You know those women in your circle of mom friends. They might talk about their "stash, doublers, pockets, or pre-folds." They can talk at great length about the best detergent for their dipes, a new pattern that just came out, or the best methods for "stripping." They use words like "aplix, snappis, hybrid, and all-in-ones." People might refer to them as a little "granola" or "crunchy." I, of course, am talking about your cloth-diapering friends. And I myself, have become one of them - although I'm not sure that I have ever referred to them "diapes" and certainly don't mind being called crunchy!
After being at this whole CDing thing for several months now, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on it, maybe even enough to offer some advice to newbies. To say that I just like cloth diapering is an understatement, I seriously love it. To me, the benefits are huge - the environmental impact, the financial savings, and did I mention how much I love the cute colors and patterns on my son's tiny tushie?? I am so glad we went this route and plan to keep on it until the last of our little ones is no longer in diapers.
My intent of this post is to review the diapers and accessories we have tried - which worked, which didn't, and which are our absolute favorites. I also want it to be somewhat of an informative "how to" if you are thinking of trying cloth diapering for yourself, or if you are struggling through it like we did in the beginning. I feel like I did everything wrong before we started to do things the right way, so this is an opportunity to learn from my mistakes! Before Arlo was born, I did a ton of diaper research, and even went to a cloth diapering class taught at the birthing center. Erik and I decided upon using prefolds and diaper covers, and purchased enough to get us started. Well, long story short - they just didn't work for us. Arlo has super sensitive skin and had an almost constant rash from the prefolds holding all the moisture next to the skin. I was beginning to think that CDing wouldn't work for us, but then a friend gave us some pocket diapers which we ended up loving, and they worked much better for Arlo's sensitive skin. So, even though there are a plethora of cloth diaper options available, my review of the diapers are almost entirely of the pocket style. I should also mention that while we did use CD at night for a while, we dealt with more leaking and diaper rashes because of it than we wanted to, so we switched to disposables at night only, and since then have had almost no issues with leaking or rashes.
The diapers:
Since
we have acquired so many different types and brands of diapers, I am
going to condense this section as much as possible and just list the
pro's and con's of each one. Each diaper will get an overall rating
between 1-5 hearts (♥) based on the performance, durability, and quality of the item. Ok, let's get to it!
Fuzzibunz - One Size
♥♥♥
Price: $20 each Made in: Turkey
Pros: trim fitting (much less bulky than other pocket diapers), does not leak often, fits smaller babies better than any other pocket diaper we have tried.
Cons: Size adjustments are done by elastic and buttons around the legs which is difficult and time-consuming to do. Also, this elastic tends to pop out of the holes during washing and needs to be tucked away again before use. Pocket is narrow and can be difficult to stuff, especially if using more than one insert. Finally, these diapers are on the small side and I am skeptical whether or not they will last all the way up through potty training. (update at time of posting, I stopped using these when Arlo was around 12 months old, and purchased more of my favorite brand, Coqui Hero's. However, I did save our fuzzibunz for future kiddos because they fit so well on tiny babes.)
Overall impression: I wouldn't choose these to make up my entire stash, but I like them as a trim fitting option to go under Arlo's clothing. Wouldn't recommend using during long naps or at night.
Alva
♥♥♥
Price: $4-6 average each Made in: China
Pros: Inexpensive as they come. Work pretty well, and higher quality than I expected for the price. Large pocket for stuffing inserts.
Cons: Tend to be a bit bulky. Didn't fit Arlo until he was around 6 months old even on the smallest size, but would probably fit an older toddler quite well, which could actually be a pro of these diapers. Not the highest quality of diaper out there. Take forever to receive if you order them from the Alva website and they are shipped from China. I have had these leak from time to time, sometimes through the snap areas on the outside cover.
Overall impression: These are a good diaper to have on hand for back-ups or extras in the diaper bag or car. They are definitely not the first diaper I reach for but I do use them from time to time.
Rumparooz
♥♥
Price: $16-18 Made in: China
Pros: Cute patterns, snaps make for easy sizing. Decent size pocket for
stuffing inserts. Double leg gussets mean less chance of a blow-out.
