Cloth Diapers

Today marks day one of using cloth diapers on the babes. It's something I've been meaning to do for a little while now. When Amelia was small I used them for her for a while, mostly out of necessity because living off one income with a baby can be challenging! This time around I still want to use them for the sake of saving some money but also I'm sick of lugging heavy, stinky bags of diapers out to the curb.

Starting the process was a little intimidating to me the first time around so I did a lot of reading up on the subject and found a couple websites I found helpful. I particularly liked Cotton Babies because of the variety of topics covered and I found it easy to browse.

In order for it to be cost saving I didn't go the route of beautiful all-in-one diapers like you will find in abundance on every website mentioning cloth diapers. Instead I diapered like our mothers would , using Gerber pre-folds and water proof pants.

The initial investment wasn't too great, although you can spend anywhere from the little I did to a small fortune, depending on how fancy you get! I lucked out when I bought the cloth diapers I have because Wal-Mart had them marked half price due to the fact they were no longer keeping them in stock in stores. I think I paid around $6 for a pack of 6. I started with 2 packs and I had a few others I had received as burp cloths for shower gifts giving me 16, enough for roughly two days of diapering. (This is assuming we didn't 'waste' any trying to change a diaper too soon!) I would do two days with cloth then one day disposable while I washed the diapers. I couldn't find any of the diaper covers in stores at all so I turned to Amazon to find those. Unless you have a particularly bad diaper you do not need to put a new one on with each diaper change. I bought 6 for about $8. These are sized and you will have to purchase more as time goes on but for the initial investment I would suggest starting with their current size and making sure you're willing to stick with it before investing in more. After much searching I finally found diaper pins at Wal-Mart for a dollar a set. They were almost always out of stock so when I saw them I got all four packs they had left (which will come in handy now that I have two babies but wasn't necessary for just one.) I think I only used one set the entire time I diapered but I would suggest having a back up incase one gets lost.

If you're going to do cloth diapers then you will need cloth wipes! You can use disposable wipes if you'd like but since they won't be tucked neatly into a diaper and disposed of they can be messy. I found it much easier to use cloth and toss them into a pail with the diapers to be washed. You can buy cloth wipes, however it's more cost effective to make you own with what you have. For me it was a large flannel receiving blanket cut into squares but an old white tee (or two) of your husbands would be sufficient as well! I cut it down into roughly 6" x6" squares and threw them into the wash to get rid of any strings that came loose and stacked them next to the diapers. Since the blanket was one I got for a shower gift it was free! (I picked one that had already been stained so it wasn't too sad cutting it up.) I chose to do dry cloths so I picked up a $1 spray bottle and made my wipe solution with things from the medicine cabinet. I used two parts water, one part witch hazel, and one part baby oil. There are a million ways you can make this and you can read more about that here.

The last thing I invested in was a bucket to toss the dirties into. I bought a five gallon paint bucket with a lid that cost about $4. Again, this is a matter of preference, you can do a trash can, bucket, diaper pail,  add liners or bags. , whatever you find works for you! I liked the bucket because the lid seals very tight so there are no smells coming from it between washes and it's easy to sanitize.

The grand total from the initial investment was about $30, not too bad!

We will be investing in a few more diapers this time around because doing a load of laundry every other day on top of the multitude we already have isn't practical. We have a few pairs of training pants for big sister to try out but until she's more interested she'll be wearing the diapers as well (much easier to clean up messes than pulling down panties) so I think we'll be cutting down some more out of service receiving blankets to use as inserts for a little more absorption. If you plan on using cloth diapers over night you will need to add extra inserts to keep tiny hineys and the sheets dry while they sleep!

Look at these fancy pants! I love little diaper butts!

Cleaning the diapers is simple. I wash the liners by hand (they are easy to clean and hold up better doing this) using detergent and warm water and make sure they are rinsed well. You can lay them out or hang them to dry. For the diapers (and wipes) there are three steps. First wash them on a regular cycle with detergent and cold water. This will get rid of any yucks in the diapers. Follow this with a regular wash cycle with hot water to sterilize and get rid of any odors. Finally, run an extra rinse cycle to make sure there is no detergent left. Throw them in the dryer or hang them on a clothes line and you're ready to go! (Hanging them in the sun on a clothes line is good for breaking down stubborn stains.) Since your load size will most likely be small, it won't take too much time to run this process.