Half of my pregnancy was spent reading about cloth diapering, trying to decide whether I wanted to do it and trying to figure out what diapers were best. So I thought a little update on our experience with it might be helpful.
I started out with about 15 used BumGenius diapers, 6 new bumgenius, 2 Kawaii microfibre, 2 Kawaii bamboo and 2 Kawaii heavy wetters. They are all pocket diapers.
Because Parker was so tiny, I ended up buying 12 used Kawaii newborns (6-22lbs) for $25.
I also bought the Ubbi diaper pail and 2 Ubbi cloth pail bags, and a small wet bag for when we go out. I also want to buy a large wet bag for when we go away, when Parker is with grandparents for the night or for future babysitters.
As it turned out, the diapers I bought used needed the elastics replaced. Bumgenius diapers are fairly simple to do this for, but I'm still in the process of doing it. I find that each diaper takes me about an hour to replace the elastic, so although I can do it, actually finding an hour where I'm not doing anything else has been tricky. If you are buying used diapers, this is something to be cautious of if you have no interest in replacing the elastics.
Anyways, so far I'm really liking cloth diapering. Obviously, it has already saved me lots of money! Buying diapers when Parker didn't fit into the cloth was so frustrating! I do have some leaking issues (especially with the used Kawaiis I bought, they may have to be stripped.) A lot of my leaking issues are just caused by not changing his diaper quickly enough. You really have to change them every 2 hours. I ended up buying 12 bamboo inserts from Kawaii. Bamboo is more absorbent than microfibre and I find it makes a big difference. However, when stocking up on diapers, bamboo takes a lot longer to dry, so I'm glad I don't only have bamboo or else I would be waiting 3 days for dry diapers!
My routine:
- Every 2-3 days I wash diapers
- Throw diapers in wash and remove inserts. Make sure any velcro tabs are attached so they don't stick to inserts.
- Cold rinse
- Hot wash using a small amount of Nature Clean detergent so that there is no build up
- Warm rinse (my machine doesn't rinse in warm so I run a short wash with no soap)
- You need to keep rinsing until all the soap is gone, I find with the one extra rinse it works for me as long as I don't use too much detergent
- Hang to dry in laundry room, or even better on the line as they dry faster and the sun bleaches the stains
- Sometimes I will throw inserts only in the dryer if they aren't drying quickly enough
- Once dry, I stuff the diapers with inserts so that they are ready to go
I don't find the extra laundry a big deal at all! So far Parker is exclusively breast fed which makes it super easy as there is no pre-rinse required, I can throw the diaper straight in the wash without removing any poop! Let's just say I'm not in a rush to get him on solids because of this! I have purchased a diaper sprayer for when that day comes.
I find I like the Bumgenius diapers because they are trim and I actually think they are super cute. The Kawaii diapers are a bit bulkier but they are nice diapers as well and besides the newborn ones (which have probably already been through a few kids) I don't seem to have leaking issues. I bought the BumGenius when they were buy 5 get one free so I got a bit of a deal. Kawaii diapers are much cheaper, so it's definitely nice to get some of those to save money.
I haven't even attempted overnight yet and always put Parker in disposables. I also sometimes put him in disposables if we are going out as they can typically last longer than 2 hours and I know that I likely won't have any leaks.
Parker rarely gets any sort of rash with the cloth diapers, and when he was just in disposables I found that he often had a bit of a red bum.
I would definitely recommend cloth diapering to people. It's not as difficult as you might think it is and they are pretty dang cute, even if they give your baby a big booty.
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