another cloth diapering check-in & question

QOTR

How's cloth going for everyone?     Have you found you prefer one brand or style over another?   As your baby outgrows them, what are your plans for the used diapers?

I'm happy to say that after a rough start, I finally found a laundry routine that works for us.  I was having to bleach every few weeks to eliminate barnyard smell, but I finally switched to Tide + borax and things are great.  I realize now that my previous routine just wasn't getting things clean.  Now with the Tide, there are very few if any stains and no smells.  Hurray!

We've always used prefolds & covers but little (big) guy has outgrown his second size of prefolds so I'm starting to explore other options.   I  had received a couple of pocket diapers (an Alva & a Charlie Banana) at my shower and never tried them (fear of change I guess).  I just recently broke them out and like them ok, so I ordered some more Alva pockets for daytime.   

My niece is pregnant and plans to use cloth, so I'm excited to have someone to pass all of this down to since we're one & done.

QOTR

I decided to put my question in a separate post.

For those using pockets, I have some questions.   It seems that the surface of the pocket wicks moisture away pretty well.  So if the diaper is just wet, do you replace the liner or toss the whole thing in the diaper pail each time?    If the diaper is poopy, do you remove the liner before you put it in the pail (and possibly get poop on your hand) or after you've done the first rinse cycle in the laundry process?   Lastly, in this new set of Alvas I purchased was an instructions card that said to wash the liners and pockets separately.  I know you have to remove the liner from the pocket, but do they really mean a separate laundry load for each?  Who has time for that??

jane8188

When you say liner, I'm assuming you mean insert? Yes you have to remove it in most pockets before you wash, and no you are not supposed to reuse the shell of the diaper.
Glad you sound a wash routine that works!

I have 2 still in cloth and I have favorites for each. Right now for my toddler I really like blueberry covers with a pad folded flat. At night for him I use a blueberry pocket stuffed with a geffen baby hemp prefold, they are ridiculously absorbent. With my 6 mo I'm really liking pockets. Rumparooz and thirsties are my current favs. The thirsties you do not have to unstuff before washing. At night I use the same hemp prefold a for her also.

I am hoping to have more children so we will continue to hang on to out grown diapers. When we are done I am assuming they will have a lot of use, if they are still good to use I would like to give them to a family in need. If the diapers need some repair I believe there is a charity that fixes them and then gives them to families in need.

spacepotatoes

We use Kawaii pockets in addition to prefolds and AI2s during the day now. With the pockets, yes I change the cover every time and yes, I remove the insert before putting into the wetbag. I've read that there are some brands where you don't need to, they'll agitate out in the wash. But I have also heard that that's not reliable so I just remove them. Sometimes, I use the covers like a regular cover and put a prefold on top of the liner (instead of in the pocket). In that case, I will reuse it unless it's soaked through.

RachelCA29

Loving cloth, it's going well. We are having trouble with an overnight diaper, but I have a wool cover on the way so I think that will solve our morning leaking (we're using disposibles overnight as we wait for our wool). I didn't like prefolds at first, we used mostly flats, but now that we're into the next size up prefolds I'm liking them more. I also really like pad folded flats in tuckable covers, Blueberry Capri's are my favourite. We're almost sizing up prefolds again!

We tried Best Bottoms and I love the covers, but I'm not a huge fan of the inserts. I really think we're just going to stick with flats and prefolds because they are so easy to clean.

I'm slowly trying to sell off my newborn stash (covers, fitteds, etc.) There using much of a used market in my area, so it's taking some time. We have Kaiwi P&N's that we don't use, but I'm going to hold on to them for babysitters, etc.

springbeduk2

@QOTR‌ which kind of tide are you using? How much borax? I'm still meh on my laundry routine(with charlie's) because of the cotton getting rough and am conflicted between guidance of Karen at GMD saying too much washing soda is badand tide is fine vs. my general aversion to "regular" detergents because my skin is very sensitive. I used liquid free&clear tide for a couple of weeks and it seemed ok but i still tgink i prefer charlies. Just got some Charlie's booster for hard water on advice of ladies on CD board - Hoping it will help keep my cotton soft.

Did you have barnyard smell right out of the laundry or just after little guy wet the diaper?

