Cloth Diapering: Info for a newbie!

So I have been meaning to do a cloth diapering update again and just never find the time to blog with a MOBILE very active almost 1 year old!! Anyhow, I am going to just copy and paste my go to info on cloth diapering that I usually send momma's who are considering going cloth. It is kinda a jumbled mess, but now it will be a jumbled mess in one place! If you have any questions about cloth let me know!
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Ok here is the rundown on what I have and what I recommend:
- I have 2 kissaluvs pail liners that I bought on kellyscloset bc they were the cheapest. I would just buy whatever is the cheapest pail liner you can get, and get two so you have one while you wash the other. I just use a regular pop top lid kitchen trashcan with the pail liner. I have several friends that just use a large hanging wetbag though.
- I have 5 wetbags (you don't need that many!). 4 are the medium size and 1 is the large size (for when we travel). I have 2 planet wise ones, which are nice. And I have two Alva, which are not quite as big as the planet wise, but I like them anyhow. And they were much cheaper! More on that in a minute.
- I do not have any fuzzibunz personally, but many of my friends have them and love them.
- here are the diapers I have:
**bum genius 4.0
**kawaii: originals, ultrasofts, goodnightheavywetters, pure & naturals, fun print, round tab, minky, and bamboo
** sunbabys
** alvas
** go greens
** prefolds & some bummis fitteds
- I only have two Velcro diapers. We decided to go with snaps bc we heard they last longer and hold up better. but I know a friend who has used her bum genius Velcro (called aplix now) on two kids and they are going strong. I think Velcro would be much easier for daycare. It took my daycare several weeks to get the fit right with the snaps.
- which would I recommend?:

It's hard to say bc everyone cloth diapers differently. I have some friends that had one kind of diaper and that's it. They had the simplicity of everything being the exact same. Then there are others like me that have lots of different ones and like different things about each. Neither way is wrong, you just need to decide what works best for your personality.

After I bought some bumgenius, I found out about kawaii. They are much cheaper. Later one I found out about sunbabys and alvas. They are chinese businesses, so their diapers are so cheap. Our bumgenius are the best quality we have. But the others are still good quality, so it's hard to justify the price difference (bg are $18ish, kawaii are $7ish, sunbabys & alvas are $5ish). If I had it to do over again, I would probably just get the cheaper ones. The bumgenius and fuzzibunz are super nice and great quality, so you won't go wrong with them.

- I also use my prefolds and covers more often now when I am home and love them!! If I was a stay at home mom, I would prob just stick with those bc they are cheaper and easy! No stuffing involved! But they are not as easy for daycare. 


Inserts:
-I highly recommend bamboo inserts. They absorb more and are much thinner than microfiber. They also are not prone to build up.Really make a difference once you are having to stuff your diapers with two inserts!
-They are more expensive so I recommend getting them thru a coop (see below).

Some websites to checkout:

• kellyscloset.com (if you are going to buy bumgenius, fuzzibunz tc it is the best place bc they run specials all the time and you earn points for every purchase too)

• theclothdiaperwhisper.com this is the blog of kellyscloset and has tons of helpful stuff!

• Dirtydiaperlaundry.com another super helpful blog that has lots of videos that actually show you how stuff works

• Theluvyourbaby.com this is the kawaii diapers page. If you decide to buy those they are way cheaper on their site vs on kellyscloset.

COOPS:
**A big place I am buying my diapers now (well did at the end of completing my stash) is thru coops on Facebook. These are groups that put in really large orders so they get major discounts. For instance, the alvas I got are only $3 thru the coop. And they sell wetbags for $3! I would recommend one called "Sarah's Coop". They have bamboo inserts for only $1.20'a piece, which is cheap! Bamboo is super absorbent and soo much less bulky than the microfiber. I am using it to double stuff my diapers so they aren't so big.


Diaper Sprayer/Liners:
-I highly recommend getting a diaper sprayer. It rocks!
-If not, then I would get disposable liners. They are just laid flat on the diaper and will be in between the baby and diaper. They "catch" the poo and then you can just flush them. Makes clean up a breeze.


