As I mentioned in Cloth Diapering: Part 1, I really didn't think much of using our Kirkland detergent on our new cloth diapers. I did worry a bit about the fact that we have a front loading high efficency washer, but I asked questions online of other cloth diapering moms who have HE washers and they all assured me that it would go well. They did say I should get a cloth diaper detergent or a similar clean rinsing detergent, so I ordered some Rockin Green cloth diaper detergent but I didn't want to wait for it to arrive to get started and I thought - really how bad could using my Kirkland detergent be?
The answer? BAD!
I knew something was wrong with the very first washing. I followed the washing recommendations that the Softbums diapers recommend - cold wash with 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent, followed by a hot wash with no detergent, and ended with a cold rinse (which is included in the wash cycle). When I took them out, I thought there was quite a lot of suds in the rubber fold of the washer seal. I'd been noticing this a lot lately with our clothes too I was starting to wonder just how normal it was. Our clothes seemed fine so I thought the diapers were probably fine too. They smelled okay coming out of the washer. When I took them out of the dryer howerver, they had a nasty funk smell to them. They smelled worse when peed in. I didn't know what I'd done wrong so I went online to cloth diaper forums and asked questions. The general consensus was that it was detergent buildup - either too much detergent, the wrong detergent, or a mixture of both problems. I reduced how much detergent I used in the next wash but we still had the same problem. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed with that washing and could not get the suds out of the diapers no matter how hard I tried. I modified my wash routine just a tad to match another cloth diapering mom on a cloth diaper forum since that was what was working for her - a prewash on cold, wash on hot with 1/4 recommended detergent, rinse on cold, extra rinse, extra spin. That didn't make any difference unfortunately. I started sitting in the laundry room to watch the rinse cycles and I was really surprised at how many suds were in the diapers. I can't say in the water because I couldn't even see the water. I don't see how it's possible to rinse anything - let alone a cloth diaper - in such a small amount of water that you can't even see it. I tried changing my regular wash to the 'whitest whites' selection - it runs for 90 minutes and is supposed to use the hottest water. Again, no difference. Someone suggested I add a wet towel to the washer to trick it into using more water but that was pretty pointless.
It was a little less than a week later that Elena broke out in a bad rash and I started feeling like the worst mom in the world. I didn't have any cloth diaper friendly rash cream so I decided to break out the disposables on her. Gabe was doing just fine in the cloth diapers, but he also wasn't wearing them overnight and I imagine Elena's younger baby skin is a bit more sensitive than his. It took nearly a week for her rash to clear up and during this time I was waiting rather anxiously for my cloth diaper detergent and I also went on a quest to try and strip the diapers of the Kirkland detergent. What I hadn't realized before I used the Kirkland detergent is that any detergent used on cloth diapers should generally be free of enzymes, brightenrs, scents, etc and that it should be a 'clean rinsing' type of detergent - meaning it dissolves well so that it rinses away and leaves the diapers free of any residue. Since our detergent is a 'free & clear' type detergent, I thought it would work fine. Apparently not so. Kirkland has enzymes in it and it's likely the enzymes in the diapers + Elena's pee that caused a reaction and made her skin break out in a rash. It is also not 'clean rinsing' at all which makes for pretty heavy detergent residue. Lovely.
Before I started stripping my diapers, I decided to try to clean the washer itself because I was beginning to suspect it also had a buildup of soap residue. I cleaned out the soap dispencer (and found some soap residue there) and then I ran 3 back to back 'clean washer' cycles with nothing added - no detergent, no bleach. By the 3rd wash I was still seeing quite a lot of soap in the water but it appeared to rinse clean so I got started on stripping the diapers.
