Cloth Diapering, 5 Years In

As I stuffed our cloth diapers the other night, I was thinking to myself, 'I have been cloth diapering non stop for 5 years!'. And 18 of those months were with two babies in cloth diapers. That is a lot of poop, a lot of laundry, and a lot of cute fluffy bums. It's funny now that my youngest is almost 2, I feel so out of the loop on baby stuff. There are new gadgets, toys, and must haves, and those newborn days feel like eons ago so I have a hard time making recommendations to new mamas anymore. I am in the thick of toddler tantrums and preschool attitudes so I am your girl if you need encouragement there! Diapers are the one thing that I feel very versed on. The thought of not having anyone in diapers in the next 6 months (pleaseeee potty train easy Gideon!) is beyond me. I am sure we will potty train Gideon and decide it's time for another booty to wipe. SO. The point of this post is to tell you how the last 5 years have gone, what I've learned, what products I use, and how EASY cloth diapering can be.

Ford- 3 months old 

Lucy- 21 months old, Gideon- 3 months old

WHY CLOTH DIAPER
I am not a crunchy mama on today's standards but I do like trying natural approaches in addition to modern. There are a ton of reasons why cloth diapering is so great but I can't really give you one simple reason why we do. It saves a ton of money, it is better for the environment,  it is better for your baby's bottom (my kids have only had diaper rashes when they are on medication or in disposables/traveling), and cloth diapered babies often potty train earlier . Those are all awesome reasons but I just wanted to do it. It felt like a challenge that I wanted to face and when Jon said he was on board, I was all in. We started with our first baby so we don't know any different but we LOVE it. 5 years in and we still talk about how easy it is and how cute our kids look in the diapers. Hey... no one ever said "how cute is that baby running around in a soggy Huggies diaper!" but have you seen my babes in cloth?! Did you also know that they can double as swim diapers? We have a few Charlie Banana reusable swim diapers but our Bum Genius diapers have been swam in a ton of times!

PRODUCTS WE USE
Bum Genius 4.0 One Size Pocket Diapers
It looks like there is now a 5.0 edition but we have about 35 of the 4.0 diapers. I started out with 24 gender neutral diapers before I had Ford and that was plenty for one baby in diapers. I could have easily gotten away with 18-20 diapers but I wanted extras. I added 10-12 pink and purple diapers when Lucy was born because I couldn't help myself with the colors! I assumed we would have 2 in diapers with the 2 of them but Ford potty trained when Lucy was about a month old. I chose Bum Genius after reading reviews, blogs, and recommendations from other mamas. I've tried almost every style of cloth diaper and have gotten rid of everything but Bum Genius pockets. They are so easy to use and wash (more on that below) and they also look/work similarly to a disposable diaper (which is nice because we have a lot of babysitters/childcare at church/etc changing diapers).

Step Trash Can
We use a large white Sterlite trash can with a step lid as a diaper pail liner. I started out with a cute tin trash can from IKEA but had to get something bigger eventually. I keep it in a corner of the kids bathroom.

Cloth Diaper Pail Liner
We have 2 of these liners, one in use, one in the wash or backup. I wash diapers every 3 days (more below) and I was the liner with the diapers each time. There are many brands, I recommend reading reviews.

Diaper Sprayer
We are on our 2nd diaper sprayer in 5 years. Something broke/happened to our first one when we moved so we got a Bumkins one, highly rated on Amazon. I have it hooked up to the toilet in the kids bathroom and the diaper pail is nearby.

Wet Bag
We have 2 Itzy Ritzy wet bags. Like the liners, I keep a clean one in my diaper bag and then one for backup. I use the backup one a lot in the summer for swimsuits. We exclusively cloth diaper (as opposed to people only doing it when they are home) so I throw wet/dirty diapers in my wet bag and into my diaper bag when I am out and about. When I get home, I take them upstairs and put wet ones into the pail or spray dirty ones.

Coconut Oil
You cannot use traditional diaper rash ointment with cloth diapers because it ruins the absorbency of the insert. I keep a small mason jar of coconut oil on our changing table and use it at every change. Our kids have had very few rashes (usually when they are sick or on an antibiotic) and if it is bad, we will switch to disposables for a few days and use Dr. Smiths.

Drying Rack
We use this accordion drying rack to dry both the inserts and diaper shells. It stays in the closet next to our laundry room, more info on that below.