QOTR

@jane8188, yes,  I meant inserts - thanks!.  I'm still such a CD rookie!   All of you make my head spin with all the lingo.   I think that's why I stayed with prefolds and thirsties covers so long. All the other options overwhelm me. 

QOTR

@springbeduk2, I tried Charlies and Ecos first and they just didn't cut it for us.  After reading the recommendations for Tide, I misunderstood and also bought the free and clear liquid, but it still didn't seem to get things clean.   So I'm now using the original powdered Tide (Tide Ultra).  I don't measure the borax. I just sprinkle it on top of the tide. 

The diapers would be ok for the first couple of weeks after a bleach cycle and then it seemed that just his body heat would make the barnyard smell activate. 

QOTR

athn64 said:

@Mapleme Jealous of you LBDs. I've been trying to score but always seem to miss out.

I wasn't aware of these so I looked them up.  My husband now wants ALL the Avengers. 

Arinias

I really love cloth diapering and am so glad we gave it a try! We started with prefolds and covers for when he was littler but now have him pretty much exclusively in OS pocket diapers. I have some bigger prefolds that I use as a back up if I have most of my pockets in the wash. I have a lot of different brands and honestly like my Alvas, Kawaii, Bumkins, and Bumgenious 4.0s all about the same for favorites. The only ones I have not liked are my Fuzzibunz, and that is because my OS dipaers still won't fit him. I do try to take my inserts out when I put them in the hamper and then check as I am putting them in the wash to make sure they are out. I wash all pockets and inserts together no matter the brands. For overnights I usually add a small prefold in addition to the insert in his diaper and that seems to work well for us. We do use disposables on the occasion for a day out, and his back up daycare uses them. But luckily our main daycare does cloth for us. We had soem nb Charlie Bananas AIOs I saved for dc when he was littler but he started leaking htrough them all the time, I am not sure if he was just peeing more or what but it made me not want to try a bigger size. Still I plan on keeping all my nb diapers for the next time around.

kristine526

I love my cloth so hard. When A was a squish, prefolds and covers worked the best for us. Now that she's bigger, squirmier and peeing more, BumGenius Freetimes are my absolute favorites. I do have the next size up prefolds, but they're huge on her and look like some serious granny panties.

ETA: We're hanging on to everything for the next LO.

LunaBug924

We love cloth!

I was super intimidated during the nb stage so we got a late start. I did use cloth here and there, mostly prefolds and covers, but I didn't get into it hard core until she started fitting into OS diapers. Now we're pretty exclusive. Even DH admits he likes the cloth better than sposies. We were gifted so many sposies at my shower, so I never had to buy them myself.

We use mostly pockets; Kaiwii, Alvas, and a few BG. I've replaced most of the mf inserts with Alva bamboo. I have to double stuff, even during the day, because DD is a super soaker. I'm actually rediscovering my love of prefolds and covers right now too, especially for going out. I take her to Gymboree 2 days a week and everyone is fascinated watching me change her diaper!

Our ON diaper is pretty crazy; a red edged workhorse with an extra bamboo insert under the flap + a hemp doubler on the outside all under a Thirsties Duo size 2. She's still under 16 pounds so it's pretty bulky , but she's in that diaper for up to 13 hours with no leaks!

I'm definitely holding on to what she's outgrowing for baby #2. Now that I'm more knowledgeable, we'll definitely start with cloth from the beginning next time around.

LunaBug924

@Babybarlow2014‌ I was under the impression that Sunbaby dipes were just Alvas with a different label. If that's the case, then I do like my Alvas.

chknma

Love CDing. We have hard well water so we're using Tide and Calgon. I ran out of the Calgon and it's a lot more on Amazon now so I tried a few other things without success. So glad I remembered to check at the grocery store last week. It makes such a difference.

We use mostly prefolds and flats with covers at home. AIO when we're out and about. My favorite covers are blueberry and Thirsties. At daycare we're still using our Kawaii P&N and I've built up my OS AIO with Aplix simplex for when she outgrows the pockets. I'm overall not a fan of stuffing so sometimes the simplex seem like a pain too. I think I'll add more elementals over time. Our nighttime CD is a snapless OS SBISh with a blueberry cover.

