The post where I talk about poop.
We cloth diaper. We are not hippies, green-freaks, or trying to save the whales.
(I like whales)... But we really like to save money where we can without being "cheap", and now that we DO cloth diaper, it makes me happy that I'm not putting plastic and chemicals on Miss V's adorable little tush.
For us, doing two extra loads of laundry per week was worth the savings. I researched for MONTHS during my pregnancy on different options for cloth diapering, brands, and especially what would be "daddy-friendly".
I loved the look and reviews of FuzziBunz, but we really couldn't afford $300-$400 for a full stash right away, and I knew that if I had to buy two diapers at a time I wouldn't do it. I'm an all-or-nothing gal. I found a few knock-offs, but reviews weren't great. Then, I
We use Green Bees One-Size Pocket Diapers. They are very similar to the FuzziBunz one-size diapers, but for LITERALLY 1/3 the price per diaper and built a little differently. They are cute, easy to use, adjust to fit kiddos 8 - 30 lbs, and very daddy- and baby-sitter (hi, Grandma!) friendly. Oh, and customer service is PHENOMENAL! We ordered the "Everything But The Baby" package which was 24 diapers of our choice. When I sent my color requests, I got an almost immediate response telling me we could choose 5 more diapers because we had only ordered solid colors. Woot! The best part? We didn't have to spend a ton of money! I questioned if spending less would be a waste of money, but so far (5 months in, plenty of time to make the $180 we spent on 29 diapers worth it!) we haven't had any issues with major leaks (when she started sleeping through the night, we had to start double-stuffing, but we haven't noticed anything that wouldn't happen with a 'sposie), and the diapers still look brand new!
What do I mean by pocket diaper?
This...
Gets stuffed into this...
and put on this!
(say it with me.. awwww!!!)
So, how does it work? Here is the basic use cycle of one of our pocket diapers.
Diaper is stuffed and ready to use.
Miss V needs her bum changed, so we put the clean diaper on her cute clean bum.
Three-ish hours later, Miss V needs her bum changed.
Uh oh! It's poop! Close the used diaper and set to the side while wiping cute little cheeks. (And might I add, newborn poop does NOT gross me out. At. All. ... Daddy on the other hand? Usually I come to the rescue when there is poop.)
Depending on where we are, the soiled diaper goes into either a wetbag to be taken care of at home, or taken into the bathroom where the insert is removed from the diaper, we put a bucket with holes in the bottom into the toilet bowl, and use our handy-dandy diaper-sprayer (think the sprayer on the kitchen sink) (we built ours for about $15 with supplies from Lowe's) to spray off the poop. Easy. Never have to touch it unless I accidentally put my hand in it while wringing it out. In which case, I'll already be washing my hands, so.... ?
Then, the diaper and insert go into our "diaper pail" (a $12 garbage can with self-closing lid from Wal*Mart) until washing time. (If the diaper had been just wet, not poopy, then the diaper would just go straight into the diaper pail).
The diaper pail, by the way, is about halfway full of water with 1/2 cup Borax to help keep the stinkies at bay.
Washing time! I dump the contents of our diaper pail into our top-loading washer and set a rinse cycle. Then I do a hot wash using Arm & Hammer Free (no dyes or perfumes) with an extra rinse , and one more rinse just to be sure everything is out.
When it is warm outside (unless I am
I have stripped my diapers and inserts twice. The first time, I used 1 cup of white distilled vinegar and let my diapers soak in the wash for about an hour. Then I washed them as normal. It helped. A few weeks later, (that is, two weeks ago) I noticed the absorbency wasn't so great, so I researched other ways to strip diapers (stripping is removing all of the gunk buildup from washing, ammonia, etc.). This time, I used three squirts of original blue Dawn dishsoap in the wash AFTER washing with my regular detergent, and did three rinse cycles to be sure all the dawn was out. The diapers are like new! If I only have to strip my diapers twice per year, I will be one happy momma!
Does anyone else cloth diaper? What kind do you use? Do you have any special tricks or ways to make the process easier? Please share with me!
