How we cloth diaper and why we love it, part 2.

Part 2 of the cloth diapering post here. Here's part 1. If you do not care at all about cloth diapering, please feel free to skip this post and enjoy your diaper-free day!

If you're still hanging with me, this post covers what I'm calling "troubleshooting" for cloth diapering. I realize that makes cloth diapering sound more high maintenance than I'm wanting to convey, but there really is no getting around the fact that there is more maintenance with cloth diapering. There is great potential for financial savings (+ friendliness for the environment), but you do have to put in a little more work. 

As we've cloth diapered, we've run into a few issues that we've had to learn to work with:

1. leg hole elastic wears out

2. odor build-up/loss of absorbency

3. how to treat diaper rash without compromising the quality of the diapers

Each of these issues caused us quite a bit of frustration at first (and was gross). Thankfully, I found a lot of help online and was able to tackle each of the problems without too much trouble.

1. Leg hole elastic wears out.

This happened fairly early on for us with Claire- primarily because she was a scooter. She was harrrrrd on her diapers, given that she basically traveled everywhere on her booty. It took me a couple of days to figure out that her diapers were leaking EVERY TIME because the elastic around her thighs had given out. At first, I panicked, thinking that those diapers were done and that we were going to have to buy new ones. Then I thought about it for a second, googled it, and found a plethora of instructions for fixing them. It does take time, and you do have to do some stitching, but the skill level required for this is minimal. I do sew some, but I wouldn't even categorize this as actual sewing; it's mostly snipping and putting in a few stitches. I followed these instructions (very helpful and specific) to get started on my diapers with inserts. Once I got the hang of it, I adapted the process for my all-in-one diapers. 

For the all-in-ones, you actually have to cut into the fabric of the diaper a tiny bit at each end of the leg holes to get to the elastic. I was very hesitant to do that, at first, but I figured if I tried one and it was a bust, I could try something else on the subsequent diapers. The diapers weren't effective with the broken elastic as it was, so I had nothing to lose. I ruined zero diapers in the process, and only a few of them even look janky because of the snips (it took me the first couple of diapers to get in a good groove with my snips and stitches). And y'all, replacing the elastic was a GAME CHANGER. Dramatic as it sounds, the new elastic (that set me back about $1.88 for 23 diapers) gave our diapers new life. It took me about 20 minutes per diaper, so it's not a quick solution; I would sit down with a pile of diapers after putting Claire to bed, turn on Netflix, and stitch until I was over it for the night. After a couple of weeks, all the diapers were done, and we weren't cleaning up from leaks every couple of hours. Well worth the time. I haven't had to do the elastic across the backs of the diapers yet, but I'm keeping an eye on it, in case that becomes an issue. 

2. Odor build-up/loss of absorbency.

This is a gross one. It was something I dreaded happening when we started using cloth and was determined to avoid. I didn't want to be carrying around a baby that smelled like diapers all the time. Who does? Thankfully, we didn't run into this for over a year with Claire. I attribute a lot of that success to the fact that we used an "approved" laundry detergent that didn't cause build-up as quickly as standard detergent does. Even being careful with our detergent, though, there still isn't a way to completely avoid odor and loss of absorbency over time. But, the solution is really easy. It's called diaper stripping- the idea being that you are stripping away the layers of waste, oils, and detergent build-up from the diaper material, removing odors and restoring the fibers to their original absorbent state. I read about this process in several places before trying it the first time, but I found this site to be super helpful and simple. 

Here's what I do when I strip our diapers (which I do every 4-6 months): 

A. Wash all the diapers (putting the baby in disposables so I can do all diapers). I do NOT put the wet bag in while doing this part. The bleach will ruin the bag. Ask me how I know that...

B. After a regular wash in hot water, do another wash in hot water but this time with a 1/2 cup of bleach and a tablespoon of blue Dawn liquid dish soap rather than Charlie's Soap. This combo will strip the diapers. 

C. After that cycle finishes, I do one more rinse. Hang to dry.

This, rather miraculously, restores the diapers immediately. Urine smells (this is the odor that builds up- not poop, interestingly enough) disappear, and the absorbency of the diapers improves dramatically. It's amazing to me how quickly this improves the quality of the diapers (and my life). I definitely recommend this to lengthen the life of cloth diapers. It's a quick and easy fix.

3. How to treat diaper rash without compromising the quality of the diapers.

Most cloth diaper brands discourage the use of over-the-counter diaper rash cream on the fabrics of cloth diapers (Desitin, Boudreaux's, A and D). This is because several of the ingredients in most creams and ointments weaken the fibers of the diapers if used regularly. Claire almost never had diaper rash until she started scooting. Then, she had diaper rash all the time because of the constant friction, and we had to find a solution (Lily doesn't scoot and very rarely has rash, which I think is a little more normal for cloth-diapered babies.). If diaper rash is really mild (just a little pink and irritated), we'll treat it with a slathering of coconut oil for a few diaper changes. This basically provides a lubricant layer that prevents the rash from becoming further irritated. Often, this will do the trick, and coconut oil is safe for the diapers. 

