Cloth Diapering 101?

[delqc]

you also should keep an eye on clothdiaper.com for their factory seconds sales on prefolds. They charge a lot on shipping to Canada so it's not worth it to me to buy from them, but I know a lot of folks on the LJ clothdiapering community wait for these sales which appear every few months and save a ton. Apparently the prefolds have little cosmetic issues like not being even or whatever, but nothing that would prevent them from working well as a diaper!

ETA: I'm sorry to hear that clothdiapering is hard to get into... all I can say is that it would be worth starting a LJ and asking to get in and being patient for when baby is older. Seriously, it's really awesome.
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[happyhats]

delqc, I'll keep that in mind about lj. I can understand their reasoning, it just doesn't do me much good now, but maybe I'll be able to post once I am starting to work up to the one size fits all variety.

I have looked at the factory seconds at clothdiaper.com and seen some really great deals. They have been out of everything recently though.

I came across an ebay store called coolababy. They have one size fits all diapers for approx. six dollars a pair. I read some really good reviews on diaperswappers about them, and at that price it can't really be beat. From what I saw they only come in packages however, so you may want to wait until you had a bit of start up money for them. And shipping is sorta costly but I'm not sure it's any more costly than usual for an ebay store. I'm not sure about Canada however, I only skimmed the store since I'll be waiting for AIOs.

For a package of 48 it was around three hundred dollars, with shipping included in that price.
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[happyhats]

I got a huge package on diaperswappers, and now am in posession of 16 fuzzibuns in excellent condition, as well as six or seven different covers in great condition too. I'm going to stuff the fuzzibuns with some old towels I'm cutting up (they were going to be cleaning rags anyway). Now I'll have three dozen gerber prefolds and flats and over a dozen fuzzibuns. I think my cloth stash is pretty good for now!
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keep it simple

[MtyAphrdti]

So, I'm looking into all of this and trying to educate myself. Both my DH and I had issues as babies with diaper rash, so chances are our little one will too.

For a newborn, what is the consensus? Prefolds with covers? Use an insert as well? Or can we get away with getting some smart-starts or bumgenius one sizes and nothing else? So confused...

[rahime]

Prefolds and covers were okay for me - wasn't crazy about them. I did use them first in order to make sure I was okay with the whole routine of using cloth, since they're the cheapest (I didn't want to spend money on something and then give it up right away).

Once I was somewhat committed I also got some sized pockets (Fuzzibunz and Swaddlebees) from Diaper Swappers that I used when she was tiny. But as soon as they weren't inconveniently huge on her I started using BumGenius one-sizes (diapers.com does a deal on them if you buy a lot - they all have to be the same color though - and they have a $10 off first-time-buyer discount, I used that to get some of them) and although I do have some Fuzzibunz in her current size (um, it's been her size for months and months - I think it takes awhile to grow out of FBs) I only really use them as back-up when I haven't done diaper laundry fast enough.

I was really happy with that plan - the starting with prefolds and then used sized diapers before committing to buying tons of expensive, new diapers. I got to try out everything - flats, fitteds, pockets, AIOs, etc before settling on my favorite.
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[loomis]

Rahime- What detergent do you use with your bumgenius diapers?

[rahime]

Right now I use Planet, which I bought online and found $$$, but it really is lasting forever. When it runs out I might buy the new brand that bumgenius just came out with.

To start out with I was using... I think it was Arm and Hammer Sensitive? It was one that got 4 stars on pinstripesandpolkadots.com - it had optical brighteners (am I spelling that wrong? It looks wrong) but nothing else bad. And it was available at my grocery store, for only $2.49. I thought I was doing extra rinses and that would take care of the brightener. That was fine for... about a year? A little less? And then I got buildup of the brightener and she started getting like chemical burns from it. That was bad, really bad (and I felt really guilty, and afraid that I had wrecked all my diapers). I stripped them and switched to Planet, and was okay for awhile and then she started getting rashy again. Then I realized I was using too much - when they say just use a tablespoon, they mean it! It seems impossible that poopy diapers will come clean with so little detergent, but they will. (Another reason that it's lasting forever, which I can't complain about since it helps mitigate the price of buying special detergent online.) And now everything is good!
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[loomis]

Thanks Rahime!! I was thinking about using something like arm and hammer so it is good to know that I shouldn't. I didn't even know that the detergent build up could cause burns!!

I have been going to different stores looking for additive-free detergents and haven't been able to find one. I did see that they say Country Save detergent (recommended for use with BumGenius) may be available at Whole Foods. I will have to try there. It just seems like a pain to have to order detergent online though seeing as how you only have to use a tiny bit, it may not be that bad.

Have you had any problems with stains?

[rahime]

I was really resistant to buying detergent online too - it just seemed expensive and pointless. (None of the Whole Foods near me had totally additive-free stuff.) But it's looking like the bottle of Planet I bought is going to last me more than a year (I've had it around 6 months and it's not half gone) so I feel okay with that. I bought the big 100 oz bottle.

My actual diapers have no stains, they are pristine, but my inserts often come out sort of shadow-y. I don't make any effort to get rid of the stains though. I used to sun them, and now honestly I don't care. It was really once she started solids that they would come out funky - once they came out purple!

