@wednesdaygirl1019 nah, I'm sure if you try it and it's not working, you'll know. Some "natural" detergents may not really clean enough; others with additives may leave a film on the fibers that blocks absorbancy. 🤷 I just read about the Tide powder and since it's been working for us, I stick with it. Others I'm sure have other wash routines that work for them. Maybe there's a list somewhere of what detergents NOT to use?
I use All free and clear for all of our laundry. It seems to do the trick. I "strip" diapers every so often with some bleach in the cycle to freshen them up. It is true that you know when what you have isn't working. They will start to get smelly even after you just washed them. I am about to try a new detergent though just because it's a little more environmentally friendly. So we will see how it works! I've always stuck with All because it did the trick, we can buy it in bulk, and it's not too expensive. It's just a trial and error situation and you have to find what works for you.
ETA: I wash diapers every other day to keep them from getting too gross. I do an initial rinse and then run them for a full load with other baby laundry or sometimes towels to fill the washer so it's not such a small load. It's definitely more laundry, but it's manageable. I haven't noticed a huge increase in my water bill. It is basically just an extra rinse cycle everytime I wash diapers.
@wednesdaygirl1019 We wash 2-3 times a week, when the bucket is full. Our
bucket isn't that big about 3/4 of a load, so that is something to consider
when buying a bucket.
We do a rinse and then put them in for a 60C wash with non
bio detergent and one scoop of bambino mio nappy wash. The nappy wash is a non
bio, anti bac, stain remover type wash, I'm sure you can find something similar. It's handy to have anyway and it's good at stopping them getting smelly, I use
it to wash the bibs too and many other things.
@wednesdaygirl1019 We just tried our go-to clothing detergent (Gain) and since we didn't run into any issues, never stopped or researched further! There are so many other variables in the equation -- your machine, type of water, style of diaper, etc., that I think it just requires some experimentation in your own home.
Guys, I am spending waaaayyyy too much time researching newborn cloth diapers and mapping out cost of various stash scenarios. It's pretty much the only thing I need to buy for this new baby, so all my energy has been directed into the project. My poor husband is so tired of this conversation.
So I’ve been planning on using a local cloth diaper service since I found out I was pregnant, but now we’re considering delaying, pending any second wave of C19 this fall. It’s probably ridiculously low risk and maybe I’m crazy, but having one more thing delivered to our house that a bunch of other people have touched just doesn’t appeal to me right now. Unsure what our plan will be yet, but in the meantime, I know I should have some newborn disposables on hand at least, right? Anyone have a preferred brand, or one they hated? Bonus if they’re at least somewhat eco friendly despite being disposable. I think I’ve seen ads on FB for something like that?
@viola_mama When I cloth diapered my first, it was definitely nice to have some disposables on-hand for the initial postpartum period until I could get on my feet enough to deal with the constant laundry. So, covid or not, I think this is a good idea! We just used whatever was leftover from the hospital, which I believe were Pampers, and some generics from my shower. In Savannah, we also had regular power outages where I'd grab some disposables, and in those cases, I really liked the Honest Company brand! Also, just wanted to throw out my love for WaterWipes, which I order in bulk on Amazon. Which might not be ideal for you, since it's another delivery, but I love having a huge box of wipes on-hand at all times!
@lachnessmomster Thanks for your input! We’re having all kinds of things delivered now so I don’t know why I’m being paranoid about this one. I guess because we likely wouldn’t be able to let them quarantine for a day before needing them, unless we did a whole day of disposables every week. So much stuff to figure out still!
@viola_mama I'm personally skeptical of many of the brands that say they're eco-friendly. So many claims about "decomposes in less than 3 years! *** if stored in 100% optimal conditions only available on Mars." We have certainly used disposables on occasion, especially when traveling, and generally just grabbed Pampers because it's what they had at the hospital and what we knew.
Remind me: were you leaning toward a diaper service primarily to avoid the wash routine? If fall comes aroundand regular deliveries still don't seem ideal (and you're open to dipping a toe in), I'll throw out another plug for the Jillian's Drawers newborn rental program, where you "rent" the diapers in the sense that you return them at the end of the 1-3 months. You do have to pay out of pocket for the diapers, which is returned to you only in store credit, but you could certainly do a "half stash" or something to minimize upfront costs and still get to experiment before committing. They have toys/other odds and ends if you decide cloth diapering's not for you and still need to use the credit! Just another option.
@emiliadkay I get it, I know they’ll never decompose in a landfill. 😕 But at least some of them are produced in a more eco-friendly fashion and with less plastic/chemicals?
