Talk to me about cloth diapering

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2015

I'm 99% certain that we're going to be cloth diapering, I'm a planner and a bargain shopper, so I'm planning to start keeping my eyes open for decent deals soon...however I'm not sure exactly what I should be looking for. any suggestions for articles to read or things to look out for that I'm probably not thinking of?

what would you consider a good price on things like diaper covers and inserts? I read somewhere that planning to have 24-30 diapers could probably get you through potty training doing laundry every-other day (seems like that's 12-15 diapers a day) I think we'd like to be able to have a stash that would get us through a long weekend away, so laundry every 3rd day.

suggestions for brands (or brands to avoid)?

what other things would I want to consider? special laundry detergent? those toilet sprayers?

islandmonkey8 · May 2015

I'm also planning on CD. We need a new washing machine for it but that is because ours sucks and is actually starting to cause damage to them.

I know there are a few ladies here that CD hopefully they can chime in with helpful info. I'm still learning. I did start a CD registry at https://www.nickisdiapers.com.

We're doing mostly prefolds and covers. I'm trying a few brands and going to see which works best. I also threw some all-in-ones and stuff on there too for ease of use.

I haven't been told that you need special detergent other than what you would use for baby. We don't plan on using a sprayer. When solid poop comes we may just use disposable liners.

Apollo11235 · May 2015

We're planning on cloth diapering and just got our start-up stash completed. We have 10 one-size covers (I think 5 Flips, a rumparoo, a blueberry, a thirsties, and 2 best bottoms), 16 prefolds (10 of which are Gerber 3-ply which have mixed reviews and may end up being burp cloths), and 12 inserts (9 Flip and 3 Happy Endings(?) bamboo charcoal). We're hoping this will be enough to figure out what we like and what works, then we can buy some more of what works well for us and for baby. We've heard good things about all of these brands, though, and I've used Flips and liked them.

We bought 6 of the inserts and 5 of the covers used at a consignment sale last weekend and got 2 Flips and the Gerber prefolds as gifts, so we spent a total of about $150 so far. We will probably have to replace the elastic in a couple of the used covers, too, so we'll probably spend a little more. The used covers were $4-10, and the charcoal inserts were $3 each I think. Not sure about the price for the Flip inserts, sorry.

We're not planning to buy a sprayer - we'll just use flushable liners as necessary (you need liners anyway if you ever need to use diaper rash cream). You would also need to look into wet bags and waterproof, washable diaper pail liners. I'm not too sure on laundry detergent yet. Of course all the brands say you need to use their super expensive detergent... I haven't had a chance to read everything they say carefully yet, but Fluff Love & CD Science is on Facebook with laundering info, and they have a site, fluffloveuniversity.com, with lots of info as well.

Bottom line - I don't know what I'm doing either. We read a bunch of reviews, talked to a few friends who have CD'ed, and got to know a local CD store, and we hope we're getting a good start.

Willy1020 · May 2015

I'm a lurker here. I have a one year old who we've been cloth diapering from birth. This might get long, so bear with me.

For newborns, you will want at least 36 changes if you plan to wash every other day.

I would get a mix of prefolds/flats and covers as well as all-in-ones (AIO's) and fitteds. That way, you will find out what you like when you start building your one-size stash. You will want at least 6 covers since NB poos is runny and gets in the covers.

My current favorite brands are: Blueberry, their coveralls are great for overnight and their simplexes are my go-to daycare diaper. Green Mountain Diapers - their workhorses and prefolds are the best. I also have a lot of Bumgenius pocket diapers that I use for daycare but the elastic on them is starting to wear down. I also really like Imagine covers and Best Bottoms and Grovia all-in-two/hybrid diapers.

I would strongly recommend AGAINST fluff love and CD science. Their routine can cause a lot of trouble. Rashes, leaking diapers, having to excessively strip diapers. I've never once stripped my diapers.

A good wash routine should start with a warm rinse with or without detergent, a hot heavy wash with detergent and a warm or cold rinse. The third rinse is essential to get rid of any excess detergent from your main wash.

We and many many others have great success with regular powdered tide. If you have sensitive skin or allergies, Country Save is also a good detergent. I had good luck with that for almost a year.

A few good resources to check out:

http://www.abbyslane.com/Cloth-101_ep_42-1.html

http://goodbyecb.proboards.com/board/23/cloth-diapers

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Justlaundry/

I don't want to overwhelm you too much more, but I'd be more than happy to answer any and all questions you have!

I hope you don't mind me jumping in like this!

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2015

This is all great! I seem to be on the right track. We'll plan to register for some diapering supplies, but I do not want diapers to be a big item on our registry, so when I see deals I plan to start building a stash. some of the cute pocket diapers on zulily today made me think to start gathering a bit more info.

