Whats the cloth diapering about?

I thought I would share how I cloth diaper and why. Some people seem to assume the how and the why and don't feel confident enough to just ask me how it works.

First I want to point out 10 facts about cloth diapers:

1.  I do NOT touch poop. I don't get any dirtier than every mom who wipes a kids behind with wipes.  I don't put my hands in the toilet. 

2.  They are NOT a lot of work. 

3.  I don't use cloth diapers because I can't afford disposables. It has nothing to do with my income. I just don't like wasting $$ thousands of dollars unnecessarily. Even if I made $500,000 a year I would use cloth diapers because they are better and SO cute!!

4.  I personally don't do it to "save the earth."  I'm not going green. I'm not doing it because I'm concerned about landfills. 

5.  Cloth diapering is not any smellier than disposables. You have to take out the stinky trash and you have to dump your cloth diapers in the washing machine... same difference. (I do both so I know)

6.  They are better for your baby's booty. (less diaper rash)

7.  They feel the moisture more so a lot more likely to potty train sooner.  

8.  It's not complicated or expensive.  

9.  Much less likely to have blow outs. The only ones I have ever had were in disposables. 

10. It's not an all or nothing kind of thing. You are not cheating by using disposables too. You don't have to go cold turkey away from disposables.  Give it a chance and cut yourself some slack.  Find your own rhythm and more then likely you will end up using cloth diapers the majority of the time.

Where to get cloth diapers?

I actually bought my cloth diapers used. Some people don't like this idea given what we use them for but I knew it was nothing bleach and stripping couldn't fix. It's a lot easier on that up front cost to buy used.  Now when I looked on Craigslist, I actually found a lady with like 60 diapers and most of them had never been used at all. I got them all with inserts, sprayer, and shied for $150. It was an insane steal so don't expect to find that great of a find but still plan to at least spend $300. Remember this lasts years and multiple children. 

* You can also find several CD groups on facebook that will trade or sell diapers as well as just help groups for questions and tips. Its awesome!

There are several different styles, brands, and designs. All of mine are pocket diapers with snaps. These are pretty common. All of mine are Kawani Baby and Charlie Banana brand.  I have gender neutral colors and girl patterns and boy patterns. I only circulate through about 20 girl ones right now and store the rest for the future.

My Stash is in a drawer of my changing table aka a dresser. 

What my day looks like?  

Most diapers are wet pee diapers which are SO not a big deal. Usually once a day there is a poop diaper and if I'm busy I put it in the pail for later or if I have time I wash it after I get done changing the diaper.

For the pee diapers I just pull the insert out and throw it all in the pail. At night I stuff a second insert in the diaper to help keep her dry through the night. Sometimes I just use disposables at night because it can be A LOT of pee!  That's okay too, you are not sinning.

I take the poop diaper and clip it inside a splash guard shield that I place in the toilet. I grab the sprayer and spray down the poop. When I'm done I ring out the fresh water on it and pull the insert out and put in pail. Done. That's the worst part and its so worth saving thousands$$ of dollars. 

- I use the tan bin to hold the dirty cloth diapers for the day in the nursery by the changing table and disposable diaper pail. 
- I have a large black bin with a pail liner in it in the bathroom next to my sprayer that holds all diapers until laundry day.

*I pull the insert out of diaper before I throw in the black pail.
*I pour baking soda at the bottom of pail liner to help absorb odor

Rash Cream:  You can NOT use regular rash cream like Desitin when using cloth diapers. These creams buildup on fabric and cause problems. You have to use a rash cream that specifically is made for cloth diapers. I have Grandma El's natural rash cream. There are several brands to choose from online.  If you use a disposable liner, you could use regular cream though. I hardly ever need to use rash cream, sometimes it may be something in baby's diet that creates the rash though.

POOP DIAPERS get sprayed promptly if the liner doesn't catch it all. Spray shield has a strong clip that you can use to hold diaper while you spray. Spray shield is great to contain the mess and water. Ring out the water, pull out insert, put in black bin next to toilet. Flush toilet.

*Babies go through phases of pooping more often. I'm not keen on doing this spray process more than once a day so I let them sit in tan bin until bedtime each day.  Disposable liners are a Godsend to drop the need to spray down to rare occasions. 

HELPFUL TRICK:  You will notice on most cloth diapers that there is a snap on the outside of the tab that is different... this is the purpose... you have a dirty diaper that you need to contain for later... roll it up and snap the tabs onto itself so its a tight secure little ball just like a disposable would look.  Genius invention right!?!!

DISPOSABLE LINERS:  Picture below is a poop diaper after I remove the liner that caught all of the poop. This way you don't need to spray the diaper, pull out insert and throw in pail to wash later.  The disposable liners come on a perforated roll, they are super thin so pee goes through them. You can get a roll of 200 for $7 on Amazon!!  Another advantage to disposable liners is I can use regular rash cream like Desitin if I want because the cream doesn't get on actual diaper (can be risky, some say it does go through but I have not noticed).  *These liners are flushable. I personally don't want to risk clogging the toilet and its more conventient for me to just throw it away in the disposable diaper pail next to changing table.

How To Wash Cloth Diapers?

Once the black bin is full of diapers / I'm almost out of clean cloth diapers, it's time to wash!                                                                                                                                                             Take the bin to the laundry room and dump all the diapers in the washer. Fill washer with water to the point that diapers have room to move around and agitate well. (you will figure out your personal setting)     

- Rinse/Spin Cycle on COLD (rinses the pee and junk off the diapers as a prerinse)

- LONG wash cycle on WARM  (do a long cycle to get a thorough clean)

- 2nd Rinse/Spin Cycle on COLD  (this helps assure that all the detergent is out, detergent buildup can lead to stinky diapers)

DETERGENT - the type of detergent is important. You can't use just anything.  There are lots of special brands out there. I found from reading up on others experience that MANY people say TIDE gets the job done well!  I go with TIDE because its an easy to find and buy cheap item. ATTENTION: it has to be this exact TIDE, no variation of it.  TIDE powder ultra, original scent. Must use powder!

DRYING:

I throw all the inserts in the dryer. The covers I lay out to dry.  The covers wick water very well so they come out the wash barely damp to begin with so it does not take too long to dry. You can also hang dry if you prefer. Next time I'm in Houston, I'm going to go to IKEA and get this!  It's $5 and has 16 clothes clips.

Lastly I sit down to my favorite tv show and stuff my diapers and put them away. Takes about 3 minutes.

My baby's butt does look big in cloth diapers but that just adds to the cuteness!  She is able to crawl and walk just fine in them.  I say it adds a little cushion for when she falls. These diapers are just SO dang cute!  So many pretty choices!  Babies just look so much cuter in a cloth diaper.