I have legit spent the last two hours reading and watching videos about diapers, haha. I’m starting to come around to just buying cloth diapers (turns out we’d have to buy covers anyway for our local service; they only provide/clean the prefolds) so now that I’m considering that, there’s a ton of stuff to learn. I’ve got to start reading this thread over from the beginning! Also have to figure out how to propose the idea to my husband, who definitely was pro-not cleaning them ourselves. I like the hybrid version so far from what I’ve read, that seems to have both cloth and disposable insert options. Thanks for the pro tip, I’ll check it out!
ETA: OK, it’s 1:30 in the morning, that was quite the cloth diaper rabbit hole. I do have a question I didn’t see addressed in this thread. A lot of you talked about sizing, but I see that there are some covers that say they’re good for 8-30 pounds, and they have snaps that make it bigger or smaller. Has anyone used those? I’d of course prefer to buy covers that last for that long instead of having to size up! And in that case, it would just be the prefold size that would have to be adjusted from time to time, yes?
@viola_mama I haven't kept up on this whole thread, so this might've already been mentioned, but we used SoftBums. They have an Echo and Omni size, but both are adjustable as baby grows. The Echos are more suitable for fresh babes, and the Omnis are more practical for later on. I would use and adjust the Echos until...hmmm....six months or so? Don't quote me on that - I'm trying to remember. Then I'd switch to Omnis, and I used those until I did end up switching over to Pull-Ups for potty training. I used both snaps and velcro, though I did find the velcro a pain to keep fuzz-free. Someone more diligent about folding the velcro down before throwing in wet bag/washing would probably have better luck. I also have a stash of both the dry touch small pods and the one-size pods. Both of which can be stuffed into the shells.
<blockquote class="Quote"> <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/viola_mama">viola_mama</a> said:</div> <div class="QuoteText">ETA: OK, it’s 1:30 in the morning, that was quite the cloth diaper rabbit hole. I do have a question I didn’t see addressed in this thread. A lot of you talked about sizing, but I see that there are some covers that say they’re good for 8-30 pounds, and they have snaps that make it bigger or smaller. Has anyone used those? I’d of course prefer to buy covers that last for that long instead of having to size up! And in that case, it would just be the prefold size that would have to be adjusted from time to time, yes?</div> </blockquote> The thing with the one size covers is when the baby is tiny, there is still just so much extra fabric. Honestly, covers are so inexpensive, I wouldn't worry about it. If you get 6-8 NB covers, and then graduate up to the one sizers, I think the trade-off for fit around tiny little legs and under nb bellies is 100% worth it. Once you size up to the OS covers, you will just be adjusting the snaps for fit, and then yes, you will need to size up the prefolds for absorbancy as you go through stages.
DH loves our prefolds. To him the simplicity of a system like that - just a nice absorbant piece of material, trifolded, with a waterproof cover - appeals to his practical, functional sensibilities. (there are also disposable flip inserts available, but we never tried them) I ended up with far more covers than I need, and many still in the packages! Lol :#. But 10-12 one size covers would be plenty. I have best bottoms, blueberry, flips, thirsties duo, smartbottoms, sweetpea. I just seem to have landed on the flips and they work great for us, inexpensive, easy care. I would recommend those, or the best bottoms or blueberry capris if you don't mind spending a little more, they just have a nice sturdy feel, and the best bottoms seems to have the most tapered / tailored fit. YMMV, so I would not necessarily get all ten-twelve before trying a couple. You can order more once you touch them and try them out on your own kid. 👍
@viola_mama we had covers that were both OS and came in 2 sizes but still adjusted (thirsties duo). I much preferred the thirsties duo when she was tiny, but we used both. Most of our AIO were OS as well but she couldn’t really wear those until she was closer to 10 lbs.
for sposies, we had the best luck with seventh generation in terms of fit and absorbency. Honest we’re pretty good too, and now that we do pull ups at night we only use honest (the seventh gen pull-ups are leaky). I’m interested in trying Bambo and Dyper this time. You can also do a diaper composting service that will pick them up and drop off new diapers.
We reached the same conclusion as you that if we have to wash the covers anyway, we would rather just wash all of the cloth diapers ourselves. DH and visiting grandparents also preferred AIO or hybrid and that wasn’t an option through a service. We did have a nanny instead of daycare, though, so she washed diapers 2x/week and we did it only on the weekends. If a nanny isn’t for you, maybe a mother’s helper that comes for a few hours once or twice a week could help with the diaper laundry and other chores.
Thanks you guys! I didn’t realize so many brands came with this OS option. I’d been looking at the GroVia ones that you can use with prefold or snap-in absorbency pad or disposable insert. I guess I got the impression that the OS cover was a novel thing, but apparently not. Do other covers have the capability/ease of using a disposable insert too? That’s pretty appealing for outings and whatnot, and would be less waste than a whole disposable diaper.
@viola_mama I think there are 2-3 brands that are designed to also use disposable inserts. And there are flushable liners you can use for poop (but we didn’t like them). When out, we always just put dirties in a wet bag and it wasn’t a big deal. Or if we were traveling we used sposies for the trip.