Washing Routine:
- I use Tide Original Powder.
- My wash routine is: 1 cold rinse no detergent, 1 hot wash with detergent (i fill the scoop up 3/4 when washing around 24 diapers), 2 cold rinses no detergent, dry inserts in dryer, hang pockets to air dry
- Recommend getting the collapse-able drying rack from walmart. I have a clothesline outside, but since I am a working mom I wash my diapers at night.

Cloth Diapering: The long overdue update

Well, I just checked and I have not done a cloth diapering update since Griff was 3 months old- oops! Sorry guys that actually care! I have been meaning to for months now, but obviously writing longer or more detailed posts hasnt happened much lately. So I will try to give a quick update now, and then give you some more detailed updates soon. A few things to share about cloth diapering thus far:

• I would never cloth diaper without a diaper sprayer (once my kid was on solids at least!). Griffin was exclusively breastfed until 6 months old, so his dirty diapers were no biggie. There was no need to rinse them out first, and he didnt have very many dirty diapers anyhow. Then we started solids and I realized I love my diaper sprayer! During our bathroom renovations, my diaper sprayer was not accessible and I was not a fan. Totally took a long break from cloth diapers, because trying the old "dunk and swoosh" method was gross and ineffective. **A diaper sprayer is a sprayer attached to your toilet that you can use to spray off the "dirty" parts of the diaper. It looks like the kitchen sink hose basically. 
• I definitely prefer bamboo inserts to microfiber, mainly because they are so much less bulky. I would recommend buying them from alvababy.com (even better, buy them from an alvababy co-op group on facebook for only $1.20 each). They hold a lot and are pretty thin. 
• I have yet to find a great nighttime solution for us. This is partially because my son still nurses at least once a night and takes in quite a bit. I will have to say that the disposable diapers seem to absorb way more at nighttime than my cloth diapers do (at least the pampers baby dry ones do). 
• I have used some of my pre-folds and covers recently, and they are much trimmer now that Griffin is bigger. They are trimmer than the pocket diapers are. 
• I use Tide Original powder laundry detergent on them now. The Rockin Green just did not get them clean enough I dont think. 

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. I will try to do a post soon on the fit and specific brands I have. 

But for now, what questions do you have about cloth diapers?

Cloth Diapers: What the journey looks like at 3 months

We are still going strong on our beloved cloth diapers and loving it. Seriously people- they are so easy and you save so much money! I sooooo recommend them to everyone. Check into it, you wont be disappointed.

Anyhow, I wanted to do an update to let you see what the one size diapers are looking like on our growing boy and give my opinions right now. If you want to catch up on all of my cloth diaper posts click here. These are the diapers we currently use & a summary of what I think right now:

• BumGenius 4.0
• We still love these. They are solid and made well. They still fit trim and are easy to snap. 
• Kawaii (Original CrossOvers, Ultrasoft CrossOvers, Round Tabs, Minkys, Bamboo Minky, Pure and Natural and Fun print)
• Obviously I have several kinds of these! The original crossovers (and minkys, bamboo minkys and fun print) were very bulky in the beginning, but are fitting him better now. They are still our bulkiest diaper. These diapers are also very solid. When we first bought them I worried because they were so cheap, but they are as well made as my BumGenius. The crossover snaps are kinda annoying right now, bc Griffin is inbetween sizes. So I do not send these to daycare bc it is hard to show them how to fit them right now. Kinda funny because I loved that they had the crossover snaps in the beginning bc they fit his tiny waist better than the others, but now they fit him the worst. Ha! However, once he outgrows this phase I am sure I will love them again. 
• Not a fan of the ultrasofts. The shell is flimsy and I just dont like it. 
• The round tabs didnt fit him until a few weeks ago. But now that they fit him I love them! I like that the pocket is in the front, especially when its a dirty diaper. 
• The Pure and Natural ones are trim and smaller, which is nice. But they are not great quality! The velcro (they are the only velcro I own) is already ripping apart. Ugh. 
• Love the Minkys. They are the softest things ever. 
• Sunbaby 4.0
• I have just fallen in love with Sunbaby. Wish I had known about them from the start! They fit super trim (which may mean they dont fit well later on when he is bigger?) and are easy to snap. They have hip snaps, which I like (so do the kawaiis). And they have such cute prints!! 
• GoGreenDiapers Champ
• These are not fitting Griff right now. He is inbetween snap sizes on these so its annoying and I just put them aside for now. 
• Alvas
• I have two alvas and they are very different from each other. I like my techno print one, but I do not feel like it is very good quality. It already seems kinda worn. I have a minky giraffe print also and it is too big in the legs for Griff so far. 

