Cloth diaper pros- help me out :)

[homeymomma]

Ok fellow frugal parents, I'm 5 months pregnant with our second baby. I'm hoping to do cloth diapering with the next kiddo, even though it didn't work out with our first.

Past experience: we have 6 shells and 18 organic cotton snap-in inserts (grovia brand). We used these with relative success with our first (a girl), from around 7 months to 13ish months. After that point, she started peeing less often but a larger volume, resulting in massive pee-thoughs every day. This was especially inconvenient if we were out, in the car seat, or really any time. We also only had 6 shells, so every time she peed, it went though to the shell layer, meaning we essentially only had 6 diapers, making laundry extremely stressful. We had also been doing a very relaxed version of EC since about 4 months... Successful in that she almost always pooped on the potty, until 12 months when she started refusing it and started going in the cloth diapers. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
The pee-throughs combined with the sudden appearance of toddler-poop laden cloth diapers and we got to the point that we were so stressed out by it all, we gave up. She got a yeast infection, we had to buy disposables while that was treated, and we just never went back. We buy her a month's supply of diapers from costco each month for $32-38. We're very happy with that.

Future hopes: save money using cloth for our new baby, at least until the serious toddler poops start coming. Aiming to use cloth for the first year at least. Hoping to avoid having two in disposable diapers at the same time, so again the year mark will coincide with our older daughter turning three and hopefully being potty trained.
I think I'll need to buy more diapers from our local kids resale store, which sells them. They often have gdiapers, however, which I'm less interested in, because as I understand they are sized meaning you have to buy more to keep up with size changes. I'd love some advice on how many more to get.

Laundry/storage issues: last time we put them into an unlined, small, plastic open-top trash can. Pee smell got gross after not very long, which was not fun because the changing station is in our bedroom. We then had to drag the whole pail downstairs and it would sit down there while the whole cycle was completed, meaning any diaper changes in the interim just kind of got stuck somewhere upstairs... On the sink, side of the changing table, etc. Not ideal. Lol. So I'm thinking we'll need two laundry/pail liner things, so one can be washed while the other is still upstairs.

So what do we need, cloth gurus? I need to make this as stress-free for both my husband and myself, after our negative experiences last time.

Other notes:
We use a nice new ubbi pail with plastic trash bags for our older daughter's diapers. The ubbi can accommodate a washable cloth liner as well for cloth diapers. Guess we'd need two cloth liners? But then, where would we put our older daughter's disposable diapers? Conundrum.

We have an old diaper dekor, which we put out to pasture because it absorbed so much of the poopy smell, it stank even when it was freshly changed. This could come back into rotation but I wouldn't be thrilled. It does not accommodate a cloth bag as far as it is marketed... But we did use generic plastic bags, which it also claims not to accommodate, so who knows?

Again, we have 6 shells and 18 inserts already.

I'd like to use cloth wipes as well, and already have a large stack of thin baby washcloths I can use for that purpose... Not sure how to go about this or of it's worth it. Not sure how to get them wet other than the sink (which to be fair is arms reach from the changing table), but wouldn't that require running the water for a long time each time to get it not frigidly cold? Maybe I'm overthinking it.

We used a basic costco-purchased free and clear detergent last time. Not sure that was the best, but all the specialty cloth diaper detergents were so pricey, I couldn't get my husband on board with using them. Detergent suggestions?

Finally, wash cycle: I am a little OCD and this side of me wars quite often with my mustachian side. My laundry routine last time was: cold rinse (get rid of poop). Hot wash, warm rinse. Sometimes an extra warm wash-rinse or just rinse if I was feeling especially OCD that day. Dry in dryer for 8 million hours. Obviously this was extremely water/energy-heavy but I had trouble with the idea of not rinsing out the poop first, even with the yellow newborn poop. On the bright side, my diapers still look brand-new, because the were washed within an inch of their lives each time. :)
Final laundry issue: laundry is downstairs in the basement of an unsafe home, where kiddos are not allowed. So I can only go down there to do said laundry when every body is asleep or my husband is home.

Sorry this post ended up super long! Thanks in advance if you even got this far! :)

[Gin1984]

So first of all, I think we are low on the diapers we have and we have about 24-30 shells and more than double that for inserts.  We do not dry the shells or the inserts in the dryer but do a soak, wash and rerinse in the washer.  We line dry.  I don't use any special laundry detergents which is why we do a rerinse.  Our daughter does disposables at daycare and cloth at home.  This works now, but back when I was staying home, my husband was doing a load every other day.  So, if she is not going to daycare, get another 12 shells on top of what I have.
We bought a diaper genie at a consignment sale (for $5) but just use regular garbage bags but we do have disposable gloves we use when dealing with the waste.  The garbage bag is pulled out, a new one is put in and one of us goes down to do the laundry right then and there.  Personally I found that I could keep up with cloth diapers but not cloth wipes.  I buy disposables on amazon for .01/each. 
We put both the disposable and cloth in one bag and sort at the end of the couple days.  It works for us but may not work for you.

[mxt0133]

We used cloth diapers for both of our kids and did a hybrid model.  When we will be out for a long time or overnight we use diapers, but most of the time during the day we use cloth.

Regarding the shell getting soiled, I just hand wash, hang and reuse.  At most four will be drying and have two on stand by with 6 shells.

Regarding storage before washing, get a good washable bag with a flap to contain the smell.  If the smell gets too bad douse it with baking soda to soak up the smell, works as detergent as well.  When the bag gets full we chuck everything in the wash.

Once our older one started overflowing during the day it was a signal for us to start potty training and started getting him in to the habit of going to the potty ever 1/2 hour or hour.

I'm sure we could have done better but we still use less diapers that we used to and feel that it works for us. 

