Cloth Diapers - The Basics!

I promise this won't be a cloth diaper blog!  But I wanted to share some Q and As I often get from my friends who don't cloth diaper.

Q.  Why do you cloth diaper JD?
Mainly to save money, but also for environmental reasons.  When I was pregnant, I researched EVERYTHING!  I discovered this whole community of cloth diapering parents and they taught me that modern cloth diapers are functional, affordable, and cute!  I did a quick calculation on the "return on investment" of a cloth diaper stash and I got 8 months!  After 8 months we will diaper JD for FREE!  I was sold.
I won't bore you with all the statistics about disposable diaper trash, but I didn't want to contribute any more trash than I had to.  Cloth diapering, even part time, can drastically reduce your trash!   Full disclosure time:  we do use disposables at night, when we travel and when JD was a newborn (see below), but most days we use cloth.

Q: What did you do when JD was a newborn?

JD at 12 days in a Kissaluvs 0 and Bummis cover

A: For the first few weeks of JD's life, we used a case Earth's Best newborn disposable diapers because we didn't want to have to learn to be parents while trying to figure out the whole cloth diaper thing  (sign up for Amazon Mom and you can order a case of diapers super cheap!) .
We skipped buying a full stash of newborn cloth diapers because we knew he would outgrow them so fast!  A friend gave me 5 Kissaluvs, size 0 and a few Bummis newborn covers that worked great from the start, but I was too chicken to go full time with cloth until JD was about 6 weeks old!  Knowing what I know now, I could have gone fulltime cloth a LOT earlier.  Maybe we will for #2!

At 6 weeks, and about  9-10 lbs,we finally got a good fit with our one-size diapers and started diapering full time with Bumgenius One-Size All-in-One Elemental diapers and Bumgenius 4.0 One-Size Stay Dry Pocket Diapers.

Q. How to you wash the diapers and deal with the Poop!?

A. We have the washing routine down and it really isn't that much work.  We bought a diaper care kit to get us started.  It has everything you need to clean the diapers except the pail (any trash can with a tight lid will work)

Wet diapers just get thrown into a diaper pail that has a washable liner.  Poopy diapers get rinsed off with a diaper sprayer (comes with the kit) that is attached to the toilet, then tossed in the pail.  Every 3rd day, we take the liner out of the pail and toss the whole thing in the washer.  One cold wash Tide original powder to remove any remaining poop, then a hot wash with Charlies soap, followed by another hot wash without soap.  We dry the inserts and all-in ones on medium heat, then toss in all the covers on low heat.  It takes 2 rounds in the dryer to get the all in one diapers dry.

Q. Do you touch Poop?

A. To be honest, I think I have to deal with more poop with disposables because the are more likely to leak and I have to not only change the diaper, but his clothes too!  There have been so few leaks with the cloth diapers that I am tempted to start traveling with them! 

Q.  Don't cloth diapers cost a lot of money?

A.  We've spent about $350 on our diapers, laundry soap, and washing kit (we should broke even when JD hits 8 months! After that, it's all gravy!).  We bought most of our diapers on e-bay, as seconds or used.  This saved a ton of money.  Cottonbabies.com has clearance sales every few months that includes seconds and returned diapers.  Ebay is great and you can find new diapers for cheap (lots of people try cloth diapers and give up - then sell off their diapers for 1/2 the price).  From my flats challenge post you can see how you can cloth diaper for under $100!

Gently Used Diapers websiteshttp://www.jilliansdrawers.
com/products/clothdiapers/gentlyused
http://www.diaperjunction.com/
used-cloth-diapers.html


Other Websites to browse
http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/
cloth-diaper-video-reviews/
http://community.babycenter.
com/groups/a16235/cloth_diapering
http://www.jilliansdrawers.
com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10

Love it!: Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 Stay Dry Pocket Diaper

Here is my first "Love it!" product review! Since I migrated all my Flat Diaper/Handwashing Challenge posts over from Domestic Dirt, I thought I'd start with a cloth diaper review! 

Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 Stay Dry Pocket Diaper

Rating: Love it! (snaps) Like it (hook and loop)

What is it?:  Bumgenius 3.0/4.0 stay dry pocket diapers are modern cloth diapers have a pocket made of suedecloth (soft) that you stuff absorbent inserts into.  The 3.0 versions come in velcro (hook and loop) and the 4.0 version comes in both snap and hook and loop.   In my experience, they fit from about 9-10 lbs to 35lbs.

Here is JD in a 4.0 snap version on the middle rise at 4 months and about 17 lbs.

Bumgenius retail for $17.95,but often are on sale for $14.50 each when you buy 6.  I bought several of JD's new, but over half of my stash are "last chance" diapers that cottonbabies.com offers occasionally.  These  "last chance" diapers are used and in need of repair, but cost only $1-2!

Pros:   Bumgenius are trim and they work!  What more can you ask for in a diaper!   The suedecloth wicks the wetness away from the baby so they feel dry.  JD seems to like the stay dry better than having wet cotton against his skin.  It's more like a disposable diaper where all the wetness gets locked into the inside of the diaper!  The hook and loop versions are very easy to put on (especially in the middle of the night!)  I like that you can customize the amount of absorbency by stuffing it with different kinds of inserts. The come with 2 microfiber inserts, but at 21 months, we now stuff all JD's Bumgenius with one pad folded flat and a 3-layer bamboo insert.

Here is JD in a Bumgenius 3.0 at 17 months and 30 lbs.

Cons:  Like most pocket diapers, you have to take out the microfiber insert before you wash it and then stuff it back in again after the wash.  Just an extra step, which when you are tired seems like a mountain of work!
The hook and look versions haven't held up over time.  After about 8 months of use, the hook and loop started to fray, and lost their stickiness.  I have replaced the  hook and loop  on several of my diapers which costs about $3 in supplies to accomplish.  I also bought snap pliers and some KAM snaps and converted some to snaps to avoid the  hook and loop issues in the future.  A set of pliers cost about $20 and snaps run about $5 set, which will fix 5 diapers.
The biggest con with Bumgenius is the microfiber inserts.  They hold a TON of liquid, but get stinky over time.  I've stripped them with dawn, beached them, changed my laundry soup, but they still stink.  Ever since I took the Flat Diaper/Handwashing Challenge in May, we have used only cotton flats and bamboo inserts in my Bumgenius and they work great.  

Disclaimer:  I was not paid or "perked" to give this review.  I bought all my Bumgenius from cottonbabies.com or the cloth diaper swap on babycenter.com.

Flats Challenge Day 7: We are DONE!

We made it!  We finished the 2nd Annual Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge! Seven days ago, I signed up our family for a 7 day challenge to ONLY use flat cloth diapers and handwash them.  Check out Flats and Handwashing Challenge to learn more!

Want to recap?

Flats Challenge Day 1: Handwashing Diapers…I must be mad!

Flats Challenge Day 2: Poopy Day!

Flat Challenge Day 3: Pad folding flats

Flats Challenge Day 4: Handwashing Status

Flats Challenge Day 5: Tips and Tricks

Flats Challenge Day 6: In a Groove

So after 7 days, would I recommend flats? – YES!  The are very absorbent, trim, and cheap.  Check out Day 2 for a cost breakdown. I think we will be putting flats into our regular rotation as pocket inserts!

My favorite flat fold?  The PAD FOLD!  We stuck to pad folding flats 99.9% of the time, but I did learn a new fold that even I can manage.  Check out the Jo fold!  It works GREAT (even held a very messy corn poop!!)

Would I recommend handwashing diapers? – Maybe.  In the last 7 days, I’ve learned a lot about what it would take to handwash diapers.  If I had to choose between food and diapers, I would use flats and handwash in a heartbeat. With that said, it is very time consuming to properly handwash flat diapers.  If you work long hours, or work outside of the home, like I do, washing diapers at the end of a day is A LOT of work and time.  I’m happy to be blessed with a house and new washer/dryer.  I was 32 before I had a washer and dryer in my home  If JD came earlier in our life, I’m not sure I would be using cloth diapers.

