Cloth Diapers

I have an obsession. Cloth diapers. I seriously love The Moose's diapers. Here's why:

• He's 10 months old and has never had a diaper rash. I have never put any powders, lotions, or oils in the diaper area. Because he doesn't need it.
• Yes, I have to do laundry. But doing laundry is pushing a button. I would rather do laundry than deal with trash.
• And speaking of trash, no diaper genies or other gadgets to try to trap the smell. The cloth just don't smell as bad. I flush the deuces and when the wet bag (washable waterproof bag) is full, I just walk it to the laundry room.
• $$$ So much less expensive. From the internet (so it has to be true), average for disposables from birth to potty train is about $2,000-2,500. I spent:
• $550 on the diapers, cloth wipes, wet bags, and spray bottles
• $150 on the wipe solution (based on my estimates)
• $80 for new inserts (I'll explain later; there may be an additional $100-150 for this)
• So that's less than $800!!! And if I have a 2nd child, I already have everything except $150 worth of more wipe solution. So that's less than $1,000 for diapering 2 kids. Disposables for 2 kids is $4,000+! Yes, there is laundry costs, but come on. It's not thousands of dollars.
• So cute! When I see disposables, they just look trashy (pardon the pun). No offense to your kid, I just like my Fuzzibunz.
• I have never had a blow out. I have had wet leaks, but not dirty leaks.
• They are swim diapers. You don't need a special swim diaper.
• And of course ecofriendly.

The Stash

I use Fuzzibunz. I have

• 28 diapers (update: I now have 29 because I got a cow print diaper!). You can find the diapers I use here. We use 8-10 in a 24 hr. period. So that's right at 3 days worth. There's always a handful in the diaper bag, so really that means washing every other day. Which again, laundry is pushing a button and anybody with kids knows you are already doing laundry anyway. If I worked full time, I would probably want about 8 more just so I could make it 3 full days without having to pull from the diaper bag stash.
• I use Thirsties wipes. They are awesome. I have 36 (6 packs of 6). You can find them here.
• I use Thirsties wet bags. They are the perfect size for the diaper bag and are water and smell proof enough. I have 6 of those. You can find them here.

I ordered about half of the diapers from Target with gift cards (yes, that is figured into the cost. I didn't consider those "freebies" or anything). And ordered the other half from Amazon. They were cheaper on Amazon. But I didn't get to pick the colors. It was just order a pack of 15 or whatever and you get what you get. So I ended up with a few pink and purple. Which considering what he does to them, I don't care. And Ryan actually likes the purple a lot. The Amazon order also took longer, but just a few weeks. Most people have a good 9 months to prepare, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Here's my changing table:



Washing & Care

You can see the white wet bag hanging by the changing table above. To be honest, when I purchased these, I assumed the bags would stink and the bag would hang in the laundry room. If I knew it would hang in his room, I would have upgraded from white and bought cute ones. But whatever, they work. When it's full, I just walk it to the laundry room. And here's my laundry room. Glamorous.

For some reason, when I talk to people about cloth diapers, they are really confused about how I wash them. I get that it is a foreign concept to most. And I'm here to clear up your questions and make it simple. Here's a pretty common sample convo:
Them: But how do you wash them?
Me: With the laundry.
Them: But how do you soak them?
Me: I don't. You don't have to soak these, just wash them.
Them: But how do you wash them?
(more questions at the bottom of this post)

It can go on like that for a bit. And I'm not trying to poke fun, it's all questions I had at one time as well. And probably read something like this on a blog somewhere that made it all seem so simple. Which it is. So here's me doing laundry. I just turn the bag inside out. I add our other laundry (some people wash diapers separately, I don't). And I dry them in the dryer (some people line dry).

And now time to fold. Fuzzibunz comes with 2 inserts per diaper. Until about a month ago (8 or 9 months old), I used 1 insert during the day and 2 at night. Now it's 2 during the day and 3 at night. He's fine during the day. But not at night. He sleeps 10-12 hours / night, which is a long time for a diaper (which is an awesome problem to have). So I ordered a few hemp inserts to test them out. You can find the hemp inserts here. They came with microfleece which is synthetic. The natural hemp is supposed to be more absorbent. That is why I am spending extra money on inserts in the price breakdown above. The hemp inserts are amazing! They really are more absorbent and did the trick. He now sleeps 10-12 hours per night with little or no leaking. I would love to replace all the inserts with hemp, but the microfleece work well during the day, so no need to spend the extra money.

See my review of the Fuzzibunz warranty here. After a year, the seam came undone on one of the diapers. Fuzzibunz replaced my diaper. Easy & wonderful customer service!!

I use the Fuzzibunz one size elites. They are adjustable in the waist and the legs. Here's a view of the adjustable elastic. The Moose started wearing them the day he came home. He was 32 days old. They fit him then and still fit 9 months later.

Now I will say, I would not take cloth to the hospital with me at a delivery. Even if I have a biological child in the future, we will use disposables in the hospital. The reason is that there is quite a bit of fiddling with the sizing to get it right. It took us a good half hour to figure out the size. And then it takes another half hour to adjust all of the diapers. I just wouldn't want to mess with that in the hospital.

Wipe Solution

I use Thirsties cloth wipes (find them here). They are awesome. Perfect softness and thickness. I make a wipe solution. I use witch hazel (I use this one) and tea tree oil (this is what I use). If you use this recipe, do some research on tea tree oil. Some people are not a fan of using it on children (specifically boys). I decided that I was ok with it at the levels and amount I use. So you decide for you.

Here is the original solution I used. Great solution, but I have experimented with other solutions. See that post here.

I do about 1 part witch hazel to 3 parts water. Just eyeball it. Then I add about 2-3 drops tea tree oil in the larger orange spray bottles and just 1 drop in the small diaper bag bottles. That's it.

 I actually don't have a ton of pictures of him just in his diaper. When he was younger, it was winter (he was born in August) and too cold for just a diaper. I'll have to take more and post them for you so you can appreciate the cuteness!

UPDATE: When The Moose started walking, he started chafing where the elastic hits his legs. I have talked to parents with disposable diapers, and this is a new walker problem not a cloth diaper problem. See how I resolved that on this post.

Question from a reader: I want to try the cloth diapers if I ever adopt or spawn for a second time. Now if there is a runny kind of poo, you still just wash it?!

My answer: Luckily, I haven't had that problem too many times. There is something with the material of the inside of the diaper that it just rolls off. It's like it's scotch-guarded or something (not literally, it's just the material). When that doesn't work, I have had to on a handful or 2 of times, held the outside of the diaper and kinda shake it underwater (keeping my hand above the water). Then I will throw it in the wash, but wash them by themselves without clothes.

They sell a hose attachment for your toilet. From the reviews I have heard, don't ever get that. It's spraying the dirty diaper with a stream of water that will splash everywhere. Gross.

This post is featured on Thank Your Body.

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