[brandino29]

I'm glad to hear you're willing to give it a second shot even after a fairly challenging first go around.  We've had our daughter in cloth since about 3-4 months (she was too small to fit into them before that, they were huge on her!) and she's 15 months now.  We've had a pretty successful experience all around with them but it has definitely taken a little extra work.

We have ~18 diapers, about half of them are all in one types with the sewn in cloth (BumGenius brand) and the other half are mostly FuzziBunz with cloth inserts that do a good job but can leak from time to time.  We have enough that she can get through two full days before we have to wash them, which we typically do overnight.  We don't have a diaper pail but we use a large wet bag that has a waterproof bag zipped into the inside of a cloth bag.  It just sits on the end of the diaper changing table and does a pretty good job of keeping the smell in but toward the end of the 2nd day it can sometimes get a bit stinky.  We also have a smaller zip up wet bag like that to throw used diapers into at daycare or while we're out running around.  Our little'un typically has 2-3 BMs per day and if we're at home when she does, we'll typically just dump it directly into the toilet right then before putting it into the wet bag.  For those that she does during daycare, we'll just wait to pull them out before we wash them, but all poo goes into the toilet.  We have a nozzle sprayer connected to a split from the water line into the toilet in the laundry room so we can actually rinse the diapers directly into the toilet before tossing them into the washer.  Cycle wise, we wash them on hot water for the longest cycle possible with a double rinse.  And drying them takes forever unfortunately (personally I still feel it's better for the environment overall going this route than using thousands of disposables that take energy to produce as well then end up in a landfill for eternity).  For the first couple of months we used one of the specialty detergents but we've since returned to using just the regular stuff, I think the big thing is just be sure you're not using too much.  We fill the cup up probably halfway to the the first line for a small load on the cup, so we don't use much at all but they still come out smelling clean. 

Since she has started sleeping through the night around 1 year, we've actually been putting her in disposables overnight.  Before that my wife would change her during each feeding in the middle of the night but the disposables are definitely more absorbent and keep her dryer for longer.  We also use disposables when we travel for more than one night just so we don't have to worry about hauling around the dirty cloth ones or washing them in someone else's washing machine. 

[CNM]

Like many other posters, we use disposables for our 2 year old at daycare (required) and overnight. 

For avoiding leaking, it is important to find a diaper that fits your baby really well.  After trial and error, the two brands that worked best for us were Happy Heinys and Thirsties (they have double leg elastics).  We also always double up the absorbent insert.  The most absorbent ones I've found are hemp cloth.  We will usually put a hemp cloth one as well as a cotton/microfiber one to catch all the pee.  This works pretty well, although we do need to make sure to change the cloth diaper every 3 hours or so, or else we risk a leak.  For poo catchment, we use the thin, disposable diaper liners.  I prefer this so I don't need to touch poo any more than is absolutely necessary.

For diaper "pails", we cycle through 2 large wetbags.  I am pretty sure they are Planetwise brand.  We have very few problems with smell with these.

For washing, I am a big fan of Charlie's Soap.  It is about $15 for a tub of powder that lasts something like 80 washes.  It's diaper safe.  I also add a splash of BioKleen to the wash cycle to get rid of any lingering ammonia smell.  It works VERY VERY well and I never have stinky diapers anymore.  Everything gets air dried overnight, which helps keep the waterproofing of the diaper covers in good shape. 

Anyway, this is the strategy that seems to work best for us.  In our experience,  cloth diapers are more leak prone than disposable.  I'm not sure why that is, exactly, but we have just learned to deal with it and plan accordingly (bringing spare pants, use of disposables if we're going to be out for long periods of time, etc.)

[JoyBlogette]

Past experience: we have 6 shells and 18 organic cotton snap-in inserts (grovia brand). We used these with relative success with our first (a girl), from around 7 months to 13ish months. After that point, she started peeing less often but a larger volume, resulting in massive pee-thoughs every day. This was especially inconvenient if we were out, in the car seat, or really any time.

I didn't like the Grovia ones for our son either.  They leaked for every pee at about 6 months on and I stopped using them and sold them.  We use Bottombumpers and One-size Simplex (both organic and AIO).  The Simplex ones are still going strong with no leaks for our 14-month-old's 2.5 hour nap.  We gave up and use a disposible for overnight.  We have about 30 diapers total, but this can last up to 5 days between washes.

For soap we use Rockin Green and it works great.  I've never had to "strip" our diapers and very little (if any) staining.

For diaper "pails", we cycle through 2 large wetbags.  I am pretty sure they are Planetwise brand.  We have very few problems with smell with these.

We also use 2 large wetbags in lieu of a "pail" they are Planetwise brand as well.  I LOVE these.  Added advantage of wetbags is that they also work on the go and for travel (cottage, vacations, etc).  We use our cloth diapers everywhere.  I love that the handles are on the sides, we have a drawer pull installed on the wide of the dresser that the bags hang from.  Then we just throw the bag in the laundry with the diapers.

For a wash, I do Cold pre-wash, Hot wash (heavy soil level), cold rinse (sometimes extra rinse) then dry in dryer on low for 2 cycles (about 40 mins each)

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

I have two kids sleeping upstairs in cloth diapers as we speak--ages two and three--so I guess I'm qualified to weigh in :-). Your wash routine sounds about right but I think you will find that the diapers stink less if you use proper cloth diaper detergent. That pre-rinse cycle is a MUST! I have used both Rockin Green (some scents available through Amazon Prime) and Cotton Babies detergent, which you can get directly from their website, always free shipping (it's basically the same stuff as Country Save).

Yes, it's good to have two bags. I use wetbags personally, and I have two so that I still have one available when I'm washing the other.

