Every woman who dreams of becoming a mother someday makes a mental list of all the things they will do, ways they will parent and how they will generally be the BEST MOM EVER!
My very long list included cloth diapering.
I was met with a lot of "Yeah rights", "We'll see how long THAT will last." and "Gross".
But I was determined. My reasons for cloth diapering in no particular order:
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| I forgot how big those diapers started out looking! |
1. Cost
2. Environmental Impact
3. Potty Training
4. Bum Wellness
I will say I have eaten my pre-parenting words on more than one occasion! But the two things I am most proud to say is that I am still breastfeeding and still cloth diapering! If I don't do anything else in Gentry's first year of life at least I got her intake and outtake down! Here is how we are doing it.
What I Bought
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| I let the fleece hang out so she wont get a mark from the elastic. |
The first step is to buy diapers. This is the only product you will actually NEED. Everything after that is just for convenience. The up front cost for cloth is pricey but it more than makes up for it in the end. A friend of mine was 2 months ahead of me in her pregnancy and she also decided on cloth. She planned on using Fuzi Bunz Elite and after doing my own research I decided that worked best for us as well. The Elite diaper is a one size diaper, pocket diaper that costs $20.00 a pop. That means the same diaper will fit your child from newborn to toddler. The pocket means that you have to put a piece of cloth in between the waterproof layer and the fleece layer of the diaper. Fuzi Bunz come with extra elastic (that is what makes it possible to fit some many sizes) and 2 minky cloth pads. When your child gets older you may need to put both pads to more absorbent.
This is what I have:
12 Fuzi Bunz (227.40)
4 Fuzi Bunz (gifted) (80.00)
1 Awesome owl cloth diaper (gifted, homemade) (priceless)
4 Hemp Inserts (10.00) They are very absorbant
12 flannel wipes (made by my mom) (15.00)
1 Travel Wet/Dry Bag ($11.00)
1 Hanging Diaper Bag ($15.00)
1 Diaper Sprayer (gifted) (50.00)
1 Rockin' Green Laundry Soap (12.00)
My out of pocket costs: 375.00
If I had to buy it all: 510.00
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| ROY G BIV |
So far Gentry does not wear cloth when she goes to bed at night. We were gifted so many disposable diapers (or sposies) that I put her in them at night. I have bought 3 packs of diapers since she was born because of diaper rashes which have nothing to do with her in cloth and everything to do with what we are now discovering is her high acidity levels. Diaper rash cream will lower the absorbency of your cloth diapers so I would recommend using sposies until you are rash free. However any normal kid should not get a rash while in cloth. We have a crazy amount of diapers and I would say 12 is more than enough. 8 is doable.
How We Diaper
I waited until Gentry was 6 weeks old before I put her in cloth. Again, we were gifted a ton of newborn diapers and I wanted to wait for her belly button to fall off before I started with cloth diapering. When she wakes up in the morning, I change her into her first cloth diaper of the day. I wipe off any diaper rash cream or ointment with a disposable wipe. I snap up the cloth diaper and we do our thing.
Tinkle only: I change her like you would a disposable and put the dirty diaper in the hanging diaper pail. If we are out and about I have a small wet/dry bag in my baby bag and I put the diaper in there. I can count on one hand how many times she has leaked. It happened more when she was smaller and the diaper was gappy. Any other time it was my fault for not changing her at a reasonable time.
Poop: If she doesn't surprise me, I get a flannel wipe ready by putting it under warm water. I open up the diaper and wipe with the flannel and change her like you would a normal diaper. The difference is that I take the poopy diaper into the guest bath and toss it in the toilet. If it's a little "sticky" I use the diaper sprayer to get the stuck pieces out. Then I roll up the diaper and take it to the wet/dry bag. If she surprises me I just use a disposable wipe and throw it in the trash. If we are on the go I just clean her up and put all wipes and poopy diaper in the travel wet/dry bag and when I get home I take care of it. Sounds kinda gross but it really takes no real extra time. Before she was eating solids, I would just toss the diaper in diaper pail without doing anything because I breastfed. If I had formula fed I would have to use the diaper sprayer to get the poop out. By the way, I've never had a blow out in a cloth diaper.
Every 3 days or when we are running low on diapers, which ever comes first, I toss them in the wash. I shake out the cloth wipes and pull the cloth pads out of the pockets as I am loading the diapers into the wash. Every other time or so I toss in the wet/dry bags as well. I wash on hot and rinse cold and usually use my homemade laundry detergent, the same one I use for all of our clothes. If for some reason I feel like they are extra smelly I add a tablespoon of Rockin' Green Laundry Soap. I bought a pack of it in September and still have more than half of it left. Sometimes I let them soak for 10 minutes or so. If she pooped a lot then I may run the diapers through 2X. After they run I do the smell check as I am tossing them into the dryer on low or stacking them to hang them out on the line. The sun has natural bleaching powers and it makes the diapers smell so good. That being said we have never really had any problems getting stains out!
Once the diapers are dry I usually sit in front of the TV and stuff them all at once and put them in her room. There are times that they sit in a pile on her diaper changing table and I stuff them as I change her. There have EVEN been a few times that we pluck them one by one out of the dryer as needed ;). That's it! That is how hard it is to cloth diaper.
Not. Hard. At. All.
You can do it too! If you have any questions about cloth diapering please don't hesitate to send me a message or leave a comment. I love cloth diapering and I want others to love it too!
It's amazing how much you have changed on the eating front. In one month you've gone from a few purees to eating finger foods. You still love the occasional puree but for the most part you feed your self. It's very messy but you love it! We think you may be allergic to strawberries. You ate them and then broke out and now we can't get rid of the eczema. We haven't started any meats yet. We are going to wait until we meet with the kidney doctor on February 7th. 
Today, January 28th, Carl is 28 and you are 8 months old! Pretty Special! We love you so very much! 
