Update on Cloth Diapers

Cloth diapering has been great!!  We've hit a few bump along the way, but overall I've loved it!

 

These are half of Michael's diapers

 

After some experimenting we ended up getting the bumgenius 4.0 diapers.  They have inserts that you stuff inside the diaper.  Meaning when he poops and pees it gets on the diaper, but the poop stays on the diaper.  The pee is soaked up by the insert.  They have worked great for us!  The inserts are microfiber so they are super absorbent.  I've heard that they start to stink after a while, but they are so cheap I don't mind buying a pack of inserts every 6 months.

We still use the first diapers, the gDiapers, we got him, but with the bumgenius inserts.  The inserts that came with the gDiapers leaked like crazy!  The gDiapers are great for when he pees because the insert is right on his bum.  If he pees we can just pull the insert out and put a new insert in.  But if he poops we have to clean the insert and the snap in cover.  So I like to use these later in the day when I think he is done pooping. 

I think people are disgusted about how to clean these, so I will tell you how I do it.  Like I said before the inserts in the bumgenius diapers only get pee on them.  So I just pull these out and throw them in our wastebasket/diaper pail.  If he's only peed I throw the diaper in the pail and call it good. 

If he poops I make sure to take the diaper to the bathroom right away.  I bought a little kitchen scrubbing brush (the $2 plastic ones at Ikea) and it sits in a very diluted solution of bleach in the bathroom.  I grab the top end by the snaps, and the bottom end where it's stretchy and turn it inside out.  I then scrub until the poop is off.  Sometimes I flush halfway through if the diaper was really loaded.  I then hold it over the toilet and let it drip a little.  I bought some of the bumGenius diaper spray and I use that on poopy diapers.  I throw this in the pail with the rest.

After we put Michael to sleep I start a load of laundry.  I use a hot water cycle with an extra rinse.  I put a tiny bit of Tide in and call it good.  When they are done I hang dry both the diapers and inserts. 

It really doesn't take that much time out of my day.  In the morning I grab all of his diapers and stuff them while we play in his room.

Why I won't go back to disposables...

We don't have the biggest stash of cloth diapers.  When I see a coupon for buybuyBaby I go get another one.  Every once in a while Michael ends up in a disposable.  This usually happens at night, or when he has pooped for the 3rd time that day and I sense there is more to come.  The last 2 times I have put Michael in a disposable he has gotten chemical burns on his bum.  Yup, not just a diaper rash, but actual burns!  He bleeds a little and I can see skin peeling off.  I've read that cloth diapers can do that after a while if they aren't washed enough (from the ammonia build-up).  The first time it happened I didn't want to blame either method right away.  But after the second time I knew it was from disposables.  He is still recovering from the last burn. 

I don't know how his bum chemistry changed that much in the last month of us using cloth diapers, but it has!  When I started researching this I found quite a few moms who said their newborns had chemical burns all over them and they couldn't figure it out until they switched to cloth diapers.  I've heard the same about babies with eczema. 

Now I'll be realistic, we will have to use disposables every now and then.  In fact, you can't use bum creams with cloth diapers, so after we discover a chemical burn we put him in a disposable and change him every hour, applying a TON of butt cream.  After a few hours we give him a bath and switch him back to cloth diapers. 

We will also use disposables when someone is watching him.  I don't think many people are comfortable changing a cloth diaper.  Josh and I still try not to do it in public if we can avoid it.  We usually throw the diaper in a bag and deal with it later, but how many people are willing to stuff a poopy diaper in a bag and hand it to you to take home?  So we will just have to load up on the butt cream when we hand him over to anyone, which isn't very often.  We actually enjoy taking Michael on date nights with us now, now that he can eat bread and french fries he is great at any restaurant. 

Sorry if this post just seems to never end!  Anyways, if you've ever had the desire to cloth diaper, do it!  It isn't hard and doesn't take that much time out of your day.  I found out most of my information by looking at a few blogs of cloth diapering moms.  Two of which have twins.  It really isn't that crazy!