I have loved our cloth diapers so far! While the new has worn off and I'm not super excited to change or wash a diaper (anymore) - I still love it! For me, it's about health, saving money and feeling good about what we aren't contributing to the landfill.
Newborn Cloth
I am really glad we did AIOs (all-in-ones) for the 'newborn' size (I say 'newborn' because they lasted us 4 months and over 16 lbs). They are super easy and brainless. I think that their being so easy helped Blake embrace them quickly and really he changes a majority of the diapers when he's home at night. The AIOs do take longer to dry though, and that has been their only drawback.
Most people don't do newborn cloth, they just wait until their babe is ~10 lbs and fits into the one size pocket diapers. I, however, am a diaper nerd and I have a goal of never using a disposable. I want to make it clear that I mean no judgement on those that do... I'm just a nerd and I like to be all-or-nothing and make life more difficult. Some people just use up the diapers that come from the hospital (not an option for us) and then switch to cloth for fear that the 'black tar' meconium will stain their new cloth diapers. I'm here to tell you it washes out better than EBF poo (which does stain, but those stains come out with 30 mins in the sun - no problem). It drives me crazy how perpetuated the myth of staining meconium is (my midwife warned us of it, my LaLeche League book warned against it and its elsewhere)!
I was planning on following the disposables-until-over-10-lbs route until one day I was driving home from a baby shower and had been given several packs of disposables and they had sat in my car on that HOT May day. My pregnancy nose couldn't handle the smell of hot disposable diapers! I had also been reading about some of the additives to diapers and those two things on top of my hormones made me vow right then and there to be committed to cloth all the way through. Now it's a challenge for me, to see if I can make it all the way through with at least one kid, never using a disposable. Again, no judgement, it's just what is right for us right now. LOTS of people do a little of both and have different motives for doing cloth and that is all okay! Fortunately, I was able to return all of the disposables and got gift cards instead!
Newborn Stash
We had 24 newborn AIO diapers (similar to
this style), 14 of which had a custom pocket in them to add absorbency as needed - which we did with a
preemie prefold and that is probably why we made it to 4 months. That and we used bigger pocket diapers at nighttime once she started sleeping so long, probably at about 2 months. We didn't always stuff her custom newborn diapers with a prefold, but it was great to have that option for when we were going out to run errands or anytime that we couldn't be right on a diaper change. We also had about 10 newborn covers of various brands and 12 small prefolds, which we found to be too bulky for our liking, and we had two fitteds and two hemp inserts (for use with covers).
If I had it to do over again, I'd have gotten more fitteds. They are awesome and for us, the best way to use a cover. I'd also have skipped the small prefolds. I'm not sure I'd even use them now unless I was very desperate. But I might use them when she's older/bigger, like after one. I'll definitely use them when we potty train because they make you feel the wetness more than other insert fibers.
I'd also be more careful about washing every 2-2.5 days. I might even say I wish we had fewer diapers because then I'd be forced to wash more. As it was, we didn't
need to wash until the end of the third day. During our last week of using the newborn diapers they developed a stink that I still haven't gotten out of them. I think it's because some of them were left unwashed too long. They don't smell out of the dryer, but do smell as soon as they are wet. I've tried all the usual solutions to no avail (and it's only certain ones, which is weird). Next, I'll try soaking in a bleach/dawn solution overnight and if that doesn't work I'll have to do some serious Googling. I want to figure it out before I literally can't snap them on her, so that I can test it and see if it worked. Otherwise I might go to put them on my next newborn and find stinky diapers.. that would be horrible! If worst come to worst, I might have to pitch the stinky ones, but really, we more than got our money's worth out of them and then I'd have the fun on buying a few more :)!
Update: An overnight soak with 1/4 cup of bleach did the trick!
The Next Stash
We have 18 BumGenius 4.0s (BGs) and 9 other one size (OS) pocket diapers of various brands because I couldn't resist trying them. Most of the other brands have a tri-snap configuration with a bottom hip snap, and I do like that, however, they (so far - I don't expect them to hold up long term as well) haven't functioned any differently than the BGs. We also have 7 OS covers, 2 small/medium Thirsties covers, 4 cotton inserts, 6 bamboo/cotton inserts, 2 hemp inserts (but we still use the smaller hemp inserts so really it's 4), 12 Osocozy Indian cotton small prefolds and 12 Osocozy Indian cotton flats.
