All about cloth

I wrote this post when Eleanor was only a few weeks old, but I wanted to write a new one now that we've successfully used cloth for almost 6 months.  I just want to share everything I've learned.  I hope this post can help somebody else who would like to do cloth and doesn't know where to begin.

First of all, there are lots of different kinds of cloth diapers out there.  There's everything from very inexpensive prefolds and covers to pricey all-in-ones (AIO's), which basically work just like disposables.  I went with pocket diapers, which are a step down from AIO's, but the advantage is that they dry much more quickly after washing.  Specifically, I use BumGenius 3.0 (the link is for the new 4.0's) because they are adjustable so that you don't have to buy lots of diapers in different sizes.

What I bought

• 24 BumGenius 3.0 one size pocket diapers
• 2 Mommy's Touch diaper pail liners
  
• 2 Mommy's Touch wet bags for my diaper bag
  
• A tall kitchen trash can (I like the one where you can step on the petal and the lid opens.)
• Cloth to make cloth wipes - see the end of this post for more details
• A squirt bottle - I keep it filled with water to squirt on the wipes when I need to use them.
  

(You can get by with one diaper pail liner and one wet bag, but it's really nice to have another one when the first one is in the wash.)

Together, all of that adds up to about $500, but we were very lucky to get some generous gift cards and some diapers as gifts.  Still, that's about what you would spend on about 10 months of disposables and this should last us until Eleanor is potty trained, whenever that is.  If you're really looking to save money though, go with the prefolds and covers.  My big concern is that I'm not filling up landfills; the $$ savings are a wonderful bonus.

What I did - before solids
Eleanor had nothing besides breast milk for the first 5 months, so I can't really tell you what it's like if your baby has formula.  But for exclusively breastfed babies, it's SUPER easy!  The cloth wipes and dirty diapers went straight into the liner in the garbage can.  No prep necessary.  When we got down to 2-3 clean diapers, I would pull the liner out, just like taking out the trash, and take it to the laundry room.  This is the only gross part, but it only takes about 5 minutes and you can wear gloves if it really bothers you.  You pull the liners out of the colored shells, make sure the laundry tabs on the shells are fastened (so you don't get a big velcro diaper chain), and dump it in the washer.  Cloth wipes and even the diaper pail liner go in too.  Okay, that's it for the hard part.

I use Original Tide powder detergent.  I know a lot of people out there say you shouldn't use it, but I read reviews from multiple women who used it and had no stains or odors, and that has been true for us too.  I've heard that using Tide can void the warranty because it contains some sort of additives, but one reviewer said she called the makers of BumGenius and they assured her that using Tide would not void her warranty.  And yes, I trusted this random person on the internet.

When I wash the diapers, I turn the wash cycle on cold and put in 1/4 the recommended amount of Tide.  I let the water run for a minute or two before adding the diapers.  When the load is finished, I add the same amount of detergent again, and this time run a hot wash with an extra rinse cycle.  I'm not totally sure if the extra rinse is necessary, but I think it helps get rid of any detergent buildup.  About once/month I add 1/4 cup bleach to the hot cycle.

I do run the diapers through the dryer, and I haven't had any problems.  Some negative reviews state that the velcro applicators on the diapers get really messed up, but I've heard that can happen if you wash your BumGenius with other kinds of diapers, like prefolds.  I only wash my BG with themselves.  Anyway, after they're dry, I stuff the liners back into the shells.  This is the most time consuming task and it takes about 10 minutes, but sometimes I'm lucky and my husband helps.  (Or sometimes he does the entire wash cycle!)  Then you're ready to go again for a  few days!

What I do - with solids

Solid food poop is a pain at first, but it turns out there's like a 2 week transition period when your baby starts solids.  After that, the poop has become pretty easy to clean up.  We use these liners and they make cleanup very easy.  I do use disposables wipes on occasion now for poopy diapers, but the cloth wipes are mostly sufficient.

Drawbacks

Once you start solids, poopy diapers are a little bit of a hassle to clean.  (The liners help immensely!)  Diapers do take about an extra 30 minutes of your time every 2-3 days, depending on how many you own.  Also, the BG 3.0 are supposed to fit babies from 7-35 pounds, but I'm a little skeptical.  Eleanor weighs around 15 1/2 pounds now and she's already on the biggest setting.  (But she is super long and is in the 90th percentile for height.)  I've heard that can happen though, and that babies stay at the largest setting for a long time.

Benefits

These diapers are cute, they don't end up in landfills, and they're better for baby.  Plus, they save you lots of $$!  Since all of ours were gifts, I've only had to spend about $10 ever on diapers for my almost 6-month-old.  How many parents can say that?

Travel
I just wanted to add that I do use disposables when we're traveling.  Also, I use disposable wipes in my diaper bag.

11 MONTH UPDATE
July 5, 2010

We've now been using these diapers for 11 months, so I just wanted to write a little update.  When I originally wrote this post 5 months ago I was concerned that Eleanor was already starting to outgrow them, but that's definitely not the case.  She's up to about 19 pounds now and they still fit fine. 

The velcro is starting to get a little frayed, but it's not really a problem.  I might get some of these refresher kits (only a dollar per diaper and then you sew them yourself - not sure if I'm up to the sewing challenge though) if the diapers get much worse.  The refresher kit also gives me a lot of hope for using these diapers again with the next kid. 

One of my Mommy's Touch diaper pail liners got a hole in the plastic part of the lining about a month ago, so I'm not sure if they're the brand I'd still recommend. 

Finally, we stopped using the biodegradable liners because now you can pretty much always just dump the poop into the toilet - it's pretty solid.  Those liners were great for transitioning to solid foods though.  Sadly, we also stopped using cloth wipes because the poop now is just...different.  I highly recommend cloth wipes for breastfed babies who aren't on solids yet though - so easy!

After 11 months of cloth diapering, we still love it!  My husband still completely supports it,  no baby-sitter/nursery worker has ever complained, we have not added tons of trash to our landfills, Eleanor has been pretty much diaper rash-free her entire life, and at this point the cloth has more than paid for itself when you consider how much we would have spent on disposables by now.  If you are reading this and considering cloth diapering, I highly recommend it! It's a small amount of extra work (really, just 30 minutes every 3 days) but for me, it's totally worth that.

Note:  They just came out  the other day with BumGenius 4.0, which is a little different than what I use.  There's a version with snaps instead of velcro, which might hold up better over time than mine.

Finally, this picture might seem weird to some of you, but I know I would have liked seeing something like this when I was pregnant and planning.  So if this helps at all, here's a picture of my setup.  You can click on it to see it bigger.  (I'm not crazy about the open trashcan for disposable wipes, but I just try to change it almost every day.  I need to get a little trashcan with a lid for that.)

14 MONTH UPDATE
October 19, 2010

The diapers still fit Eleanor fine - in fact, I've even experimented with going back to the medium setting now that she is slimming up since she's more mobile.  Hunter built a diaper sprayer for our toilet, so even cleaning those messy sticky diapers is very easy now.  I wish we had done that when she first started on solids!

I'm excited because I actually have quite a few friends who use cloth!  I have at least 4 friends who live in my area who use cloth, and I probably more than a dozen more who live in other areas.  (Ahh, the things we learn about our friends thanks to Facebook!)  I'm so glad to see that cloth diapering is catching on!