Cloth diapering

Amber&Reva

So I have been lurking on my BMB and saw a discussion about cloth diapering and thought I would carry it to this board.  Who cloth diapers?  What brands have you tried?  Which did you like/not like?  Is clean up a total pain or do you get used to it?  Or if you are thinking about cloth diapering have you found any good info out there about cloth diapering?

pauljl

I'm planning to cd but reserve the right to use disposables if I lose my mind over them! I recently visited a friend to see her set up . She swears by prefolds and covers for itty bitties and pockets (bum genius) when older. We registered for thirstees prefolds and covers and best bottoms all in twos. I like the idea of both of these types since you don't have to wash the cover every time you change the little one

. Also don't get sucked in to expensive specialty detergent. There are lots of cd safe detergents that don't cost a fortune My friend also recommended Funk Rock ammonia bouncer. Apparently cd diapers while kids are drinking breast milk are super easy to clean!

 She also suggested investing in wet/dry bags for travel as you can then store diapers and a change of clothes (although she's never had a blowout in CD...which is so impressive!). 

Phew. That was kind of scattered but she gave me so much first hand info! 

yachee

We are using BumGenius AIOs and looove them! We didn't bother trying when they were newborns, so I think we transitioned around three months. The cleanup is not bad at all. Instead of taking the garbage out everyday you just throw in a load of diapers.

Oh, and we just got back from a three day trip where we used disposables the whole time, and we had so many blowouts! Really made us appreciate our BGs.

We also tried BG pockets, but found that we'd never have the patience or time to stuff diapers when we could just do the AIOs.

CageyMack

I have done cloth and disposable and am currently using disposables.  

I will say that washing cloth is tiresome.  It is always on my mind ("How many diapers do I have left? Do I have enough for a load? Should I start the load? Should I re-start the load? I have to hang them.  I don't have enough for the dryer.  Oh, shoot! It's raining on the clean diapers! I'll wait for them to dry.  Shoot, it's night now.  Okay, I'll bring them in in the morning." Two days later, repeat.)  I washed every other day, because I didn't really like them to sit longer than that.  

Yes, you get used to poop.  Yes, it is still kind of gross.  Yes, urine can be really awful, too.  Yes, your baby can still get a diaper rash from cloth.  Yes, you can have blowouts in cloth.  

My baby's bottom loves disposable.  He rarely gets a rash and rarely has leakage.  I have used Bum Genius Freestyle, Fuzzy Bunz, Grovia, G-diaper and pre-folds.  They all have their pluses and minuses.  I think I like the pre-folds and the Fuzzy Bunz the best.  I used Grovia shells and Econobum over the pre-folds.  I like how very clean I can get the pre-folds.  I feel like the microfiber of the Bum Genius have become icky after almost a year and a half, so I have not used them for a while and will try to strip them.  

My wash routine is pull all inserts out, fold velcro down (love snaps, btw), use Kirkland's regular liquid soap, wash once cold, extra rinse.  Add soap again, sometimes vinegar, too, wash hot.  Pull out everything and hang outside all the cotton items and inside all the PUL items.  Sometimes I'd stick the pre-folds in the dryer.  Fold a zillion little pieces and sigh.  

My favorites: I like how nicely I can get the pre-folds to fit, and the Econobum is a great cover because it dries so quickly and is so thin (and inexpensive!). I used GMD pre-folds. The bum-genius are super easy, but I think you would need a lot to handle how many changes you do in a day (or at least how much my kiddo pees!). They are a lot more expensive than some. You have to change cloth much more frequently than disposable.  

It might sound like I'm down on cloth, but I'm not.  I just think that it IS hard work and isn't always "best for baby."  I have to be incredibly vigilant to make sure my baby doesn't get a rash with cloth.  His skin just does not like to be damp and does not like microfiber (which would keep his skin dry).  So that's my thoughts.  I'll go back to cloth with the next one for sure, and likely back to it with this boy in a week or three, but right now I'm just tuckered out. And I have a ton of house projects to do. 

I have to treat cloth diapering like a hobby, sort of like needlepoint.  It is tedious and tiresome and doesn't look like that much fun, but when I'm into it, I really enjoy it.  By the way, I have not done any needlepointing for, oh, twenty years.   I sound like a surly cloth-diaper-er, but I'm really not.  Like anything, it has it's ups and downs.  I will say that the cloth diapering community is intense.  They have a lot of opinions.

If I had a good diaper service here, I might be into that.  I'm not working now, though, so my time is free and diaper service is not.  It does take a lot of water to wash cloth, and I feel guilty about that, here in Hawaii.  So many conflicting issues!

Good luck! 