Now that I've had them forever they sometimes still smell kind of yuck (but not really bad, just not really fresh. Like a faint 'you can kind of tell this is a diaper' smell) when they come out of the wash - the other day I added some tea tree oil to a wash (BG/Cottonbabies say NOT to do that but tons of people online do) and they came out much fresher. I've heard that there's some sort of bacteria-killing spray BG sells that is good for that sort of thing, I might look into it. People on diaperswappers (haven't been there in forever though) seem to get sort of obsessed with needing to strip/buildup/whatever in their diapers and do all this funky stuff with their wash routine, but I followed the basic routine (just with a non-ideal detergent) for about a year and only had to strip the one time because of the wrong detergent. (And I used the basic Dawn dishsoap stripping directions.) I think I used bleach in the wash once during that year, sort of just for the heck of it. I think sometimes people make it more complicated than it has to be. (I don't have a front-load washer or anything though, those people are probably justified in making it complicated.) I'd start out just following the basic directions and go from there.

Also, BGs website makes all these dire predictions about damaging the diapers and elastic failure and whatnot if you don't follow directions - I freaked out midway through the first year because I was starting to get leaking through the stitching at the crotch and I thought I damaged my diapers with my non-ideal detergent. It turned out to just be time to start using the full insert plus the extra. I started doing that and have had NO issues with leaking, etc since (with occasional exceptions, like if she has a huge poop in a diaper that was already pretty wet - doesn't happen much at all). In hindsight I think they make those warnings so dire to make sure people are paying attention so they won't use a full cup of additive-filled detergent and then pour fabric softener all over their diapers...
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[loomis]

Thanks again, Rahime! Who knew that using cloth diapers could be so complicated:)? My Whole Foods didn't have any additive free detergent either so I will be ordering it online and it really isn't any more expensive than buying it at the store. It does seem like people obsess over the whole stripping thing. I am just going to get some bumgenius detergent and stinkaway (not the real name) spray made by bumgenius and call it a day. I am sure when little pooper is here, I won't be spending so much time obsessing over diapers.It is just nice to hear from someone who has been using them.

[rahime]

When I was pregnant and trying to decide about diapers (cloth or disposable, which brand, where should I buy them, how will I wash them, etc) I would have several extremely vivid dreams a night all about cloth diapers.

And it was kind of a relief when I stopped reading the diaperswappers boards... they're a great resource for some things but overall they weren't adding anything positive to my life...
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[racheli]

I'm jumping into this old thread to say that I ordered a diaper service today! Since I'm only two weeks from my due date, the diapers will be here tomorrow. I'm so excited about it - the guy on the phone talked to me for a half-hour and was super knowledgeable!

For starters I ordered four newborn-sized Proraps, because that was what they suggest for newborns. When the baby gets bigger the guy said he suggested Wonder Wraps, although they look a little bulky for a just-past-newborn - I like the look of the Bummis myself, but the adjustable Wonder Wraps DO seem convenient...

Is it wrong that I'm so thrilled about diapering? I know, I'm so naive...
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[racheli]

In case anyone is interested, I wanted to update on our cloth diaper experience. I LOVE cloth diapering! It took about a month for me to really enjoy it, and not think of it as an annoying sacrifice I was making for the environment. Part of the switch involved getting better covers (I'm currently using Thirsties Duos - I wish I had never gotten the Proraps, they really sucked for me!) that leak less and are easier to use - and cuter! I really love our service, too - L is a little fussbudget who requires TONS of attention, and laundering his diapers would be beyond my time and energy, so the service is great.

I've put him in disposables a few times - when all the diaper covers are dirty (I have four, but really need to get more since they do get messy and/or wet quite often), and one week when I ran out of diapers early. I quickly realized that they are SO awful! They always leak for me, and they smell terrible. I was amazed to learn that cloth doesn't smell at all (which can actually be kind of a problem sometimes, since I don't always know when he's pooped!). I had him in a disposable today because all the covers were on the drying rack, and at my breastfeeding moms support group I realized he smelled poopy - I was SO embarrassed, before I realized that it's totally normal for most people! I'm just so used to him not smelling at all.

He also gets rashy now when I put him in disposables - poor baby, he's so used to cloth, his little tush can't handle the chemicals! :)

So in short, I am SO happy with cloth diapering! Tomorrow is our new diaper day and will be our first delivery of the regular-sized prefolds, so we'll see how that goes. I tried a few out this week and they were huge on him, but the newborn size is just getting way too small. Hopefully the bigger size will stop the leaks.
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[MtyAphrdti]

I just started a diaper service myself this past week and so far so good. I have four Bummi's covers and would like to branch out with those. Any rec's for covers?

[racheli]

I highly recommend Thirsties Duo covers! They have this great leg gusset that keeps in EVERYTHING - the only time he leaks out of the cover is if we haven't tucked in the prefold well enough (which is getting harder because he's basically grown out of the size 1s we have - I need to order the size 2s ASAP) or if he has a major blowout and the poop goes up the back (probably no cover can avoid this!).

The leg gussets do get grungy when the prefolds leak, but I found that if I wash the covers and leave them in the bright sun to dry, they get SPARKLING white! I haven't done it in a while because I've been lazy, but it really does work.

I've also heard great things about the Mother-Ease Air Flow covers. I'm on a local cloth diapering listserv and this one mother swears by Mother-Ease one-size diapers and the Air Flow covers - she says she's never once had a leak.
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