Cloth Diapers

pirateduck

I plan on using cloth diapers, but researching them online is overwhelming.  I live in the middle of nowhere so shopping for anything and everything baby related has to happen online, having choices is great, but having too many choices is too much.  If you have any experience using cloth diapers please share it here.  What worked for you?  What was a mess?  What style do you like?  Pros and cons?  Brand you love or hate?  Even links to articles and reviews would be helpful.  I feel strongly about this decision, but definitely need to figure it out in advance.  I'm sure I can't be the only one interested in this and I'm sure someone out there must have some valuable information to share.

craftywitch

I cloth diapered my first exclusively form birth until potty training and plan to do it again. In the beginning it can be SUPER confusing. My favorites were the prefolds with a cover over them (you can just change the prefold part and reuse the cover usually until a poop which means less laundry). This was too difficult for DH or daycare so I bought half pocket diapers which are basically a cloth version of a disposable (the pocket part is a gap where you stick 1-2 absorbent layers depending on needs, sometimes 3 for heavy wetters at night time).

We never had a blow out and loved using cloth. It was about $300 total for the entire 2 years which I've heard from friends is much cheaper than 2 years of disposables plus wipes, and our water is included in HOA so it was a real savings! I love the brands Bum Genius and Alva for pockets, and Diaper Rite, Kanga Care, and Alva for covers, and we loved Green Mountain Cloth Diapers organic cotton prefolds. I disliked Charlie Banana and Fuzzi Bunz: they weren't truly one-size, both pilled quickly, elastics didn't last as long, and neither brand lasted for the second baby. All of my Alvas, Bum Genius, and Kanga Care will be reused. Also Gerber "cloth diapers" as seen at Target are not meant to be used as prefolds anymore and are sold as burp cloths- don't try to use them as prefolds, they aren't absorbent and will put you off cloth.

*ETA If you sew, I do recommend sewing your own doublers/ absorbent pocket suffers, cloth wipes, and woolie shorts (cheaper than buying and hard to mess up), but I do not recommend sewing PUL covers (mine were all over the place with their sizing and the ones that were useful died much more quickly than retail covers, although they were a decent option for saving on newborn covers which are only needed for 1-3 months anyway).

Here's a resource with explanations of the different types of diapers and the commonly used terms:
https://zerowastemaker.wordpress.com/2018/06/30/cloth-diapering-101/

PS- Sorry to write you a novel. Cloth diapering is kind of a weird subculture, and I love chatting about it!

pirateduck

@craftywitch I figured with your zero waste household you might have some insight on this topic!  Thank you so much, this is extremely helpful information.  I don't use disposable "feminine hygiene" products and have no intention of using disposable diapers if I can avoid it.  This sounds like a good excuse to fix my sewing machine and gives me a good project when I need to be resting.  Do you have any links to patterns or anything?

pirateduck

For other mamas to be who are interested, I found this site that starts by explaining the very basics.

https://thehumbledhomemaker.com/cloth-diaper-types/

leksiL

We also cloth diapered for the first year. My favorite were the Best Bottoms covers that had snap in liners. You could use the same cover all day and they had double seams so never leaked. I also prefer the Velcro to the snaps. We did use disposables in the newborn phase because 1- the menconium is gross and 2- I could not justify spending that much money on diapers they could use for six weeks. For daycare they refused to swap out liners so I got a bunch of china cheapies off amazon - my favorite were the Koala ones. I also would double up on the inserts with a charcoal one (highly absorbant) with a cotton one (quick absorbing) on top. We also put fleece liners in once she started solids which was easier for cleanup. When EBF you can just throw the diapers right in the wash. 

Get a few good wet bags for the diapers for on the go. I had two small ones and then a big one for school. 

I wish i had had gone for longer but DD had recurring ear infections so was in antibiotics over and over again which just tore up her tummy and I couldn’t take it anymore. still I’m glad I did what I could and after this baby I will gift them to someone who can do what they can. 

leksiL

Oh also join a local cloth diaper group and check out one of their swaps! The mommas there are great about explaining things. 

clearlyclara

I also cloth diapered my DD. I intended on starting from birth but it was so overwhelming at first... I didn't really have time to think about it until she was 3 months. I did buy some China cheapies for the newborn stage and I found that she was too big for them at that point. I then started to use the one size pocket diapers. I also got prefolds but they were too small and I always got poop everywhere so I quickly just stayed with pocket diapers. My favorite are bum genius and funky fluff. I got hemp inserts for daycare and they absorb so much! I don't have to worry if they don't change her frequently cuz the hemp inserts are so absorbent.

For overnight, grovia ones work for us really well. 
We also use cloth wipes which I just moisten with water.
We use a combination of cloth friendly bum cream and just regular coconut oil. 