My two-year-old is a heavy pee-er and I have found that the only two things that really work are (a) using cotton prefolds and changing every hour and a half or so--lets him feel wet or (b) using a pocket diaper--we have BumGenius--with extra stuffing. If I want to leave the house, I use a full-size insert plus TWO boosters (either two Hemp Babies doublers or one of those and one microfiber BG newborn insert).

For overnight, I use one microfiber insert and one hemp insert inside a BG pocket, and over that, I put a pair of plastic pants. Otherwise he leaks right through.

If you're interested in picking up some pockets, BabyCenter has a cloth diaper swap board that I had really good luck with. Congrats on new baby, and good luck! Check back in if you need more help troubleshooting :-).

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Oh, and cloth wipes--yes, I find these worthwhile. The washcloth ones clean better anyway. I just grab a handful, wet them all together under the sink, wring them out, and store them, wet, in a plastic container. (I use them all up within a few days.) That way they are room temperature--just like disposable wipes. (I've heard that you can use a wipes warmer with cloth wipes, too, should you have a very cold house or sensitive baby.) If you are going to be storing them longer than a few days, make sure to use water that has been boiled, or else they will go rancid. Some people use fancy recipes for wetting their cloth wipes--you can find them online--but I've always just used plain water. I still keep a few disposable wipes around for using on the go or for emergencies.

When one of the kids has been wearing a disposable for whatever reason and has pooped in it, I flush most of the poop if possible, then wrap the diaper in a bread bag, cereal bag, or plastic grocery bag (whatever I have handy) and put it in with the rest of my trash.

[homeymomma]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I'm going to read through everything a few more times and come up with a plan. So far I'm thinking I need more diapers (hopefully aios), two planet wise wet bags or some with flaps, and a box/plan for cloth wipes. Might try a detergent off amazon or stick with what we have at first. Sounds like I'll be able to keep our current system for our older daughters disposables intact for now. Yay!

Thanks again! I'll definitely be back with more questions... Wish me luck with EC round two as well... Ak.

[nora]

We have 36 newborn bumgenius all in ones but only used them to about six weeks old.
And 24 elemental organic bumgenius all in ones which adjust in size so can be used right through but apparently can be too big for some newborns.
One bucket, initially kept under changetable, later in laundry due to smell.
Two bucket liners.
Disposables at night once pee got too much, into either the bucket to be sorted later, or into a plastic bag hanging on corner of change table.
Wipes all wet at once and stored in a large wipes container
24 Nappy liners for times when nappy rash a problem so ointment doesn't ruin nappies.
6 thick liners for nighttime initially, until it just seemed easier to use disposables as disposables almost never leak, whereas with the nightime liner we sometimes had to change the bed in the night which is no party.
Wash every two days as per manufacturer recommendation, first cold no soap, then hot with washing powder, and both cycles with extra rinses. Takes about two hours with our frontloader. Once a month add bleach and canestan antifungal to the hot wash.
We used to dry on line, but the nappies come out so hard and seems so harsh, so now we dry in drier which takes 2.5 hours!
Toddler poo we flick into the toilet, then add the nappy to the bucket.

[Christiana]

In my experience, the cure for overflows is bulkier diapers plus better-fitting covers.  Our latest baby had to be diapered at night like a large toddler, starting at 5 months.

The simpler you can keep things, the better. 

We use homemade prefolds (sewn from old towels and flannel sheets), with a variety of covers and shells, some bought used.  Three sizes:  newborn, 6-12 month, 12 month-potty trained.  Enough of each size to only have to wash diapers twice a week.

We also use cloth wipes, which are mostly old washcloths.  We keep these in a hanging bag near the changing table, and wet them as needed.  If you use the first water from the tap, it's almost at room temperature.

We have a diaper pail from Punkin-butt, with two wet bags for liners.  It has worked well, although I sometimes wish we had gotten the pail that was one size larger.

We put some vinegar in the final rinse, this helps a lot with odors.

For disposables, it seems almost better to put the poopy diapers in the regular trash container, to let the odors dissipate.

[Bourbon]

We used the bumgenius insert and cover diapers with both of our children.  Sadly either we were doing something wrong or the kids have very sensitive skin(wife has eczema, so does son).   We did fine for awhile but eventually they would get bad diaper rash and we were limited on creams with the cloth, so we would switch to disposable and use creams and it would clear up.  We would switch back to cloth and rash would come back, rinse and repeat.  We tried different detergents(rocking green), tried stripping the diapers etc.  Eventually we fell back to using disposable and we still wind up with issues from time to time.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

 

We used the bumgenius insert and cover diapers with both of our children.  Sadly either we were doing something wrong or the kids have very sensitive skin(wife has eczema, so does son).   We did fine for awhile but eventually they would get bad diaper rash and we were limited on creams with the cloth, so we would switch to disposable and use creams and it would clear up.  We would switch back to cloth and rash would come back, rinse and repeat.  We tried different detergents(rocking green), tried stripping the diapers etc.  Eventually we fell back to using disposable and we still wind up with issues from time to time.

Some kids do seem to do better with disposables. I wonder if that was a yeast rash--yeast can be hard to get rid of. I had one particular kind of diaper (they happened to be Green Mountain Workhorse Fitteds) that gave my toddler son a recurring yeast rash. I bleached and bleached, but maybe because I had a front loading washer, it always came back. When I stopped using just that one kind, the rash went away and never came back.

[bonjourliz]

Agree with recs for wet bag as liner.  Check diaper swappers for used diapers.

Detergent - I bought RLR through a co-op on Facebook.  It's a detergent you use only once in a while, to clear out funky smells etc.  (Costco Free for normal cleaning.). Usually very expensive but great price through the co-op.  You can also try a squirt of plain Dawn detergent - the blue kind.