So thats a short rundown of each of ours and how they fit right now. If I were recommending what to get to someone starting out right now, I would highly recommend Sunbaby or Kawaii. The price is great and they make such cute prints! I know BumGenius is super popular and I do really like ours, but I have to say that I dont think they are worth the $12-14 more you have to pay for them. 

And now for some comparison picture shots:

Kawaii at 3 & 1/2 Months

Kawaii at 1 Month

Side View Kawaii at 3 & 1/2 Month

Side View Kawaii at 1 Month

Alva at 3 & 1/2 Months

Alva at 1 Month

Side view Alva at 3 & 1/2 Months

Kawaii Round Tab at 3 & 1/2 Months

I will try to take some shots of the BumGenius and SunBaby diapers and update those later. Currently I am washing the diapers about 2 a week, or every 3 & 1/2 days. We got an indoor drying rack and it has been great! I try to sun any that get stains (which totally works fyi) and then they rest I can just throw on this thing. We got the cheapest one at Wal-mart. It folds down very easily too. I make a batch of cloth wipes about once a week right now. Daycare is doing fine with the cloth diapers, and hasnt complained any. So far so good! Yay! I got some new sunbaby prints recently that are sooo cute and I will post some pics of those coming soon too! And thats all I have to say about that. 

Cloth Diapering: Changing a Cloth Diaper

*Warning: There is poop shown in this post. 

So for some of you, you are wondering what exactly you do with a cloth diaper after you use it. I wanted to just show you. I could not actually change the diaper and video one handed, so I am picking up afterwards. Ha. Let me know if you have questions. 

Cloth Diapering: Using Cloth Wipes

      We are using cloth wipes along with out cloth diapers, and I love them! They are soft, work great and are easy. For some reason, when I was preparing to cloth diaper I was most nervous about using the wipes. I am not really sure why, maybe because there are so many different ways to do them? So I am very glad it has worked out so well. Here is what I do for cloth wipes:

 I store my wipes in a huggies disposables container. It works great. And I have a travel wipes container for the diaper bag ( I actually have two. I can only fit 4 wipes in one, so if you need more for a day away then pack two). 

24ish baby washclothes 

2 Cups Water

2 tablespoons baby shampoo

1 & 1/4 tablespoons baby oil

** Mix ingredients in a large bowl. 

** Take a stack of baby washcloths (folded in half) and dunk in water. 

** Remove them one by one and lightly ring out excess liquid (the first time I hardcore ringed them out and they dried out pretty fast). 

** Place the wipe in the container. 

Easy Peasy! If you are going to use cloth diapers then I say you just have to do wipes too! If you dont, then every diaper change you have to make sure you have a trash can near you to throw the disposable away. Or you have to put the disposable in the diaper and then it gets all weird in the wash. Because you see, with a disposable you put the wipe in the diaper, ball the whole thing up then take it to the trash. But with a cloth diaper, you ball the whole thing up and put it in a diaper pail or wet bag.

And thats how I use cloth wipes.

Cloth Diapers: The fit on a newborn

We are mainly using One Size Pocket Diapers on Griffin. You can read more about what those are here. The good thing about them is that they should last us until he potty trains. The bad thing is they are quite bulky on a smaller baby. Oh well. So here are some shots on how they are fitting Griffin right now, while he is 10 lbs.

A BumGenius newborn diaper. He is almost too wide for these! 

A view of what the diapers look like under a onesie... 