We have two of these diapers, one with velcro closure and one with snaps. The
velcro has held up surprisingly well through months of washings and I suspect
it has a lot of life left.
Cons: So
bulky. Never seemed to fit Arlo just right. Much more expensive than
other diapers. The velcro closure diaper seems to fit small, even on
the largest rise.
Overall impression:
I really wanted to love this brand, and with the high price tag I
thought that I would. But unfortunately they failed to impress me, and
once I found cheaper ones that I liked better, I pretty much stopped
using these altogether.
Thirsties:
♥♥
Price: $20 each Made in: USA
Pros: Made in USA! Very cute patterns. Slimmer fitting than other pocket diapers.
Cons:
Stuffing these diapers sucks. The elastic is so bunchy around the legs that
it's annoying to slide the insert in the pocket. Also the double
gussets, while great for keeping blow-outs in check, are also poop
magnets which make them hard to clean when a BM happens. As well, the
inside liner hasn't held up all that great. And because the elastic around the legs is so
"bunchy," I have actually had these come out of the wash with poo still
on them. Yuck! The sizing of these diapers aren't all that great
either. They run kind of small and I am skeptical about them fitting up until potty training.
Overall impression:
These diapers get such great reviews, I really thought I would love
them. However the cons far outweighed the pros here and I keep these on
the very bottom of the pile. That being said - thirsties makes the very best inserts, so keep reading to learn more about that!
Best Bottom
♥♥♥
Price: $17 for shell only, additional $18 for inserts (3 pack) Made in: USA
Pros: Outer
shells can be reused over and over without washing until they become
soiled, simply swap out the inner insert. Adorable patterns. Made in
USA!
Cons: Not all of
the inserts are "stay dry" meaning they won't wick the moisture away
from your little one's bum, increasing the likelihood of a rash. The
inside of the diaper has a snap-in insert which is soft against baby's
skin, but the rest of the inside of the diaper is a waterproof fabric
material which never seemed very comfortable against Arlo's delicate skin. The
fleece lining of pocket diapers always seemed way more comfortable for
him.
Overall impression:
These are not actually pocket diapers, but I wanted to review them because
we have a few in our stash and did use them a bit in the beginning.
They are another "ok" diaper, but once I found my favorites, these ended
up on the bottom of the pile along with the others...
Coqui Hero:
♥♥♥♥♥
Price: $15 each Made in: China
Pros:
Super soft fleece lining that has held up wonderfully. Easy to stuff.
Rarely leaks, even with just the single leg gusset. Great fit (update at 21 months old - still fits well with room to grow!) and comfortable for Arlo to wear. Reasonably priced. Bright, vibrant colors that I absolutely love. Adorable frog on back!
Cons:
The only con I can think of, is that the microfiber inserts that they
come with are not the most absorbent out there, and I purchased another
brand to use instead. That being said, very few diapers are sold with
something other than a simple microfiber insert, so you would probably
want to purchase separate inserts with whichever brand of pocket diaper
you choose anyway. (update at time of posting: I see that this company now sells a new diaper that comes with a double layer bamboo & organic cotton insert for only a few dollars more. I haven't tried their new insert yet but I would be curious to see how it does in comparison to the hemp & cotton insert mentioned below.)
Overall impression:
I saved the best for last, as these are by far our favorite cloth
diaper. Not only do they fit Arlo better than any other diaper we have
tried, but they have held up the best as well - and that is with using
them more than any others that we own! Once I discovered these, I
slowly started buying a few every time that I placed an Amazon order
(that is the only place I have found them) and soon we had a stash made
up primarily of Coqui's. Love these diapers!
So how many diapers do you need? Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 is a good number, I think. You will need more if you want to wash every three days instead of every other day, and will also need more for a newborn. However, I would not recommend you buying everything all at once. Buy one or two of several different brands because you will find that certain brands will work better than others for your baby. When you find what works best for you, stock up on those. I think we ended up with close to 30 diapers, but I will say that we never run out! Cloth diapers actually have a great resale value as well, so if you end up with a few you are not using, you can always resell them and get most of your money back.