"Stripping" is a term used to describe getting all the detergent residue out of cloth diapers. You wash your diapers on a hot cycle (with detergent if they are dirty since you want to start with clean diapers, no detergent if they are all ready clean) and then you rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse in hot water until the water is free of suds. I learned right away that this was going to be nearly impossible in my washer. The amount of water my washer uses on most settings is barely enough to wet the diapers. Certaintly not enough to thorougoughly clean and rinse the diapers. I played around with different settings and, on the suggestion of a cloth diapering mom online, I started adding hot water to my washer through the soap dispencer. I was adding 10 pitchers of water - so about 5 gallons - to every wash/rinse cycle in order to get the water level decent. This was just way too much work. I was spending so much time in the laudnry room that I had to keep the kids entertained all day with Veggie Tales. I did start seeing very small improvements in the amount of suds leftover during the rinse cycle. But after spending from 8am - 11pm trying to strip the diapers I finally had to hang it up and just wait for the diaper detergent. They did come out smelling much better (though certaintly not pristine) but I decided to stop using them while I waited for the diaper detergent so I wouldn't have to wash them using the Kirkland again.
The week out of cloth + lots of desitin was really what Elena needed for her rash to heal and thankfully it's all gone now. During that week I spent a lot of time examining my washer and all it's different cycles while I washed regular loads. I learned that the delicates cycle uses a TON of water, but I can't put it on a hot setting and it doesn't spin the drum enough to really clean well. The soak cycle also uses a ton of water and it actually spins more than the delicates cycle - which I find amusing since it's meant for soaking clothes, not cleaning. The next best wash setting with slightly higher water is the quick wash cycle, which surprised me, becaue that cycle is only meant for 2 - 3 items you need in a hurry.
Up until about 2 months ago or so, Nathan and I used this quick wash setting for everything. We just hadn't bothered to read our manual so we didn't know it was meant for smaller loads, we thought it was for quicker washes - makes sense, right? When I read the manual though I started wondering if we were going to break our washer by continuing to use the quick wash cycle (even though we'd been using it this way for about 3 years with no problems) so we stopped and started using the normal wash setting. It was about this time that I think I started noticing more suds in the washer rubber seal after the cycle was completed. It's hard to remember though, it's not something that I really paid that much attention to. It was also right around this time that Gabe started breaking out in really dry patches of scaley skin - it's a form of excema. I thought it was the cold weather, but I've started wondering if it's because the normal wash cycles is not properly rinsing our clothes. My skin has become fairly itchy as well, I also thought it was cold weather related. And it could be, I can't be sure it's the washer. But we've gone back to using the quick wash cycle for all our loads just in case - and if the washer breaks then OH DARN I guess I'll just have to buy a top loader!
After this experience I have grown to hate my front loading washer and I feel it was a waste of money. I loved the savings becuase it uses about 60% less water than a traditional top-loader but if I have to add water to my washer in order to clean my diapers then it's not exactly going to save me any money in the end. I spent some time googling and discovered that 1) I'm not the only cloth diapering mom having major issues with this particular model and 2) my machine has pretty bad reviews all around. Nathan and I never thought to look up reviews before purchasing at the time. We saw a good deal at Coscto and we jumped on it. I will admit, it crossed my mind more than once to sell this machine and use the money toward a good top-loader. They are so signiciantly cheeper that I might not have to put out any money on my own. I'll tuck that thought away for the near future perhaps...
The cloth diaper detergent arrived on Monday and I was happy to find instructions on the back for getting the 'funk' out of my diapers. I had to soak the diapers in hot water with aprox 1 - 3 TBSP of the detergent. I only used 1 TBSP because I didn't want to get them overly soapy and I decided that if they still didn't smell nice when I was done then I'd try the soak again with more detergent. I soaked them in a big rubbermaid tub in the bathroom and not in my washer since the soak cycle doesn't fill up the washer enough and it won't let me use hot water.
