We cautiously embarked upon our cloth diapering adventure after many, many hours of research, and after much debate and hesitation. We loved the idea of not buying diapers every month. We really liked the idea of soft, comfy, chemical-free cloth next to our baby's bum. We did not love the idea of dealing with baby poop on a daily basis, beyond throwing it right in the garbage. But as it turns out, cloth diapering is no big deal!
We started out with Econobum diapers, which consist of prefolds and covers. They're the cheapest cloth diapering option, and they're adorable, but we were a little intimidated by them.
So, we moved on to bumGenius 4.0 one-size diapers. These are pocket diapers; we just stuff a single insert (+ two newborn inserts for nighttime, which come with the diapers) in each cover after they're washed and dried, and we're good to go.
Speaking of washing and drying, we've found that laundry is not the hassle we thought it'd be, nor do we do it much more often than we used to. Dirty diapers are stored in a waterproof wetbag, and every other evening, we throw the diapers and the wetbag in the washer for a cold rise/hot wash/cold rise cycle with just a tiny bit of Tide Original powdered detergent. Then we put the inserts in the dryer and hang the covers up to dry. (Hence the diapers-on-the-doorknobs photos in the ten month post!) Dirty diapers only require one extra step: we throw the flushable liner in the toilet and move on. (If it's a particularly messy diaper, I rinse it out in the sink before tossing it in the wetbag, but I'm probably a little over-zealous in my diaper cleaning.)
To make sure that we don't have any leaks at nighttime, AJ wears a wool soaker over his bumGenius pocket diaper. Very inexpensive, easy to care for, and oh-so-cute. We got custom soakers made (each for less than the price of a diaper!) by Forty41 on etsy.com. The owner is such a pleasure to work with, and her work is incredible! The soaker below has the Chicago Cubs logo on the hip; our other soaker is black and white with a skull and crossbones applique.
Most recently, we've tried a Rumparooz pocket diaper with a hemp insert. They seem incredibly well made, and we love how this diaper and insert feel - so soft, and no microfiber. We also love the idea of the double gussets to contain messes (we haven't dealt with one in this diaper yet, so we can't comment on how well the gussets work). If they weren't considerably more expensive than the bumGenius, we'd probably switch exclusively to them. We do, however, plan on using their Lil Joey newborn diapers for Baby #2. Besides the quality and softness factors, the Rumparooz come in some adorable prints. So adorable that we just couldn't say no to this one:
Last, but not least, we've been using cloth even when we travel. We've brought them to NY, and then to D.C. In NY, it's easy because we have access to my parents' washing machine. Cloth diapering is as easy there as it is at home. In D.C. we were in a hotel, but we just packed our wetbag and rinsed each diaper in the sink before tossing it in since we'd be going a little longer than normal before doing laundry. Our thirteen diapers got us through the entire three day weekend, including both drives to and from D.C. On shorter outings, we just put the used dipes in a small wetbag that we keep in the diaper bag. (We had this wetbag before we switched to cloth that was used for clothes that had been sacrificed to disposable diaper explosions. Glad we don't have to deal with those anymore!) We thought using cloth when we're out and about would be a bit of a pain, but it hasn't felt like a burden at all.
All around, cloth diapering is so incredibly easy. I never thought I would even try cloth, let alone love it, but I can't say it enough: CLOTH DIAPERING ROCKS!
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