If you have any questions, just ask and I'm sure one of us can answer! There are so many cloth diapers with cute patterns... Or you can make your own wool soakers to put over the fitted diapers... The options are endless! 

pirateduck

@clearlyclara I never even thought about cloth wipes!  I learned something today.

leksiL

Oh yes definitely Grovia AIO for overnights. They are the best but expensive so we only had three and used them only for sleep. So much I have forgotten already! 😂 

shellac835

One thing to think about w/cloth diapering is some daycares won't use them, so if your kiddo will be in daycare keep that in mind when looking. I had planned to cloth diaper and had the stuff but our initial daycare wouldn't use them, and it's a lot of extra money to cloth diaper AND buy disposables for daytime. I ended up not cloth diapering and honestly am so glad I didn't, but admire everyone who is able to make it happen!

pirateduck

@shellac835 It seems absurd to me that a daycare would not use cloth diapers, but you are not the only one who mentioned this!

starlight912

I cloth diapered. We did pre folds and covers after birth for a couple of months then switched to pocket diapers. I loved cloth diapers. I used Alva Baby and Kawaii Baby. They're inexpensive. Around a year I switched to disposables overnight. He kept soaking through and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money for trying different things. He started consistently soaking though in the day time around 15 months. There might be a better brand for when they are older and wet heavily.

ktmaesim

*****lurking***** just curious what you would do on a day that you are gone for almost the entire day with baby, what do you do with the cloth dirty diapers? do they come with seal-able bags until you are home to wash them? FTM here so im clueless but looking into this as I try to be as eco-friendly as possible. 

craftywitch

@ktmaesim I would bring a big wet bag- a waterproof washable bag that zippers closed. You dump the bag into a washing machine and toss it in after at the end of the day.

pirateduck

@ktmaesim check out this link, looks like there are large (home) and small (travel) bags for the wet and dirty

https://change-diapers.com/really-must-cloth-diaper-accessories/

pirateduck

Do you need special laundry detergent?

Breenna03

@pirateduck no special laundry detergent needed. You will need to know your water hardness. This will help you pick the best detergent to get your diapers clean.  With DS we used Tide powder and it was great!  We just bought a box every time it was on sale at Costco.

leksiL

@pirateduck if you are on Facebook join the group Fluff Love & CD Science they have all the answers to your diaper cleaning questions 

clearlyclara

@pirateduck oh yes, you also need a good wash routine! I just went into fluff love university 's website. They have wash routines by washing machines and also has a list of recommended (and not recommended) detergents. Basically I wash twice... The first is to rinse away the pee and poo. It's a short cycle. Then I add more things to bulk up the load to appropriate levels, which is easy cuz I always have extra things to wash, add more detergent and use a super long cycle to get the rest of the gunk out. I hang dry my diapers. My hubby doesn't like the feel of towels that are line dried so I still do dry those things but I try to line dry as much as I can. Ebf poo, you don't need to rinse cuz it's water soluble. After your baby eats solids, you have to plop the poo of the diaper. My toddler's, I can just shake it out

pirateduck

clearlyclara said:

@pirateduck oh yes, you also need a good wash routine! I just went into fluff love university 's website. They have wash routines by washing machines and also has a list of recommended (and not recommended) detergents. Basically I wash twice... The first is to rinse away the pee and poo. It's a short cycle. Then I add more things to bulk up the load to appropriate levels, which is easy cuz I always have extra things to wash, add more detergent and use a super long cycle to get the rest of the gunk out. I hang dry my diapers. My hubby doesn't like the feel of towels that are line dried so I still do dry those things but I try to line dry as much as I can. Ebf poo, you don't need to rinse cuz it's water soluble. After your baby eats solids, you have to plop the poo of the diaper. My toddler's, I can just shake it out

So I've seen the hand sprayer system for pre-rinse into the toilet, do you use this?  Are you saying this is unnecessary until the baby starts on solids?

leksiL

@pirateduck yes unnecessary while EBF. If formula fed you need to rinse. I just used my utility sink for anything that couldn’t be shaken out once she started solids. 

pirateduck

leksiL said:

@pirateduck yes unnecessary while EBF. If formula fed you need to rinse. I just used my utility sink for anything that couldn’t be shaken out once she started solids. 

Hmm...  now I want to have a utility sink more than ever!  Sounds like a good baby shower gift from a family member plumber

clearlyclara

If you don't want to spray it out some ppl use liners. I never had to spray... I just used tp to get the poo out in the transition from ebf poo to solid poo. But everyone is different! On the cloth diaper groups, they talked about buying cheap flannel blankets from Walmart and cutting them out to be liners... Basically you can wash and reuse if there is no poo. And it's cheap so if there is poo on it you just toss it. 

craftywitch

We didn't do special detergent, just our regular store brand free and clear. We also never used a sprayer- we plopped what would fall off in the toilet and chucked the rest in the washer. Check the settings on your washer- ours has an extra rinse cycle that I always run for cloth and an optional soak which I found useful for when the diapers are starting to smell.

merigoround

I’ve never had experience with cloth diapers, but I’m going to give it a try! I have so much to learn  We are lucky to live in a large city with several cloth diaper services.  We are going to try our hand at cloths using one of them. They deliver fresh sanitized cloth diapers to the house each week and they take away all of the soiled diapers to their facility for cleaning. If it looks like we are going to be good at cloths, we are going to order a few cute covers that belong to us.