Cloth diapers - washing routine.

In case you missed it, here is my post on what our cloth diaper stash is like.

I sometimes get asked by people who don't cloth diaper about my washing routine and when I explain it, they realize that it's not nearly as yucky as one would think. So, I thought I'd tell you about it.

Wipes: Since we use cloth diapers we also use cloth wipes when at home. I do not pack cloth wipes for when we're out because I use wipes for a lot more than just wiping bottoms. We use disposable wipes for cleaning the kids' hands and faces after they've eaten, cleaning hands after playgrounds, etc. So, I just keep disposable wipes in the diaper bag. But, this is what my wipe stash at home looks like (I made them all from flannel (monkey, giraffe and plain yellow) with microfiber terry on the reverse):I use soapy bottom wipe solution cubes from Sweet Sydney Bean. And I LOVE them! I made my wipes the correct size to fit in a standard wipe container and used an overedge stitch so the flannel doesn't fray.

Pail: I use a dry pail method and have a pail right next to Rachael's changing table in her bedroom upstairs and I also have one in the garage. I keep a wetbag (I have one from Petunias and one a friend made as a gift) in the diaper bag and whenever we are out and I have to change a diaper. The changing table is just out of view to the left and the red trash can is for the few disposables we use.

Poop: When Rachael was exclusively breastfed, no rinsing was required because breastmilk poop is completely water soluble. Now that she eats solids (mostly table food) that is not the case. There is a difference in how I get rid of the poop depending on what kind of diaper she is in.
* If she has on a prefold, I do actually rinse the diaper in the toilet. To do this I put on a pair of rubber cleaning gloves, rinse several times until all solids have been removed, then wring out the water and toss it into the pail. I then scrub my cleaning gloves with soap and HOT water!
*If she has on a pocket diaper (BumGenius, Mommy's Touch, Rumparooz) that has a micro fleece or suede cloth lining, then the poop can usually just be flicked off into the toilet (no rinsing) then tossed into the pail. It only sticks to this kind of fiber if it's runny...

Washing: I typically wash every 2-3 days. As I'm loading the washer I pull out all inserts from the pocket diapers. I also try to start my wash at night before I go to bed so they can soak over night.
* Fill machine with cold water, about 2 T. of Bac-Out, let agitate and then soak over night. (My machine doesn't have a soak cycle option, so I set it to a regular cycle then leave the lid open, it will stop and soak after it's finished agitating).
* In the morning I close the lid and let it drain and spin -which takes about 1 minute (since I don't have the soak option, I stand by my machine, it stops for about 5 seconds in between the spin and drawing for the rinse, so this is where I open it again). Then I reset the machine to start a new load on heavy duty with a hot wash/cold rinse.
* I put in 1/2 a scoop of BioKleen free and clear powder detergent with 1/2 a scoop of OxiClean and let it wash like normal. (I only use the BioKleen on my diapers because it's pretty expensive, so we use a different free and clear detergent for our clothing BUT the box of BioKleen that I have has lasted me a whole year!!)

Drying: Everything except my covers goes into the dryer. I dry on high heat with NO softeners. I hang the covers on clip hangers on the rod in my laundry room and they are typically dry in about 20 minutes.

The only other thing I do is when everything is dry and I'm folding it all to put away, I go ahead and stuff all of the pocket diapers. This saves a ton of time when you're trying to change a wiggly baby - just grab the diaper and fasten it on, no stuffing necessary.

Cloth diapering - an update!

Let me just say that cloth diapering is such an awesome thing! People who have not researched it probably think we're nuts, but with the options out there today, it's really not much different than using disposables.

Here is a link to all of my other posts on our adventure into cloth diapering. It is the progression of when we started with Eli (he was nearly 2) and on to cloth diapering Rachael who is now almost 11 months old. Eli is finally potty trained - though he does wear Target brand pullups at night because he refuses to wear anything cloth and I refuse to change sheets in the middle of the night since he isn't night trained yet - we're working on it.

We almost exclusively cloth diaper Rachael. The only times I put her disposables are when she will be in a nursery or someone else's care and need her diaper changed (church nursery, MOPS nursery, gym child care, babysitter, etc.). If we are going out and I'll be the one changing her, I just pack a couple extra cloth diapers and a wetbag. We go thru a little less than one small size package of disposables at month (Target brand costs just over $6).