I will be keeping what I like for if we have another. Wish I would have considered CDing with DD1.

QOTR

@lissiehoya, we still use prefolds and thirsties for overnights.   We use a size two osocozy prefold on him with a size 1 osocozy folded and lining the size 2 cover.   The only time we have leaks is if a piece of the prefold is poking out and we don't notice it. 

spacepotatoes

@Lissiehoya‌ We use BumGenius Freetimes over night. Until recently, we had no issues with leaks. I've started adding a NB sized bamboo insert from one of my AI2s in them under the flaps and that works. I also recently tried out a Kawaii Good Night Heavy Wetter and have had no issues with that so far.

springbeduk2

@Lissiehoya‌ hemp is really nice and absorbent - adding a hemp doubler like a best bottoms insert between your prefold and cover and/or a doubler inside like the gmd stay dry fleece/hemp ones might help.

Our current overnight is a fuzzibunz small pocket (were on sale at a local store almost half price) with a cotton doubler above and a hemp doubler below the microfleece insert the diaper came with. Doublers are from gmd. Works well for 8ish hours ... maybe more but LO doesn't sleep more. Even after waking up every hour or two. She also is content in hee own filth but I feel better with stay-dry fleece by her skin for so long.

Edited because hemp somehow auto-corrected to hemorrhage .

Nikkipal82

Sooo, when I first got my BFP, I got really excited about cloth diapers and watched a bunch of videos. Then DH said he would change diapers if they were cloth, so I just gave up the idea completely. Well, fast forward A LOT, and it occurs to me we could still save money doing cloth part time. I am home with beb about five days a week, so that's a good amount. So I ordered some Alva pocket dipes and watched a bunch more tutorials. I also lurked a lot on the CD board, but I figured I'd reach out to you all first, bc I know you guys. 

Any advice for getting started? I ordered six, and I figured I'll probably order six more if I like pockets. I also got some virgin coconut oil, and I figure I will need a couple of wet bags. DH is freaked out that it will ruin our washer, but I think he will get over it (as if I don't already put poopy clothes in the washer as it is). Did you guys have trouble getting DH on board? How long did it take you to find a groove? Thanks!

spacepotatoes

DH was on board when I showed him the cost comparison and when we read that CD babies potty train earlier, on average. He's still kind of intimidated by prefolds but is fine changing pockets and AIOs. 

Six pockets are a good start but for us, that would last one day. How frequently do you intend to wash? That's something to think about when building your stash.

Nikkipal82

Thanks for the comments. I got my six pockets in the mail today, so I'm prepping them now. I actually ordered 10 more, because I found that it was much cheaper to order Alvas through the website than through Amazon (though may take longer to ship). With 10 they were about $5.20 each, which was doable. The first six came with microfiber inserts (2 per), the next 10 come with charcoal/bamboo inserts (1 per), which are 5 layers. I am having trouble with Alva figuring out details about the diapers based on the website and pictures-- seems kind of hit or miss. The ones I got today had single gussets and only opened in the back, but one I saw reviewed online had double gussets and openings in the front or back. I'm interested to see what arrives with the next order.

I was nervous throwing all of my eggs in one basket getting all pockets and all one brand, but at this point I've only spent $100, so I guess I can see how it goes. From what I've read, I may need to wash the bamboo inserts several times before use to get good absorption? Anyway, I suppose I can stop being chicken and post these thoughts on the CD board... 

I work all weekend, so I'm hoping to start out on Monday with these six. With 10 more (if I like them and don't send them back), I will hope to be able to do wash every other day. I'm a little intimidated by overnight use, so I may warm up to that. I've got plenty of disposables for now, but I'm getting sick of a lot of things about them (cost, chemicals, environmental impact). It just isn't natural that something can hold that much urine without leaking. And sometimes there are little beads on DD's rear when I take them off if they are really soaked, and what on earth is that about. So I guess it's time. Sorry for the word vomit, I've had a long day.

spacepotatoes

Bamboo is really absorbent even from the first wash but yes, the more you wash it, the more absorbent it'll get.

Good luck, I hope they work out well for you!

RachelCA29

If it's charcoal bamboo it will probably only need one wash before using it, those are more like a fleece topped blend.

Nikkipal82

So good to know. Thanks!