Cloth Diapers Again

 When Matthew was born and the dirty diapers began piling up in the trash, I started thinking again about cloth diapering. With David I did it a little bit. I mostly had some prefolds and some kind of fitted diapers with those rubber pant covers. I really liked the idea at the time but in practice I didn't care for it. I hated using diaper pins, the rubber pants weren't too great, he grew out of the few fitted diapers so quickly, and besides what was I supposed to do with the dirty ones between washes? Well this time I got online and did some researched. Lots of it. I discovered that there were more styles of new easier to use diapers than I could keep straight, a wonderful thing called a wetbag for storing those dirty diapers in, and that to get stared looked like it was going to cost a fortune. So not having much money to spend, plus having a sensible husband who advised me not to go overboard before I knew for sure what I wanted I went with a cheap diaper from China that I found on Ebay. The brand is BabyCity. They are pocket diapers with a waterproof PUL fabric on the outside and the inside is microfiber. They get stuffed with an absorbent insert. Did I mention they were cheap? About $3- $4.50 each. I bought enough to last a couple days(about twelve) and splurged on a nice large wetbag from Planetwise ($20)with a cute owl pattern on it.

I was super excited when they arrived. They looked really nice and are so simple to use. They snap on easily and are a similar shape to disposables. They are also a one size diaper with snaps for adjusting the size, I knew I wanted a one size diaper to avoid the growing out of them issue I'd had last time and so that I wouldn't have to have a set of diapers for each size. I also loved the wetbag. It is big and waterproof. I just pull the insert out of the diapers and toss the whole thing in dry and zip it closed. I have read that when baby starts eating solids the poopy ones need to be rinsed but we are not quite there yet,  probably soon though. The wetbag seems to contain the smells pretty well. When I wash the diapers I just dump all the diapers in the washer and throw the bag in as well. I knew that with such a simple system I could do cloth diapering and enjoy it. The good thing is that we figured out how much money we saved on disposables and after about two months they were all paid for out of the diaper budget. Around the same time though I had a few of my diapers delaminate, that is when the waterproof coating on the outer fabric comes off and they begin to leak. I then came up with a new scheme: keep using these but every month spend the diaper budget money that we were saving by not buying disposables to buy better quality cloth diapers and try out some different styles.

So far I have tried two brands. The first one was a lovely chocolate brown FuzziBunz. It was a pocket diaper so I was comfortable and familiar with it since it was similar to the Baby City ones. The first thing I noticed was how much thicker the outer PUL was. It felt so much sturdier! The inside was also much softer and it came with to inserts. I also really like the elastic size adjustments rather than the snaps. The fit on Matthew is really good. I  have been using it for about a month and love it! So far it has had no leaking issues except when I left it on him for way too long. I will probably be buying a few more of these. I spent about $17 on the FuzziBunz diaper

The second brand I tried is a Flip diaper.  The Flip is a bit different than the other style. It is a one size PUL cover with snap closures. It works well with prefold diapers. I shied away from this idea at first when I saw the word prefold. It brought back not so pleasant memories. As I read more about these I began to get more convinced. I liked the fact that I still had my prefolds and that I could use the cover multiple times before washing. If only wet, simply wipe it out, lay another prefold inside and re-snap. I wouldn't need nearly as many of these as other styles, therefore saving money. I purchased a light blue one without an insert (I believe they come with an insert sometimes, but I was planning to use my prefolds). It fits Matthew well and is easy to use. So far I have had no leaks. I really, really like it! I am tempted to switch to this style only, although I don't think I will completely. I got my Flip diaper cover for about $13.

Now just a quick note about nighttime. At first I was quite nervous to try cloth diapers at night because he sleeps in our bed and I really didn't like the idea of washing all the sheets daily and I also didn't want to change him in the night. Again I did some reading and decided to try it out. What I have been doing is adding an extra bamboo insert to a pocket diaper then putting a wool cover over the top. I made the wool covers form old sweaters using this pattern.  It works amazingly well! He can go 12 hours without a change. I have fewer leaks than with disposables. The only problem that I am having is that they are getting too small and hard to get on over his chubby legs. I am going to try to make a one size wool cover with snap or velcro closures.

I have been loving cloth diapering this time around. At this point Matthew always wears cloth at home; day and night, and sometimes but not very often when we go out. I am planning to transition into using cloth even when we are out once I get a few more better diapers. I enjoy the challenge of working out the problems in my system and I love trying new diapers. I don't even mind washing and folding them. Besides Matthew looks so cute in cloth diapers. Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Diaper Dryin' On The Line

A Red Wool Cover

Another Wool Cover

The FuzziBunz Diaper

So Cute And Chubby

And The Flip Diaper

Side View Of The Flip