So, here is what we currently have in rotation:
* 10 one-size BumGenius 3.0's (just yesterday purchased 6 of them from a craigslist ad and just started using them today, so we've only had 4 in our stash until now)
* 2 Thirsties pocket AIO's in size medium
* 12 diaper service quality infant prefolds with 3 Thirsties covers (size medium) - I would love to have one more cover though, because I frequently run out of covers and still have clean prefolds...
* 1 one-size Rumparooz
* 1 one-size Mommy's Touch
* 1 one-size Baby Kicks fitted (it's a fitted so I use a Thirsties cover with it)
* 12 Motherease fitteds with 2 Motherease covers (these were purchased for Eli from a craigslist ad and I only use them with Rachael if I'm doing a load of diapers and out of everything else because they don't fit her very well)

While I'm at home, I mostly use the prefolds with a cover. For naptime, I wrap a microterry doubler inside it for extra absorbency.

Night time is always a one-size diaper. My favorite for night time is the Mommy's Touch because it has snaps and she doesn't have to wear shorts over it when it's hot since she can't unsnap it, but I only have one of those, so I use whatever is clean (Mommy's Touch, BumGenius or Rumparooz). Rachael is not a very heavy wetter so I don't even double up the soakers.

Other than night time, I try to make sure I always have a couple one-sizes available for outings simply because they are faster to change. If I don't have any available, I usually go ahead and prepare a prefold in a clean cover so I don't have to do the folding with a wiggly baby (because she is VERY wiggly)!

I'll wrap this up for now and do another post on our washing routine in a few days.

**I was going to add a few photos in Rachael in some of her diapers but she would NOT cooperate with the photographing.**


Updated: Here's a subsequent post I wrote about my washing routine.

Why I need diapers with snaps...

Most of the time I use infant size prefolds with a Thirsties cover on Rachael. I save our fancy (one size pockets) diapers for outings and night time. All but one of her diapers/covers have a velcro closure....

It's pretty warm around here these days since we don't have a/c in our home - we are currently at 80º inside - so there are days when Rachael only wears a diaper around the house. I don't find this to be an issue yet because she is only 10 months old, however, she has been playing with the velcro lately, so I'm not sure how long this will last!

Anyway, I put her in the highchair for a snack while I was preparing lunch a couple days ago and all she had on was her prefold and cover. I heard her fiddling with the velcro, but was totally surprised when I pulled back the highchair tray and found this:

She had completely unfastened the diaper!! I'm thankful she was sitting and couldn't actually get out of it (even though it was dry), but I'm thinking I will have to start actually dressing her during the day if this continues.

I wanna use my cloth diapers... {say that in your whiniest voice}

But Rachael is soooo skinny I can't get any of them to work properly. I have the smallest size prefold, several different brands of AIO's and even some homemade teeny-tiny ones and NONE of them fit her.

In truth, I could make the prefolds work, but the covers (even with the tabs overlapped) swallow her. Maybe I'll try a day of prefolds with no covers and see how many times her clothes get wet.

I'm so tired of buying disposables one pack at a time. I buy them that way because she's still in size newborn and I never know if she's going to grow out of them by the time we need a new pack, and at this point, finding the proper receipt to return any we don't use is just not an option since I have no brain!!!

My newest obsession...

Eli is now mostly potty trained - woohoo - except for poo, but that took Jacob a little while anyway! I'm excited to say that it only took him 2 weeks from diapers to undies! Jacob was much longer because he started going occassionally on the toilet when he was very young - around 18 months. But he wasn't actually fully potty trained until about 25 months. However, Jacob was VERY easy to potty train because he would go if you suggested it, it took him a while to want to do it on his own, but he never fought us on the issue. Eli was completely opposite - he was NOT ready early and WOULD put up the biggest fight if you even suggested it. So we decided around 24 months to not even mention it for a couple of months and then try again and what do ya know - it worked. He decided he was ready and that was that - end of story - no more diapers!!

This somehow brings me to my next point - I've written several posts about switching Eli to cloth diapers earlier this year - you can find them here, here, and here - and in those posts expressed how much I absolutely love cloth diapering!!

Well, my newest obsession is sewing them! I have a friend who also sews and cloth diapers and she had a wonderful pattern she got a couple years ago when her oldest was still in diapers and she is wonderful for letting me borrow it!! Aren't they soooo cute!

Here's what they're made of:

* Exterior - waterproof PUL

* Soaker - 2 layers of 100% cotton batting (Warm and Natural brand) and 2 layers of 100% cotton microfiber terry cloth

* Interior - flannel on these and I have a purple flower print crushed panne velour for the mediums I'm going to make

* 1/4 polybraid elastic

* Industrial poly-resin snaps set with a professional press

I found this lavender flannel monkey print at JoAnn one day when I was just browsing and HAD to have some of it!! Isn't it adorable?