Let see how everyone else did:

Flats Challenge Day 6: In a groove

We just finished Day 6 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  I can see the light!  Our family is ONLY using flat cloth diapers this week and have to ditch the washer and dryer in favor of good ol’ fashioned handwashing.  There are close to 500 participants this year and many are blogging their journey.  You can find their posts linked at the end.

After 6 days of handwashing flats, I’m getting in a groove!  I washing today’s load in about 35 minutes from start to finish (including putting JD to bed while they soaked!)

I realized I haven’t outline our handwashing routine, so here we go:  Once JD is in his PJs and nighttime diaper, I take all the diapers (in a 5 gallon pail) to the tub, fill the bucket with warm water, and give it a few swirls with an old gdiaper swish stick.  I dump that (nasty!) water and shake open all the flats.  I fill the bucket again with hot water and a 1/2 tsp of Tide.  I return all the wet diapers and covers to the pail. Before I put in the pockets, I scrub the suedecloth with a nail brush and a little paste of Tide soap and water.  After the stink we had day 4, I want to make sure the pockets are clean!

Once everything is in, I hand agitate everything for about 2-3 minutes.  Then I leave it to soak while I put JD to bed (usually 20 minutes).  After the soak, I dump it all and rinse each piece individually under running water.  Then I fill the bucket again with warm water and agitate them again for about a minute to make sure they are rinsed.  I then wring them out, roll the covers in a towel to get out all the extra water, and hang to dry.  I  was hanging them on the shower curtain rod, but after washing 13 flats on Day 4, I needed more room!  I now use our HUGE drying rack that I moved from basement to the dining room so it can dry under the ceiling fan.  My only laundry problem now is getting the diaper cream off the fleece liners….any thoughts from the blogesphere?

I know this week is about learning, so I tried an origami fold on JD today….it didn’t leak, but it wasn’t pretty! I also tried a Boingo for the first time.  This fold was hard to fasten with 2 Boingos, so I ended up using just one on the side.  Of course, I didn’t get a picture until I was changing it so it’s wet here:

Even though it worked, I think I’m going to stick with pad folded flats in pockets and the occasional Flip cover.  I did hear about a Jo fold, which looked pretty easy.  I might try that tomorrow – the LAST day of the challenge.  Before this challenge, I would never have thought to use flats in Bumgenius Pocket diapers, but I think I’m starting to like them more than the microfiber!  No stink, they’re trim, they dry fast, and cheap!

Find  out what are other people talking about today:

Flats Challenge Day 5: Tips and Tricks

We made it to day 5!  When I cut my thumb on day 3, I almost threw in the towel, but I’m glad we stuck to it! As you probably know by now, I am taking the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  By joining this challenge, I agreed that I will only use flat cloth diapers on JD for 7 DAYS and can only handwash and air dry them.

Handwashing Update:  All those diapers I washed last night were “almost dry” this morning.  Those stretchy tabs on the flip covers and bumGenius pockets are drying VERY slow, but I have a few tips for that below!  Also, those 4 pockets that were still stained were a little stinky this morning, so I’m rewashing them using the nailbrush/soap paste method.  Now they are clean!  Tonight I handwashed:
7 Flats
4 Fleece Liners
8 BumGenius Pockets (4 from yesterday)
1 Bummis Wet Bag
(My Flip covers were rinsed and are air drying for tomorrow)

Here are a few Tips and Tricks for using Flats and Handwashing:

1. Wash every day or when you have about 7 dirty flats!  If you have more than that,  you will have to do 2 “loads.”
2. To clean pockets, make a paste of laundry soap and water and scrub the suede cloth with a nail brush and a little soap paste – hand agitation did not get the pockets clean!
3. If you have a diaper sprayer, use it to get off all the poop before trying to handwash.
4. Avoid diaper cream if possible.  I cannot get the diaper cream off my fleece liners by handwashing.
5. Rinse each flat under running water.  This is much faster than trying to rinsing an entire bucket!
6. Roll the covers in a towel to remove extra water (great tip from Kim @ DDL!)
7. If you have aplex/velcro covers or pockets, make sure you dry them with the aplex unfastened from the laundry tabs so air can dry the inside (see photo below)!
8. You don’t have to use a complicate fold…Pad fold works great!