HOW TO CLOTH DIAPER
Cloth diapering isn't any harder than using disposables, it is just a tiny bit more work. Our diapers are one size and have adjustable snaps so your baby can wear them from 8lbs to potty trained. We started all of our babies in cloth diapers at 6 weeks old, after the continuous poops subside a bit! We cloth diaper exclusively and aren't scared to change cloth diapers in public. I change them just like you'd change a disposable but I put it in my wet bag when we are done. I empty the wet bag when we get home (usually 1-2 diapers because we aren't gone for more than 4 ish hours at a time, more diapers when they are younger). My biggest recommendation for cloth diapers is to change more often. It takes a while to figure out the correct snap sizes for your kiddos and since they are always growing and gaining weight, they can leak if you aren't making adjustments. Gideon is almost 2 so not peeing that much (and he pees on the potty throughout the day), but as babies, I changed my babies every 2 ish hours when we were home just to be safe. The boys were both heavy wetters so we used/use disposable overnight diapers (Target brand) after not being able to find a good cloth solution. The kids all slept 12 hours at 6 months so that is essentially being in a diaper for 13 hours, hard not to leak out!  When we travel, we use Target brand disposable diapers. We also keep a package or two on hand just in case. Gideon has to wear disposable diapers to Mother's Day Out (he just started last month) and uses about 4 a week. I put him in a cloth diaper right when we get home.

So.... you change the diaper, you remove the insert, and put it into the diaper pail. If the diaper is dirty, you spray it out in the toilet and put it into the pail.

WASH ROUTINE
I wash diapers every 3 days, sometimes 4 days now that Gideon doesn't use that many. When Lucy and Gideon were both in cloth, there were days where we went through so many diapers with blowouts so I washed more frequently. When I am ready to wash, I grab the pail liner and call it my Santa Sack, ha! I dump everything directly into the washer (remember, the poop has been sprayed into the toilet already so there isn't any solid waste in your washer). I add about 3/4 cup vinegar (I eyeball it so that is a guess), and put 1 TBSP Purex Free and Clear into my detergent dispenser. I did a lot of research on detergent and Purex is the only "normal" brand you can use on cloth diapers (versus cloth diaper specific brands that are incredibly expensive). It is important to use specific detergent because most mainstream detergents can strip your diapers of their absorbency. I switched over to using Purex Free and Clear on all of our laundry, easy easy! I wash everything on COLD and do a custom cycle. COLD RINSE, COLD WASH, COLD RINSE. Okay I lie, I don't do the last cold rinse anymore. I used to at the beginning of our cloth diapering days but my current routine is cold rinse then cold wash and it is done in an hour. Once they are done, I hang everything on an accordion drying rack. You can dry the inserts in the dryer but not the diaper shells, heat causes them to lose their elasticity. I use Grovia Mighty Bubbles on my diapers every few months to strip them of any build up or ammonia smell. They are tablets and really easy to use in your washing machine. I didn't start using these until after I had two in cloth but I recommend using them proactively. Once my diapers are dry (usually less than 24 hours), I load them up into my Santa Sack (also hang dry), and bring them upstairs to stuff. I can stuff 20 diapers in about 5 minutes and either do it in my room catching up on Jimmy Fallon or my audiobook, or in the playroom while the kids run around. We have a big wrought iron basket by Gideon's changing table that I keep the fresh diapers in.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• I put a few drops of Young Living's Purification Essential Oil on a cotton ball and put it in the bottom of the diaper pail. It helps with the pee smell.
• Every time I take the big bag of diapers out of the can to wash, I spray Thieves cleaner inside the can and on the outside too. I've always been terrified of Pink Eye and I know you catch it from fecal matter. It gets me in the cleaning mood and I usually spray the toilet seat, handle, diaper sprayer, and doorknobs in the bathroom while I am at it. 

Have additional cloth diaper questions? Send me an email! 

Gideon's Fluffy Bum

I don't think there is anything cuter than a naked baby in a fluffy cloth diaper. We were given so many disposable diapers when we brought Gideon home and have finally run out meaning it is time to start cloth! This will be my first time having two in cloth thanks to Ford potty training really young (same age as Lucy is now... and there is no way she is ready!) so I am anxious to start a routine. I split up the diapers we have into different color piles for Lucy and Gideon... I am not looking forward to telling Lucy that Gideon gets all the blue diapers! Poor 3rd child gets so many hand me downs, diapers included, so I am super excited that he got two of his very own diapers from Buttons Cloth Diapers. Their prints are CRAZY cute, I have a thing for buffalo check. We also got this adorable Santa Fe Aztec print one... pictures to come! I seriously can't get enough of Gideon's little body... well I shouldn't say little, he is going to be my tallest kiddo for sure! 

Pop on over to my Instagram for a giveaway of a Buttons Cloth Diaper for your little ones booty!