Other than the batting (which I got at Walmart), I got all of my supplies from this website. They have great prices and a large selection of diaper sewing fabrics and notions.

I love to sew and this has just fueled my hobby even more! With the diapers I bought (before I got the pattern), a few other handmade ones I ordered and the ones I have sewn, I am completely stocked on size small (I have about 25) and once we get in a groove after Rachael arrives I am going to start working on stitching up some medium ones so I have them available for when she needs them.

Cloth diapering - part 3

The final installment in my series of our cloth diapering with a toddler journey. You can read part 1 and part 2 to catch up, if you like.

As I said in my last post, I am enjoying this new phase of life. If only Eli would decide that he thinks feeling wet is yucky, then we might be on the road to potty training, but alas, he just really doesn't care at this point. He's going to be one of those kids that really, truly won't potty train until he's ready. I don't even bother right now. Seriously, he'll be 2 on Monday and has ZERO interest, so I'm not forcing the issue. I was hoping he'd be potty trained before the baby arrives in September (he'll be 27 mo. then) because Jacob was completely trained before Eli was born (Jacob was 28 mo. when Eli was born).... oh well.

I recently found some used Mother-ease one size diapers on Craigslist for super cheap, so I went and got them. Let me tell you, I cannot express how much I love them. I mostly use them (with my Bummis covers) for outings or when he's going to be in the nursery at church or in child care at the gym. Because he weighs 33 1/2 lbs (as of last week's checkup), he is on the largest setting but he can afford to grow a tad and they'll still fit!

He still wears prefolds with covers sometimes at home, but the Mother-ease diapers are wonderful! I use a homemade insert in all the diapers. The photo above is the Mother-ease diaper with my insert and it's sitting on top of the velcro Bummis cover.

The WAHM pocket diapers I bought online are also a breeze. She includes a 3 layer micro terry insert with each of her diapers and was gracious enough to send me one extra insert at no extra charge! I love them too! I only have 2 of them though so they are reserved for nighttime use. We've only had one nighttime leak with them so far. But since I only have two of them, I use a disposable on the off night if I haven't washed diapers in 3 days.

Cloth diapering - part 2

A few weeks ago I posted about switching Eli (and the new baby) to cloth diapers and told you I would provide an update once we had things figured out and had a few weeks to get adjusted. So, this is my official update!

I love it! It has taken Eli a little bit to adjust, but now he's doing great. I tried several different folds before I found the one that worked best and was most comfortable for him. I actually fold the prefold down a little (inward) in the back and then use a homemade flannel insert/doubler for leak protection, use a Snappi to secure and then cover with a Bummis Super Brite waterproof cover. I also include a flushable liner in every diaper - unless Eli has already pooped for the day. This catches the poop and then I just dump the liner in the toilet and flush and there's no swishing the diaper in the toilet to get the poop off!!!!

I dry pail my diapers until it's time to wash. I wash every 2-3 days because my pail is a little small (it's just the one I was already using for disposables) and only holds about 10-12 diapers with inserts and a couple of covers. Eli is currently going thru 5-6 diapers a day so I can get away with washing on the 3rd day before my pail starts overflowing and the lid won't close!

We have had very few leaks (except for nighttime - more on that in a minute). Even though all of the cloth diapering issues were discussed with Michael before we decided to do it, he is not as comfortable with it as he thought he would be, so if Michael is home with the boys, he puts Eli in disposables - I'm ok with that!

Nighttime is a completely different story. He can leak thru everything - even if we limit his fluids in the evening. He leaks thru cloth and disposables alike. Though he doesn't leak thru the disposables as often, it's still a few times a week on average..... ugh. So, I ordered 2 All-In-One cloth diapers from a work-at-home-mom on the internet. They come with a very thick, absorbant doubler/insert and are the pocket type, meaning I can stuff more into them if necessary. We are going to try these starting tonight - they're in the wash right now. I guess I'll get back to you again soon and let you know how we've been doing with nighttime.

Cloth diapers - making the switch

In a previous post, I mentioned how we were doing our small part to help the environment and go 'green' in whatever ways we could manage right now.... well, I finally made the decision, did all my homework and discussed with Michael and we have officially decided to switch to cloth diapers.