Sent from my HTC first using Tapatalk

[HSLmom]

I'm cloth diapering during the day, but using sposies when we're out and at night. I have 5 grovia covers, I like them, but I don't use their inserts. I use Green Mountain Diapers prefolds, I have a dozen in size 'infant' and a dozen in whatever the brown edging is (a bit bigger).  I re-use the covers and just change out the prefolds.

I do laundry M/W/F and use two big wet bags plus an extra smaller one upstairs (in case I change him up there so I'm not hauling around wet diapers).  If you can sew at all, buying some PUL and elastic is pretty cheap if you get 2nds, and you can make a few big wetbags easily.  I loved them for dirty clothes when we're on vacation too, one that I'm using is 6 years old.

I've made wipes out of old flannel sheets before, I have some Grovia brand as well. I wet them in the sink. If I kept them in a bag or wipe warmer I'd add a drop or two of essential oil to keep away germs. I did use a wipe warmer with my 2nd son, I didn't change him near a sink.

[lindsey]

We cloth diapered full time from day one with our 2 year old, who potty trained by personal request at 20 months. That sounds nicer than how it happened, she basically threw a fit any time I tried to put a diaper on her and I had terrible morning sickness at the time so she won. She also did the hold it and pee all at once thing, which while hard to contain is a nice sign they are figuring out bladder control!

In the beginning (newborn) we used prefolds with snappis and thirsties covers. This are easy to put on once you get the hang of it, and as love as you make sure the cover is COMPLETELY over the diaper there shouldn't be any leaks. Completely means different things to different people though, so if you have anybody helping you on diaper changes you might be going through some extra pants... This system also worked well for newborn breastfed poops, my daughter was a once a day or every other day pooper and they were giant. Like, "holy crap how did that much stuff just come out of you" giant.

When she was 11 months ish we switched to Rumparooz. They worked well for us, she has thin legs and these kepth her from leaking but didn't cut off circulation. The nice thing about pocket diapers is they typically come with two inserts and you can use both at once, which we did at night or for long car trips. We had about ~18 and it honestly was not enough. For awhile I had to do diaper laundry every day, which is not efficient. I would prefer to do an extremely full load both in terms of water usage and time. We are now prepping for baby 2.0 and plan on getting six more Rumparooz but still plan on using prefolds with covers until he is 2 or 3 months.

Oh! And get diaper liners for those gross toddler poops. They are flushable, biodegradable, and pretty much the most wonderful thing to happen to toddler craps and the loved ones that have to touch them.

[dbanta]

We are using gdiapers and love them.  You are right that you do have to buy new sizes as your baby grows, but we feel like they are a little less bulky and we can get a nice fit around the belly and legs.   From what I've noticed shopping around on ebay is that they really hold their value.  You should be able to resell them for little to no loss, especially if you start off buying used. 

The other nice part is that we rarely have to wash the shells (unless it's a really wet diaper!).  We have moved onto the small size from the newborn size.  We have 6 shells, 12 pouches and 18 liners and have to launder them every day and half about.  We also bought the thin disposable inserts that go on top of the cloth inserts to help with when our little one starts eating solid foods. 

As far as wipes I just bought some from amazon and  just use water which works great.  I read some blogs about people making wipes from flannel they bought at JoAnns but I am not crafty.  This is what I bought - http://www.amazon.com/Bumkins-Reusable-Flannel-Wipes-Natural/dp/B006J2U4T0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402950771&sr=8-1&keywords=flannel+wipes

[deedeezee]

I completely agree on Rockin Green detergent and Planetwise wet bags.  I did cold pre-wash, sanitize cycle (hot water, heavy soil), and an extra rinse.  I did not dry covers (BumGenius Flip), but did dry inserts, regular uncovered cloth (used with wool) and All-In-Ones (BumGenius).  I still have my CDs and my Planetwise wet bags and they look great.   I should really sell them as we are done with the baby stage, but it took me a while to find what worked and now I think I might be overly attached to them.  LOL.

[Kmp2]

We have 4 covers, and 12 prefolds, and 12 all in ones (aio's) for our now 14 month old. We also have 4 night time high absorbancy bamboo fleece diapers and a wool cover for nights. We have been using this system since she was about 8 months old. Before that we used 24 prefolds and 6 covers, in both the newborn and infant sizes. The 3 sets of sized prefolds were fairly inexpensive, its the aio that drive up the costs - but we can use them at the dayhome.
I'm not sure how the shells you have work, but I reuse ours all the time - just wipe dry with a cloth wipe and put it right back on her. I will only wash a shell if it reeks of ammonia or gets poop on it. Urine is sterile after all! Also they sell individual boosters, if your baby starts wetting through you could always get some of those and just add them in as a liner. Wool covers are also fantastic a preventing leaks.

We have two large bummies wet bags for laundry, and if the bag of dirty diapers starts to really smell I know its time for a deep rockin green soak - or I use TIDE - which is not cloth diaper approved, but gets rid of the ammonia smell with our super hard water. This is once a month or so, and almost always only on her overnight diapers - which are still a good deal if they only last one kid. Otherwise our was routine is cold rinse, hot wash, and only an extra cold rinse if I've used TIDE. For stains dry in the sunshine, and they will be as good as new! Don't forget the UV will also sterilize the diapers too.
I made a whole bunch of flannel wipes when I was pregnant - but you could always just cut a bunch of squares off a flannel fabric instead, no need to be sewn and double sided... We use a small spray bottle at the diaper table and spray her bottom directly then wipe clean with the cloth wipes. We just use water, but there are lots of recipes out their for diaper solutions. They get thrown into the diaper pail and washed with the diapers.
The flannel wipes are excellent for wiping sore noses too! Much softer then Kleenex.