Buttons Cloth Diapers

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Buttons Cloth Diapers

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How we cloth diaper

A couple of months ago I shared our plans for cloth diapering once our baby boy was here and big enough. Well... we are about 6 weeks into our cloth diapering venture and absolutely loving it so I thought I would share how it is going, my wash routine, etc.
Nothing cuter than a cloth diapered booty

After researching the different kinds of CDs, I knew right away that pocket diapers were for us. Especially with a boy, I love the option of doubling up on inserts at nighttime or whenever I perceive he will be a heavy wetter. We have 24 Bum Genius 4.0 one size snap pocket diapers. Most CD mamas have a variety of styles, brands, etc but the OCD in me wanted every diaper to be the same so we have 6 of 4 different gender neutral colors. For all things cloth diapering, I order from Diapers.com. Other supplies we have: 2 Kissaluvs diaper pail liners, 2 Itzy Ritzy wet bags, a Bum Genius diaper sprayer (that we don't use yet), and a diaper pail. Oh and coconut oil! I bought a giant tub of it at Costco for super cheap and don't imagine I will go through it all EVER. Since you can't use traditional diaper cream on CD booties, coconut oil is a CD safe and natural alternative. I scooped some into a smaller container and keep it at his changing table. 
Ford is 100% cloth diapered all day, every day. I love it. To be honest, the days leading up to when we started (I wanted to wait until A. he was big enough for the diaps and B. he wasn't going through 12 diapers a day), I thought "What the heck did I get myself into?! I don't wanna cloth!". I was terrified. Looking back I'm not really sure why I was so scared but cloth diapering is a piece of cake. The first weekend we started, we stayed home most of the time just to be cautious. We weren't really sure what we were doing and an explosion is easier to clean at home than out and about! And it took all of 2 days for me to be Team Cloth! We did use disposables when we traveled to Dallas and Ohio, it's just easier than packing bulky diapers and washing away from home. I was SO ready to get back to cloth since Ford kept leaking out of the disposables. *To prep our diapers we washed only once and have had no issues. 
So our routine. Ford goes through about 5-7 diapers a day and I wash every 3rd day with about 2-3 diapers to spare. Y'all.... the washing is so easy! I hate when I hear people say "oh cloth diapering doesn't save time or money because of the washing." It is so easy to keep up with and we haven't noticed an uptick in our bills. 1 extra load in the washing machine every 3 days, that's cake. And I hang dry so there is no added electricity there. Since Ford is exclusively breastfed, there is no need for me to rinse his poopie diapers. Potty diapers are easy. Unsnap and throw into the diaper pail. Poop is basically the same but with added wiping and I usually smear coconut oil on his tush just for preventive care. As gross as it may seem, I take off the soiled diaper, fold it, and put it right into the diaper pail. The only semi yucky thing about dealing with the poop is on wash day I remove all the inserts from my diapers and that can smell a little funky. Breastmilk poop doesn't stink per se, it just has a different smell. 
On day 3, I remove the inserts from my diapers and throw everything into the washer. We have this washing machine if you are interested, we love it! It is so easy to use and huge. I pour about 2 tbsp of Purex Free and Clear detergent into the slot and set up my wash cycle. I'm gonna pause for a sec and say that after tons of research on cloth diaper safe detergent, I found that Purex Free and Clear is 100% safe and SO cheap! Many people use detergents made by the diaper companies that are incredibly expensive but Purex is so darn cheap. I believe you can use some sort of Tide Powder but you have to be VERY careful about dyes, additives, brighteners, etc. Back to my wash cycle. I program the cycle to start with a cold rinse followed by a HOT wash and an extra rinse and spin at the end. This cycle seems to be working really well for us and we haven't run into any stink issues yet. Luckily stripping diapers is pretty easy if we ever have barnyard smells. And believe it or not, my washer does NOT smell either! The whole cycle takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes and once done, I hang dry my diapers and inserts outside on our deck. 
My laundry helper

One thing I was worried about was poop stain on diapers because let's face it, babies can poop like crazy! I was discouraged after my first wash when my poop diapers were stained. If you are a CD mama or considering it, I highly recommend joining The Cloth Diaper Compendium on Facebook. It is such a great resource and full of awesome information. I was told that sunning my diapers would magically remove the stains and what do you know... it worked! Even dried poop stains are GONE with a little sunshine. In fact, I haven't had a good day of sun my past few wash days so I've hung dried inside and earlier this week put them in the sun and boom. Stains gone. Once my diapers and inserts are dry, I usually stuff while playing with my little man and that takes about 5 minutes. 
I was initially really nervous about changing cloth diapers out and about but it is pretty much the same as changing a disposable except I carry a wet bag with me for dirties. The wet bag locks in any liquid or smells and I empty the diapers into my pail right when I get home. One thing I am currently weary about is having to spray my diapers once Ford starts solids but hey, we will cross that bridge when we get there!
Honestly I am so glad we decided to cloth Mr. Ford and will definitely be cloth diapering future babies. Not a day goes by where I don't think, "Hey! I've saved $15 in diapers this week." Yes the initial investment is high but cloth diapering pays for itself very quickly and continues to pay for itself for years to come. If you have an older baby in sposies and are considering cloth diapering, my sweet friend Teressa wrote an awesome and informative post titled, "Is it too late to start cloth diapering?". And my fellow new mommy Kaitlyn wrote a great post this week explaining the different kinds of cloth diapers and the pros/cons of each. One thing I will say is if you are considering cloth, your husband HAS to be on board. Men (and women too!) have a hard time getting over the 'dealing with poop' aspect of CDing and it's not something you want to force your spouse to do when you're already dealing with caring for a new little one.
If I forgot anything, feel free to ask any questions in the comments! Make sure your email address is attached so I can respond!

