Cloth diaper update

Wow!  Sorry guys.  It's been forever!  The holidays were so crazy for me.  We had family visiting, I was doing my first Christmas for two kids, and my husband had a pretty serious knee surgery.  Something had to give, so it was my blog.  But I'm back now!

A lot of people have asked me how cloth diapering is going, so I thought I'd give you a little update.  

Gavin in his cloth diaper around 3 months old

Cloth diapering is going pretty good.  I'm still sticking with it.  The Kawaii brand I got, which is a one size pocket diaper, seem to be holding up well and getting the job done.  I use a flushable diaper liner to help with the poop.  If he just pees, I throw the liner in the wash with the diapers and they come out just fine and I can reuse them.  If he poops, I just flush them.  That way I don't have to worry about dunking, scraping, or spraying.  It took me a while to figure out the best situation for what to do with used diapers.  At first I used at wet/dry bag like this one:

But that didn't really work for me.  With the zipper there I really had to use two hands to zip and unzip it.  Leaving no hands to hold the diaper.  And it would move all around.  I felt like I was constantly wrestling it.  I needed a no hand system.  So, I used a kitchen size trash can with a lid that opens when you step on it.  Now I can just step on the trash can and still have my hands to deal with the diaper.  Ours has a can that comes out, so when it's time to do laundry, I just take the whole inside of the trash can out, take that to the laundry and dump it in.  I don't even have to touch the old diapers. 

As far as the laundry goes, this was the thing that I was the most leery about.  So far, they have always come out looking and smelling clean.  I do a pre-wash cycle, the wash cycle, and an extra rinse and spin.  Then I just put them dryer.  I don't hang or air dry anything.  It's honestly the easiest laundry I do.  No sorting or folding.  When they come out of the dryer, I just dump it all in the top drawer of his dresser.  Sometimes, if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll pre-stuff them.  (And by sometimes, I mean one time.  One time I pre-stuffed them)

Changing him takes maybe 10-20 seconds longer than disposables.  That's just because I don't pre-stuff them (except for that one time).  Actually changing him takes virtually no extra time. 

As far as diaper rashes, I haven't seen much of a difference in disposables versus cloth.  Neither of my boys have been very prone to diaper rashes, so that's kind of a non-factor here.  The few times Gavin has been a little red though, I slather him in strong diaper cream and put him in a disposable diaper (since you can't use diaper cream on a cloth diaper) and the rash is usually cleared up by morning.  

I still think they are adorable on him, but they are a bit bulky so I sometimes have to put him in a size up to accommodate that.  

Some of the down falls of cloth diapering that I've found are that they aren't as absorbent as disposables.  I have to change him a little more often than disposables, or he will leak.   I've actually been using disposables just at night, so he doesn't leak in the middle of the night and wake up.  Anything to keep that baby asleep at night, right?  Gavin has definitely worn his fair share of disposables.  When we travel, I use disposables.  At night I use disposables.  And when my mom was here and she didn't want to deal with cloth, so she ran out and got disposables.  Not everyone likes cloth, so that can be a problem too, when other people are changing them.  

All in all, I think that the reward is worth the few small hassles of cloth diapering.  If I had all the money in the world, I would use a one size, all-in-one diaper.  That would mean there would be no stuffing, and would make the process that much easier.  But those things are expensive, and I probably wouldn't end up saving that much money in the long run versus disposables. 

If you have any questions about cloth diapering, let me know!