Starting Cloth Diapers

Choosing to cloth diaper is a big decision. There are so many factors to take into consideration; level of responsibility, type, cost, washing methods, etc. Starting cloth diapers seems especially daunting when you look at the price tag, just a few diapers and you're easily over $100, depending on the brand. I know I had an incredibly hard time getting started, so I thought perhaps I'd write a post detailing our journey to Cloth Diapering and a small review of the diapers we use.

Once we found out we were having a baby the first thing we knew we would need was diapers. A lot of diapers. We chose a brand and stocked up our registry with diapers. Our neighbors gave us a box when their baby outgrew them, and at the shower we receive plenty more. We used to joke that we may not even have to buy diapers at all, we had gotten so many.

Once Madeline was born, we got more diapers from the hospital, and during her two weeks in NICU, we received plenty of Christmas packages (care of RMHC) including diapers in various sizes. We were set.

Now, we had tried a few different types of disposables, all of them left her with a nasty rash, but Huggies seemed like they were the least abrasive to her, so we stuck with them. (She still had a continuous rash that ever prescription creams wouldn't fix. The rash just didn't seem physically painful to her.) When Madeline was 3 months old, my mother took us shopping at Sam's Club for diapers, as she wasn't fitting in the larger ones yet. We bought two more huge boxes, hoping they'd last until she was about 6 months old. I started looking into cloth diapering around this time.

At the beginning of June, I realized we would be needing more diapers soon and I knew we just couldn't afford to be throwing away money every time we changed her. By that point had had asked around and done some research on cloth diapering. Most of the people I had talked to suggested trying CottonBabies, so that's where I went. We have a very limited budget, and after looking at the brands my friends had suggested, I was afraid we wouldn't be able to afford making the switch. Fortunately, I found Econnobum, which is essentially the same as the Flip Diaper System, but with white shells as opposed to colorful ones, and a good deal less expensive than Flips. (With Flip, for $19.95 you can get one shell and one prefold; Econobum is $11.95 for one shell and three prefolds.) We ended up buying the Econobum: Full Kit and four sets of the Trial Pack (one in each color white, green, blue, and pink).

(These are fairly accurate representations of color, from left to right: Moonbeam, Ribbit, Zinnia, and White)

Now, if you're looking into cloth diapering and you're not sure where to start, here's a list of the basic things you'll need:

• Diaper Pail
• Cloth Friendly Detergent (I used the list here to make my choice)
• If you don't have a detachable showerhead, look into a Diaper Sprayer.

Really. That's it. If your baby is prone to rashes, like Madel is, you should look into a cloth friendly rash cream, too, just in case.(CJ's BUTTer is the one I hear recommended most often.)

Now, one of the biggest concerns people have about switching to cloth is the washing. No one wants to do laundry every day, and what are you supposed to do with the soiled diapers? Well, It's far easier than you'd think. Once you've chosen a type (for example: All-In-One[AIO], Pocket, Hybrid) and a brand (for example: gDiaper, BumGenius, Econobum) you've really done the hard part. The first thing you do when you get the diapers is prewash them. I prewashed my inserts with hot water and 1/2 the suggested detergent 5 times (I washed the shells twice), drying in between each wash. Once you've prewashed everything you're ready to go. I'm not going to lie and say it's an instant improvement, because those first few tries will be a matter of finding what works for you. We tried 4 different methods of folding the prefolds/inserts before we found what worked best for us. Now changing her is the easiest thing I do during the day.

Cleaning the dirty diaper is super easy too, if it's wet, just toss it in the pail. If it's poopy, shake off as much as you can into the toilet and spray the rest off in the tub. We detach the shower head from the hose and use the direct stream from the hose to rinse the diapers out, once we've rinsed both sides completely clean (they almost never even stain), we toss them in the pail too. As far as the shells/covers go, usually you can just wipe out the shell if it's wet and put a new insert in; I like to rinse them in the sink and hang them to dry, using a new shell, so they are ready for a later change. If it's a poopy diaper, and the shell has gotten soiled, I toss it in the tub, rinse it with the insert, then throw it in the pail. When I'm down to one extra clean shell and 4 clean inserts, I dump the water from the pail and wash the diapers and inserts in one load in hot water. I use about 1/3 of the suggested amount of detergent because it's a small load (We have 9 shells and 24 inserts,). We don't have a dryer, so I usually hang my diapers to dry. Drying them outside in the sunny Florida heat keeps them looking clean, too, due to the natural bleaching properties of sunlight. If it's rainy, I hang the shells inside and bring the inserts to the laundromat down the street, for less than a dollar I can have my diapers dry in a half-hour.

I honestly find it easier to cloth diaper, and it's so comforting knowing I will not be running out of diapers anytime soon.

And for the TL;DR'ers out there, here's bullet list of pros and cons I have experienced using Econobum diapers:

PROS:

• Super easy to use
• Good fit
• Cute (I like the colored trim & buttons)
• Super absorbent inserts (Madeline can go overnight in just one with no leaks)
• Adjustable/One-Size to grow with baby
• Inexpensive
• Incredibly fast shipping and amazing customer service through CottonBabies
• Almost no diaper rash (Mads only gets heat rash after a long day in the carseat/without a/c)
• Rarely stains

CONS:

• Difficult for other to get the hang of, especially those accustomed to disposable diapers
• The majority of the shell is white (even with the colored ones) and the outside gets fairly dirty if uncovered.
• You have to make sure to use specific types of detergents.
• Bulky, harder to fit pants and diaper covers on.

All-in-all I'm so impressed with Econobum diapers I really don't even feel the need to try another brand and I definitely suggest them to anyone looking into cloth diapering.

(she likes to stand and nurse, haha)

(Watching Yo Gabba Gabba is hard work.)