Cloth diapering, part two…

So to start off my first living green post, I thought I’d answer some of the questions that had been posted about cloth diapering. I discussed our routine in detail in this post back in September. I was really impressed with the number of you who commented that you also cloth diaper and love that this is becoming more common.

We’re seven months in now and continue to be happy with our decision to cloth diaper. We even traveled with our diapers during the Holidays when we went home to stay with our families. It went more smoothly than I expected and would definitely do it again, although we were traveling by car for just a few hours.

One thing that has changed since my last cloth diaper post is that we’ve recently introduced solids which as you all know brings some changes in baby poo. Oh, how we already miss the exclusive breast fed poo! So now that things are a bit more interesting in that department we’re using liners like these which work awesome at catching a majority of the business. These can then just be flushed down the toilet. For the really bad diapers or parts that aren’t caught with the liner we have a diaper sprayer. Still learning how to use this without spraying water everywhere but starting to get the hang of it! Another pro that we've experienced, Ian has never had a diaper rash since using cloth!

I know cost savings is one reason a lot of people choose to cloth diaper, but if you’ve shopped around for cloth diapers, you know some brands/types can get pretty expensive. One way to still get your favorite more expensive cloth diapers is to purchase used cloth, and while this will save you money it also is another great way to reuse and reduce waste! Two of the sites I’ve found great deals on are diaperswappers.com and the babycenter.com cloth diaper swap group. This is also a great way to try a diaper you’ve been curious about and want to ensure it fits your little one well before purchasing several of that type/brand. Also, if you have a local cloth diaper shop they may have a consignment area where you can sell and buy gently used cloth.

Using cloth diapers does sometimes come with trouble shooting. After using cloth diapers for a while you may begin to experience a funky ammonia smell once the diapers are wet. We just had the pleasure of experiencing this in the past week and I went to my trusted local cloth diaper shop and purchased some Rockin Green Funk Rock. Soaking the diapers overnight in hot water in the washer and then running a wash cycle helps to get the funk out of your diapers when you begin to smell that nasty ammonia funk.

So on to answer some of the questions posted previously…
What are our favorite diapers? We really loved fitted diapers. Our favorite fitted diapers are Kissaluvs with a Thirsties cover. We also have tried some pocket diapers recently and have been happy with how well our Kawaii diapers hold up, especially when used during the night at longer intervals. We have one Oh Katy pocket diaper as well and this also holds up well. We also have four of the older style BumGenius AIO’s that are great and so easy to use.
What would we have done differently when building our stash? I had heard a lot of people suggest not buying too many of one specific type of diaper until you’ve tried it on your baby since different diapers fit every baby differently. I think this really is great advice and if I had it to do over again would have done this. I purchased a lot of Flip diaper inserts and a few Flip covers thinking we would primarily use these because they are one of the more inexpensive types. While they’ve worked okay for us we’ve also had a lot of leak issues and just haven’t liked them as much as some of our other diapers. Hoping though as little man gets bigger these may seem to fit better and lead to less leaking. Also since I've started only using these diapers during the day I've had better luck. Our fitted and pocket diapers definitely work better for night time wear.
What do we do for a wet bag or pail? Well in the nursery we have a couple different hanging wet bags so we can rotate them out when one is in the wash. Then in the laundry room I have a large trash can with a pail liner which is where we put most of our dirty diapers. I also have two pail liners so again there is always one in rotation while the other is being washed. In terms of our washing routine I discussed that in my first cloth diaper post and we’ve continued with that same routine which has worked well for us.

Had to share about this awesome non profit called Giving Diapers Giving Hope that I heard of recently. They provide cloth diapers to low income families in the United States enabling them to save money while also benefiting the environment. Talk about a win-win!

And of course can’t leave you without a good laugh. Here is a hilarious post I saw last week, if only men did get this excited about cloth diapering!

Lastly, I definitely do not think I’m a cloth diaper guru, just wanted to share what we’ve learned so far & hopefully answer the questions that were asked previously. If you’re a cloth diapering Momma and have some advice or comments would love to hear from you. If you’re thinking about CD’ing and have more questions definitely let me know, I’ll do my best to answer your questions honestly based on our experiences.