The Great Cloth Diaper Change-over

It's official. We are a cloth diaper family. There hasn't been a disposable diaper in the house for over a week. And I love it!! I wish every new parent would give it a shot. It's no where near as difficult or frustrating or disgusting as you might assume. Now we haven't gone with the absolute least expensive route, but we are still saving TONS of money. Plus, Ariel isn't wearing those other diapers anymore which is way better for her. I also think they will help her when potty training comes along.

How do we cloth diaper? Well, a few months ago we decided to try it out with prefolds and a few different types of covers. I tried bummis whisper wraps with snaps - they are great! They don't even required pins or snappis to hold the diaper on. I highly recommend them. I also used some cheapy gerber covers, but I really didn't like them. They left marks on her legs and never fit great, plus they didn't seem to breathe. That worked ok, but not really at night. So I decided to use disposables at night. Big mistake. Then I decided that we would use the disposables when we were out of town or just out of the house. See where this is going. Basically, as long as there were disposables in the house I used them. Plus, Jason preferred putting on the disposables cause the others were more complicated (he knew how to use them, just didn't like it). So essentially, we could have done it, but we didn't.

But now we do. I decided to make a little bit more of an investment by getting a set of BumGenius 3.0. They are awesome. They are one-size all in one pocket diapers. I got a set of 18 because I found an awesome deal on them. Plus, each one comes with a newborn insert and a regular insert. Thus, our night problem is resolved when I put a regular and a newborn insert in the diaper. Now don't get me wrong. These diapers aren't the cheapest, but they work great and when compared with what we spent on disposables we save a lot. They cost the same as about 6 months of disposable diapers.

I considered just going with the prefolds again, but they are more difficult to travel with, are so bulky, and just aren't as easy to use. They work fine though. If I didn't have another option - I would use prefolds with bummis covers before going back to disposables. I also talked with my mom about making our own diapers. This would have saved a lot of money, but I decided against it for a variety of reasons. I couldn't be certain they wouldn't leak cause we aren't great at sewing, we would still need to make different sizes, I would have to do lots of research to find the best deals on materials, etc. My biggest reason was time though. I really didn't want to buy another bag of disposables. I'll be honest, I was impatient.

I stick by my final decision though. They don't leak, they fit well, they are very absorbant, they are way less bulky than many cloth diapers, we can use them for any other kids we have - they have adjustments to fit babies from 8 - 35 lbs, they wash great and dry quickly too. They are really cute too! She looks adorable in them, she really does.

How do they work? They are great. Her skin isn't irritated anymore. It was getting irritated from her movement with the disposables. We do have to change them more frequently to avoid leaks than the Pampers Cruisers, but those cruisers were amazing in that aspect. I'm thinking it's better for her to be changed more frequently anyhow. Now, we change her when she wakes up (usually 9ish), then again close to one, again after her nap, maybe at dinner, and before bed. So daily we use 4-5 diapers. And I wash them when she goes to bed every other day.

I also use liners with them. This isn't entirely necessary, but I want to avoid stains if possible so we can use them for years to come and maybe even pass them along to someone else after we are done. I just put a small fleece rectangle (that I cut myself from an old blanket) into the diaper. This protects from stains, wicks the moisture away from her skin, and makes dumping the dirties easier.

Other cloth stuff. Soon we'll be changing over to cloth wipes too. I have cut some from old receiving blankets and old fleece blankets. Have some extra baby wash cloths. I may even cut some of Jason's old t-shirts up to make more if I feel like I need them. But we still have a ton of disposable Huggies wipes right now, so I'm gonna use them first or at least most of them. I am considering making some wipes from paper towels too, but the cloth seems so much more reasonable. Just wipe and throw it in the wash with the diaper. Can't get much easier than that. I'll write more about the wipe saga once I've tried things out.

Well, that's us for now. We cloth diaper and I love it. I really do. You should try it.