In the meantime, I took the time to really clean my washer again. I did a clean wash cycle with 1/4 cup bleach followed by another clean washer cycle with nothing. I was finally able to see NO soap in the water and was happy that my washing machine was truly free of soap residue. I noticed a truly major difference in the smell of my washer. I hadn't raelly noticed that the washer had a smell until it was gone! I now felt comfortable washing my dipaers in my nice clean washer. I decided to use the delicates setting for my cold wash since it uses such a high level of water. I followed it up with a quick wash cycle on hot water. I ran 3 quick wash cycles with hot water back to back and by the end there was no more visable suds in my diapers. They came out of the dryer smelling pristine! I'm was THRILLED! I put them back on the kids and they don't stink when peed in either. More than a week later and the diaper still smell good.
Gabe did develop a rash two nights ago, but I think I have figured out the connection. I washed the diapers right after I washed my dark bath towels. Elena got her rash right after I threw a towel in with the diapers to try and trick the washer into adding more water. My dark towels have a mild funky smell about them when they get wet that I have been attempting to fight off with color safe bleach or vinegar and nothing is working. I have tried just rinsing them and rising them but they still come out of the washer feeling slightly soapy and smelling funky. We've decided to toss them. I think they left a residue in my washer that the diapers picked up. Or at least, that is my hope, because I am done with diaper rashes. Gabe's rash is not bad like Elena's was so hopefully it will clear up in a day or two.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 2 - How they work and overnight leaking
I have to say upfront that cloth diapering has come with it's challenges, definitely some that I didn't forsee. I'm still so glad we switched and I can't imagine going back to disposable diapers now. But you'll get a good idea of the road bumps I've run into in my next blog. Sorry. For now, I'll just let you know how they are working on my kids.
They are quite absorbant and they fit great. It took 2 - 3 diaper changes for me to get the fit just right on my kids, but once we got it right it was perfect (though I did just have to re-size all of Elena's diapers - she is growing so fast!). We have had no daytime leaking at all, not even Elena's exploding poop - in disposables it often makes it all the way up her back but the cloth diapers keep the mess very contained. We ordered the Softbums diapers with the SUPER dry-touch inserts (instead of the regular dry touch) and I am so glad we did. Both my kids are heavy wetters and they can really soak up that insert within a few hours. But the covers stay nice and dry! I just hang a cover to air out a little (it does tend to retain that lovely baby urine smell if I don't let it air out first) and grab a different one. I tend to rotate between two covers during the day for each kid until a diaper gets pooped in (even if the cover stays clean there is just no getting rid of that poop smell until it's washed) or the cover gets wet.
Our leaking issue is overnight. Elena has done just fine (so far anyway), it's Gabe who pees out of his diaper. For overnight we add one of the mini-pod doublers to both of their diapers to increase absorbancy. It's just a smaller insert that gets placed on top of the larger one. This makes their diapers very absorbant and absorbancy is not the problem. Unfortunately the doubler makes the diaper so bulky that I can't get the fit tight enough around Gabe's legs without making the rise of the diaper too low. We had a good first couple nights and then the 3rd night Gabe peed right out of the side of his diaper. The insert itself was wet, but hardly soaked. The urine had wicked onto his clothing and spread all up his side. The poor kid really could have used a bath, but it was 3am. I put Gabe back in disposables at night after that because I couldn't bear another 3am full clothing change + changing the crib sheets. But leaking out of dispoables happens pretty frequently as well...I'd say he leaks out the front of the diaper probably every other night or so. It just tends to happen in the morning when the diaper gets completely full, instead of at 3am.
I ordered more cloth diapers after doing some googling on the best cloth diapers for overnight. Seems most people like pocket diapers + hemp inserts for overnights, so I'm going to give that a try. I finally recieved my pocket diapers tonight and will get them prepped tomorrow. I decided to order some very cheepy - and I do mean VERY cheepy - ebay pocket diapers. I just couldn't bear to spend a lot of money on diapers to use just for overnights. I hope they work. If they don't, at least I won't feel like I wasted my money. I recieved my hemp inserts over a week ago and those are all ready prepped and ready to go.
