How do I even begin?

I had no idea where to begin with cloth diapering.  Like I said before there are so many brands and choices that it seemed so overwhelming to me.  I needed to start somewhere but I had no idea where so I turned to my friend Julie.  She owns Cozy Bottoms and sells cloth diapers.  I really didn't want anything fancy, I just wanted to start using cloth.

Here's what we decided would be best for me to start with:

1 Bummis large Super Whisper Wrap ($12.95)
    note:  The manufacturer suggests Bummis large starts at 30 lbs.  Andrew was only 27 when I bought it but I figured it would be fine and I didn't want to spend the money on a medium that he was just going to grow out of in a few weeks.

1 Rumparooz one size cover ($16.00)

1 pack of Bummis Organic Cotton Prefolds (six pack) ($28.00)

Preparing the prefolds:


The first thing I had to do before I started using these was prepare the prefolds.  To do this I had to wash them a bunch of times.  The manufacturer recommends you wash them 3-5 times before you use them to wash out the natural oils and waxes.  When I bought them they were flat.  The more I washed them the more absorbent they became.  This means the more you use them the more efficient they are.  How often have you seen a product that works better the more you use it and wash it?  They end up having some nice texture to them (as you can see in the picture) after they were prepared.


One of the things I like about cloth diapers is that they're good for the environment.  After I ran my first load of these inserts I realized it would waste a lot of water and time for me to wash them in my over sized machine 4 more times before I used them.  I decided I would be just as well off if  I agitated them by hand in a sink full of hot water.  This worked really well for me!  The water would get cloudy as I agitated the prefolds and I would simply drain it out and start again.  I didn't count how many times I had to rinse and re-fill the water but I'd estimate I did this about 8 times before the water was almost clear.  I threw the prefolds in the washing machine for one more hot wash before I dried them out and started to use them.


Putting on a cloth diaper:


I was clueless about how to put on a cloth diaper so thanks to Julie and Youtube I figured it out and it's so easy.  In the event you're also clueless, I'll show you.  Andrew wanted to help so please excuse the baby feet in the pictures.  


 Start with a prefold laid out flat

For boys, you can fold the top of the prefold down to allow for extra absorbency at the front of the diaper

Fold one third of the prefold over the center (at the seam)

Fold the other third over the center (at the seam)

Place in diaper cover with the top fold in the front.

See, I told you it was easy.  

My thoughts on these covers...

At when I first got the covers I obviously didn't have anything to compare them to but each other but here's what I thought. I really liked both covers. My first attempt at cloth diapering (CDing) was overnight with the Rumparooz cover.  Andrew woke up with pee all over the front of his onesie.  Now that I've had more experience with cloth diapering, I realize the problem was I hadn't put the prefold up high enough and I hadn't put the diaper on tight enough.  Since that first night we've had no leaking problems with either of the covers. 

The Rumparooz diapers have something called inner gussets.  These are pieces of fabric, same material as the cover, that are sewn into the crotch area of the diaper.  They give extra protection from leaks.  Andrew put these inner gussets to a serious the test one day!  The mess didn't even make it through the inner gusset.  I guarantee that would have blown through a disposable diaper.  Needless to say I was impressed.

The Bummis cover looks like it's a more comfortable to me but Andrew doesn't seem to prefer one over the other.  The Bummis diaper also has a some material at the inside top of the diaper that I can tuck the prefold into.  I like this because it helps keep the prefold in place and keeps a wet prefold from working its way out of the top and getting things wet. 

Both covers are really easy to put on.  In the beginning I preferred the Bummis because I felt it was easier to put on.  Andrew is a big kid and the Bummis is a size large diaper.  Now that I've been using both for a month now I think I prefer the Rumparooz.   It's a one size diaper (fits from birth to potty) and I can't wait to have more kids and try this one out on an infant. 

My husband has been really good about using these diapers but he is not a fan of how they look.  He thinks they look too big and make Andrew look like he has a "bubble butt". 

Changing and Washing inserts and covers: 

Once the diaper has been used, I only need to change the prefold out.  The only time I change the cover  is if there's a lot of urine (i.e. after a night of sleep) or if there's feces.  

