Hippie Mama and Daddy – Cloth Diapers « Nation of Three (and a Half)

Hippie Mama and Daddy – Cloth Diapers

13 Mar 2011 1 Comment

by Heather in Hippie Mama and Daddy Tags: BumGenius, Charlie Banana, cloth diapers, cover, FuzziBunz, hippie mama, prefold, Snappi

This is the eighth in a series of posts. To read the introduction (don’t forget the ground rules!), click here.

Here’s a statement I never thought I’d make… I love cloth diapers. Yeah, diapers. They’re functional. They’re practical. They’re poop-catchers. And, yeah, I love ‘em! They’re so dang cute!

Let’s back up… I’d love to say that we chose to use cloth diapers because we’re that environmentally conscious but, to be honest, that’s not it. We’re frugal about some things and diapers are one of them. Did you know that using cloth diapers rather than disposables will save you around $2,000 over the course of one child’s time in diapers? Yeah, that’s why we use them. After using them a while, though, the vastly decreased garbage and not having to have the paper and all kinds of chemicals against his skin did kind of become reasons as well.

When we were considering using cloth diapers I talked with friends who were cloth diapering but the best place I found to start was at Simple Mom’s Cloth Diapering 101 and, specifically, a post about the types of diapers out there. The Cloth Diaper Whisperer is a great blog that I’ve picked up some useful information from as well. The Simple Mom site and the blog explained the options, which then made me able to ask some good questions of my friends. What I discovered is that cloth diapering has changed a lot in the last 10 or 15 years with the introduction of new materials and new designs, specifically pocket diapers (more on that below). It is so, so, so much easier to use cloth diapers than I imagined! I had visions of the old-fashioned diapers and pins with rubber pants over them. While it is still possible to find these things on the market (if you buy your cloth diapers at the thoroughly unimaginative Babies R Us!), there are so, so many more good options out there that I have no idea why you would want to do that! So after consideration, asking lots of questions, doing research, and coming across a decent sale we decided to use pocket diapers, specifically BumGenius. Pocket diapers look like disposable diapers in a lot of ways except that they have closures of either hook and loop (aka Velcro) or snaps. They’re made of polyurethane laminate (PUL), a waterproof layer on the outside that feels like fabric, with a soft layer that goes against the baby’s skin, usually a fleece or suedecloth. In between you put an absorbent layer, a microfiber or hemp insert or a folded prefold (more on these later). They worked, and continue to work, quite well! We’ve also added into our stash of pocket diapers a couple of FuzziBunz and a couple of Charlie Banana diapers.

Our BumGenius pocket diapers (version 4.0 on the left and 3.0 on the right)

The inside of a BumGenius pocket diaper with the insert

My Cloth Diaper Learning Curve

I’ve learned a lot of things in the year that we’ve been cloth diapering. Here were some of the stops along my learning curve:

