Thoughts on Cloth Diapering (so far)

Now that we've been cloth diapering P all summer, I thought I would share our experiences and what has worked for us. We absolutely LOVE the cloth diapers and I'm so glad we decided to go with them.

Every website/blog on cloth diapers tells you to start with a variety of brands so you can have options and see what works best for you. Well, I didn't do that. Our stash is 85% Fuzzibunz One Size pocket diapers. I stocked up on them during a few sales and bulk discounts. I refuse to pay retail for any diapers so I only bought them if they were on sale. The reason I went with mostly FB's was because 2 of my good friends who use cloth both told me they were their favorite diaper and that they work really well for babies who are long and skinny. P is pretty much a string bean and the diapers have fit him perfectly since he was 2.5 weeks old.

 

Not gonna lie - a big reason I love the cloth is because they are just so cute and colorful!

So our stash is 18 FB (9 regular "old style" OS pockets and 9 of their new "Elite" OS pockets), 3 BumGenius 4.0, 2 Lotuzbumz that I got for super cheap on Zulily and 1 BumCheeks that I got from BabySteals.  We also recently added a Bonnibunz Overnight Nappy to our stash since P is sleeping through the night and we needed something super absorbent - baby boy is a seriously heavy wetter! We went with all snap closures because they tend to hold up better than the aplix (velcro) and I wanted them to last for P and any future kids.

This is the first cloth diaper we put him in at 2.5 weeks - it fit his skinny little chicken legs!

We love the OS pockets because they have fit Preston from when he was about 7.5 pounds and will continue to fit until we potty train him. Our main reason for using the cloth was the cost savings, so I definitely wanted 1 set of diapers for the entire time he will be wearing them. The pockets are also nice because you can customize the liners to adjust the level of absorbancy. We are still using the minky/terry inserts that came with them, but as he gets older/bigger, I can see us adding some hemp or bamboo inserts that will be more absorbent. On nights where our Bonnibunz Overnight diaper is dirty, we use a FB and I'll double or triple stuff it with minky and it works pretty well.

Major Fluffy Butt!

One benefit of cloth that we've found (and didn't necessarily expect) was how "healthy" they keep his little tushy. In the 2 months that we've been using them, he has never had any diaper rash or irritation in the cloth. We actually hadn't planned on starting the cloth until he was bigger/older (around a month to 6 weeks) but then he got a HORRIBLE bout of diaper rash at 2.5 weeks old (I think it was from the wipes we were using because they had alcohol in them). On a whim, I put him in a cloth diaper the day we saw the rash and it was completely gone in 2 days.

We sun our diapers outside to get the stains out - Jake built me this rack by attaching clothes pins to a drying rack and it works great for hanging the diapers outside.

 I had also read that the OS pockets don't tend to fit newborns until they hit about 10 pounds because their legs are so skinny. Well Preston was 7.5 pounds and had the skinniest legs ever when I first tried the cloth and the Fuzzibunz fit him great. The FB's are really customizable and tend to be able to be adjusted down really small in the legs/waist and we've never had any issues with leaks. It took a little while for the BG's and other diapers in our stash to fit him, but he can now rock every diaper we own with his chubby little legs. Our favorite diapers are still the FB's because they are super trim and the fit is really good on P, but I do love how easy to adjust the BG 4.0's are as well.

Cloth diapers make P want to show off his guns!

The washing process isn't bad at all - we do laundry every other day. We do a cold rinse, hot wash with detergent and then 2 cold rinses. Then we sun the diapers outside and put the inserts in the dryer. We use Tide powdered detergent because I can easily get it at the grocery store, it's inexpensive plus I almost always have a coupon and I love the way it smells! We have a stainless steel trashcan with a lid that we use Planet Wise Pail liners in and we have no smell at all, except for the 2 seconds that the can is open as we are dropping a diaper in.

So comfy in the cloth diapers

I know a lot of people get grossed out by touching the dirty dipes and having to wash them. Honestly, I am grossed out easily and it doesn't really bother me. I mean, changing a diaper isn't exactly fun no matter if it's a disposable or cloth. Right now, while P is on formula, the entire diaper, poop and all, can go straight into the washing machine. The same goes for breastfed babies - before solids, poop is completely water soluble. I was TERRIFIED to put poop into our washer the first time, but it seriously came right out and there's never been any "build up" in our machine. Once he starts eating food at 6 months, we will spray the poopy diapers into the toilet, but we'll worry about all of that when we come to it. Sort of TMI, but P only poops once a day anyways, so the amount of poopy diapers is not bad at all.

Jake calls this P's "tropical" diaper

We also use cloth wipes and I really think that's my favorite part of the entire process. They are so soft and I think they really make a difference in how gentle they are on a sensitive baby butt. We were gifted 2 sets of Bum Genius Flannel Cloth Wipes and a set of Thirsties Fab Wipes so we have 36 wipes and it's more than enough. We use our wipes dry and spray P's behind with California Baby Diaper Area Wash before wiping. Some people choose to use their wipes wet and we may move to that once he starts eating solids. Once the California Baby spray runs out, I will probably look into making my own solution.

You can see the diaper peeking out of the onesie -
I am sort of obsessed with making sure his diaper matches his outfit at all times!!

So we are loving the cloth diapers at almost 3 months old and I cannot see that love affair ending anytime soon. I will do an updated post in a few months (once he starts solids) to track any changes with how everything is going. But I would recommend cloth diapering to anyone - it's really no harder (or grosser!) than disposables and I think the benefits (cost, a healthy baby butt, good for the environment) outweigh any negatives. Yay Fluffy Butts!