Cloth Diapering

Before we even started trying for a baby, I knew I wanted to try cloth diapering and Jon was on board with it. It's not as important of a decision as core parenting values and types of discipline but I wasn't about to move forward on my research without the full support of my husband, who will definitely be involved in diaper duty. He is just as psyched as I am. Now before I get more in depth, I fully respect each person's choice on how to diaper their kiddos. Honestly I couldn't care less what other people do but some people are so opinionated so if you think it's nasty and want to leave a comment about how gross we are, just skip this post :-).
I can honestly say that John and Sherry over at YoungHouseLove got me really excited to cloth diaper with these two posts (1 and 2). My husband and I can afford disposable diapers (and we still plan on using them from time to time) but the cost savings is nuts with CDs! I feel like what is drawing me to it the most is the challenge. And really, it doesn't seem like a challenge to me. I have changed tons of diapers in my lifetime as a nanny, babysitter, big sister, and aunt but I have never had a baby of my own that requires multiple changes a day. It is our first baby and we won't know any different. 
What We Bought After lots of research (and basically just doing what YHL did), we bought 24 BumGenius 4.0 One Size Snap Pocket diapers from Diapers.com. Yes the initial investment may be frightening but we plan on using them for our flock of children to come. We chose all gender neutral colors too. These diapers are adjustable to fit babies weighing 7lb-35+lbs so you can use them up through potty training. Each diaper comes with 2 inserts, a smaller newborn one and a larger, thicker one for when baby starts eating more. The nice thing is babies tend to leak/blowout WAY less in cloth diapers because you can add more liners. The liners are similar to burp cloths.

Though you can manage without one, we also bought a BumGenius diaper sprayer for when baby starts solid foods and #2 gets messier. 

For when we are out and about, we bought this Itzy Ritzy wet bag. It is cute, really big, and well insulated so nothing will stink. 

In lieu of a diaper genie, I bought this 4 gallon tin trashcan from Ikea (ours is yellow) and 2 Kissaluvs antibacterial pail liners so we can throw diapers in there when we are upstairs. It is basically the same thing you'd do with disposable diapers and the smell is locked in the pail. I will probably bring dirties down every other day or when I wash the diapers.

How does it work?
Jon and I are new to diapering all together so we will be learning as we go. We plan on using disposable diapers for the first few weeks of baby's life just to make it easier when he pees through 4 diapers in one changing haha. We also won't be asking anyone else to cloth diaper our baby meaning that when we have baby sitters, drop him with family, or even on vacation, we will use disposable. Sometimes it's just easier to throw them away.
The process doesn't seem hard at all. God willing, we plan on exclusively breast feeding which will be good for cloth diapering because we won't have to dump out the contents of soiled diapers. Breast fed babies stools are liquid enough that they don't need to be sprayed either. This will change when we introduce solids though. So wet or dirty diaper, we simply take it off his booty, crumple it up like you'd do a disposable and toss it into the diaper pail. I've heard of people getting away with owning 12 cloth diapers and washing more often but we decided to buy 24 so we didn't have to wash every day. We should be able to get away with washing every 3 days when baby is on a good eating/sleeping/bathroom schedule. 
When the pail is full (or I feel like washing), I will wash with natural detergent (which we already use) on cold, using an extra rinse cycle at the beginning. We have a high efficiency washer and dryer that can sense the size of the load and control how much water is used based on size. We have a drying rack and I hear it is best to dry the diapers outside in the sun to avoid stains so even though some may argue the added laundry expense, this will cut costs. When diapers are dry, we re stuff with the liner and they are ready to go!
Something I've learned about cloth diapering that is really important is you can't use all types if diaper rash cream with them. The good news is cloth diapered babies get less rashes but you do have to buy different creams. I found out coconut oil works great for rashes and is completely safe with cloth diapers. The creams that work with CDs are all organic and natural so probably better than most.
I was excited to see how many people responded positively to the picture of our cute little diapers on Instagram and I'm excited to join the CD community! Please leave me any tips or recommendations you've learned along the way.