To learn more tips and tricks for using flats and/or handwashing diapers, check out these blogs:

Flats Challenge Day 4: Handwashing Status

I just finished Day 4 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge. This week, I agreed that I will only use flat cloth diapers (1 large square of fabric) on JD and I can only handwash and air dry them.

How are we doing??……Well…..I skipped washing diapers last night because of my cut thumb, so tonight I had to handwash:
13 Flats (at least 6 poopy!)
8 Bumgenius Pockets
4 Fleece Liners
1 Flip Cover
Here are all the flats, pockets, and covers in a 5 gallon bucket.

Handwashing had been pretty easy the last 2 times, but this load was a mess from the start!  First, there were WAY too many diapers in the pail!  After my initial rinse, I realized I couldn’t agitate them because the bucket was so full!  (I am hand agitating them) I split the load in half and wash each individually. My dream of saving time by skipping a wash day was lost in having to wash 2 loads!  It took me almost 2 hours to wash them all and I think 3 or 4 of my pockets are still stained with poopy.  I think I’m gong to have to rewash them – tomorrow.  So lesson learned, when hand washing diapers , wash every day!

Overall, using flats in our pocket diapers and Flip covers haven’t changed our daily diaper routine that much.  Daddy Dirt is happy with the pockets (he’s use to them) and we’ve has zero leaks! I’m beginning to think that using Flats exclusively is soooo doable if you are dedicated to handwashing daily.

Check out how other bloggers are doing:

Flat Challenge Day 3: Pad folding flats

We’ve made it to Day 3 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  Our family is ONLY using FLAT cloth diapers this week to learn more about the cheapest method of cloth diapering.

I’m lazy when it comes to cloth diapering.  Give me a pocket or all in one and I’m happy!  When I signed up for the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge I started to panic when I realized I might have to fold these flat pieces of fabric into complicated shapes to work.  I tried to “fold” a flat into various origami crane like shapes (epic fail), but in the end it’s the Pad fold that won me over. It’s so simple!  Here is a short video of me folding our flat into a 10 layer pad folded insert for a BumGenius pocket diaper (or Flip cover)

Day 3 of the Challenge was going great until I cut my thumb while making dinner. Not pretty!  My left hand hurt so bad from the cut, that I decided to skip washing diapers tonight (you can see a cameo appearance of my giant bandaged thumb in the video!). I have enough flats to go two days, so I will defer washing til tomorrow.  I’ve heard having lots of diapers to wash can make it harder to wash, but washing every other day is probably more realistic over the long term, so we’ll see how it goes tomorrow!

Want to know how the other bloggers in the challenge fold their flats?  Check out this linky: 

Flats Challenge Day 2: Poopy Day!

Day 2 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge was poopy!  Seriously, 4 poopy diapers in one day is not a record for us, but when you have to handwash them, 4 is 3 too many! As a reminder, I have signed up our family for a 7 day challenge to ONLY use flat cloth diapers and handwash them.  Check out Flats and Handwashing Challenge to learn more!

Today I handwashed:
7 flats(4 poopy)
1 FLIP cover
3 BumGeius pockets
1 Bummis wetbag
4 fleece liners.

I was not in the mood to wash diapers, but I did it anyway!   I was lighter with the soap today, so I only had to rinse twice!
Yesterdays flats were dry when I woke up, but the covers were still wet around the stretchy tabs.  It took almost 14 hours total for the covers/pockets to be completely dry.  I think I’m going to have to increase my original 3 pockets to 8….to accommodate the slow dry time.