Bumgenius / Flip has disposable and washable options, and I think best bottom maybe has a disposable option? You might want to look into G-diapers, tho. I seem to remember those being a popular combo cloth/ disposable type, but I never tried them myself. @viola_mama
FWIW, @viola_mama I never tried the grovia hybrid system, but I do have a handful of the Grovia ONE aios, and I love them, especially for overnight / long naps.
We have Duos. I quite like the smaller and larger OS. I have used the larger size on a tiny baby, but only for overnights when there's extra absorbency in the diaper. They definitely would be big on their own!
Re: The Great Cloth Diaper discussion
https://jilliansdrawers.com/pages/washing-cloth-diapers
I am about to try a new detergent though just because it's a little more environmentally friendly. So we will see how it works! I've always stuck with All because it did the trick, we can buy it in bulk, and it's not too expensive. It's just a trial and error situation and you have to find what works for you.
ETA: I wash diapers every other day to keep them from getting too gross. I do an initial rinse and then run them for a full load with other baby laundry or sometimes towels to fill the washer so it's not such a small load. It's definitely more laundry, but it's manageable. I haven't noticed a huge increase in my water bill. It is basically just an extra rinse cycle everytime I wash diapers.
@wednesdaygirl1019 We wash 2-3 times a week, when the bucket is full. Our bucket isn't that big about 3/4 of a load, so that is something to consider when buying a bucket.
We do a rinse and then put them in for a 60C wash with non bio detergent and one scoop of bambino mio nappy wash. The nappy wash is a non bio, anti bac, stain remover type wash, I'm sure you can find something similar. It's handy to have anyway and it's good at stopping them getting smelly, I use it to wash the bibs too and many other things.
I have legit spent the last two hours reading and watching videos about diapers, haha. I’m starting to come around to just buying cloth diapers (turns out we’d have to buy covers anyway for our local service; they only provide/clean the prefolds) so now that I’m considering that, there’s a ton of stuff to learn. I’ve got to start reading this thread over from the beginning! Also have to figure out how to propose the idea to my husband, who definitely was pro-not cleaning them ourselves. I like the hybrid version so far from what I’ve read, that seems to have both cloth and disposable insert options. Thanks for the pro tip, I’ll check it out!
ETA: OK, it’s 1:30 in the morning, that was quite the cloth diaper rabbit hole. I do have a question I didn’t see addressed in this thread. A lot of you talked about sizing, but I see that there are some covers that say they’re good for 8-30 pounds, and they have snaps that make it bigger or smaller. Has anyone used those? I’d of course prefer to buy covers that last for that long instead of having to size up! And in that case, it would just be the prefold size that would have to be adjusted from time to time, yes?
<div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/viola_mama">viola_mama</a> said:</div>
<div class="QuoteText">ETA: OK, it’s 1:30 in the morning, that was quite the cloth diaper rabbit hole. I do have a question I didn’t see addressed in this thread. A lot of you talked about sizing, but I see that there are some covers that say they’re good for 8-30 pounds, and they have snaps that make it bigger or smaller. Has anyone used those? I’d of course prefer to buy covers that last for that long instead of having to size up! And in that case, it would just be the prefold size that would have to be adjusted from time to time, yes?</div>
</blockquote>
The thing with the one size covers is when the baby is tiny, there is still just so much extra fabric. Honestly, covers are so inexpensive, I wouldn't worry about it. If you get 6-8 NB covers, and then graduate up to the one sizers, I think the trade-off for fit around tiny little legs and under nb bellies is 100% worth it. Once you size up to the OS covers, you will just be adjusting the snaps for fit, and then yes, you will need to size up the prefolds for absorbancy as you go through stages.
DH loves our prefolds. To him the simplicity of a system like that - just a nice absorbant piece of material, trifolded, with a waterproof cover - appeals to his practical, functional sensibilities. (there are also disposable flip inserts available, but we never tried them) I ended up with far more covers than I need, and many still in the packages! Lol :#. But 10-12 one size covers would be plenty. I have best bottoms, blueberry, flips, thirsties duo, smartbottoms, sweetpea. I just seem to have landed on the flips and they work great for us, inexpensive, easy care. I would recommend those, or the best bottoms or blueberry capris if you don't mind spending a little more, they just have a nice sturdy feel, and the best bottoms seems to have the most tapered / tailored fit. YMMV, so I would not necessarily get all ten-twelve before trying a couple. You can order more once you touch them and try them out on your own kid. 👍
for sposies, we had the best luck with seventh generation in terms of fit and absorbency. Honest we’re pretty good too, and now that we do pull ups at night we only use honest (the seventh gen pull-ups are leaky). I’m interested in trying Bambo and Dyper this time. You can also do a diaper composting service that will pick them up and drop off new diapers.
https://www.gdiapers.com