Ok so it has taken me several days to be able to actually sit down and write another post! And my topic for tonight...Cloth Diapers! Kevin and I decided to switch over to cloth for many reasons. I would love to say the biggest reason was to be more green, but in all honesty it was financial reasons. I was so tired of spending at least 50 dollars a month on diapers that were only going to be thrown away and then sit in the landfill for years and years. I started adding up the numbers and realized the cloth diapers would pay for themselves in about 6 months. And since Ayda was only 6 months old when we started I realized we would most certainly get our money's worth! So began lots of research.
What brand is best? How do I care for them? How many do I need? And the list of questions continued on! A friend of mine was so wonderful to send me an email with TONS of information that she had collected after putting her sweet little girl in cloth diapers as well. Her information is what helped me take that step to just commit and switch!
Reasons for Cloth Diapers?
Financially it has been great to cut the cost of diapers down dramatically. However, through the journey I have realized so many more benefits to them. I feel like I am helping to decrease the diapers sitting in landfills. Also they seem much more comfortable for Ayda. To feel the difference in the material sitting on her skin is huge. I also don't trust disposable diapers (even the "organic" ones) to truly be dye, chlorine, and other chemical free. Companies have quickly picked up on the "go green" movement and anything and everything pretty much claims to be "natural". With the cloth diapers I know there is nothing in them but the cotton. I wash and dry them myself.
What brand is best?
We chose to go with Bum Genius brand and absolute love them. It is the All In One. There is an insert that we stuff in the shell of the diaper. After doing the wash and letting them dry it takes maybe 10 minutes to stuff and fold all of them. Kevin and I usually do them at night while we are watching tv so it is not any extra time spent on them. There are tons of different brands that different people have a preference for too. I am realizing each brand is great. It just depends on the preference of the buyer. Ours is one size fits all as well so we can use them from birth to potty trained! And they really are not all that bulky. Yes, they are bigger than a disposable diaper, but with her clothes on it is hard to tell a difference. I will say her pants tend to run a size bigger than they normally would be but she grows so fast it's not hard to keep ahead in sizes.
Not at all once you find your routine. I wash the diapers every other night, sometimes every two nights. I wash them in a cold cycle with the special/approved detergent, then a hot cycle, and last a cold rinse. Nine times out of ten that is enough to get them clean and get the odors out. I then put them on a folding drying rack to dry in the sun. The sun works great to naturally bleach the stains and kill the odor further. Then, like I said previously, we fold them while watching t.v. At first it was a little overwhelming but once I figured out each step and did it a few times it became super easy. It really takes no more time than it would to drive to the store and buy diapers.
Occasionally, they have started to smell so I use Dawn (the blue kind) dishwasher soap in the cold cycle and it helps tremendously. Also vinegar and baking soda is known to work. I typically don't use those because a little dawn does the trick if the regular wash cycles and sun do not work.
How many should I have?
We started Ayda in them when she was 6 months old. I so wish now that she had been wearing them from the beginning. But since we started a little later we have gotten away with only having 15 because she was requiring fewer diaper changes in a day by that point. I will probably purchase 9 more to give us 2 dozen when we have a second baby. You do have to change them a little more frequently than a disposable to keep them from leaking. Disposable diapers have a gel in them to wick moisture away from the baby and it solidifies the urine. Cloth diapers do not have that and therefore can reach it's max absorbency a little faster. It might be one or two extra diapers a day though. Nothing too big.
In conclusion, I feel like going cloth was such a great decision for Ayda. I'm interested to see if she potty trains sooner as well. Since the moisture is not wicked away like disposables the infant typically potty trains sooner because they actually feel when they are wet. We shall see!
If you have questions feel free to comment and I will surely answer them! Happy cloth diapering!
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