Prepping you ask? What is that? Apparently natural fibers need to be 'prepped' before they can become fully absorbant. For hemp they usually need to be washed and dryed 4 - 6 times. I skipped some of those washings by boiling them in hot water for 30 minutes, though and I like that much better.
I decided to be brave and try the hemp inserts on Gabe tonight, in one of the Softbums diapers instead of the regular insert. It's supposed to be much more absorbant than microfiber, so fingers crossed it works.
Next blog - laundry issues. It's a doozy. Stay tuned.
They are quite absorbant and they fit great. It took 2 - 3 diaper changes for me to get the fit just right on my kids, but once we got it right it was perfect (though I did just have to re-size all of Elena's diapers - she is growing so fast!). We have had no daytime leaking at all, not even Elena's exploding poop - in disposables it often makes it all the way up her back but the cloth diapers keep the mess very contained. We ordered the Softbums diapers with the SUPER dry-touch inserts (instead of the regular dry touch) and I am so glad we did. Both my kids are heavy wetters and they can really soak up that insert within a few hours. But the covers stay nice and dry! I just hang a cover to air out a little (it does tend to retain that lovely baby urine smell if I don't let it air out first) and grab a different one. I tend to rotate between two covers during the day for each kid until a diaper gets pooped in (even if the cover stays clean there is just no getting rid of that poop smell until it's washed) or the cover gets wet.
Our leaking issue is overnight. Elena has done just fine (so far anyway), it's Gabe who pees out of his diaper. For overnight we add one of the mini-pod doublers to both of their diapers to increase absorbancy. It's just a smaller insert that gets placed on top of the larger one. This makes their diapers very absorbant and absorbancy is not the problem. Unfortunately the doubler makes the diaper so bulky that I can't get the fit tight enough around Gabe's legs without making the rise of the diaper too low. We had a good first couple nights and then the 3rd night Gabe peed right out of the side of his diaper. The insert itself was wet, but hardly soaked. The urine had wicked onto his clothing and spread all up his side. The poor kid really could have used a bath, but it was 3am. I put Gabe back in disposables at night after that because I couldn't bear another 3am full clothing change + changing the crib sheets. But leaking out of dispoables happens pretty frequently as well...I'd say he leaks out the front of the diaper probably every other night or so. It just tends to happen in the morning when the diaper gets completely full, instead of at 3am.
I ordered more cloth diapers after doing some googling on the best cloth diapers for overnight. Seems most people like pocket diapers + hemp inserts for overnights, so I'm going to give that a try. I finally recieved my pocket diapers tonight and will get them prepped tomorrow. I decided to order some very cheepy - and I do mean VERY cheepy - ebay pocket diapers. I just couldn't bear to spend a lot of money on diapers to use just for overnights. I hope they work. If they don't, at least I won't feel like I wasted my money. I recieved my hemp inserts over a week ago and those are all ready prepped and ready to go.
Prepping you ask? What is that? Apparently natural fibers need to be 'prepped' before they can become fully absorbant. For hemp they usually need to be washed and dryed 4 - 6 times. I skipped some of those washings by boiling them in hot water for 30 minutes, though and I like that much better.
I decided to be brave and try the hemp inserts on Gabe tonight, in one of the Softbums diapers instead of the regular insert. It's supposed to be much more absorbant than microfiber, so fingers crossed it works.
Next blog - laundry issues. It's a doozy. Stay tuned.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Part 1 - Making Decisions
I had planned on writing a blog about our new cloth diapers, but it's taken me awhile to get to it - and now that I have a few moments I also have several more things cloth diaper related to blog about. I am really enjoying cloth diapering, but we've hit some bumps along the way that have made for an interesting experience.
