper pail with a lid. After rincing out the worst on the diapers, i put the diapers in a bleach solution. I then washed them in the washer with a mild soap. I always had to hang the diapers outside as I lived on a farm and didn;t have a dryer. The diapers always smelled clean and didn't irritate the baby's bottom. I never had diaper rash with my babies with the cloth diapers. Hope this helps a little.

Sincerely,
a grandmother who knows.

I have heard front load don't work as well and you have to do smaller loads but set the washer on extra large load so there is enough water. We use Arm and Hammer Free on the dipes and clothes. Wash the dipes on warm or hot and throw in a cup of vinegar every once in a while if you start to notice they smell even after being washed.
We use one-sized pocked like Happy Heinies, bumGenius, and Angel Luvz.
Check out www.DiaperSwappers.com

WE NEVER HAD A BLOWOUT when my babies were little. cloth diapers are so awesome!!!! so that's going to be much happier for you!

check out diaperpin.com --they have lots of reviews and washing instructions and info.

make fleece wipes and diaper liners. just cut fleece into wipe size rectangles, and keep them in a wipe warmer with a little water. they are so soft on little bums. we use baby washcloths for the messy ones. also make some diaper-size liners to go on top of your cloth so they don't feel the wetness (and the poop rolls off into the toilet-after they start solid foods) (for now don't worry about poo-- breastfed poo is fine in the washing machine.

every once and a while i throw in white vinegar or baking soda to the wash to freshen up. i use a generic free and clear detergent... don't use too much though (half to 1/3 what you would normally use) because the diapers are less absorbent if you use too much detergent.

there are TONS of cloth diapers out there. be sure to get them from a specialty store or buy them online (we like babyj.com ) because the kind you get at target or wal mart are NOT real cloth diapers-- they're good enough for burp cloths but they are not durable or quality you need for real use.

carry a few grocery bags in your diaper bag to carry home dirty diapers.

we like proraps (the cheapest AND the BEST!!! we've tried them all...) with prefolds (DSQ) and fuzzi bunz (fleece-lined pocket style diaper)

happy cloth diapering! i love it!

A.-
No help on the cloth diapers form me

However, the front load washers you MUST use HE detergent or it will not rinse and drain your clothes properly. We use the purex only because I am allergic to Tide and those are the only two brands I have found to carry an HE variety.

Coming in late here, but I wanted to add my 2 cents.

I started a cloth diaper service for the Cincinnati and Dayton area this year. I've tried a LOT of different diapers and methods in my research for what we would use, both for my son and the service.

I would NOT use Dreft on your diapers. I would recommend Charlies Soap or something similar. I wouldn't use many of the "free and clear" detergents - they have to add many more things to make them that way, believe it or not! I'd stay away from softeners too, they can coat the diaper, affecting its ability to absorb.

I think you're making a great choice in cloth diapering. The only thing more friendly to the environment is elimination communication (and even I haven't gone that far yet, lol) and using a service (we get more use out of the water, detergent, etc. per diaper, but we just want to see more babies in cloth!)

And Joyce C, there have been studies on fertility issues. You're exactly right in your thinking. We have links on our web site (www.goodnaturedbaby.net) to some of the studies done on fertility, asthma, diaper rash, and more.

Lastly, I do have to comment on g-diapers. I do love that they don't go in the landfill, but they still have the super-asborbent gel that most disposables have. This is a really nasty substance - it was banned in 1985 from tampons because it was linked to toxic shock syndrome. Why it's still in disposables, I have no idea! It must just be that people are unaware of it and don't ask questions. So by using g-diapers, you may be going a little easier on the environment (although they're still one-use diapers), but they're not any better for your baby.