Tell me everything I need to know--

Dh has agreed now that the babies are almost 1 and I stay home 5 days a week hes willing to give cloth diapering a try with me
Ive never done it before and really havent read much about it since he shot it down when I initially brought it up a year ago.

What supplies do I need? How many 'diapers'? how many pins? Do I need a wet pail/dry pail?

Tell me everything I need to know, Im ready to be educated! In honor of their 1st birthday (embarking on a new year) Id like to start this Friday!

 

My cousins who CD loves this website: http://www.katieskisses.com/ It has a lot of info and products, etc. I also planned on CD, but now that we are ready to potty train I think that decision has been made for me. HTH.

 

What kind of diapers will you use? Prefold with covers or pockets? I've said 1000 times I love my pockets, but I recently got some hemp prefolds and they are my new favorite thing! I have 36 diapers all together because I average 18 a day and I wash every other day. I have a bunch of extra prefolds just in case, and my friend who has an older baby always gives me her leftover disposables for the extreme "just in case," but we've barely ever had to use them. I have two diaper pails so I can put the full one in the basement and not have smelly diapers sitting around for two days. I don't use pins at all...even if I use prefolds I either stuff them in a pocket diaper or use a snappi fastner - way easier than pins! PM me if you want to talk about it - I love CDs and cloth wipes. Also, definitely check out www.diaperswappers.com. They have so much info! GL! I'm so happy your hubby came around. Mine loves our BGs and has ever since he saw the diaper rash disappear - my babies were so tiny at birth that I waited to start using the big CDs until they grew out of the preemie diapers. With disposables, they always needed cream or they'd get a rash. I have not used any cream on them in over 5 months with the cloth diapers and we haven't had a single rash! Plus he likes the $ it saved us...

 

if you're not sure what kind of cloth diapers you want to invest in, these guys have a great try-it-for-$10 program. we're in the process of doing that right now ourselves. i think we're probably going to go with prefolds + covers for day time, and some bumgenius one size with pockets for night time. i'm still learning my way around all of the terminology but i'm not finding it as overwhelming as i thought i would. GL!

 

It really depends on what type of diapers you want to get. Some are more of an investment than others, but they are also easier to work with!

greenmountaindiapers.com have some good tutorials with regards to the differences in diapers, how to fold different sorts, covers, and washing instructions.

We've been using bum genius 3.0's with ours since they were just over 2 months old. We still use disposables at night though, a, s I think it helps them sleep drier for longer periods, and we use them when we go out, as there is no way I'm going to carry a pile of dirties with me.

We have about 18 BG, as well as a pile of extra inserts, cotton babies socks (that you stuff the inserts into), and prorap covers. The BG get used obviously by themselves, but we use the stuffed cotton babies socks as liners, and use those inside the prorap covers for extras. This saved us getting double the amount of the BG, and was less than half the price. If I had a choice though, I probably would have just bought an extra dozen BG and forgotten about the proraps and all of that (you can see the bum genius range on cottonbabies.com).

We also have a pile of flats, and a pile of chinese prefolds. I never liked either of them as I found them to not be as absorbant, and the babies got soaked quickly. If you do go with flats or prefolds though, you can ditch the pins and just use a snappi. Much less chance of poking a tummy!

For cleanup, I just use a big old home depot bucket, and keep the lid off. Believe it or not, the smell is much less offensive this way than if you put a lid on it. I never soak them. At the end of the day, we use a diaper sprayer (you can get these on diapers.com or cottonbabies.com) to spray off all the poop into the toilet. I then run them through a quick cold cycle to get all the initial pee and poo out. I then do a longer hot/cold wash with an extra rinse to clean them, using an all natural detergent. The reason for the natural detergent is that you don't want to use a heavily scented soapy detergent as it will decrease the diapers absorbancy. I then put everything in the dryer for an hour and a half - no dryer sheets.

To be honest though, I hardly ever have to do the diaper washing. I would probably do it once a week if that - DH grabs it before I get a chance and takes care of it!! This, from the man who was less than keen on cloth diapering in the first place .

 

QUOTE(aandja79 @ Feb 17 2009, 04:11 PM) [snapback]1193690[/snapback]
We've been using bum genius 3.0's with ours since they were just over 2 months old. We still use disposables at night though, a, s I think it helps them sleep drier for longer periods,


You should try the hemp prefolds inside the BG3.0s at night!!! That was they key to getting my DS to finally go back to STTN...they were both waking at like 4 am soaking wet so I tried the hemp inserts...now they don't get changed from 7 pm to 7amand the diapers feel dry to the touch! So absorbant!

 

There are so many different kinds of diapers. I have pocket diapers where there is stuffing inside a shell. I will be candid and say that they are pretty bulky. Evan wears a size up in any pant/onsie because of his cloth diapers. I am glad I am using cloth, but I'm just saying they are not trim like disposies. I would do a lot of research. Diaperswappers is a great website to ask questions too.

 

That's a great site that lets you try for $10! I wish I'd had that... though I like our Bum Genius. But right now they've been used for 8 months almost every day... (I only have 22 for twins) and they velcro doesn't stick to itself in the wash anymore... it does keep the diapers on the babies still so that's not a problem, its just supposed to stick back to itself so that it doesn't stick to other items in the wash load.

I have the diaper champ to hold the dirties in... though a diaper pail would probably be easier... we don't soak. I actually peel the poop off at the changing table with toilet paper and just take it to the toilet to flush... sounds icky, and sometimes it is... but mostly it just peels up and doesn't leave too much mess for the wash.

I'm interested in the pp saying that the hemp inserts helped her baby stn! my ds keeps waking... and though he might be hungry, he's my fussy one when his diaper is wet or dirty... so now I'm wondering if its his diaper... I don't change them from 8p to 7a typically... currently (at 9 mo) we use the standard insert plus 2 newborn inserts for nighttime. and the standard plus 1 newborn insert for daytime.

For wipes... I just serged (I'm a sewing fanatic), a bunch of 8x8 flannel squares... and use water in a wipes warmer... works great. then you just put the dirty cloth wipe in the diaper and wash it all at once. a yard of fabric will get you about 20 wipes... and its fun to pick out the fabric... - anything for a smile when you're wiping bottoms!

I am thinking of getting some all in one diapers now that the babies are bigger and I don't have to worry about them growing out of sizes so quickly... (that's why we went with the all in one and pocket diapers so we wouldn't have to keep buying $15-20 diapers when they grew...) anyway, since we only have 22 diapers it would be nice to have a few more to the stash to wash every 2+ days. I also would have been curious to try some other diapers that snapped instead of velcro with the velcro issues I seem to be having...

good luck, and I can't wait to see if anyone else has any more words of wisdom. that's it from me.

 

I am going to check out all these sites. I feel like there are way too many choices and it is all a bit overwhelming... but I do want to try it, even if it is just during the day around the house. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions! :lol:

 

OH Thank-you all SO much for your input!

My mom and I went to a cloth diapering class today (they have them in my town 4x per year) and it was fantastic! They went over all the different kinds of diapers, covers, inserts etc. they also taught us how to wash them, prevent diaper rash, etc. It was fun. We rented a trial pack for 20.00 a week. I now have a variety of ALL the different kinds of diapers and covers to "test out". Im already sold on this idea though.

The money saving benefits, the environment saving benefits as well as the health benefits for the babies have me wondering why I didnt push for it 1 year ago.
My husband says it was nice to keep our sanity in the early days but I think we are both onboard now that its a year later.

thanks ladies!!!