The Long Awaited Cloth Diaper Post

I've been telling you all I'd do a post about how we came to do cloth diapers in our house and what that process looks like. So, here it is, finally.





When we first found out we were pregnant with Patrick, we had no intentions of cloth diapering because I assumed cloth diapering was still the old school kind with pins and plastic pull up covers. In researching baby gear, I came across some really cute cloth diapers called AIOs (all-in-ones). The brand I fell in love with was Very Baby. I loved the idea of a cloth diaper that goes on just like a disposable and their tag has an adorable little giraffe on it. So cute. Chuck was surprisingly on board the moment I told him I was interested in using cloth.





I continued to research cloth diapers while I was pregnant and decided it would be best to try out a few different styles/brands to see what we liked best before making the big investment. I really wanted to choose one diapering system and go with it rather than have a bunch of different styles/brands. So, I went on eBay and bought the following (all used): 2 Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers, 1 Very Baby AIO, a couple WAHM (work at home mom) AIOs, and 2 Bumkins AIO. I also had a friend who used to own a diaper service give me some prowrap covers to use with prefolds.





Once Patrick came along, I used disposables for about 2 weeks until he was big enough to wear the cloth diapers, then I gave them all a try. Here's what I liked and didn't like about each of them:





Fuzzi Bunz- I liked the colors, the snaps were easy to use, and the covers air dried quickly. Poop stains sunned out well. I didn't like that there was only one print fabric to choose from, the rest were solids. You have to stuff the inserts into them before use.





Very Baby- This one was adorable on. But, it took forever to dry. It would take days to line dry this one. It took 2 times through the dryer for this one to dry completely. I couldn't sun the poop stains out for some reason. Maybe because of all the layers right against each other?





WAHM AIOs- The only thing I liked with these were the snaps. The ones I tried were very bulky and the inner fabric rolled out at the leg casings which means they would wick moisture onto Patrick's clothes. Like the Very Baby brand, these ones took forever to dry.





Bumkins- I liked the idea of these ones. One of the inner layers is only sewn at the 2 ends so that these dry faster than other AIOs. The bad was that they weren't very absorbant and I didn't like the silky feel of the outer fabric. They were noisy. I didn't like the velcro closures. I had to pick lint out of the velcro at each washing to keep the velcro clean so it would stick to itself to hold the diaper on.





Prefolds with Prowrap covers- This is what we used the most in that trial period because we only had a few of the others, but lots of these. I liked that they were very absorbant. I didn't like that the leg casings on the covers would get poop stains on the leg gusset elastic that was really hard to sun out, so they always looked dirty. Again, picking lint out the elastic was a pain too.





So after trying them all out, we decided on Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers. I like how, once pre-stuffed, they go on like an AIO, but that the inserts come out for washing so that they get cleaner and dry faster. And, they use snaps rather than velcro. I resold all the others back on eBay and made back what I had invested.



After adding in the 7 girly colored ones we got fro Kimberly, I believe we have 28 smalls, 21 mediums, and 19 larges. My favorite of the currently available colors are bubblegum and periwinkle:




I made cloth wipes by cutting up some non-fraying polyester blend fabric into squares that when folded in half fit into a disposable wipes tub. I just add water to the tub of wipes, but some people like to use tea tree oil or another wipes solution.

I have two different hangers for drying the covers. One is a tie rack.
The other is a pant hanger.
I use this deteegent. The secret to keeping the diapers from getting smelly is to use very little detergent, because detergent build up is super stinky. Trust me. I figured it out the hard way.

I know I didn't cover everything there is to know about cloth diapering. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll attempt to answer them.