If the rash is more aggressive, we do use Desitin or A and D. The way we get around this is by putting a rice paper liner in the diaper, providing a barrier between the cream and the actual diaper. Some cloth diaperers use liners in every diaper, rash ointment or not, so that when there is a dirty diaper, all they have to do is lift out the liner and flush. Folks who don't have a sprayer often do this (it's super convenient, I have to say). We always have a roll of liners on hand and put them to use when we need to treat diaper rash, and it works like a charm. This also works with prescription medicated ointment (yes, Claire's would get so bad because of scooting that we'd have to get a prescription). We just order a roll of liners off of Amazon, and it lasts us for a long time.

I'm sure there are other small diaper-related issues that I'm forgetting about, but these are the biggest ones that we've discovered and worked through. They all seemed kind of big at the time, but we don't even notice them anymore. We're very much enjoying the financial benefits from our diapering decision, especially now that we're on our second baby. We always remember how glad we are for this decision when we travel and have to pick up packs of diapers. (We do always have disposable diapers and wipes at our house and in the diaper bag. But, as opposed to buying diapers every 10 days, we buy a box- sometimes less- of whatever size she's currently in and that usually lasts us until the next size is needed.). It's a helpful lifestyle for our current budget, for sure. We also realize it's not for everyone. I think it's perfect for us, in part, because I'm a stay-at-home mom. I'm able to deal with the washing and care much more conveniently than if I worked a traditional job. It also just lines up with my personality really well; I'm definitely a use-it-up, wear-it-out, make-do, do-without personality, and this resonates with my natural bent.

Anyway, we're very happy with our system and hope that maybe our experiences will be helpful for someone else. Happy diapering!

How we cloth diaper and why we love it.

Several years ago- when Claire was a baby- I did a little post on cloth diapering. Since then, I have talked to many people and written up our system of diapering many times because more and more people have shown interest and wanted to know specifics. I thought that since I've now been cloth diapering for 4 years (not continuously, thank goodness...there was about a 10-month gap), I'd do an update post (plus, next time someone asks, I can just send them this link!). If you have zero interest, I completely get it. Carry on with your day.

If you are interested, here's our story and how we do it.

Before Claire was born, I was regularly reading the blog Young House Love. They would occasionally write about how they decided to cloth diaper their baby, and I thought they were crazy. Isn't cloth diapering gross? And super hippie for this day and age? But, the closer we got to Claire's arrival, the more I wondered about how it might save us money in the long run. I started checking into it and a) decided that it didn't seem to be that much grosser than regular diapers and b) it would, in fact, save us LOADS in the end. I even did some number crunching to prove it to myself. I was stunned. When I calculated things, I discovered that, at the least, we would save a cool $1,000 over the course of Claire's diaper-wearing days, if she potty trained by age 3 (that included when we were paying $2.00/load to wash clothes in Boston). I decided that was no small amount of money, so I took it to Brad, fully expecting to have to talk him into it. Because, again, aren't cloth diapers gross? Showing him that savings total was all it took. He was on board. 

I looked into several different styles and brands of cloth diapers (because there are SO many), but eventually decided that I liked the same diapers that my favorite bloggers used. I'd spent hours reading about different styles, materials, washing instructions, durability ratings, sizing...so. much. research. The brand and style I landed on are not cheap per diaper, but I thought they'd serve us best in the long run. And guess what? We are still using those original diapers from 2013 with Lily in 2017. 

We decided to go with the bumGenius brand and primarily the Freetime all-in-one style with snaps. I liked the all-in-one style because I wouldn't have to deal with pulling dirty inserts out and dealing with them separately (we did actually end up with several of this style, too, but it's not bad at all.). I liked the snap system because I'd read quite a bit about the velcro closures losing effectiveness pretty quickly. I figured, if we're going to go all in, let's start out the best we can. Typically, the diapers we wanted are about $20/diaper. We registered for quite a few, not knowing at the time just how many would be ideal for our lifestyle. My in-laws gave us a big package of diapers as a baby gift, which got us off to a great start. Several other people gave us diapers OR gift cards to places where we could order our diapers (Target, Babies R Us, diapers.com). By the time Claire arrived, we had 23 diapers. Of course, she was so teeny that she didn't really fit into them until she was 3 months old. That was actually fine, though, as we were figuring out our new life as parents and were probably in better shape not worrying about how to do cloth diapers when we were just trying to get enough sleep and keep a baby alive. (In addition to our original bumGenius diapers, we were also given 4 Alva brand diapers, which we like. They aren't the same quality as our BG's, but they still work just fine and are a regular part of our diaper rotation. I usually just make sure to change Lily out of them after a couple of hours...i.e. she usually doesn't sleep in them because they just don't hold quite as much.)

A lot of people also buy used cloth diapers. We didn't go that route, but I know quite a few people who have purchased used diapers and have had really good experiences. As long as the previous owners have taken good care of the diapers, there should be a good deal of life left!