It’s easier than I expected! We didn’t actually start cloth diapering until the Stinkerdoodle was 7 weeks old because I wanted time to adjust to the whole being a mom thing before adding in diaper laundry, etc. to the mix. While I’m glad I took some of that time, 7 weeks was probably way longer than we needed. Once you’re in a routine of doing the wash (I do it every other day) it just works into your weekly schedule like anything else. I’m actually tempted to start with cloth diapers from Day 1 with the next baby, although don’t tell Pete that because it’ll mean we need to buy or borrow a stash of newborn size diapers!
The laundry is nowhere near as gross as I expected. Before we started cloth diapering, I’d had several friends tell me that it was not as gross as I was thinking. Because I trust them, I took a leap of faith and gave it a shot but, to be honest, I was not entirely convinced. I’m glad I did. Here’s what I learned regarding, um, excrement management: (1) Poop of breastfed babies is easy – just throw the diapers in the pail (poop and all!) until wash day and wash as usual. It comes out very easily! (2) Diaper sprayers are a godsend for poop of formula fed babies or kids that are getting some solid food. They attach to your toilet’s plumbing easily and make it easier to get all the poop off. (Of course, there’s the dunk-and-swish method as well but we haven’t really perfected that one.) (3) Your washing machine will not have residual poop in it. Remember, it’s job is to make things clean - to get rid of all that stuff - and that’s exactly what it does! Also, don’t think for a minute that you won’t be washing poopy things if you use disposable diapers; those babies leak too!
It does take a little doing to get a wash routine down but, once you’re there, it’s not bad at all. I started using a fragrance-free, dye-free detergent from the grocery store but, after a few months, switched to a detergent specifically formulated for cloth diapers – Rockin’ Green! It’s a little more pricey but soooo worth it. It doesn’t have all the additives that can sometimes build on the inner layer and cause repelling/leaking. At this point I do a rinse first (usually hot), followed by a hot wash with Rockin’ Green, and then a second rinse (sometimes cold, sometimes hot). Once the Stinkerdoodle started eating solids, we started to get the ammonia smell in his diapers so I also add about 2/3 cup of baking soda to the hot wash to take care of that. Our washer and dryer are apartment-sized, which is kind of perfect for diapers. They’re also in our kitchen, which makes it easy to start the next cycle quite easily.
If you use cloth wipes and use olive oil in the wipe solution don’t wash the wipes and diapers together! I learned this one the hard way. We use homemade cloth wipes (double layer of flannel) and wipe solution. However, I was washing them together and found that we were having a LOT of problems with leaking. Turns out, the olive oil was building up in the suedecloth and preventing the urine from passing through. One quick strip of the diapers and slight alteration in my wash routine (wash them separately) and – presto! – we were back in (non-leaky) action! Speaking of stripping…
Stripping diapers is both easy and not required for every brand. Stripping refers to a more intense wash process that’s designed to remove buildup from the interior wicking layer of the diaper shell and the inserts. I’ve found that my BumGenius need to be stripped once a month or every 6 weeks or so, most likely because of the suedecloth. The FuzziBunz and Charlie Banana use fleece as an inner layer and don’t build up nearly as much. (Some of my friends who use FuzziBunz exclusively report that they’ve never had to strip their diapers!) There are many ways to strip diapers; I prefer to do an overnight soak with Rockin’ Green or do a hot wash with a 1/2 cup of bleach and a tablespoon of original formula Dawn (as recommended by BumGenius).
Not all diaper creams are created equal! Some of the most common diaper creams (Desitin, A&D, etc.) will stick to your cloth diapers like crazy and are a total pain in the tush to get out. You do need to use a cream that is cloth diaper friendly and a quick spin around the internet can point you in the right direction. We use California Baby, mostly because it is available at a local store.
Finding a nighttime diapering solution may take a little more work. Initially we were putting the Stinkerdoodle in the BumGenius diaper, usually with an additional insert, for nighttime. However, as he went longer between nursings and then as we stopped changing him in the middle of the night, we started having issues with leaking at night. Since we co-sleep it was getting a little annoying to wake up in the middle of the night to find the baby’s diaper had leaked and there was now a wet spot on the bed. After one too many middle of the night sheet changes and a conversation with friends, we decided to try a prefold and cover. Yep, we decided to diaper “old school” except that there are no more pins and the covers are really cute (and not rubber)! Check out the bottom of this post for a tutorial in pictures on how to use a prefold and cover. This has worked like a charm for us. We’re now including one of the microfiber inserts in the prefold for a little extra absorbency but that will get us through 11 or 12 hours with no leaks at all!
Traveling with cloth diapers really isn’t hard. We took ‘em on vacation last summer (a rental with a washer and dryer) and didn’t have a problem at all. Camping or something like that would be more challenging… but isn’t camping always more challenging with the diaper-age crowd??
There is a time and place for disposables. We’ve found two times that we decided to use disposables for a while, when we were treating a yeast infection and when he had diarrhea. Sure, we could have used liners with the antifungal cream (not cloth diaper friendly!), and we did for a bit, but it was just easier to slather him and use a ‘sposie. For the diarrhea, it took me spraying out two filled diapers to decide that, until things were back to normal, he was going to use a ‘sposie. That spraying experience was less than fun!
Cloth swim diapers are fun too! They work just like disposable swim diapers (contain the poop and let the urine circulate out) and they’re a whole lot cuter!!
The wide variety of brands and colors and prints gave me a solid case of the “gimmes!” I’ve had to step away from looking at too many cloth diapering sites because I was finding ways to talk myself into trying this brand or that one when our stash really was fine. However, if I had all the money in the world I would like to try Rumparooz, GroVia, Minky by Blueberry, AppleCheeks, and probably a dozen other brands that I can’t allow myself to look at right now! I also want to try a wool soaker at some point in the future but haven’t gotten there yet.
And, last but not least, don’t overlook the value of used diapers! Used diapers are a great way to build your stash with less initial financial investment. I bought three used ones from a friend, along with some of her cloth wipes. One of them was a FuzziBunz, which spurred my subsequent purchase of three new FuzziBunz diapers. I also found, just last week, a fleece diaper cover at a consignment sale for a steal. There’s a good chance that there are more fleece covers in our future because I really like it! If you’re worried about the fact that some other baby’s poop has been in the diaper, give it a good wash with bleach and you’ll be good to go. Otherwise, just wash as usual and put ‘em on the baby! Diaperswappers is a great website where you can find used cloth diapers on sale all the time.

The Stinkerdoodle (9 months old) on laundry day sporting his red FuzziBunz. The BumGenius are stacked on either side of him.

Our current cloth diaper stash - prefolds in the front, diaper covers in the middle, and pocket diapers in the back (BumGenius, FuzziBunz, and Charlie Banana)

A Guide to Using Prefolds and Covers

Step 1 - Fold prefold in thirds so all the thickness is in the middle, fan out one end and slip under baby's tush, bring other end around to the front and fan out the front