I love my cloth diapers, but there were a lot of kinks to work out! I hope you can figure yours out.

EDIT: and disposable diaper liners work for us on that toddler poop!

[ABC123]

I was lucky to have a daycare that was willing to use our cloth diapers, but I did use sposies overnight as I couldn't find a cloth diaper that would hold them for 10 hours of sleep. If you are using cloth diapers then absolutely use cloth wipes. That is a huge money saver. I took 2 or 3 days worth of wipes, got them wet, and stored them in a sposie wipe box. I hated one size diapers as they did not fit well. I used sized Bottombumpers and they worked well on both my skinny boy and my chunky boy.  Theya are all in ones so no stuffing or covers, but the snap in insert means they dry very quickly.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Re: overnight, I find that covering a pocket diaper with plastic pants really makes it possible to use cloth overnight. It provides that just one more layer of protection. And plastic pants are cheap.

[socaso]

I used covers and prefolds. I know I had 5 covers but I'm not sure how many prefolds I had. A LOT! My sis gave me her old ones and I bought a new set plus I made some out of flannel just because I was curious to try making some. They all worked great. For a diaper pail I used a big 5 gallon orange bucket from Home depot and put water and a healthy slug of vinegar in there. The vinegar kept the pail from stinking. Any solid waste got swished in the toilet and flushed and the diaper went in the pail. None of my prefolds have any stains. I used flannel cloth wipes in a wipe warmer. I mixed a little baby shampoo with a couple of drops of essential oil and water and poured it over the wipes in the warmer. The essential oil was probably overkill but I bought one small bottle of lavender oil and I have used it for the wipes and also in his nightly bath and the bottle is only 1/4 gone after a year and a half of use. He's my baby. I want to pamper him a little! All told I spent less than $100 for his diapering supplies and I used them until he went to daycare at 1.5 years. I did start putting him in night diapers at 5 months but that was worth the cost because it was only 1 diaper a night and it got him to start sleeping longer at night.

[Grant Q]

We have 18 Lotus Bumz shells and inserts and have been using them with our daughter from birth until now (she's 19 months).  She uses them during the day and sleeps with a disposable.  We also use disposables when we travel.  We wash the shells and inserts with hot wash, cold rinse with pre-wash/extra rinse turned on.  We dry them in the dryer (line drying isn't really effective when it's 90% humidity outside).  When she was about 3 weeks old, the diapers started to take on an ammonia smell, even when they had just been washed.  We started adding a cup of vinegar where fabric softener would normally go, and it solved the odor issue.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Be careful with the ammonia, though--I hear that over time, it breaks down the PUL (the waterproof material of the shell). It's fine to use with the inserts.

[Grant Q]

Be careful with the ammonia, though--I hear that over time, it breaks down the PUL (the waterproof material of the shell). It's fine to use with the inserts.

The problem was an ammonia smell that stayed with the diapers after they were washed, even using extra rinse and prewash.  Using vinegar along with detergent stopped the smell and hasn't caused any problems with the diapers.

[aussieshorter]

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in about a month, and we plan on using cloth nappies (we're in Australia - you call them diapers).  My wife was going to attempt making them, but it all seemed a bit too complicated to start with.  Maybe down the track if we need to get more she'll reconsider.

She did make a heap of reusable cloth wipes though, very cheap and easy.  It took about an hour and cost $37 for 15 wipes.  The plan is to wet the wipes and store them in a container, with a few drops of tee tree or lavender oil.

She actually wrote a tutorial showing how she made them, if anyone is interested - www.buttonsandbooties.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/how-to-save-yourself-48196.html

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in about a month, and we plan on using cloth nappies (we're in Australia - you call them diapers).  My wife was going to attempt making them, but it all seemed a bit too complicated to start with.  Maybe down the track if we need to get more she'll reconsider.

She did make a heap of reusable cloth wipes though, very cheap and easy.  It took about an hour and cost $37 for 15 wipes.  The plan is to wet the wipes and store them in a container, with a few drops of tee tree or lavender oil.

She actually wrote a tutorial showing how she made them, if anyone is interested - www.buttonsandbooties.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/how-to-save-yourself-48196.html

I LOVE my heap of cloth wipes. So much that my mom is making me more on he serger even though potty training is right around the corner--noses aren't gonna stop running :-). If you really like tea tree or lavender oil, you can go for it (but consider doing a patch test--baby might be sensitive), but my two cents is that they are not necessary. I've always used plain water. Baby gets a bath later anyway. Tip, though: If you want to store wipes for more than a few days, make sure to boil the water first, because otherwise it will get stinky. Congrats on impending new baby and make sure to check back in if you need any help with troubleshooting!

[aussieshorter]

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in about a month, and we plan on using cloth nappies (we're in Australia - you call them diapers).  My wife was going to attempt making them, but it all seemed a bit too complicated to start with.  Maybe down the track if we need to get more she'll reconsider.

She did make a heap of reusable cloth wipes though, very cheap and easy.  It took about an hour and cost $37 for 15 wipes.  The plan is to wet the wipes and store them in a container, with a few drops of tee tree or lavender oil.

She actually wrote a tutorial showing how she made them, if anyone is interested - www.buttonsandbooties.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/how-to-save-yourself-48196.html

I LOVE my heap of cloth wipes. So much that my mom is making me more on he serger even though potty training is right around the corner--noses aren't gonna stop running :-). If you really like tea tree or lavender oil, you can go for it (but consider doing a patch test--baby might be sensitive), but my two cents is that they are not necessary. I've always used plain water. Baby gets a bath later anyway. Tip, though: If you want to store wipes for more than a few days, make sure to boil the water first, because otherwise it will get stinky. Congrats on impending new baby and make sure to check back in if you need any help with troubleshooting!

Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely pass them on.  My wife has very sensitive skin, so we may find the oils don't work with out baby.  I guess we'll play it by ear.

[emily2244]

I highly recommend using flat diapers instead of pre-folds. They are so easy to wash, so you use less energy. I don't do any rinsing and one cycle has always been sufficient. I've never had any issues with an ammonia smell. I also highly recommend elimination communication. My 6 month old has soiled a total of 3 diapers so far and I haven't even used a full pack of wipes yet. My first child was similar.  I do use disposables at night....

[greenmimama]

I'm a pro ;)

I would consider selling the ones you have and using that money to fund buying different ones, people who used the gro-via usually had the same complaints, it's a pretty expensive system too.

If you are wanting to do this as economically as possible, this would be my plan:

buy 6 or 8 of these http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?t=test7_1&tf=cb_custom_template&utm_expid=72887383-29.1-__FA3vT7yJAfp3qHh9FQ.1&products_id=4550&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cottonbabies.com%2Fsale.php%3Ft%3Dtest7_1%26tf%3Dcb_custom_template

Stuff with these: http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?t=test7_1&tf=cb_custom_template&utm_expid=72887383-29.1-__FA3vT7yJAfp3qHh9FQ.1&products_id=276&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cottonbabies.com%2Fadvanced_search_result.php%3Ft%3Dtest7_1%26tf%3Dcb_custom_template%26keywords%3Dflat%2Bdiapers I would buy 2 doz, that price is for 1 doz

Get 2 of these: http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?t=test7_1&tf=cb_custom_template&utm_expid=72887383-29.1-__FA3vT7yJAfp3qHh9FQ.1&products_id=1958&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cottonbabies.com%2Fsale.php%3Ft%3Dtest7_1%26tf%3Dcb_custom_template

I suggest these things because they are inexpensive to purchase, and to wash and maintain, you are never going to get anything easier to get clean than flats, trust me I have tried them all, we really loved pocket diapers, when I started stuffing them with flats, my life was so much easier! plus I was using less water and detergent.

You could buy anything you want, but if you keep your system, you will need some more to stuff or lay in their for absorbency, just get a bamboo insert, that would help a lot and not be itchy or drying on babies skin, or this time this child may not pee as heavily, every child is so different.

Hope this helps.

[lakemom]

If you want to learn everything and then some about cloth diapering try diaperswappers.com.  And buying used off there is often a good bargain but be sure to check the costs of new against the asking prices of used because some people think used diapers are worth 90% of the new costs and if you're going to pay that much you might as well buy new and get all the wear out of them yourself rather than only 1/2 the wear.

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

If you want to learn everything and then some about cloth diapering try diaperswappers.com.  And buying used off there is often a good bargain but be sure to check the costs of new against the asking prices of used because some people think used diapers are worth 90% of the new costs and if you're going to pay that much you might as well buy new and get all the wear out of them yourself rather than only 1/2 the wear.

I think they can be worth that much in few limited circumstances. Like I got some GMD workhorse fitteds that didn't work for my kid AT ALL. We used them for only a short time--but they were broken in, which is kind of a lot of trouble. Since the buyer would only need to wash them once instead of 6 times before use, I was able to sell them for almost what I paid.

[oldladystache]

I find this thread amazing.

Last time I bought diapers there were 2 kinds. The square ones and the rectangle ones, maybe 3 times as long as their width. Depending on the age and sex of the baby you'd fold it in the appropriate way, pin it on with diaper pins, and cover it with elastic pants.

Disposables were new and quite expensive in those days. (1967, 1968.)

[FoundPeace]

We make our own dtergent for washing diapers. It was super cheap and has lasted for almost 2 years so far. Also, get a good diaper sprayer for when your baby is older.

[justajane]

I'm currently cloth diapering my third, after having cloth diapered the other two as well. Here's what works for me (in no particular order):

1. Original Tide liquid. Everything else made my diapers reek eventually. I also regularly use Bac-out, which can be bought at Amazon or Whole Foods.

2. Don't be all or nothing about it. You can still use sposies. We never could get cloth to work at night past ca. 3 months when ours stopped pooping round the clock. I also don't like them in public and the enormous bum they give my baby. In fact, lots of their nicer clothes don't even fit with cloth. That's the hardest part about my hybrid system - different sized clothes based on what they are wearing. 

3. We use prefolds and cover when they are younger and Fuzzi Bunz after one year. I love prefolds because they are hardy, and if they ever stink you can easily bleach them (w/o the covers). Best covers IMO - snap Thirsties and Flip. We also like prowraps.

4. My kiddos always had less rash with cloth, but maybe that's because we use cotton prefolds.

5. We don't have a sealed bag or container to store the dirty ones. That's just asking for stink. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but it's true. We just have an open trashcan at the basement stairs. I throw the dirty ones in there and take them down to a larger container right by the washer in our unfinished basement. They didn't smell even in the heat of the summer. We wash every 1-2 days.

6. Hang out to dry outside in the sun on inside by a window as often as you can.

[MayDay]

This seems like a good place to admit that all our old cloth wipes are now hankies.

I hated prefilds because they took so long to dry. Flats all the way for me.

[Dalmuti]

It seems like the type of diaper that works is different for every parent and baby, but I had a few recommendations that I think are more universal. 

For wetting the washcloths for cloth wipes, we just kept a little water squeeze bottle by the changing pad.  That way it's handy and room temperature when you need it and you can refill when it's convenient.  I think we just used the one that the hospital gave us after the delivery for rinsing mama's sore areas. 