Today we are talking about supplies…..what am I using during this challenge? (I’ll try to give a cost break out too):

• 15 Osocosy unbleached flats (Mom’s Milk Boutique)- $24
• 2 Flip covers (Seconds) (Cottonbabies)- $20
• 8 Bumgenius pockets (all last chance used diapers from Cottonbabies)- $16
• 8 fleece liners cut from a 1/2 yard fleece (JoAnns) – $2
• Bummis Small wet bag for the diaper bag (Cottonbabies) – $12
• Diaper Sprayer (Diaper Junction) – $36.30 (totally optional, but makes handwashing easier!)
• 5 Gallon Bucket with lid (Home Depot) – $2.50
• Tide Original Powder (Big Lots)- 6.99
• Nail Brush (Dollar Tree) – $1

$84.49 (120.79 with diaper sprayer)

Not too bad considering this could last you from about 2 months til potty learning!  (Add a couple newborn covers and you would be able to diaper one baby for about $100 (or 140 with a diaper sprayer!) Considering it takes at least $40 a month to keep a baby in disposable diapers, or $480 a year, you could save the difference of 3 years in diapers and have nearly $1,340 for a college fund or emergency fund!

Check out how all the other bloggers are doing with their challenge:

Flats Challenge Day 1: Handwashing Diapers…I must be mad!

I just finished Day 1 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge. <-Click to learn more! By joining this challenge, I agreed that I will only use flat cloth diapers (1 large square of fabric) on JD and I can only handwash and air dry them.  

So Why I’m Taking the Challenge?
I love using cloth diapers on JD. They are economical, cute, keep him dry, and fun to talk about!  We use 90% Bumgenius pocket diapers, with a few other pockets and FLIP hybrid diapers as backups.  The idea of flats (and prefolds for that matter) seemed old fashioned, “dirty”, and hard to use.  However, in this era of massive storms that knock out power for days and an unstable economy, I thought it would be good to have the skills to properly diaper my son if we were ever without a washing machine.

My second reason was to learn what a family without a washing machine would have to do to cloth diaper.  I read that many families have trouble paying for diapers, reuse disposable diapers, and keep their children in a disposable for hours.  I would like to advocate that cloth diapers are an option, but first, I need to see if cloth diapers, without a mechanical way of washing them, would even be feasible.  So I signed up!  In 7 days, we’ll see how much I will want to advocate for this method of diapering!

So far, I really like using flats in my Bumgenius pocket diapers and my Flip covers, but handwashing is maddening!  Actually it wasn’t the washing that was maddening, it was the rinsing, and rinsing, and rinsing, and wringing, and drying.  Today I handwashed:
5 flats(2 poopy)
1 FLIP cover
3 BumGenius pockets
1 Bummis wetbag
2 fleece liners

I put all the dirt diapers in a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with warm water from the tub.   I unfolded all the diapers and hand agitated them for a minute or so as a “rinse” and then dumped it.  I filled the bucket again with hot water and a half Tbs of Tide powder.  I hand agitated for about 4 minutes and scrubbed the poopy spots with a nail brush I had in the bathroom. Then I let it soak for about 20 minutes while I put JD to bed. Then I rinsed 4 times (I think my problem was too much soap!)  I was starting to curse this whole process, but by the 4th rinse, there were FINALLY no bubbles! I twisted all the flats and covers and hung them up on the shower curtain rod ( I need to get a photo of this!) Hopefully they will be dry by tomorrow morning!

Want to read more?…..check out all the other bloggers:

Prepping for the Flats Challange!

We have been cloth diapering for over 18 months now and read lots of cloth diapering blogs.  After reading Dirty Diaper Laundry’s Flats Challenge post, I thought, uh Flats – never used those, could be fun!  Hubby thinks I’m crazy because we have such a great system, (more about that next week!) why change it!  I am always one for a challenge!!  We might just learn something!

I prepped 15 Osocozy unbleached flats from Mom’s Milk Boutique, selected 5 covers/pockets (2 Flips, 3 BumGenius 3.0 snaps), and cut 8 liners out of scrap fleece. I also have a BumGenius pocket stuffed with flats for nighttime.

Let the challenge begin!