Pre-kiddos I never gave much thought to using cloth diapers. A conversation came up once at work between my mother-in-law and another co-worker about how they had used cloth when their kids were babies simply because it was so much cheaper. My mother-in-law felt she'd earned the right to use disposables after dealing with all the folding, pins and plastic covers. Can't say I blame her, because that sounded to me like a lot of work. My only contribution to the conversation was to say that I thought cloth diapering was 'nasty' and there was no way I'd ever use cloth diapers on my kids, no matter what the savings. Foot? Meet mouth.
The idea of two kids in diapers at the same time really made me put the savings of cloth diapers into perspective. When I found out I was pregnant with Elena I started looking into the idea. I'd been better introduced to the more modern cloth diapers they have now thanks to a couple online message boards I participate in, as well as seeing some in person that Special Ed's Wife was using on her daughter. I was curious how cloth diapers worked so I started asking more questions - Which cloth diapers are the 'best'? How are they cleaned? Is it a pain? Is it really gross? Does it significantly add to your energy and water bills? I really liked the diapers I saw Special Ed's Wife using - they looked pretty simple to use and put on, almost like a disposable.
We ended up deciding against cloth at the time. Nathan wasn't 100% sure he liked the idea of using diapers that had to be washed - he gets gaggy around baby poop. ;) It was also the larger amount of money up front that we would have had to put out that turned us off, though I'm now rolling my eyes a little at this reasoning. We ended up spending that much on disposables within 3 months after Elena was born. When Elena was about 5 months old I started mentioning the idea of cloth diapers to Nathan again whenever we would go buy a new box of diapers and it wasn't long before he was agreeing with me. Nathan is nothing if frugal and spending that much on diapers was putting a huge drain on our grocery budget. I sat down one night and figured out the cost of disposables for the next year and a half, assuming we would continue to buy diapers at the same rate we were then (a huge Costco box about every 2 - 3 weeks) and compared it to the approximate cost of cloth diapers - the savings worked out to be about $700 and that was more than enough of a savings to convince us!
So now that we knew we for sure wanted to switch - we had to face an even bigger decision - what diapers do we get? Entering the world of cloth diapers is a bit overwhelming. There are so many different choices and when you ask for opinions 5 different cloth diapering moms can give you 5 different answers on what the best cloth diapers are.
The cheapest option by far is prefolds + covers, which was what my mother-in-law used. Now they have a fun invention called a snappi that means you no longer need to use pins. You can also skip the pins or snappi all together and just fold it in 3rds and lay inside a cover. There are a multitude of cover options now besides the wool and plastic covers my mother-in-law had. I thought prefolds didn't sound too bad, but Nathan didn't like the idea of them, especially if we had to use pins or a snappi. And I admit, I'm not sure if my kids would hold still long enough to get the diaper on and snappi'd in place. I'm slightly afraid of leaks by just laying the prefold inside the cover. But there are so many cute covers out there, I am tempted to buy some prefolds just so I can buy a few cute covers to use.
Nathan's one request was that the diapers be as similar to a disposable as possible. The cloth diapers most similar to a disposable are called All-In-Ones (AIO) diapers. The waterproof cover and the inside absorbent part are all sewn together. I like the look of them but I have been told they take considerable more time to dry than other diapers so I nixed them from our list. I just don't have the patience for something to take an hour or more to dry. I was also worried that the waterproof cover part of the diaper would wear out faster being constantly dried in the dryer. I don't mind line drying but I don't imagine it would dry very fast on a clothes line or drying rack either.
The next closest diapers to disposables are pockets and All-In-Two (AI2) diapers. I like both of these types a lot. The pockets have a waterproof outer cover that has a soft lining inside - usually fleece which helps a baby to feel 'dry' - and a pocket that you stuff an absorbent insert into. The nice thing about these is that if you need more absorbency you can just stuff more into the diaper. Most inserts are typically microfiber, but you can also change it up by using hemp or bamboo, which are more absorbent and trimmer. AI2 diapers are like pockets - without the pockets. Instead the insert lays or snaps into the cover. The advantage to an AI2 diaper is that the cover can usually be reused 2 - 5 times before it needs to be washed so you don't have to buy as many covers.
