My two cents about cloth diapering

This post is a repost of one I had written a while ago on a different family blog.  Since I've decided to blog here exclusively I want to go ahead and make sure this info is intact so I can continue to pass it on when my friends and family have questions about cloth diapering.  

In the last few months I've been asked by a handful of mama's and mama's-to-be my thoughts on cloth diapering and for general information.  After typing it all out the last time I thought I'd make it into a proper blog post so I could send it over the next time someone asked me or in case someone researching cloth diapering stumbled here during their online adventures.  What follows is a bit of Cloth Diapering 101 mixed with a lot of my/our experiences and opinions.  Cloth diapering is not only a great way to help the environment but it can also save a lot of money over the life of your child/children. Once upon a time cloth diapering may have been taboo and time consuming, luckily both of those have gone by the wayside as more parents chose to live more simply.

A peek at D's nursery.  Click here to see it featured on Apartment Therapy's website or here to see more details on the Creative Event Studio's blog.



There are a couple of different types of cloth diapers:

• Prefolds/Covers: These are more or less what you probably think of when you think of cloth diapers. These have a cotten piece of cloth that is secured with a snappy (moms used to use safety pins). A plastic covering is used over the cotton prefold to prevent wetness from leaking through. We tried this method with D at first but found it cumbersome and not effective. 
• Pocket diapers: These diapers are essentially a 'pillowcase' with a plastic cover on the outside and (generally) fleece on the inside. Inserts are stuffed into the inside of the pocket. The fleece whisks moisture away from the baby. The benefit to using the insert system is that you can take wet inserts out and put dry inserts in and reuse the diaper for multiple changes. Inserts are generally made of microfiber, hemp, or bamboo. We use pocket diapers for D and found them to be very effective. When he was younger and didn't wet as much we could use 1 pocket diaper through 2 or sometimes 3 changes because the fleece wasn't wet to the touch. Now that he is older we change the entire diaper each time. At 18months we use about 4-5 diapers per day.
• All in one diapers: These diapers are very similar to the pocket diapers but instead of having a fleece liner and inserts the inserts are sewn directly to the cover. We chose not to use this method because there was no barrier to whisk away moisture and you had to change the entire diaper every time.  We also thought that they were a bit on the bulky side. 

There are 2 types of cloth diaper closures: velcro and snap. When D was little and we first began using cloth diapers we LOVED the velcro. (We own BumGenius & Imagine velcro diapers.)  However over time (9months-1year) D figured out how to unfasten the velcro and we'd see a streaker running around the house! Outside of that I've come to really HATE the BumGenius velcro diapers because they don't last. The velcro strips have started to peel up so they don't stick anymore (we have had to begin using the snappy to keep them closed). These were the biggest waste of money ever, luckily the bulk of those were given to us as gifts. Anymore we only use these if it an emergency. The velcro on the Imagine diapers is still going strong and we have no problems with them.  Though I will say that both brands of velcro diapers have snagged my other diaper covers in the wash.  It doesn't matter how well you fasten those velcro tabs they always come loose!  We primarily use our snap closure diapers because they stay closed, little mister can't get them open, and they provide the best fit (I'll get into this later). I've not had any of my snaps pop off and the diapers are in great shape.

You'll probably have noticed that there are tons of different brands of diapers on the market. Some of the most well known are the BumGenius and FuzziBunz. I never tried FuzziBunz so I can't give an opinion on that product. When we first started out with cloth diapers we chose to go with the BumGenius because it had such great reviews and was recommended to us by the store we were at. We later added Imagine diapers and Sunbaby Diapers to our stash. A friend of mine just got some Fuzzibunz and they look pretty straightforward with a slim cut.

My honest opinion is that the BumGenius diapers are a total waste of money. The velcro on my diapers are basically shot and the elastic hasn't kept it's elasticity well. Additionally I find that because they don't have an adjustable thigh snap or elastic that they leak because there is no way to close the 'gap' on the inner thigh. I also thing that they are extremely bulky. If you have a slim baby (like ours) then they aren't the best fit. Overall I do not recommend these diapers to anyone wanting to get into cloth.

Just a few shots to show the velcro.  If you look close you can also see how pilled up parts of the cover have become from the snagging.

After we got into cloth and figured out we needed more we picked up two Imagine diapers. They were cheap so we thought we'd try them out. I like them better than BumGenius but the outside of the covers have gotten very snagged by velcro latches in the wash and they feel the cheapest out of all my diapers. With that being said they provide a good fit and the velcro has lasted extremely well.

On a recommendation from a friend I ordered a set of Sunbaby Diapers.  I LOVE THEM! They are a company based out of China and they offer tons of patterns (you can't always find diapers with a pattern), colors, and they are cheap. Seriously, they are so cheap. All of the diapers are a snap closure with an adustable snap for the leg and come with a slimmer design so your baby doesn't have a huge butt (they do offer 2 sizes). We like these diapers so much we've ordered 2 different sets for ourselves and another set for a friend. We have both the microfiber and bamboo inserts. I like the bamboo but prefer the microfiber. They have held up excellent with no issues and I rarely have leaks. This diaper is an A+ in our book for both quality and price.