Let me start off by saying that if you think of cloth diapering as the way it was when we were babies (messy, stinky, leaky, plastic pants that had tight elastic bands, etc.) you are very wrong. Cloth diapering has come so far in the last probably 10 years, it's absolutely amazing to look at what's out there. Try doing a google search for cloth diapers and you'll be inundated with all kinds of options (I'll discuss those a little further down) and price ranges and maybe even a local diaper service in your area! I know when I first got my idea a few months ago, I didn't know where to begin when researching. So I just started by looking at the different kinds of diapers available and then from there started researching pricing options and from there finally decided what was right for us.

We were going to just wait until the baby arrives because we were hoping to have Eli potty trained by then, but we've encountered a diaper rash issue (since the virus) and I've also come to the realization - after putting Eli in cloth training pants for a whole day (to let his bum air out a bit) - that he is absolutely NOT interested in the toilet. He'll go every now and then (as in, maybe once a week), but mostly just sits there for ages and then goes as soon as you put his diaper back on! He also will tell you after he's gone in his diaper but refuses to go on the potty. It's not a big deal to us since each kid is different (Jacob was 100% potty trained just after his 2nd b-day...) and really you can't force them to do it until they decide they're ready. So, I decided I was tired of buying disposables and am ready to go ahead and make the switch. And since I'm going to go ahead and buy toddler size diapers and covers now, I won't have to buy them when the new one reaches that size.

To put it all into writing for everyone, here's what we're doing:

We will be using prefolds and water proof covers. This is by far the most cost effective cloth solution and seems like it will work best for us.

There are tons of options ranging from prefolds to All-In-Ones (AIO's) - with MANY different options in between (fitteds, pocket diapers, diaper services, and patterns available to make your own). All in ones would be ideal if you had the money to spend up front for 30 or so of the newborn size, then 30 or so of the medium and the same for large. All in ones can go for as much as $15 EACH. So that's a total of $450 just for enough diapers to get you to around 8 months of age.... and so on. That's not including liners, inserts/doublers (for extra nighttime protection). Let's just say, that's way too much for us (and cost wise would have more of an impact on us than disposables), though I would love to be able to use that option, it just doesn't seem worth it for us.

Here's how much we're spending on the toddler size prefolds and covers:

*24 prefolds @ $36/dozen = $72
* 5 Bummis Super Brite covers @ $11.50/each = $57.50
** Totalling $129.50 (which will get us thru until Eli is potty trained)

I also spent a while calculating the cost of disposables used to age 2 (I think Eli would have been in them longer than that - probably an extra 6 mo.). Here's what I came up with (for Eli - this would be different for each child):

* Ages birth-6mo. - an average of 12 diapers per day = 84 diapers/wk. = 2184 diapers
* Ages 6-12 mo. - an average of 8 diapers per day = 56 diapers/wk. = 1456 diapers
* Ages 12-18 mo. - an average of 5 diapers per day = 35 diapers/wk. = 910 diapers
* Ages 18-24 mo. - an average of 5 diapers per day = 35 diapers/wk. = 910 diapers
**Grand total of diapers for birth-24 mo. = 5460 diapers

I even took it a step further and calculated the cost of a diaper in each size - 1 thru 6 - of Huggies... I know I'm a little cooky, but I really wanted to see cost wise, exactly how cost-effective this would be for us.

I won't bore you on how I came up with these calculations, but here is the break down:

* Size 1-2 @ $.15 each
* Size 3 @ $.20 each
* Size 4 @ $.22 each
* Size 5 @ $.26 each
* Size 6 @ $.31 each

We would have used appx. 2112 size 1-2; 752 size 3; 752 size 4; 910 size 5; 934 size 6.
The total spent on these for Eli since birth is $1,151.38. Now, I know that doesn't seem like a lot broken down over the course of 2 years, but it really equals $47.97 per month on diapers alone.

So, if I take the total amount I will spend on cloth diapers and covers and add in $5 per month for the extra energy I'm using for 3 loads of laundry evey week it comes to $508.50.

* 1151.38 - total on disposables
* 508.50 - total on cloth
** $642.88 savings for 2 years of cloth diapering.
*** $26.79/month of savings

Oh yeah, that $508.50 is the TOTAL we will spend on cloth diapers - even if we have more children. Good quality cloth diapers last MANY years as long as they are taken care of properly. So, there's $642.88 in savings ahead for this baby (due in September), but then there would be an additional $1,151.38 in savings per additional child if we were to have any more.

~ Did you know that disposable diapers make up 30% of non-biodegradable material in landfills today? Hmmm, something to think about!!

I ordered my diapers and covers this morning (and they'll be in next Friday) so check back in a couple of weeks for an update on how it's going with the switchover and Eli!! Should be interesting. He has always hated diapers anyway!!