I did lots of research and asked a lot of questions on cloth diapering forums and we finally decided on an AI2 diaper from Softbums. What sold me on these diapers was mostly the ease of adjustability. I knew we wanted a one size diaper so that we could use it on both kids. Most one-size diapers use 3 rows of snaps in the front that you can fold down and snap to adjust the rise of the diapers. Softbums diapers however have a very stretchy elastic in the leg gussets of the diaper. There is a tiny pocket in the front of the diaper that you stick your fingers into and you find a small toggle - like on a hoodie drawstring - that you use to tighten or loosen the diaper this way. This makes it easy to fit on practically any baby.
These are our new diapers:
There are unfortunately no girlie colors because they were out of stock. I'm hoping to add some pink to the collection later.
This gives you an idea of how adjustable it is:
I was surprised how small the diapers looked when they were sized all the way down. I was curious so I compared one with a disposable newborn diaper I have leftover from Elena. I think the Softbums diaper may actually fit a newborn - even one of my 6 - 7 lbs newborns. Most one-size diapers claim to fit a baby from about 8lbs - 35 lbs but from what I've read the reality is that they don't usually fit properly until 10 - 12 lbs. Not something I need to worry about now, but if we decide to have another in the future it would be nice to not have to buy disposables for the newborn stage.
Once we decided on the diapers we had to start thinking about everything else we would need. How would we store the dirty diapers? What would we use to wash the diapers? How do we handle poopy diapers?
We like the wet bags they have to store dirty diapers. We ended up ordering 2 of them - one of them is large enough to be used as a pail liner if we ever decide to use a pail. For now it is just tied to the doorknob of the laundry room door. The other is a bit smaller, but it's my favorite one by far and it's still large enough to hold all the diapers I need for 2 days. It has a hook to hang it from the doorknob easily (the other one regularly comes untied) and it has a zipper close instead of a drawstring close which is much easier to use - and it's still stink free when closed. I like that we have two though so that I can still use one while I'm washing the other (they get washed with the diapers). We got a 3rd one as apart of a free sample pack, just a small one that we can use in our diaper bag for cloth diapering on the go.
We considered a diaper sprayer for the poopy diapers (it attaches to your toilet and you just spray the poop off) but in the mean time we bought flushable liners - they catch all the poop so all you have to do is dump in the toilet and flush it away. They are an added expense but at $6 for a roll of 100 it's nothing like buying disposables. They were doing the job quite well but I'm now re-considering the sprayer after the mess I had today...
Before we started looking into cloth diapers I didn't think much about our detergent. I figured we could use the same detergent we have now - Kirkland Free & Clear. I was told that I should probably use a cloth diaper detergent. I wasn't sure if I really 'had' to do that or not. We decided to use Purex since that's what Softbums recommends on their diapers, but when Nathan went to pick it up it didn't have the HE symbol on it and we weren't sure if we could use it in our HE washer. I decided to go ahead and use the Kirkland detergent. I did order some Rockin Green diaper detergent, but I figured that the Kirkland would work just fine in the meantime. Boy was I wrong - but that saga belongs in it's own blog.
There were also a few things I didn't think about, like a diaper rash cream. We rarely use that here but what I do have on hand - desitin - is not cloth diaper friendly. It has fish oil in it and will apparently make your diapers smell like fish, not to mention create a buildup that will reduce the absorbency of the diapers. I can't find anything in the store that is acceptable so I think I'll have to buy some from a cloth diaper retailer online. But other than the rash cream, we are pretty much set.
I didn't realize how long this blog was going to become, I hope you all made it this far. If you found this even remotely interesting, stay tuned for my next installment all about overnight leaks and laundry issues.