Cloth diapers come in lots of fun patterns and colors, but we chose to go primarily with white diapers, although we do have a few greens and yellows + one pink (of our bumGenius diapers. Our Alva diapers are all patterned.). We discovered that a lot of little girl clothing is light-colored in the tushie, so bright colors or patterns on diapers often show through. The white diapers keep things lower-key, which works for us.

I remember the evening when she was 3 months old that we decided to pull the trigger and start using the diapers. We talked about it in terms of "operating without our safety net." It's super funny to look back now on that nervous conversation; we can cloth diaper in our sleep today- literally, if it's a nighttime situation. But at the time, we were super worried that our diapers would let us down or that we'd just have baby gross everywhere and in everything at all times. But, we had all those diapers and were thinking about the financial benefits, so we just went for it. And it worked! We discovered that it wasn't all that different, as far as the mechanics of diapering go. Laundering, obviously, was a little more work, but we figured that out, too. People diapered for ages before disposable diapers were invented, so this was not exactly uncharted territory. Perspective.

During my research phase before Claire was born, I didn't just research the diapers; I researched laundering, additional products, and troubleshooting. I've fine-tuned our system over the years, and we now have a system that feels second nature. In an attempt to cut down on how much information goes into a post about diapers, I'll write about our products and laundering in this post and troubleshooting in another one.

Our (non-diaper) products:
1. Diaper sprayer
2. Wet bags (2 large bags + one very small bag for the diaper bag)
3. Cloth wipes*
4. Wipe spray*
5. Charlie's Soap
6. Rice paper diaper liners (trouble shooting supply)
7. Diaper rash cream, coconut oil

*We eventually switched over to cloth wipes, too. Again, my initial reaction to this concept was GROSS! Who does that? Well, turns out...us. We discovered that when we would change a diaper, we then had a diaper to take to the wet bag + a wipe to take to the trash can. I had read about cloth wipes during my research, so I knew this was a thing. After a few months of cloth diapering, I revisited the idea of cloth wipes and pitched it to Brad. He was, again, on board, because he'd noticed the extra step with the wipe, as well.  With cloth wipes, when you're done with the diaper, you just roll the cloth wipe up in the dirty diaper and throw it all in the wet bag to be laundered. One step. There are lots of different kinds of cloth wipes on the market, but I actually made a stack out of some flannel I had and also added in a bunch of baby wash cloths that we had been given but never used. We've recently been given a pack of these wipes, too, and love them. We keep a spray bottle of "wipe solution" in each of our diaper stashes around the house. "Wipe solution" = 1 cup water + 1 Tbsp baby oil + 1 Tbsp baby shampoo. We get that this isn't for everyone, but we love the convenience. We still ALWAYS have regular baby wipes on hand, but this is our go-to wipe situation.

We currently have 27 diapers, which sounds like a lot, but it puts me washing diapers about every 2.5 days. When we are down to about 7 clean diapers remaining, I wash a load. Timing this is pretty important because the manufacturers recommend air drying, so as not to damage the materials in the diapers. It takes about 12 hours for the diapers to dry completely, so we've found that having 7 in reserve is a good margin for us. As we change diapers, we put the dirty/wet ones, plus wipes, in our wet bag (we have large Planetwise wet bags- 2 of them that we rotate). When it is time to wash, I dump everything into the washing machine, including the wet bag. Everything is washed in hot water with a scoop of Charlie's Soap laundry powder. This is a really mild soap that is recommended for cloth diapers. I've learned that the kind of detergent you use is important; many detergents are too harsh, and more importantly, cause more build up in the diapers over time...which leads to less absorbency and more odors <-- the things that people dread when thinking about cloth diapers. 

When the laundry cycle is done, I hang the diapers on a drying rack, hang the wet bag to dry in the laundry room (where excess drips can go into the washing machine), and dry the cloth wipes in the dryer. Because of the 7 reserve diapers and the extra wet bag, we don't miss a beat in the diapering process, which is pretty important. 

Also important, in my opinion, is the diaper sprayer mentioned above. This is not a necessity for cloth diapering, but I have no idea why you wouldn't use one. We use a Mrs. Bidet brand sprayer that hooks into the water supply of the toilet. When there is a dirty diaper, we use the sprayer to spray waste into the toilet before putting the diaper in the wet bag. It's a pretty valuable step in keeping the diapers in good condition (and keeping poop out of our washing machine). I'm not sure I would cloth diaper without a sprayer, honestly. It's worth the investment (and by "investment," I mean about $30).

That is the basic system we use to care for our diapers. In my "troubleshooting" post, I'll talk about other tips and tricks we've picked up along the way that have upped our diapering game and kept our diapers going strong.

Note: we always put our babies in disposables if they are being watched by someone else. We fully get that we made the decision to cloth diaper, but most people don't. So, if Lily is in nursery or being babysat, we put her in disposables and provide all of the supplies needed for a disposable diaper change. We also use disposables when we travel. It's far too bulky to travel with cloth.

Here's part 2!