 A BumGenius 4.0. They are pretty trim One Size. 

 Side view of the BumGenius 4.0

 The GoGreenPocket Champ. They are the trimmest One Size I have I think. 

 Side view of the Champ. Oh and sidenote- the insert does come out in the wash! Awesome! 

 The Kawaii One Size. They are my bulkiest ones I think. 

 Side View of the Kawaii. 

 My Alva. This is basically like the Kawaii. Cute print isnt it? 

I have a few others to take a picture of and post still. But thats what we have so far.

They have all been really absorbent so far. I have mainly just used the bumgenius newborn insert in most of them and just one insert in the rest (only have so many newborn inserts). Thats plenty for now.

How the cloth adventure is going so far...

As I mentioned the other day, we have started cloth diapering! Yay! (For those that haven't been reading my blog for very long, you can catch up with what cloth diapering is all about and why we chose to use them here.) So far it has been fabulous. I was actually nervous to start. As you may have realized, I felt pretty overwhelmed the first two weeks Griffin was home. So I was nervous to add something else to the mix. And since I had been so excited about cloth diapering, what if it didn't go well after all?? Then I had all these cloth diapers and no money in my budget to start buying disposables. I felt like there was a lot of pressure for this to work... Luckily it did!

My plan all along was to wait a few weeks and then begin. I, of course, assumed we would be home from the beginning and not two weeks into Griffin's life. So I still took three weeks once we were home to let things settle down. I think the fact that we had been using disposables for three weeks was what made me so nervous to switch. Anyhow, I had a whole stash from my friend Elizabeth to use until Griffin got big enough for our one size diapers (they are a bit bulky for a newborn), but because I ended up having a bigger baby and waiting so long they were not necessary. Griffin fits into majority of our one size diapers already! Wow! I mean, they are bulky on him, but not too bad.

So last Wednesday I got out a few diapers and just went for it. I was so nervous I was going to have a leak or something! Ha! But we have not had a single leak so far. Griffin seems very pleased, no more crying for a diaper change. I basically change him after every feeding and thats all. The pocket diapers wick away the wetness so he doesn't feel wet. Changing the diaper is super easy, just the same as a disposable except afterwards I do not throw it away but instead throw it into our diaper pail or wet bag (if we are out).

I have done the laundry twice now. I do one cold rinse first (to rinse out all the yuckies), then a wash cycle with detergent, then one more cold rinse afterwards. Then I line dry the pocket shells and put the inserts in the dryer. No biggie. I am a little worried about how I will dry them when I go back to work because I will have to do the laundry at night. Any suggestions cloth diapering people?

I am also using cloth wipes and loving them! They work so well and one cleans everything great (instead of two or three disposables). I am using baby washcloths from wal-mart and pre-moistening them then storing them in a disposable wipes container. My wipe solution is 1 cup water, 1 tbsp baby oil and 1 tbsp baby shampoo. It smells good! I did not use the cloth wipes the first day and everyone is right- using disposable wipes with a cloth diaper is annoying! You naturally throw the wipe in the diaper, but with disposable wipes you have to make an extra effort to throw it away and then put the diaper in the diaper pail. So using cloth wipes makes it so much easier.

Griffin has had diaper rash since birth because of the antibiotics he was on. After like two days in cloth with cloth wipes the boys rash was practically gone! Awesome! And so far in his lifetime we have only bought 1 thing of diapers. Yay for saving money!

I will post some pictures to show how the diapers fit right now soon. If any of you are interested in knowing more about cloth diapers, just let me know. I would really really recommend it! I do not feel like it is much more effort than using disposables, I promise. And I personally think the money savings make it so worth it!

Let the Cloth Begin

We are starting cloth diapers today! Yay! I will keep you posted on how it goes.


- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Prepping it up... Continued

After getting the prefolds ready yesterday, I decided to get the pocket diapers and inserts done today. Mr. Pate and the other Mr. Pate (Dustin) put up my clothesline for me! Yay!