LooneyLife · May 2015

Every other day laundry?! Ain't nobody got time for that :P

carcrashheart · May 2015

We've been cd'ing for 2.5 years. I've never done laundry every other day. However, newborns/babies create a lot of laundry so the laundry loads automatically increase once they arrive. One more load is no big deal. I was already doing every other day loads of newborn clothes. Regardless, I apparently don't change the babies frequently enough to do every other day laundry. I'm probably on an every fourth or fifth day I do cd laundry. We changed every two hours with #1 but not anymore. If we don't smell poop and the kid isn't bothered we leave them be. Since there aren't chemicals in cd's like there are in sposies they aren't at risk for a rash as much. It's the chemicals that really cause rash issues much of the time.

We used prefolds and covers for #1 until he was about 12-13 months. Then I got AIO's for him. We planned to do prefolds with #2 but our oldest ended up being potty trained about the time the baby arrived so we waited until the AIO's fit #2 to use them (that took awhile-he's a peanut). We had 12 NB prefolds and 11 kissaluv fitters. Then we had 30+ infant size prefolds. And about 25 baby size. We used different things for overnight.

Now we have about 16 AIO's for #2. There are 5-6 that I just pulled because I realized the elastics were shot and we were getting poop explosions. Since one reason we cd is to avoid poop explosions that did not amuse me. I will get the elastics fixed when I get a chance.

I personally hated pockets, but they're the most popular. Swaddlebee simplex AIO's worked really well for our oldest. It seems the BG elementals work better for our infant. Point being: it's hard to say which brand is best since the fits are all different. You could have an entire stash of the same brand and it end up not fitting our child well. Tots Bots did not fit our oldest well at all.

Tip:
Do NOT use cd detergent or homemade detergent. They don't have the proper cleaning agents and eventually the diapers will get backed up with shit (literally). Ignore that most sites tell you to use rocking green and such.

You can use regular diaper creams, just read up to find out which ones. It doesn't have to be cj butter or anything cited for cd's.

I hate changing kids while out of the house and only do it if absolutely have to. i often keep sposies in my bag for changing on the fly. But honestly-I have yet to change our 6.5 month old while out of the house.

Also-FF poop diapers can go straight in to the washer, despite what a lot of sites say. We chose to spray down diapers from day one, but technically you don't have to until they start solids.

Good luck!

formerlyGDaisy09 · May 2015

carcrashheart said:
We've been cd'ing for 2.5 years. I've never done laundry every other day. However, newborns/babies create a lot of laundry so the laundry loads automatically increase once they arrive. One more load is no big deal. I was already doing every other day loads of newborn clothes. Regardless, I apparently don't change the babies frequently enough to do every other day laundry. I'm probably on an every fourth or fifth day I do cd laundry. We changed every two hours with #1 but not anymore. If we don't smell poop and the kid isn't bothered we leave them be. Since there aren't chemicals in cd's like there are in sposies they aren't at risk for a rash as much. It's the chemicals that really cause rash issues much of the time.

We used prefolds and covers for #1 until he was about 12-13 months. Then I got AIO's for him. We planned to do prefolds with #2 but our oldest ended up being potty trained about the time the baby arrived so we waited until the AIO's fit #2 to use them (that took awhile-he's a peanut). We had 12 NB prefolds and 11 kissaluv fitters. Then we had 30+ infant size prefolds. And about 25 baby size. We used different things for overnight.

Now we have about 16 AIO's for #2. There are 5-6 that I just pulled because I realized the elastics were shot and we were getting poop explosions. Since one reason we cd is to avoid poop explosions that did not amuse me. I will get the elastics fixed when I get a chance.

I personally hated pockets, but they're the most popular. Swaddlebee simplex AIO's worked really well for our oldest. It seems the BG elementals work better for our infant. Point being: it's hard to say which brand is best since the fits are all different. You could have an entire stash of the same brand and it end up not fitting our child well. Tots Bots did not fit our oldest well at all.

Tip:
Do NOT use cd detergent or homemade detergent. They don't have the proper cleaning agents and eventually the diapers will get backed up with shit (literally). Ignore that most sites tell you to use rocking green and such.

You can use regular diaper creams, just read up to find out which ones. It doesn't have to be cj butter or anything cited for cd's.

I hate changing kids while out of the house and only do it if absolutely have to. i often keep sposies in my bag for changing on the fly. But honestly-I have yet to change our 6.5 month old while out of the house.

Also-FF poop diapers can go straight in to the washer, despite what a lot of sites say. We chose to spray down diapers from day one, but technically you don't have to until they start solids.

Good luck!

Thank you! this was really helpful. I think I'm planning to stock-up on several different brands, so if some are a bad fit I don't have tons that won't work.

H and I had the conversation yesterday (he thought I was crazy, until I talked some sense into him). I pointed out that we could always choose to have some disposables on hand for outings or weekends away...if we didn't feel like toteing a wet-bag of dirty diapers around.

Talk to me about cloth diapering

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