All About Cloth Diapers

I've been cloth diapering for close to 6 months now, so I feel like it's time for me to dish on it - for those of you who are interested or may have questions about it. I am by no means a cloth diapering pro. I haven't experimented with all of the different varieties of cloth (only pocket dipes) and everything I purchased to get started has ended up working perfectly for us. I guess this isn't always the case with everyone. Sometimes people have to experiment to find out what works for them. Here's a rundown of what we use & love and how cloth diapering works for us. Overall, we love doing it and don't have any regrets.

First and foremost, cloth diapers are just so stinkin' adorable!


Our Cloth Diaper Schedule

• We are part-time cloth diaperers. Landon doesn't wear cloth at daycare (because of my laziness in not wanting to launder them on the days I work - we may eventually change this) or overnight.
• He wears them on the weekends and the 2 days/week that he is home with daddy.
• We wash the dipes every 2 days. So, if he wears them Saturday & Sunday, I wash them Sunday night after he goes to sleep (and is out of his last one for the day).

Cloth Diaper Brands That We Use - & Love

• BumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers ~ In my opinion, these are the mac-daddy of pocket diapers. They are thebomb.com! I read many, many reviews before purchasing a 12 pack of these bad boys (after finding a killer sale). Love them! Great fit on Landon, rediculously well-made, and wash great.
• SunBaby Diapers ~ These are by far the best bang for your buck. Whenever a friend asks me about cloth diapering and says that they are considering it, I tell them to purchase some SunBabies just to try it out. You can't go wrong here! The owner of SunBaby, Sunpei, has some of the CUTEST designs and they are a steal. AND, you can seriously double your investment on these puppies if you re-sell them later on down the line. Some of the hardcore cloth diaperers out there are willing to pay a premium for discontinued prints. My BumGenius dipes are probably the best made, but I always find myself reaching for the SunBaby dipes first for some reason.
• Jungle Roo Cloth Diapers ~ I only own one of these (you can read my review of it here), but I really like it a lot. It is SUPER soft and cute and so far, it works and washes well.
• Go Green Champ 2.0 Pocket Diapers ~ I have 2 of these. They are really cute and run a little bit bigger than the other dipes we own, which is GREAT for my chubster! However, over time the inside hasn't stayed soft and I don't really like the inserts that came with them.

Our Must-Have Cloth Diaper Products

• BumGenius Diaper Sprayer ~ A genius invention! This guy hooks right up to the water line on your toilet so that you can spray off the poo right into your john. I know it sounds super gross, but I swear it isn't bad at all (& I actually find it kinda fun - I'm sick, right?).
• Biokleen Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator ~ After spraying off the poopy dipes, I usually spritz them with this stuff before throwing them in the diaper pail. I had read a lot of great reviews about this helping with stains and smell and it is amazing. Completely cloth diaper safe, too.
• Planet Wise Pail Liner/Wet Bag ~ My fave wet bag pail liner. I line a kitchen garbage can with one of these and it sits right by our upstairs toilet. Dirty dipes go right in there and when I'm ready to wash, it goes in with the dipes.
• Kitchen Garbage Pail (7 gal) ~ No need for any fancy diaper pail. We just use a cheapo plastic kitchen trash can, line it with a wet bag pail liner, and we're good to go. Does it smell up our bathroom? NO! Dirty dipes do better if they have air flow reaching them - that way bacteria doesn't grow as quickly. I'm sure if I stuck my head in the pail it would smell, but after two days I honestly haven't noticed any stench in our bathroom.
• GroVia Magic Stick Diaper Ointment ~ If you use cloth diapers, you have to use a CD safe butt cream and we love this one.
• Country Save Laundry Detergent ~ You can't just use any ole laundry detergent when you cloth diaper. You want one that is CD friendly and won't irritate your baby's bum. I did a lot of research on this one. Country Save seemed to have consistently good reviews, especially according to my local cloth diapering Facebook group. And so far it's working great for us!
• Calgon Water Softener ~ We have extremely hard water, so water softener helps prevent detergent build-up in our dipes and gets them extra white.
• Dryer Balls ~ I throw these in the dryer with our inserts and it just helps fluff them and get them dry faster.
• 529 Baby Travel Wet Bag ~ This WAHM makes amazing wet bags! I have the cute robot pattern in a medium travel size. I keep it in the diaper bag so that if we are using CDs when out and about I can throw dirty ones in it.

How We Wash Our Cloth Diapers

• From Landon to the Pail: If he has a wet dipe, we pull the insert out of the pocket diaper and throw both in the pail - no rinsing necessary. If it's poopy, we dump what we can in the toilet and spray off as much as possible with the diaper sprayer. Then, we wring it out, pull out the insert, and throw in the pail.
• Washing: Diapers, inserts, and pail liner all go straight into the washing machine. We own a Frigidaire Affinity front load washer. Here's the wash cycle we use:
• Cold Quick Wash with 1/4 scoop of Country Save detergent (this cycle gets out all of the yuck before the hot wash)
• Hot Allergy Cycle with 1/4 scoop of Country Save + generous dump of Calgon
• Warm Rinse - to make sure all of the soap is out
• Side Note: once/month I add a tiny bit of bleach to the main wash cycle to keep the diapers extra clean and smelling fresh.
• Drying: Inserts go straight into the dryer and the pocket diapers hang on a drying rack (they dry pretty quickly, even in our cold basement, usually within a few hours).

Okay, so I'm sorry if this post is boring and information overload, but I hope that at least some of you out there can find it helpful. If you have ANY questions at all, ask away! I'd love to help! :-)