We now have enough cloth diapers for 24-36 hours, depending on how much she wets. At the end of the cycle I have to do laundry and use disposables. Since the diapers are a bit of an investment we have to wait until we have enough money to buy more. Once I have enough for 48 hours of diapering we should rarely be using disposables.
Best thing I did with cloth diapering: bought a variety to find out what I would like so I can get more of what I want.
Here's what I have to say about what we have, listed in order from what I like least to best:
Mommy's Touch. (one size fits all pocket diaper)
Pros: launder super easily, inserts allow extra absorbency when needed, no leaking, no need for a diaper cover, will grow with her
Cons: too many snaps, awkward waist, frumpy fit, I just don't really like this one too much
Prefolds with Bummis Whisper Wraps. (old school diaper with diaper cover)
Pros: super easy to launder, inexpensive, Whisper Wraps work great (don't leak and on need for diaper pins), super easy to use
Cons: wetness stays on her skin so she gets cranky fast, really bulky
Kissaluvs with Whisper Wraps. (fitted cloth diaper with cover)
Pros: easy to launder, no leaking from diaper itself, Whisper Wrap works great, more trim fit than prefolds, soft
Cons: snaps aren't as easy as velcro (duh), wetness stays close to her skin
Haute Pocket. (one size fits all pocket diaper)
Pros: launder super easily, inserts allow extra absorbency when needed, no leaking, no need for a diaper cover, will grow with her, more trim fit so she doesn't look as pear shaped
Cons: none
Happy Heiny (one size fits all pocket diaper)
Pros: launder super easily, inserts allow extra absorbency when needed, no leaking, no need for a diaper cover, will grow with her, even more trim fit so she doesn't look as pear shaped, cute cow hide pattern
Cons: none
bumGenius (one size fits all pocket diaper)
Pros: launder super easily, inserts allow extra absorbency when needed, no leaking, no need for a diaper cover, will grow with her, even more trim fit so she doesn't look as pear shaped, this is tied as my favorite
Cons: none
bumGenius (all in one, size small)
Pros: fits her perfectly! - trimmest fit so she doesn't look pear shaped at all!, launder super easily, no leaking, no need for a diaper cover, most like a disposable, this is tied as my favorite
Cons: thick diaper for mondo absorbency means two good turns in dryer
The inserts, all in one and prefolds all need 1.5 - 2 times in the dryer. However, if I dry them once I can also take them out and finish drying them in the sun to speed up the process a bit while still saving some energy.
We dry pail - dirty diapers go into a plastic waste bin with a flip top, though I keep the top open to allow air to get in. Since she's 100% breastfed the diapers don't really stink. Honestly, there's something almost sweet about the poop scent.
Poopy diapers soak in the wash with baking soda and then all diapers are washed in hot water.
All in all, I would say that while I probably wouldn't be doing this if I were a working mother, this cloth diaper thing is pretty easy and has already helped us save money at the grocery store.
4 comments:
Good notes!! I love our haute pockets. I just wish I had more snap ones, since Aiden can get herself out of the velcro ones. I only have 10, which will get us through a day and a night, with 2-3 left over for the next day. I wash & dry them every night. I am hoping sometime to get enough money saves up to get more so I can wash every other day.
I'm curious about your wash method - what do you do with the baking soda? I've never heard of that before - but I know there's a lot of different ways people wash their diapers. Right now we just do a cold rinse, and then a hot wash with 1/4-1/2 the amount of laundry detergent you would normally use, and we use All Free & Clear detergent.
Hi Bonnie! So, I've never been to your blog, but today is the day... if you want my 2 cents on cloth diapers and an almost 2-year-old, here it is:
- We had been using the bum genius one-size-fits-all since Riana was born. They worked well when she was only breast fed and continued to work pretty well (with some smell issues from time to time) until she reached about 23 pounds. (I think this was about 18 months) As Anna said, one tricky thing is also when they are able to get the velcros ones off. It's great for potty training but not when the potty seat is far away!
- We have been using g-diapers. I don't know (yet) how they work on little ones, but it's been pretty good for Riana's 25-pounds. The concept is an outer cloth cover and a snap-in rubber pants. They are supposed to be used with expensive but compost-able/disposable inserts. We have found that the bum-genius fleece inserts fit well. At least at Riana's age, she doesn't usually wet/dirty through to the outer layer. This means that with 2 outers and 10 of the fleece inserts (that are relatively cheap) we can wash twice per week.
- We do still use disposables at night because she is otherwise soaked, but that is more of an age thing.
Anyway, I don't know if it helps, but it's a thought...
Oh! One more thing: we order all of our diaper supplies online at www.diapers.com because the prices are much better than our grocery stores. They also sell some cloth diaper supplies, wipes, etc. They ship very quickly and shipping is free over $50. If you go there and use the following code, you should get some money off your first order. LIDEX917
Have you ever heard of Elimination Communication (EC)? It seems like something that might interest you and would use less diapers. Something to google maybe. :)
I'm glad you're blogging about your cloth diaper experience. One tip though...my mom always told me to buy a box of BIZ detergent and mix it in a 5-gallon bucket with water, and as soon as Avery spit up or had an accident, just throw them in there! Poof- no stains! Biz is expensive, so I only used 1/2 box per week. It works- I'm a preferred buyer at a consignment shop because of the lack of stains...
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