Cloth DIapering 101

When I was pregnant with Isaac, cloth diapering was not something I gave a split second thought to. My sister in law had a baby just over a year after Isaac was born & she started using cloth. The diapers she had didn't seem anything like what I imagined. I was thinking all cloth diapers were the prefolds that you had to use pins on & then cover with rubber pants...

I never thought of switching Isaac over, but when I got pregnant again, I thought I'd investigate. I went to Hop Scotch Children's Store on a Saturday for a cloth diapering 'class'. They show you the variety of cloth diapers out there, talk about the pros and cons, answer questions, etc. I was convinced after going that this was for me!

So, Hope is now full time in cloth diapers, and I'm loving it! We use Bum Genius and FuzziBunz pocket diapers. They have a pocket in them to stuff an insert or prefold diaper into.

So, I have a few friends considering cloth, so here's a bit of our routine:

When we change a dirty diaper (#1 and/or #2), we pull out the insert and throw both parts into a wet bag. Right now, as Hope is exclusively breast-fed, there is no need to clean off the diapers before washing them. When we start introducing solids, we will have to rinse the diapers before washing. It shouldn't be too bad now that I bought a diaper sprayer!

Planet Wise Wet Bag

It's essentially like a kitchen sink sprayer that you attach to the toilet. Then, when you have a dirty diaper, you hold it over the toilet & spray everything off. No need to scrap it off, or dip the diaper into the toilet!

We've got about 30 diapers right now, so I truly only have to wash them 2 times per week. When the bag is full, I wash them.

My wash cycle consists of: 1 cold rinse, 1 hot wash with 1/2 the amount of Tide Original powder, 1 cold rinse.

Then we line dry the shells and throw the inserts into the dryer. When they're all dry, I sit in front of the TV and stuff all the inserts into the diapers so they're ready to go when we need them. I store them in a few baskets & on the back of her door:

So far, the negatives of cloth diapering are: 
* we've had a few leaks as I've been figuring out how tight to snap or velcro the diapers, and the BG diapers have an infant insert and a regular size insert. We realized quickly that the infant inserts don't hold a lot, so we've already moved up to the regluar ones.
* they are a big bulkier than disposables. Hope seems a big more stiff around the waist as they don't offer as much flexibility right now. I think as she gets bigger, this will be better.
* a bit more work than just throwing away a disposable, but I haven't honestly minded.
* they don't hold as much, so we have to change her diaper more often.

So far, the positives of cloth diapering are: 
* knowing that there are no chemicals on my little girls bottom (read here to learn about the chemicals in disposables)
* knowing that we're not putting additional waste into landfills
* savings! I realize our utility costs may go up with our wash cycles, but overall, we'll still be saving money by cloth diapering.  I estimate that we spend about $50 a month on diapers for Isaac. Assuming he'll be potty trained by age 3 (please!), that means that diapering him from birth - potty training will be around $1,800.
I spent about $350 on around 30 diapers, a diaper sprayer, 2 large wet bags, 2 small wet bags (for the diaper bag), and about 20 reusable wipes. So before considering utilities, I'd save $1,450. And that's for 1 child. If we use these for multiple children, the savings goes up, up, UP!

Overall, I'm very happy with our decision (and I think Marc is too!) and I'm excited to buy a few more diapers with cute patterns. :) I HIGHLY recommend cloth diapering. It's not nearly as much work as you might think and darnit, if my kid isn't cute in her little diaper!

Feel free to post any questions you may have, and I'll try to answer them!