The inserts:
Most cloth diapers will come with a standard microfiber
insert, which work fine when your baby is small and only wetting small
amounts at a time. However, once your kid gets older, those simple
microfiber inserts simply won't cut it, and you will end up with leaks
out the sides. I tried several types of inserts including bamboo, hemp,
charcoal, and cotton velour. The two I liked the best because they fit
the trimmest and seemed to hold the most are:
Thirsties Fab Doublers Soft Cotton Velour (seen above):
I pair these with the standard microfiber insert that comes with each
diaper. The combination of the two together is awesome, and they are
very affordable at around $8 for a three pack.
Thirsties Stay-dry Duo Inserts (seen above):
These are where it's at for heavy wetters or older babies. This insert
comes with a microfiber insert snapped to a hemp insert. The hemp
holds more moisture than any other insert I have tried. They are also
very trim fitting for how absorbent they are. The downside is that
these are around $9 each! Still worth it when you factor in how much
you are saving over using disposables.
The wipes:
When we started out cloth diapering, I figured that since we were going to be washing the diapers anyway, why not wash wipes as well? I enlisted my mom to sew us some wipes, and she made us a ton (I mean literally over 100) two-layer flannel wipes using her serger sewing machine. These have been amazing and have held up remarkably well through dozens and dozens of washes. That being said, somewhere along the way I discovered cloth wipes made by Thirsties, which do an even better job at poo removal than the flannel wipes do. They are called Thirsties Fab Wipes and cost around $12 for six. Not terribly expensive and work wonders on those unavoidable blow-outs! If you are going to cloth diaper, you might as well use cloth wipes as well. It's no more work in the laundry department, saves you money, and saves the environment at the same time.
The accessories:
wet
bag: When we started with cloth diapers, I bought two diaper pail
liners by Planet Wise and haven't had to buy anything additional since.
Two have been plenty because there is always one for the pail and one being washed (or dry and ready for use.) They have held up great, come in cute colors, and clean up well in the washing machine.
They run about $17 each.
I did end up purchasing an additional wet bag for traveling, as I wanted something with a zipper on top that still held a few days worth of diapers. I bought a Kanga Care wet bag and it's exactly what I needed. Pick up something like this for cloth diapering on the go!
diaper pail: I actually didn't buy anything fancy here, a simple plastic kitchen garbage can with a flip-up top has worked great. It holds in the smell surprisingly well, and since you are washing the diapers every few days it never has very long to sit full of dirty diapers anyway.
creams/ointments: It is important not to use conventional zinc oxide diaper creams with cloth diapers as they will never wash out and it will completely ruin the diaper, so make sure you pick something CD safe should your little one develop any rash or redness. I have tried many, our favorites are: CJ's BUTTer stick, CJ's BUTTer jar ointment, and Grovia Magic Stick. They usually cost around $10 each but last a very long time!
The process:
I think a reason that a lot of people shy away from cloth diapering, is that they are intimidated by the whole process of washing the soiled diapers. It's really a lot easier than it sounds! Let me start by talking about how I have things set up in Arlo's room. On his dresser, I have a changing pad with a small basket nearby. In the basket I keep cloth wipes, a squirt bottle of water (it's really a 99 cent condiment bottle from the grocery store!) and a diaper rash stick. On a cart nearby, I keep baskets stocked with clean, already stuffed and folded diapers. Next to the cart is the diaper pail. Everything is in easy reach. When Arlo was a newborn, I kept the wipes pre-moistened in a wipe warmer. This worked great in the beginning, but as he got older and we were using fewer wipes, I found it easier to wet the wipes only as I needed them.
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| changing station (old house) |
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| diaper accessories basket on dresser/changing table |
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| the wipes and "diaper pail" |
When I take off a soiled diaper, I pull the insert out, and throw everything in the pail. That way I don't have to sort through the diapers to remove inserts before washing. If you have a newborn, go ahead and throw the poo covered diapers right in the pail. It's not really until your baby starts solids that you need to worry about removing the poo. Now that Arlo is older, I either dump off the solids right into the toilet (most of the time they come right off easily) but if things are "soft" I use the nearby shower head to spray off the poo right into the toilet. If you don't have a shower head nearby, you can purchase a diaper sprayer to attach to the toilet to spray them off. I have also started occasionally using the "dunk and swish" option now that Arlo has his own toilet that no one else is using. In my opinion, the poo removal is probably my least favorite part of CDing. But still not a big enough deal to make me not want to do it!