 

Different brands and types of pocket diaper inserts.  From left to right:  Size XL hemp insert, Sunbaby Diapers bamboo insert, small BumGenius insert, large BumGenius insert, Sunbaby microfiber insert

The main thing I was worried about before getting started with cloth diapers was how to wash them. In all honestly there is nothing to it. I have about 18 (?) diapers and end up doing diaper laundry about 1-2 times a week. I use Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda and dryer balls. Other people I know use Rockin' Green and Charlies. If you have hard water don't use Charlies. I found this link (click here)  while I was researching soap before Davis was born and I thought it was so helpful I've passed it on to all my cloth diapering friends. You also can't use dryer sheets or stain remover on the diapers because it will affect their absorption. So pick up a pack of dryer balls for the dryer, we have dryer balls from Nellie's too but any will work.

 Part of our diaper stash, patterns on the left are Sunbaby Diapers, solid colors on the right are Imagine diapers, and the black and white in the top right is a BumGenius (the rest are in the wash!)

After posting this originally I had a few questions about how to wash the diapers:

• Can you wash pocket diapers with the inserts in them?  Yes you can.  We generally don't but I know a lot of people who do.  We don't do this because although the washing machine will pull out most of the inserts out of the diapers about 1/3 of the inserts don't come out in the wash.  In my experience they just ball up in a corner.  It makes me feel like they aren't getting as clean.  Plus if you forget to pull the inserts out of the diaper before putting them in the dryer they won't get dry and you'll have to stick them back in the dryer after the rest of your diapers are done.  
• How do you was your diapers?  We do one wash in cold water followed by a wash in hot.  We use detergent with both cycles.  A lot of people do just one so it's just personal preference but I feel like they get cleaner.
• What do you do about stains?   We haven't had a lot of problems with staining on our diapers.  (Not for lack of trying on our son's part!)  I think the biggest reason is because we use a diaper sprayer so the 'dirty' doesn't sit in the diaper very long at all.  Plus by spraying it out it is like giving your diaper a pre-wash.  You can't use traditional stain fighters on your diapers and you really can't use bleach.  The best way to get rid of stains is to dry your diapers in the sun.  You can do this by line drying them or by laying them in front of a window.  I

Lastly there are a few things you'll need before you get started:

• 2-3 wetbags. We keep 1 large wetbag (with a strap to hang it on the changing table) in D's room, then we keep a smaller wetbag in the bathroom with the diaper sprayer. We also have a very small wetbag that we keep in our diaper bag for the on the road changes. Some people just use a trash can for their diapers.  (I've recieved numerous questions about if the diapers smell, if the room smells, etc.  No matter if you use disposable or cloth diapers they are going to smell.  When the wet bag is zipped up there is no smell at all.)  Planet Wise carries tons of wet bags but I like a lot of the ones I see on Etsy too.
• Diaper Sprayer: The baby is going to poop and you don't want to put poopy diapers in your wetbag with the other ones. What you do is spray out (or just flip it) into the toilet. We keep a 2nd wetbag next to our toilet for the dirty diapers. 
• Most people recommend to have 24 diapers for a full stash if you're planning on doing CD's full time.  We have about 18 and I do diapers about every 3-4 days.  
• If you're wondering how much it will cost to invest in your diaper stash you can expect to spend anywhere from $250-$500 on average.  If you were to buy a full stash of 24 Sunbaby Diapers with 48 inserts, a diaper sprayer, and one or 2 wetbags you'd be looking at about $250.  If you go with another brand of diapers it could be more or less.  

 Our changing table with wetbag.  Diaper pail is on the right behind the wetbag.

I hope this information is helpful to someone out there.  If you have any questions feel free to leave it in the comments!

All opinions are my own and I am not being paid or endorsed by any company for these reviews.

Converting Cloth Diapers from Velcro to Snaps

This post is a repost of one I had written a while ago on a different family blog.  Since I've decided to blog here exclusively I want to go ahead and make sure this info is intact so I can continue to pass it on when my friends and family have questions about cloth diapering.  This post is a follow up to my Cloth Diapering 101.

When I originally posted about our cloth diapering adventures I mentioned how much I disliked our BumGenius diapers.  By far they are my least favorite of the brands we own.  This is mainly because of the velcro closure.  The velcro lasted about 9-12 months before it just wouldn't hold.  Not to mention that Davis had figured out how to pull it apart.  We had resorted to using these at nighttime with a snappy.  Though to be honest I really even hated using them them, they had become to cumbersome and annoying to me. 

See how the velcro won't stay down?  ANNOYING!