Oh poop, did I mention poop?  Well that's where cloth isn't quite as much fun as I'd like for it to be.  Although I must admit it's not as bad as I anticipated either.  Once there is fecal matter in a diaper you have to dump the poo in the toilet then clean up the prefold.  I can just dip the prefold in the toilet to rinse some of the mess off.  I haven't had to deal with a poop diaper in a public restroom yet but I guarantee I will NOT be dunking into any public toilets.  I'll probably just throw the diaper in my wet bag (waterproof bag) and rinse later.  The reality is I prefer to just rinse in the insert (and cover if it has anything on it) in the sink, unless it's a huge mess.   

There's apparently no need to rinse diapers for babies who breastfeed exclusively.  All you've got to do is throw the diapers in the wash.  I'm planning on using cloth diapers with my future children from the start and I'm actually excited about the idea of just throwing a messy diaper in the washing machine and not having to do anything to it.  If you've had experience with this please let me know how it worked out.

To wash the diapers I throw them in the washing machine and run a hot wash cycle.  If the diapers are gross and you're afraid something is going to stain onto them then you can run a cold rinse first but I haven't needed to do that either. 

So far, I've primarily used OxyClean to wash my diapers and I recently started adding Calgon water softener because I have hard water.  I have a front load washer so I only put about half to a quarter of the recommended soap in there.  I have a H2O Laundry Ball that I leave in the machine all of the time too.  I don't know if this thing really does anything but I own it so I leave it in there :) 

Julie gave me a sample pack of Rock in Green Lavender Mint Revival Laundry Detergent.  The lavender mint smells so good that I actually sniffed the diapers when they came out of the drier, lol.  The company who makes that soap makes a bunch of other detergents with different odors.  If you see where I can get my hands on other sample packs so I can pick my favorite out please let me know.  They also make detergent for hard and soft water.  With my hard water, more of this soap is on my wish list. 

I've read that Charlie's Soap is also great for cloth diapering.  It's less expensive then Rock in Green soap so I figured I'd buy a big container of this before I buy the Rock in Green to see if I like it.  I should be getting it soon. 

About you:

Please feel free to share your experiences with me.  Do you use cloth? If so, what do you use?  What soap do you use to wash it. 

Why cloth now?

Our son, Andrew, was 17 months old last month when we decided to try using cloth diapers.  You're probably wondering why decided to try cloth diapering then.  Well here it is...

When I was pregnant, I thought about cloth diapering but only briefly and never seriously.  My mother, who used cloth diapers for all of her children, encouraged us to use disposable because we have a well/septic and to save time.  I really wasn't concerned about drying out our well because in 5 years we've never had an issue (finally an advantage to having a swamp across the street).  The septic would be fine; it's pretty new and well maintained.  The biggest reason we didn't go with cloth diapers earlier was because my husband, Steve, and I both work full time (boo) and I was afraid of spending my free time being a slave to laundry and not enjoying my family.  

Disposables worked well for us.  We had to experiment some with different brands until we found what fit him best but we never had any real horror stories.  I wanted to try using cloth and I attempted to research it a little but I was totally overwhelmed!  I started realizing there were these die hard cloth diaper women out there with boards, groups, and almost their own language.  It's like they talk in code.  Some of these women seem to look down on people who use disposable diapers.  I had NO interest in becoming a die-hard cloth diaper user.  There were also seemingly a million (1,000,000) different types of diapers, inserts, pre-folds, and other "parts" to these diapers.  I thought there was no way cloth diapering was simple.  

Last month Andrew got some sort of virus that caused his stomach to get upset and needless to say we were changing his diapers often.  The effects of the virus lasted almost two (2) weeks and he had his first case of bad diaper rash.  The ointment wasn't cutting it!  He would scream and fight when it was time to change his diaper.  We had to bring him to the doctor and she had some concerns that if we didn't get the rash under control soon it was going to get infected.  She told us to start using some other creams which we did and I started researching what else I could do to help him.  That's when I started reading that children who use cloth diapers are significantly less likely to get diaper rash.

I decided to start using cloth diapers at home but continue using disposables while he was at daycare.  The problem was I had no idea where to start.  It looked to me like I was going to have to crack the cloth diaper language and figure out what and how to use cloth diapers.  

Convincing my husband to try cloth was much easier then I thought it was going to be.  He was also desperate to clear up the diaper rash and was willing to try anything.  I think he thought once the diaper rash was gone the cloth diapers would be gone too.  The rash cleared up almost instantly after we started using cloth but the cloth diapers didn't disappear with the rash.  They've have multiplied.  

I'll share more about our switch to cloth in other blogs but don't expect to hear me talking in cloth diaper code, I'm still trying to figure that out!