We had major issues with odor in the pail at first and tried baking soda, rosemary sprigs, etc to mask the smell.  What finally worked was Rockin' Green's "Shake it up" pail freshener.  It really eliminates the odor and works for a long time.   

[merula]

I've got two in cloth now, so here's my $0.02 to throw on the pile:

1. I started with an eclectic mix of styles, with the intent of finding the ones I liked. I have BumGenius , Charlie Banana, FuzziBunz, gDiapers, some one-offs, and I tried sewing my own. The DIY ones didn't last nearly as long and were about the same cost for materials, so I wouldn't recommend that at all. I had some pads that came with the diapers, but mostly plain prefolds. I found out my favs were pocket diapers stuffed with one pad and one prefold, so that's what we've bought as we've needed more.  I initially bought new, but now buy them used at a hippie granola toy store.

2. I cut up old tshirts for wipes. I saw some people who did the same and hemmed them, but that seemed like a waste to me when they're just for cleaning up poop, so mine are literally scraps of tshirt. 100% cotton is much more absorbent than cotton/poly mixes. I mix up some wipe solution (a little bit of shampoo, witch hazel and mineral oil, topped up with water) in an old liquid soap bottle, so then I just squirt it on the dry wipes as needed. Plain water would work too; this just seems to clean better.

3. My diaper pail is the one my parents bought when I was a baby. (So it's gone through me, my two siblings, and was then moved cross-country 4 times in order to sit in their attic for 15 years. I would say that's crazy, but I got a free diaper pail out of it.) It's just a pail with a lid that lifts up when you press a pedal, a handle, and a space for an air freshener. We have two washable bags to line the pail; the liner gets washed with the diapers, so we just dump everything and switch to the clean one.

4. When the pail is full (2-3 days for one, 1-2 days for two), I dump everything in the washer. I run one load with cold water and Oxyclean and a second with hot water and detergent. No special detergent, just the same DIY we use for everything. (1 part Borax, 1 part washing soda, 2 parts grated Fels Naptha soap.) We typically line dry everything, but will machine dry the pads/prefolds in a pinch.

5. We use disposables when traveling for long enough that we'd need to wash diapers. When it was just one, we'd bring a large wetbag on weekend trips and just do laundry when we got home. Now, with two, overnights are fine for cloth but a whole weekend is disposable time.

6. As the prefolds have been wearing out, I've been sewing them into pads by trimming them down, wrapping them in old tshirt material, and sewing closed. These take a little longer to dry, but I like that I'm extending the life of the diapers, and it saves time folding/stuffing diapers.

Hope this helps.

[justajane]

I hated prefilds because they took so long to dry.

I find that it helps if you add a dry towel to the dryer, or conversely you can dry your prefolds with another load of normal laundry. I plan to do my diapers the same day I do a normal load. This can really cut down on the drying time or at least kill two birds with one stone.

[step-through]

We currently have 2 kids (8 months and 2.5 years) in cloth. We use Fuzzibunz pockets in the one size version so we just adjust the elastic as they grow (they are color coded so we know which ones are set baby size vs toddler size). Cloth diapers do resell well if you take good care of them but it can be a hassle to be trying to buy and sell so I keep it to a minimum! We never use the inserts that came with the pockets. We get flats and fold them up; they dry soooo much faster!

We have 2 13-gallon size cloth pail liners (Blueberry brand, the Planetwise one we got kicked the bucket in less than a year) and put them in a step-on lidded kitchen size garbage can.

We don't use them at night - not enough capacity and not breathable enough to be on more than about 4 hours at a time. At night we use a fitted diaper (Motherease one size) with a wool cover.

I think of them as an investment! We did pay on average $10 each (used via cloth diaper forums, facebook BSTs, and ebay) and we have about 28 pockets per kid. Plus the flats are about $2 each. Cottonbabies has the best ones a little cheaper. Wool covers ran about $15 each and we have 4 per kid. The fitteds have a wide range of prices but our kids do best with a wicking lining so I sprang for the specialty ME.

We wash about every 2 days in an HE washer with All free and clear, and we only put the flats in the dryer; everything else gets hung to dry (in or outside depending...). We also got a ton of cheap wipes - I traded something with someone who had a serger and some cheap flannel - and we also made a handful out of old flannel blankets.

Get a toilet mounted sprayer!! It rinses poop into the toilet where it belongs and also rinses pee out of nighttime diapers.

Overall I highly recommend cloth. But plan that you might have to try a few different systems before you find the one that works for you. So many factors, water quality, your kid's body type, etc.

[step-through]

Let me add that I am looking forward to the day when I can sell them! The toddler is using potty about half the time already and hopefully will be out of diapers some time this winter. I mean, it is kind of crazy how eagerly I'm looking forward to cashing them in! Right now I'm purging some smaller wool covers and it's so gratifying to see that money back in the paypal account.

[Guses]

Sorry if this contrarian, but we recently decided to do exclusively paper diapers over cloth for our first child. We were sorely disapointed in our trial of the cloth diapers (very poor capacity meaning much more frequent changes and spill over).

You can buy paper diapers for really really cheap when you wait for a sale. The last batch we bought cost us 14 cents per diaper and we bought a bunch (300+).

Considering the electricity, water, soap, washing mashine wear and tear per washable diaper (we calculared 5 cents per diaper per wash), you are looking at a maximal saving of 9 cents per diaper. 

We further calculated that we would only break even at the end of the diapering period of our second child if we went cloth because of the significant upfront cost.

We concluded that our time would be better spent elsewhere instead of earning an insignigicant fraction of a penny per hour washing poop out of diapers.