I wash the diapers every 2-3 days. It's important to wash diapers by themselves (wipes and the wet bags are okay to go in too) and to only use CD safe detergent. We have tried a lot of detergents and found Nellies to be the most economical and effective. Also never use fabric softner of any kind as it will cause your diapers will lose their absorbancy. If you remove the inserts and poo before placing in the pail, all you need to do come washing day, is dump the whole bag in the washer. No dirty diaper touching required! Next, set your washing machine to the "diapers" cycle:
Wait, you don't have a diapers cycle on your machine?! Ha. Wouldn't it be nice if we did? (Special thanks to my sister Megan for her photoshop sills on this one.) The cycle you want to use for washing is "heavy duty" or if you don't have that I believe "comforters" would work as well. You want the cycle that will wash the longest and use the most water. And another tip for cloth diaper washing is rinse, rinse, rinse! On our new machine I have the option to have the washer "memorize" a certain cycle which has been awesome for CD washing (it's LG brand if you are wondering.) So I set it to: prewash (no soap), wash on a hot heavy duty cycle (or pick heavily soiled) with soap, spin speed maximum, and an extra two rinse cycles. It sounds like it uses a lot of water but the newer HE machines use so little water to begin with, I feel like you really need the extra rinses to help them get as clean as possible. If you have an older washer that is not HE, you can skip the extra rinses as your washer will use enough water in a heavy duty cycle to get them clean. I used a non-HE washer a few times when traveling and the diapers never came out cleaner!!
Once the wash cycle is finished, I always hang the diapers and wet bag to dry as this will help them last much longer and help prevent delaminating - when the waterproof layer peels away from the diaper fabric. I typically wash them at night after we put Arlo to bed, and the hanging diapers are dry by morning. I throw the inserts and wipes right into the dryer. When everything is dry, I stuff the inserts into the diaper, fold and snap them, and put them in the baskets in Arlo's room so they are ready to go. It's a very easy process that really doesn't take long. Even more time is saved if you can school your hubby on how to help with the diaper process.
Sometimes, even when you seem to be doing everything correctly, diapers can get a funky smell that won't go away even after washing. There are all kinds of methods out there for what is called "stripping" the diapers to remove the funk, but what I found works well is to use the blue Dawn dish soap. I throw all the diapers in the washer with around 1 TBSP Dawn, and wash as usual. I then run another cycle, with as many rinses as my machine will do. Make sure there are no suds at the end of the cycle. If there are, rinse again! I actually haven't had to strip mine in probably 6 months or so, but I do periodically put in just 3-4 drops of Dawn in the prewash cycle of a load. I kind of made that up on my own but it seems to have kept the stinkies at bay!
Update September 2015:
Somewhere around the time that Arlo turned 18 months old, he started soaking through his cloth diapers quite often. He drinks up to 11 oz of milk at a time now, and clearly that is more than even the very best insert can absorb. I realized the leaks most often occurred when we were out and about when I wasn't changing his diaper as often as I was when we were at home. So we still continue to cloth diaper while at home, but when we are going out for more than a quick trip, I put him in a disposable. We also still use disposables at night. The disposables we love the most are Naty by Nature Babycare. They are environmentally friendly and have never caused any problems for Arlo's very sensitive skin. I also recently discovered that Krogers sells an eco-friendly diaper called "Touch of Nature" and really like those as well. They are extremely affordable and also gentle on skin. Our favorite disposable wipes are "Water Wipes" (now being sold at Target!) and contain nothing but water and a tiny percentage of grapefruit extract.
So even though it feels like we are now using cloth diapers half the time and disposables the other half, I still love cloth diapering and plan to do so with future kiddos. If you have any questions about cloth diapering, please feel free to ask. Again, I feel like we did everything wrong before we started doing things right, so if you have a question chances are I can probably answer it.
Happy diapering!