Karlamo

We use cloth. I have to agree with @CageyMack‌ on some points. Our son has had terrible diaper rash and a yeast infection while using cloth. Today is our first day back to cloth in a month because we needed to use creams to treat it that can't be used with cloth. I see the pros and cons of both types of diapers. It will really come down to what's best for your baby.
Our son is a heavy wetter with sensitive skin so we're not sure if we will continue to use cloth if his skin acts up again. We're currently using flips and just bought thirsties in the hope that they keep him drier and rash free.
I would recommend trying a few different types of cloth to see what fits your baby best.
Grandma El's diaper cream is the best one to use with cloth too.
I hope we can continue with cloth but honestly I wouldn't be heart broken if we had to switch. It's been a nice break from doing laundry:)

valeriegp

We have used cloth since my son was 4 weeks old (he's now 18.5 months). It is work, but we wouldn't do anything else. When he gets a rash and we go to disposables for a few days so that we can use non-CD safe cream, by the end of it we are so ready to go back to cloth. 

We mostly use pockets, mainly because my son is in day care and that's what they prefer. We mostly use Kawaii but also have some Sunbaby and miscellaneous other brands, including Flip covers and inserts. We also use a diaper sprayer with a spray pal. We wash every 2-3 days. 

There are a number of CD groups on FB that are helpful. One is called Cloth Diaper Asylum. I also am in a local FB group which is great. You might look for one of those. 

It can take some work figuring it all out, but once you get into a routine and figure out what you like and don't like, it's great. 

When we started, we did a trial packages, which a number of retailers have. It is a great way to try a bunch of different types of diapers without getting stuck with the ones you don't like. This is the trial we used: https://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryclothfor10/tryclothfor10

mwagner25

We are opposite of the PP... Oliver never has had a rash in cloth but when we use sposies on vacay we are constantly battling rashes. We are in cloth 80-90% of the time. I use disposable for travel and overnight. Our cloth diapers are mostly bum genius pockets and AIO. We love them. The washing doesn't stress me out that much. If we have to spend a day in disposables bc I need to wash the cloth it's no big deal to me. We use liners now that we are out of BF only poops and on solids. For me it's easier to dump the liner in the toilet and flush then try and deal with a sprayer. We bought pretty much all snaps (rather than aplix) bc I think they last longer and we plan on using the diapers for multiple kiddos.

JGY

We might be the only ones on this board right not that use a service.  I really do love it, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to keep up with the laundry if we didn't.  Using the service doesn't mean we don't need to wash anything though ... the service provides us with 7 covers a week.  You can imagine we blow through those pretty quickly.  Plus, they're boring.  One of the fun parts of cd'ing is the cute patterns you can get.  So I bought a bunch of super cheap covers on eBay (Shine Baby brand).  I had mixed feelings about doing that, since they were made in China and part of the appeal of CD for me is environmental factors.  So we kinda ruined our positive contributions by shipping things half way around the world.  Oh well.

Anyway, we use covers and prefolds at home.  We use disposables overnight and for travel (we would have needed to invest in other types of CD for overnight and since we're paying for the service it didn't make sense to us).  At daycare he is also in CD that they provide; I've never looked closely, but I think they use AIOs and have no idea on brand.

I agree we've had way fewer blowouts with cloth than disposable.  But we've also had more diaper rash with cloth, likely because we're using prefolds. 

Anyway, to sum up, check into whether there is a service in your area and add that into your decision tree. 

redrockmama

We are using cloth diapers, we are only three weeks into it, but we love it so far.

We are using mostly prefolds and covers right now, but also use flats and newborn size pockets if we run out of prefolds. The flats are great, just hard to make small enough for him now. The pockets are too big right now too. We have one all in one that is really nice and not as bulky, but that is a much more expensive route to take.

We plan on sticking with flats and prefolds when he is bigger and have some all in twos as well.

For newborn covers we have rumparooz and imagine, I like them both, rumparooz seem a but smaller, which is good for how little he is.

The laundry is super easy to me, we do it every other day. I might change my mind when we get to solids

Louliza

We plan on cloth diapering and I feel lost with so many options

Amber&Reva

Thank you for all the feedback.  I know it is super early for me to be even thinking about what kind of diapers to use but I need as much info as possible to even have a chance to convince R to give CDs a try.

1blueridgemama

We will CD the twins when they come and CD'ed our 8 year old way back when.  I really enjoy it, don't mind the washing at all but it certainly involves a learning curve to figure out which system you and your baby prefer, which detergent, create a washing schedule etc.  That being said, I appreciate the natural-ness of it, the do-it-yourself feel, the cuteness and convenience (no runs to store last minute).  

We use lots of brands (BumGenius, Mother-Ease, Green Mountain Diapers prefolds, Thirsties and Bummis covers, etc.) and have been pretty happy with all of them.  After the initial learning period is over, I personally think it's enjoyable