If cloth had other advantages over paper, it may have been an option for us. Thankfully our son is not allergic to paper.

[tofuchampion]

We were sorely disapointed in our trial of the cloth diapers (very poor capacity meaning much more frequent changes and spill over).

Not that it matters now, but I'm curious: how did you prep them?  Cloth diapers do have major absorbency issues if they're not properly prepped - washed several times in hot water to get out oils, etc.  This is a good basic guide to prepping.  The more they're washed, the more absorbent they get. 

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

Nah, they definitely absorb less no matter how you prep them IME. Even when I used the ultimate combo of microfiber over hemp, I had to, for instance, change the diaper before we left the gym, whereas a disposable would have lasted until we got home and all the way through lunch.

But my savings were greater because I bought used, used for two kids, and had free utilities for much of my cloth-diapering time.

[tofuchampion]

^ True, but phrases like "very poor capacity," and "spillover" make it sound like it was worse than just not being as absorbent as disposables. 

[Guses]

Not that it matters now, but I'm curious: how did you prep them?  Cloth diapers do have major absorbency issues if they're not properly prepped - washed several times in hot water to get out oils, etc.  This is a good basic guide to prepping.  The more they're washed, the more absorbent they get.

My wife prepped them for use so I can't speak from personal experience. Though I know that the process was quite extensive and involved several washes and I do trust her to have checked several sources for information on how to prep them.

Also, I don't believe that the problem was that they did not absorb, the problem was that they got full very quickly. Maybe our son makes bigger than average pees, he is quite the heavy drinker....

[justajane]

Sorry if this contrarian, but we recently decided to do exclusively paper diapers over cloth for our first child. We were sorely disapointed in our trial of the cloth diapers (very poor capacity meaning much more frequent changes and spill over).

You can buy paper diapers for really really cheap when you wait for a sale. The last batch we bought cost us 14 cents per diaper and we bought a bunch (300+).

Considering the electricity, water, soap, washing mashine wear and tear per washable diaper (we calculared 5 cents per diaper per wash), you are looking at a maximal saving of 9 cents per diaper. 

We further calculated that we would only break even at the end of the diapering period of our second child if we went cloth because of the significant upfront cost.

We concluded that our time would be better spent elsewhere instead of earning an insignigicant fraction of a penny per hour washing poop out of diapers.

If cloth had other advantages over paper, it may have been an option for us. Thankfully our son is not allergic to paper.

Most people don't do cloth diapers entirely for financial reasons, so I'm not surprised that someone who seems to be doing it solely for that reason would want to quit.

But I have to push you on the 5 cents per diaper per wash calculation. That sounds really high. Do you have abnormally high water or electricity costs?

[Guses]

Most people don't do cloth diapers entirely for financial reasons, so I'm not surprised that someone who seems to be doing it solely for that reason would want to quit.

But I have to push you on the 5 cents per diaper per wash calculation. That sounds really high. Do you have abnormally high water or electricity costs?

I would assume that most people posting on a financial independence oriented forum would find financial arguments to be motivating but I can see how environmental reasons could play into this as well. Are there more reasons?

My cost was based on this page: http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/laundry.html

It pegs cost per load between 0.70$ and 1.34$ depending on your type of washer, how much you pay for electricity, water, soap and whether you use a dryer. While we can debate the parameters, I found that nothing was really out of line. One caveat to this site is that it does not consider the wear and tear on your machine.

This page (http://www.thesimpledollar.com/a-cost-comparison-of-home-laundry-and-laundromats/) considers machine wear and tear and pegs the cost at about 1.32$ per load on average.

Now assuming a typical load every 2-3 days, how much of that weight is clothes vs diapers ( if you do mix clothes and diapers, we don't so we use 100%) . Divide by the number of *paper* diapers you would have used during the same time period.

I get between 4-8 cents *per paper diaper* depending on variables.

NB: you can't normalize on a cloth diaper basis since you need to change more often than paper. So your cost per cloth diaper might be only 3-4 cents but then if you need to change 1.5 times as often, you have to multiply by 1.5 to account for that.

[justajane]

I would assume that most people posting on a financial independence oriented forum would find financial arguments to be motivating but I can see how environmental reasons could play into this as well. Are there more reasons?

at about 1.32$ per load on average.

Aside from the green aspect, I also do cloth diapers part-time (still use a fair amount of sposies) because it helps with diaper rash. I find if I put a disposable on my baby more than 2 times in a row, his poor little bottom gets bright red.

I just don't believe the $1.32 per load. I do around 7 loads of laundry a week, so approx. 30 loads a month. Our entire electricity bill when we are not running the A/C is around $40, the bulk of which would be from the fridge.  I hang my diapers in the summer.

Wear and tear is probably extremely hard to calculate. We bought a used Kenmore washer almost ten years ago for $150, and it is still going strong.

FWIW, the way to save tons of money cloth diapering is to use cheap prefolds and economical covers. If you buy expensive pocket diapers, it will be much harder to save money.

[Guses]

*Knock on wood*

 I have yet to see diaper rash on our son. We appear to have lucked out here!

We can argue all day about the specific variables, but in the end, I posted two different links that quoted similar figures. I doubt that we are orders of magnitude off.

In your specific case, you do 7 loads a week. Maybe your cost per load is much lower, but the payload is also smaller so I think the final figure is in the same ballpark.

Consumer grade washing machines are usually rated for between 4000 cycles to 8000 cycles of laundry. Your capital cost currently sits at 4 cents per wash. If you had bought new, it would likely be around 4 times that (600$ washing machine).

I get that there are several ways to mitigate costs, but my point is that the final cost per diaper is still not insignificant compared to the total cost of paper diapers.