Pre-kiddos I never gave much thought to using cloth diapers. A conversation came up once at work between my mother-in-law and another co-worker about how they had used cloth when their kids were babies simply because it was so much cheaper. My mother-in-law felt she'd earned the right to use disposables after dealing with all the folding, pins and plastic covers. Can't say I blame her, because that sounded to me like a lot of work. My only contribution to the conversation was to say that I thought cloth diapering was 'nasty' and there was no way I'd ever use cloth diapers on my kids, no matter what the savings. Foot? Meet mouth.
The idea of two kids in diapers at the same time really made me put the savings of cloth diapers into perspective. When I found out I was pregnant with Elena I started looking into the idea. I'd been better introduced to the more modern cloth diapers they have now thanks to a couple online message boards I participate in, as well as seeing some in person that Special Ed's Wife was using on her daughter. I was curious how cloth diapers worked so I started asking more questions - Which cloth diapers are the 'best'? How are they cleaned? Is it a pain? Is it really gross? Does it significantly add to your energy and water bills? I really liked the diapers I saw Special Ed's Wife using - they looked pretty simple to use and put on, almost like a disposable.
We ended up deciding against cloth at the time. Nathan wasn't 100% sure he liked the idea of using diapers that had to be washed - he gets gaggy around baby poop. ;) It was also the larger amount of money up front that we would have had to put out that turned us off, though I'm now rolling my eyes a little at this reasoning. We ended up spending that much on disposables within 3 months after Elena was born. When Elena was about 5 months old I started mentioning the idea of cloth diapers to Nathan again whenever we would go buy a new box of diapers and it wasn't long before he was agreeing with me. Nathan is nothing if frugal and spending that much on diapers was putting a huge drain on our grocery budget. I sat down one night and figured out the cost of disposables for the next year and a half, assuming we would continue to buy diapers at the same rate we were then (a huge Costco box about every 2 - 3 weeks) and compared it to the approximate cost of cloth diapers - the savings worked out to be about $700 and that was more than enough of a savings to convince us!
So now that we knew we for sure wanted to switch - we had to face an even bigger decision - what diapers do we get? Entering the world of cloth diapers is a bit overwhelming. There are so many different choices and when you ask for opinions 5 different cloth diapering moms can give you 5 different answers on what the best cloth diapers are.
The cheapest option by far is prefolds + covers, which was what my mother-in-law used. Now they have a fun invention called a snappi that means you no longer need to use pins. You can also skip the pins or snappi all together and just fold it in 3rds and lay inside a cover. There are a multitude of cover options now besides the wool and plastic covers my mother-in-law had. I thought prefolds didn't sound too bad, but Nathan didn't like the idea of them, especially if we had to use pins or a snappi. And I admit, I'm not sure if my kids would hold still long enough to get the diaper on and snappi'd in place. I'm slightly afraid of leaks by just laying the prefold inside the cover. But there are so many cute covers out there, I am tempted to buy some prefolds just so I can buy a few cute covers to use.
Nathan's one request was that the diapers be as similar to a disposable as possible. The cloth diapers most similar to a disposable are called All-In-Ones (AIO) diapers. The waterproof cover and the inside absorbent part are all sewn together. I like the look of them but I have been told they take considerable more time to dry than other diapers so I nixed them from our list. I just don't have the patience for something to take an hour or more to dry. I was also worried that the waterproof cover part of the diaper would wear out faster being constantly dried in the dryer. I don't mind line drying but I don't imagine it would dry very fast on a clothes line or drying rack either.
The next closest diapers to disposables are pockets and All-In-Two (AI2) diapers. I like both of these types a lot. The pockets have a waterproof outer cover that has a soft lining inside - usually fleece which helps a baby to feel 'dry' - and a pocket that you stuff an absorbent insert into. The nice thing about these is that if you need more absorbency you can just stuff more into the diaper. Most inserts are typically microfiber, but you can also change it up by using hemp or bamboo, which are more absorbent and trimmer. AI2 diapers are like pockets - without the pockets. Instead the insert lays or snaps into the cover. The advantage to an AI2 diaper is that the cover can usually be reused 2 - 5 times before it needs to be washed so you don't have to buy as many covers.
