Cloth Diapers

[sd123]

Any moms using cloth diapers? Want to use them with our first, but the options are endless!! Any recommendations? Good sites to buy on?

Thanks a lot!

[SassyAshley]

@sweet sparrow used them, maybe she can help.

[sweet sparrow]

Any moms using cloth diapers? Want to use them with our first, but the options are endless!! Any recommendations? Good sites to buy on?

Thanks a lot!

We'll be cloth diapering our second. There are definitely a lot of brands to choose from! We tried Bum Genius, Fuzzi Bunz, and Mother-Ease. Even though the first two were more expensive, I just didn't find that they fit our LO and there were always leaks. They are an all-in-one diaper, which means it's one piece (liner, diaper, and cover). Mother-Ease is like wearing a big towel, and there's a snap button cover that goes over top. I would recommend getting a cloth diaper with snaps over the velcro because 1) your child will eventually learn how velcro works and potentially remove the diaper while "napping" in the crib, or sometime when you're not watching them closely, 2) velcro gets stuck with lint balls in the laundry and you have to clean it more often, or it will come undone from the diaper and snag all your other baby delicates, and 3) snaps seem to be more durable and last longer than velcro. You won't have to worry about the thread coming undone and having to sew the thing while your baby pees through three more diapers.

I found Mother-Ease to be the most reliable because of the design. Other diapers are lined with a non-cotton material that seems to funnel the wetness right out onto LO's clothes and you have to be careful about the detergent you use. If you use anything that blocks absorbency like fabric softener, or detergent with fabric softener, you have to do laundry all over again with proper detergent to get it out, and maybe even do it a few times. Mother-Ease is like wearing a towel, so it's absorbent by design and you don't have to worry about leaks for awhile. There are liners that are the soft terry cloth and thick liners that are made of some smooth synthetic material on the baby-facing side. These are super useful when baby starts solid and you have to clean off the solid waste. The disadvantage about Mother-Ease is that because it's white cotton, it really shows stains well.

People recommended me to use liners with cloth diapers, but I found them to be useless in the beginning. When your baby starts moving/crawling, the liner always bunches and the baby will poop around the liner, hardly ever in it. Best to save them until after baby starts solid foods.

Mother-Ease can be purchased directly from their website. Alternatively, you can get Bum Genius at Toys R Us on a good sale for about $15 each. There are also many people trying to sell their old cloth diapers on kjijiji or craigslist.

The other tip I have would be not to buy any newborn cloth diapers. Babies grow out of them in a month, so there's no point starting them until they can wear a size 1 diaper. The one size cloth diaper we have is supposed to fit from newborn to toilet training or 8 - 35 lbs. Realistically, LO stopped wearing them at around the 25 lb mark. She was sleeping 13 hours at a time in the evenings and on those days, no cloth diaper could contain it all.

Good luck!

[sd123]

Hadn't heard of this brand yet, thanks for all the info!

[sweet sparrow]

I should mention that even if you find consistent leaking at night, you can always use them during the day. Some daycares will accept cloth diapers (2/3 of ours did) and you only have to provide a wet bag in which to store the soiled diapers in. You'll also need a bucket with lid to soak the stained diapers in for about an hour or two before washing.

For the Mother-ease diapers, if you purchase used, they may eventually become hard, like your regular towels depending on their age. I just run it for 10 - 15 minutes through the dryer and they're soft again.

My other recommendation is just to buy one of the brand you're considering and try it out. You have to feel comfortable using it and your partner will too. I find DH's can make or break the cloth diaper project. If you have someone to support you on this, it goes way more smoothly. Some moms are super hardcore on the cloth issue and even cloth diaper for one-week long camping trips. I used disposable any and all times we were going out. Carrying around a poopy diaper for potentially hours outside is not fun.

Another option is a cloth diapering service which several of my friends used. For about $20 each week, you can go through as many diapers as you want, they provide the pail and pick-up service. They will sanitize, clean, etc. and drop off new diapers at your door. If you know a friend who uses the service, they can probably give you a referral and a discount. I found the cost was equivalent to buying disposable diapers, but if your goal is to save the environment, and have a guarantee of less laundry, no diaper runs in the middle of the night, no waiting for the diapers to dry on the line, etc., it's worth considering.

If your baby gets a rash, it's recommended that you don't use rash creams with cloth diapers or the absorbency will decrease. We found an all-natural rash balm that worked in 24 hours or less so we switched to disposable during that time. If you do see a rash starting, wash with warm soapy water, and then change frequently until it's gone.

[Cake]

Not sure if the option is still available but I used a diaper service for the first couple of years. Was cheaper than disposables and very convenient.

[kaytee38]

With my twins I used a cloth service for the first 6 months. Then purchased Grovia diapers. They were super easy to use. The twins never had a rash from the diapers. I washed them with Nellie's detergent (purchased from Costco - $99 for a 36.37lb bucket) and dried them in the sun. This bucket lasted me over one year! I also used diaper liners (purchased from Walmart). They used Grovia diapers until they required pull-ups.

[dizzyb]

I second Sweet Sparrow's comments. Particularly about not using fabric softener. I haven't tried the same diaper brands, but I found the all-in-one diapers were the most convenient. I added pre-folds as liners when my kids got bigger and had larger volumes of urine (unfortunately, my youngest still has incontinence troubles at 8 years. The volume of urine is too high for regular cloth diapers, so he wears disposables at night with a cloth pull-up on top). I primarily used Kushies, but did have some trouble with leaks. I also used Bummis wraps combined with prefolds or all-in-ones (or both!). I loved the Bummis wraps.
I used a wet-pail to soak the diapers before putting them in the wash, using Amaze as an additive. I was very pleased with it. I have also used washing soda and borax as a soak, but didn't like it quite as much. I've only recently been using the dry-pail method (it's more pee-soaked clothing than diapers now), but I soak the load in Oxi-Clean for 8 or so hours before washing. I have found Oxi-Clean does a great job of removing the urine smell. If you find the diapers still smell after washing and/or aren't as absorbent as they should be, you may need to strip them to remove buildup. There are several perspectives online on what is the best way to do this.
If I had to start over, I would absolutely use cloth again. I'm still using the pre-folds as cleaning cloths--they are SO handy for spills! Again in agreement with Sweet Sparrow, try a variety of brands and styles to see what you prefer before committing to any.

[sd123]

Thanks for the washing tips. Haven't begun to wrap my head around that yet lol.