I love the BGs, they fit her great and have a nice feel to them. The switch to pockets has been so nice in that we have much shorter drying times! I also like most of the other brands we tried with my second favorite being Charlie Banana (CBs). They are totally different in how they change sizes and I like it. I'm not sure I could convert my stash 100% to CBs, but I do like having some. They are a tiny bit bulkier, so we usually keep their use to nighttime.
If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten more white diapers. Most of our newborn diapers were white or off white and I really liked having a neutral diaper so it didn't clash with outfits or show through. However, my husband can attest to the fact that I like white in anything, so I'm bent that way anyway. Plus it's gender neutral! We have (I think) 4 white BGs and a two off-white BGs. I know most people get into cloth diapering so that they can have fun patterns and colors, but I'm just a purist ;).
Since switching to the OS diapers, I've only used the pocket diapers and the two Thirsties covers. I just haven't had the need to use covers and prefolds/flats yet and the fitteds are a little big still. I think we probably have too many OS diapers too, but so far I'm sticking to an every 2 day washing routine.
Wash Routine
Speaking of wash routine! We do a cold or warm pre-rinse, hot wash with 1 TBS of Rockin Green Soft Rock detergent (which I use for warranty sake) and two cold rinses. I follow the recommendations for BGs, since they have the warranty. We do get stains, but like I said, the sun gets them right out. With the newborn diapers I also added a tablespoon or less of oxyclean on occasion, since there's no warranty to void. I had to strip them three times, twice because of stunk/funk and once because we dried them in a drier that had lots of dryer sheet build up - repelled like crazy!).
Cloth Wipes
We also use cloth wipes. I did one time have to use a disposable wipe because I ran out of cloth, and I've used a wet paper towel a few times too. I'm not as die hard about the wipes, but will try not to use disposable wipes for health, cost and sanity reasons. Sanity - it is total habit for me to roll the wipe up in the diaper before tossing it in the bag. I would lose my mind if I had to throw away the wipes separately and/or sort through the dirty dipes before washing to make sure no disposable wipes were in there!
I have some cottonbabies wipes, some Osocozy wipes and lots of baby washcloths that we use as wipes. Honestly, I like them all for different reasons and if I had to convert my supply to just one I'm not sure I could pick. I like having a variety as I go through the day.
We started with dry wipes and a spray bottle of Eco Bum bottom spray (which we mostly bought for the bottle - to refill). About two weeks after she was born we bought a wipe warmer so we could more feasibly keep our wipes wet, since we found that wet wipes just do the job better and faster, and we were always running into the bathroom and running the water to get it warm so we could we the wipes. In the diaper bag we use dry wipes and spray and it works well enough for outings. I'm afraid if we put wet wipes in the diaper bag, we wouldn't use them up fast enough and they might get stinky. Dry wipes and spray works okay, it's just more time consuming.
I really love our wipes warmer and our wipes solution. I started with some more complicated wipes solutions and have landed on the basic coconut oil (1/2 c), castile soap (1 T) and distilled water (2 c) solution and haven't looked back. I really love it. It's the perfect blend of moisturizing and cleansing. The distilled water helps to keep the wipes from getting any funky smell.
This is the warmer we use. The little light on it is great for discrete diaper changes on the rare occasion that we need to do one at night. It's not too bright but bright enough to see what you're doing. I also like that it has a pop-up dispenser lid and it seems to keep them warm but not so warm that it dries them out.
Accessories
We use a
basic kitchen trash can with a lid and have two pail liners from Planet Wise. They work great together and it keeps the stink in very well. We have three medium wet bags and two small. We use coconut oil as a 'diaper cream' and put it on a few times a day as a barrier and as prevention. We also have a diaper sprayer and bamboo liners, but we won't use those until we introduce solid foods.
I keep stuffed diapers in two baskets at the changing table, which we generally use (since the wipes warmer is there). One basket for daytime diapers and one for nighttime diapers, which are just stuffed with two inserts.
And there you have it! Who knew I would have so much to say about diapers, huh!? :)
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