Cloth Diapers, Zeke Edition

Long ago, back when my first was in diapers...... Wait, that wasn't that long ago-- she still wears a 'diaper' of sorts at night.... Anyway, back when I did cloth diapers with my almost 5 year old, I did a post on it. Yes, we started late with her, but she made it worth the effort and time spent, since she took longer to potty train due to her food sensitivities that took us 3 years to figure out (post on that later). I really wanted to do cloth diapers with Caylen from the beginning, but due to the fact my husband was in Iraq at the time and she was my first babe, I decided to wait. Until she was almost 2. Oh well! Better late than never, right? So, I knew with my next child, who took 2 years to conceive, we would do cloth diapers from the beginning. And, despite the common opinion that they are hard, stinky, time consuming, etc., which they really are not-- they are actually a lot of fun-- we love them! The ladies in the nursery at church, notsomuch. They are so cute and fun-- adding a variety and sparkle of interest to the all too monotonous task of infant care some days.

 My Sweet Girl in her first cloth diaper-- a Fuzzibunz

What kinds do we use? I like to use every kind that I can! I have used, for the newborn stage, fitteds (Kissaluvs, Sandy's, Imagine bamboo), all in ones (Grovia, Imagine, BumGenius), prefolds (Imagine, Indian unbleached), and gdiapers, just to round out the list. Currently, we use Grovia all in ones and all in two's, flour sack towel and/or receiving blanket flats with either a flip or Econobum cover, Best Bottoms with both organic and stay dry inserts, and we have 3 BumGenius: a 4.0 and 2 freetimes.

So what's my favorite? It depends on the day and the situation. For going out, an all in one or ai2 is a great option because it's easy. For staying around the house, I like to use flats, preferably flour sack towels, since they are just so simple. They wash out perfectly, and folding them is actually pretty fun, and yields a good fit. You can also go coverless at home to let the bum air out a little.

As far as prints go, I really do love Grovia since they are so doggone cute! I have a robots print, an airplanes print, and a cloud (grey) dipe. I get a lot of compliments on how cute these are, and they are of really great quality.

My wash routine is simple-- I store the dirty diapers in a pail, lined with a reusable wet bag-- I wash every other day, with Gain or Tide filled up to the 2nd line, with a little Calgon, which is water softener. I run a prewash, no soap, warm wash with cold rinse, spin on extra high to get them as dry as possible. Then, I put them in the dryer. All of them. Despite the myth that heat will ruin PUL, the waterproofing layer, it really doesn't. PUL is made to withstand the heat of an autoclave, which is really hot. Putting them in the dryer also makes the process quicker, obviously, so I definitely prefer it. My diapers stay stink free, and pretty much stain free as well!

I love them, but so does my little squish:

BumGenius 4.0 in the Irwin print

 

If you are interested in cloth diapering, I would love to answer any questions you have. You can also find loads of information about it on the internet! I did most of my research on my own, by following cloth diaper 'threads' and researching different online diaper stores. Ones I recommend are:

• www.nickisdiapers.com
• www.cottonbabies.com
• www.greenmountaindiapers.com