Diapering

With three children under the age of 2, diapers are a hot topic in our household. We started using cloth diapers with Sofia when she was about 8 weeks old. We mainly use pocket diapers with her and some hybrids (snap in insert). We have been extremely happy with how well cloth diapers have worked for us. We chose to use them for many reasons; we like the cost savings, they are environmentally friendly, and they have been much easier on Sofia's bottom than disposable diapers. Plus, they look really cute! While we were in limbo for two weeks this summer (between Baraboo, Waukesha and Port Washington) we used disposables and Sofia developed the worst diaper rash she has ever had. I couldn't wait to get her back into cloth. Once we did her rash cleared up within days. I don't think disposable diapers are evil or anything like that, what people choose to diaper their baby with is completely their choice. We have definitely used disposables when we're traveling and with our boys when they were first born.

Diapers that only contain urine are easy, I just throw them into a step on style bin with a liner inside. When Sofia was younger and exclusively breastfed her diapers that had poop were easy, they could also just be thrown in because EBF baby poop is water soluble. Once she started eating solids we use a diaper sprayer that is attached to our toilet and we rinse the diaper in the toilet before putting it in the bin. Pocket diapers do require a bit of preparation. I was the diapers every three days or so. My system is to take my wet bag and dump all contents into the wash machine and run a cold rinse cycle. After that I run a hot wash cycle using Rockin' Green detergent. If it was a really potent load I may run an additional rinse. After that I hang the cover part of the diaper and dry the inserts in the dryer, diapers hold up better if the actual diaper part isn't run through the dryer. When the weather is nice I hang everything outside to dry. The sun bleaches the diapers and I don't have to use energy to run the dryer. We use a wide variety of brands because when I built my stash I wanted to try a few different kinds to see what worked best and I only bought diapers that were on sale. We have Bum Genius, Tweedlebugs, Swaddlebees and Fuzzibuns.

When Tim and I found out about our boys we knew we wanted to use cloth diapers but we didn't want to invest a lot of money into more pocket diapers, they range in cost from $10-30 depending on brand and style. We have enough diapers for two babies to use for about 2-3 days without doing laundry. We talked to a good friend of ours who also happens to work at a natural parenting store and she recommended prefolds. Prefolds are a fraction of the cost of any other diaper. For some reason prefolds always sounded scary to me, I was worried about leaking issues and being able to "pin" the diaper correctly. There are actually no pins used with prefolds, rather a neat little device called a "snappi" that holds everything in place without any risk of poking yourself or your baby.

However, we chose to use a type of prefold that doesn't even require a snappi. We are currently using Imagine prefolds with Thirsty covers. We also use Best Bottom diapers which are a snap in style. For the first two months Tim and I only used prefolds and cloth diapers a few times with the boys, we were really just trying to keep up with the boys feeding schedule and spending time with each child. Now that the boys are eating less frequently and we have a better system we are using cloth diapers more with the boys. Some days when we are really on the go I tend to use disposables.

I don't know why I was ever afraid of prefolds, they are so easy to use and actually require less preparation than a pocket diaper. Imagine prefolds are great because you just fold the diaper into the cover and you're all set. My only complaint with prefolds is that I think the boys need to be changed more frequently because they feel the wetness of their diaper. Pocket diapers have a fleece lining between the skin and the insert of the diaper. If you are at all curious about cloth diapering I encourage you to give it a shot. Most diaper places will offer a trial period so you can see if it works for you.