I did lots of research and asked a lot of questions on cloth diapering forums and we finally decided on an AI2 diaper from Softbums. What sold me on these diapers was mostly the ease of adjustability. I knew we wanted a one size diaper so that we could use it on both kids. Most one-size diapers use 3 rows of snaps in the front that you can fold down and snap to adjust the rise of the diapers. Softbums diapers however have a very stretchy elastic in the leg gussets of the diaper. There is a tiny pocket in the front of the diaper that you stick your fingers into and you find a small toggle - like on a hoodie drawstring - that you use to tighten or loosen the diaper this way. This makes it easy to fit on practically any baby.
These are our new diapers:
There are unfortunately no girlie colors because they were out of stock. I'm hoping to add some pink to the collection later.
This gives you an idea of how adjustable it is:
I was surprised how small the diapers looked when they were sized all the way down. I was curious so I compared one with a disposable newborn diaper I have leftover from Elena. I think the Softbums diaper may actually fit a newborn - even one of my 6 - 7 lbs newborns. Most one-size diapers claim to fit a baby from about 8lbs - 35 lbs but from what I've read the reality is that they don't usually fit properly until 10 - 12 lbs. Not something I need to worry about now, but if we decide to have another in the future it would be nice to not have to buy disposables for the newborn stage.
Once we decided on the diapers we had to start thinking about everything else we would need. How would we store the dirty diapers? What would we use to wash the diapers? How do we handle poopy diapers?
We like the wet bags they have to store dirty diapers. We ended up ordering 2 of them - one of them is large enough to be used as a pail liner if we ever decide to use a pail. For now it is just tied to the doorknob of the laundry room door. The other is a bit smaller, but it's my favorite one by far and it's still large enough to hold all the diapers I need for 2 days. It has a hook to hang it from the doorknob easily (the other one regularly comes untied) and it has a zipper close instead of a drawstring close which is much easier to use - and it's still stink free when closed. I like that we have two though so that I can still use one while I'm washing the other (they get washed with the diapers). We got a 3rd one as apart of a free sample pack, just a small one that we can use in our diaper bag for cloth diapering on the go.
We considered a diaper sprayer for the poopy diapers (it attaches to your toilet and you just spray the poop off) but in the mean time we bought flushable liners - they catch all the poop so all you have to do is dump in the toilet and flush it away. They are an added expense but at $6 for a roll of 100 it's nothing like buying disposables. They were doing the job quite well but I'm now re-considering the sprayer after the mess I had today...
Before we started looking into cloth diapers I didn't think much about our detergent. I figured we could use the same detergent we have now - Kirkland Free & Clear. I was told that I should probably use a cloth diaper detergent. I wasn't sure if I really 'had' to do that or not. We decided to use Purex since that's what Softbums recommends on their diapers, but when Nathan went to pick it up it didn't have the HE symbol on it and we weren't sure if we could use it in our HE washer. I decided to go ahead and use the Kirkland detergent. I did order some Rockin Green diaper detergent, but I figured that the Kirkland would work just fine in the meantime. Boy was I wrong - but that saga belongs in it's own blog.
There were also a few things I didn't think about, like a diaper rash cream. We rarely use that here but what I do have on hand - desitin - is not cloth diaper friendly. It has fish oil in it and will apparently make your diapers smell like fish, not to mention create a buildup that will reduce the absorbency of the diapers. I can't find anything in the store that is acceptable so I think I'll have to buy some from a cloth diaper retailer online. But other than the rash cream, we are pretty much set.
I didn't realize how long this blog was going to become, I hope you all made it this far. If you found this even remotely interesting, stay tuned for my next installment all about overnight leaks and laundry issues.
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