Pocket diapers do not need much prepping. It is good to wash them for cleanliness and to fluff up the fibers though. So I unwrapped and unsnapped all of my diapers, pulled all the inserts out and folded any Velcro into the laundry tabs (I don't have very many Velcro).





Once I had it all in the basket i realized it was a lot! Anyhow, I put them in the washer and did a cold cycle with 2 tbsp rockin green. Then I added one extra rinse cycle at the end. Once they were done, I put all the inserts into the dryer on medium heat. And Mr. Pate and I hung up all the shells outside:





How cute! Ha! So now I am about to stuff them and put them away until Griffin is around 10 lbs or more, so he can fit them well. Yay for cloth diapers! And yay for being ready... We have very little still on our to do list and I am very pumped about that!

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Prepping it up

Yesterday I began prepping our cloth diapers. What's that mean? Cloth diapers need to be washed before you use them so they are ready to be absorbent. Different types of cloth diapers must be prepped differently. Anyhow, I wanted to get this done before baby arrives because I am sure life will be plenty busy then!

So I started with our prefolds. (click on cloth diapers under the subject menu to see my posts about the different types of diapers) I got 12 prefolds and a few diaper covers to have on hand when baby needs to use diaper cream, I am running low on pockets or whatever. They are cheap. Prefolds are the old school diaper that people used to use with rubber pants! : )

So this is how they looked when they arrived:





Very stiff and flat. Which apparantly means they are not absorbent. Prefolds require lots of washing and drying to get them to fluff up and be absorbent. They also cone with natural oils that you need to wash out. So in they went




With some Rockin Green (thanks Emily!). I washed and dryed mine 4 times total, and here is the finished product:








So as you can see, they fluffed and quilted up a whole bunch! Check another thing off the to do list! Woo hoo!

- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Cloth: My Kawaii's

Kawaii Diapers are another brand I found through a review on a cloth diaper blog. They are not as well known and are very cheap! They run $6.99-$10ish and all come with 2 inserts. $6.99?? Sign me up! I was hesitant at first, but the reviews on the blogs all said they were very good and held up well. Then my friend Amanda got some and has been using them with her kids. She loves them and is getting more, so that sold me on them!

I have several types of their diapers:

 I have 3 (one is not pictured) of their Snazzy Minky diaper. It is a soft minky on the outside. These two have sports all over them, so I just had to get them bc of Mr.Pate! 

 I have 2 Round Tab Snap pockets. 

 2 Goodnight Heavy Wetters, arent they cute?

 2 Pure and Natural pockets, which are newborn to 22ish lbs. 

 1 Snap Fun Print in Camo

 5 Original Cross-Over Snap 

 2 Ultra-Soft Cross Over Snap

 4 Diaper Covers

The biggest downfall to these diapers is they are often out of stock on their website! So you have to wait around and stalk their site to get a good order in. O well.

Cloth: My BumGenius

As mentioned before, one of the brands we have is bumGenius 4.0 diapers. These are a very well known and popular pocket diapers. They are $17.95 and come with a newborn insert and regular size insert. Here is an excerpt from their website:

• NEW! Generous sizing accommodates larger babies.
• NEW! Easily replaceable elastic keeps your diapers fresh.
• 3x3 snap down design* adjusts the sizing to fit small, medium and large sizes (approximately 7-35+ pounds).
• Trim, snug and comfortable stretchy tabs* provide a custom fit.
• Waterproof insert stopper* prevents leaking at the tummy.
• Diapers are bundled with two inserts: a newborn insert for newborns and a one-size insert for your older baby.
• Wide slot opening makes it easy to stuff and remove insert.
• Slot cover* protects your baby from wetness.

I have tons of friends that use these diapers and love them, so I knew they were a safe bet on quality and performance. I just am not the biggest fan of the price compared to some of the diapers I have. Luckily I did get mine when they were on sale! Yay!

We also got 2 bumGenius All-In-One diapers in size XS, so basically 2 newborn diapers. They are not pockets, but a diaper that has the absorbency built in. So they work just like a disposable, except you wash them. They are tiny and cute!! Thank Trycia!

Ok, how many of you have bumGenius??