Some of My Coth Diapering Advice

I've been cloth diapering for almost 4 years, and I'm currently CDing two kids (although my oldest is in pre-K now, and they don't do cloth, so he wears disposables there). We've saved thousands of dollars over the years by using cloth. I'm a big fan. I've also used disposables, and while there are some pros, I still prefer cloth overall.

For my youngest, I use bumGenius 3.0 one size and occasionally, unbleached prefolds with a Thirsties cover. You can Google any of those to see more information on them. I'm a big fan of the bumGenius 3.0s. The Thirsties have worked really well for us, too.

When he was a newborn, we used bleached prefolds with Dappi covers. I got them in the "Just the Basics" at Cotton Babies. Unfortunately, it's not longer available as a kit, but the individual items are. The kit came with 12 prefolds, 4 Dappies, 2 Snappies to fasten the prefolds, and 1 bumGenius 3.0 to use at nighttime. The covers work surprisingly well for the price, and the kit is enough to cloth diaper a baby for about a day, maybe longer if they're older. For the price, it was a really good kit, in my opinion. It's a really good way to start out if you're on a really tight budget.

Now, they're started the Econobum and Flip kits, which I've never used, so I don't know anything about them. I think that's why they phased out the "Just the Basics" kit.

For my oldest, I use unbleached prefolds with Thirsties covers. I've used other diapers on him in the past, but he grew out of them, and these are the best fit for him now that he's bigger.

This is my laundering routine:

* Spray off solids in toilet.
* Throw diaper in dry pail (I use a step operated lidded trash can).
* When pail is full, toss diapers in the washing machine (I have a high efficiency, front loading machine).
* Run a cold wash/cold rinse with baking soda in the wash and vinegar with a few drops of tea tree oil in the rinse.
* Run a hot wash/cold rinse with an extra rinse and a *tiny* bit of detergent (I use less than a teaspoon, probably) and baking soda in the wash cycle, and vinegar and a couple drops of tea tree oil in the rinse cycle.
* Line dry the pocket diapers and covers, and tumble dry the inserts and prefolds. You can line dry those, too, but we have a pretty humid climate, so to prevent mildew, I like to tumble dry them for at least a little bit to dry them faster.

Here's some of my other cloth diapering tips:

1. Get a few different kinds of diapers and try them all out so you can decide what kind works best for you. Check out this site. They have a trial package that you can try for 21 days for a deposit, and if you send them back, they give you your deposit back, minus $10. Trial and error is a big part of cloth diapering. You might find that what you initially wanted doesn't work as well as you thought once you try it, and you might really like a kind of diaper that you didn't think you would. It never hurts to try several kinds, and with this package, you don't have much to lose.

2. Get a diaper sprayer. It will make cleaning up poop so much easier for you, especially if you don't use liners (more on those in #5). All you do is plop the poop in the toilet, and spray off the residue - no dunking in the toilet.

3. Baking soda, vinegar, and tea tree oil are your friends when you're cloth diapering. I use baking soda in the wash, and I use vinegar with a few drops of tea tree oil in the rinse. They keep my diapers stain and odor free. I also use tea tree oil in the pail to keep it from smelling.

4. You only need a very tiny bit of detergent. I use Charlie's Soap. I use maybe a teaspoon, if that much. Using too much detergent will cause build up in your diapers, and they'll start to repel urine and leak. You can ruin your diapers this way. Trust me, you don't need very much detergent *at all*. This chart is very helpful in finding a good detergent for your cloth diapers.

5. You can buy biodegradable, flushable diaper liners to make poop clean ups even easier. I, personally, don't use liners, but if you want to cut costs while saving yourself a little mess, you can try these.

Also, check out these sites for more information and answer to your questions. Good luck!

Cotton Babies - I bought all my diapers here.

The truth about cloth diapers - fact Vs fiction

If you're on a budget, you can look into second hand or handmade cloth diapers at Diaperswappers, Ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, Freecycle, or Hyenacart.

More to come later!

Good luck!