Finally I had had enough of these diapers and was nearly to the point of just throwing them out.  But the more I thought about it the more I thought that I might be able to salvage them somehow.  Originally I had decided to replace the velcro tabs.  But as I was reading online I found a whole slew of mothers replacing their velcro for snap closures.  That was an idea I could get on board with.  I'm not going to give a full tutorial on how to do it on this blog (for the full set of directions click this link) since there are tons of other blogs with better directions.  I will show some pictures and give my thoughts on the process though!

 My supplies:  scissors and a small paring knife for taking off the velcro, a pen for marking where I wanted the snaps, an awl (with the green handle), snap pliers, and snaps.  The snap pliers, awl, and snaps are all Babyville Boutique brand from Hobby Lobby.  Using 2 40% off coupons I was able to buy all supplies for about $20.

 My de-velcro'd diaper...

My make-shift guide and marked diaper...

And 2 of the 4 completed diapers.  I ended up doing 2 different snap patterns.  Originally I started by doing a line of closure at the top and then a hip snap too.  I switched over to two full lines because it was SO MUCH EASIER.  Honestly I haven't noticed much difference in useability now that they are done.

And my thoughts on this project?  I am really, really glad to have re-purposed these diapers so that we can begin using them again.  BUT for the money I spent ($20 plus gas to the store), time (about 4 hours total), and the physical pain of doing it (maybe I'm a wuss but a week later my left hand it still really hurting from this project) it is SO not worth doing yourself.  These gals on Etsy will do it for about $4 per diaper...which would have been cheaper financially and I wouldn't have had to go through the hassle of doing it myself.  So if you're thinking of taking on this project - JUST HIRE IT OUT!!!!  

Creatively stumped

Lately I have been feeling the need to be creative.  And I have been, kind of.  I've certainly made a lot of stuff but I have been feeling the need to PUSH into something new.  I don't know if I need to dig into a medium already am familiar with or begin something new.  I basically just feel like I want to do something...I just don't know what.  I have a million excuses.  Time, kids, space, and honestly those all are valid reasons, but they are still excuses.  One thing I know for sure, I need to let go a lot more and not worry so much about things being perfect.  I know that God gave me the gift of creativity for a reason and I need to be more free with accepting the things that I see as imperfect because that is a disservice to the gift I've been given.  I may not paint like like a master but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't paint with what the Master has given me.  I may not have the most original ideas or execute everything flawlessly but that doesn't mean I shouldn't enjoy the things I do create and and the ideas I do have.

So that's where I am right now.  I never have dug back into this blog (or the other one) but that's ok.  Maybe this space is just a nook for me to come to and spew thoughts as a I need them without everyone else's voice to talk me out of things.

Now I think I am going to take advantage of nap time and go DO SOMETHING.

Changes hopefully coming soon...but don't hold me too it.

Friends and non-readers, I am excited to announce that I have decided on a new blog name.  After years of keeping this space alive online, even though it's been severely neglected, I've decided to attempt to revive this little space.  I've went back and forth so many times about what to do about this blog.  I really love blogging and having a space that is completely and totally my own, not shared by a single soul, a place I can write about anything that I want.  When I originally started this blog I had a pretty narrow idea of what I wanted it to be about.  As my life changed and evolved I struggled to maintain the narrow concept I had created.  Then as my life expanded (hello 2 little boys and owning my own business) I felt I had no time to devote to such a frivolous activity when my time was already stretched.  Over the past year I have felt a yearning (that sounds kind of dramatic but I can't find a better way to describe it) to come back to the blog world.  I still blog over at CES for work, but again that is a narrowed topic (one I love, but still something that doesn't encompass many of the things I enjoy).  After thinking it over for many, many months I've decided that my new blog name is going to be 'Me & My Misters'.  I was going to make it something slightly more generic but truthfully this title pretty much sums up my life right now.  Though I doubt I will ever be a true 'mommy blogger' and I don't desire this to be a pure family blog I can't imagine my life without my husband and boys, so this is my new blog title.  I haven't done a single thing to make this blog pretty, in fact I've made it much uglier by stripping the old, glitch filled, template down and stripping it back to a blogger-basic theme for the time being.  Oh well, no one's reading this anyway!  LOL

I'm excited by the possibilites that this gives me.  And the freedom!  I am so excited to revive this space and make it a journal of sorts of things that I like, things I'm doing, things I'd like to do, and just general wanderings.  If you've stumbled here - GREAT!  Please bookmark this page to revisit me, but honestly if it's just me I'm ok with that for now.  Most days I feel like I barely have space to stop and think for myself for a second so the IDEA that I have something just my own is thrilling  :)

Wish me luck, I'll see you back here soon.

What's your house's name?

Got in late last night and found Better Homes and Gardens had arrived while I was gone.  One of the style makers suggest that you name your house.  They say that this way when you invite people over instead of saying 'arrive at 7pm to 101 Main Street' it's much cooler to say 'arrive at 7 to the Greensbourgh'.  I don't hate the idea of it, after all I do think that house's have stories and personalities, but I'm not sure I'm pretentious enough to have people call my house by a name.  Maybe I am though, I'll have to think about it.