
Okay, I'm posting AGAIN about cloth diapering, because friends/family members are considering.
It's totally worth it!
Our FEARS/CONCERNS going into it:
1) Time: Will we have time to be washing and drying diapers frequently?
2) Poop: Will we be able to stomach cleaning nasty diapers in the toilet? Will they always look poop stained?
3) Smell: Won't our place always smell like poop and pee? Won't our baby always smell like poop and pee?
4) Wear: Will they actually last as long as we need them to?
REALITY
1) Buy enough so you only have to do it every couple of days. I still like washing every couple of days, because when you open the diaper pail after 2 days of diaper collecting the ammonia smell is horrifying. There is plenty of time for a quick rinse, wash, and dry cycle. You will be doing more laundry anyway with baby clothes, so another load of diapers goes unnoticed.
2) After the first experience with poop up the back and all over the place this became a non issue. Being covered in vomit several times also made poop seem less scary. Poop is going to happen a lot, and it will get on you. I will say solid poops that just fall right off the diaper are so nice to come by. Swishing a diaper in the toilet for a few seconds is really no big deal. They also sell sprayers that attach to your water line by the toilet, so you can have them handy to spray the poop off. We aren't doing that because we see toddlers playing with it in the future. As for the stains . . . no poop stains. Every now and then we do an extra wash with bleach, and sun bleaching works too. Our diapers don't look nasty 13 months in!
3) When the diaper pail gets opened close to laundry time then yeah it smells. Don't leave the lid up. :) When Libby's covers start to smell we switch to a clean one. But she doesn't smell throughout the day. If we are running low on covers due to numerous messy diapers that soiled the covers badly as well, then we air out a cover that smells a bit like pee and don't invite guests over. Lol. No but really, smell isn't an issue. And we rarely have people over anyway. bahahah
4) THEY ACTUALLY LAST A LONG TIME!!! We are 13 months in and they are in great shape! Baby #2 is coming in November and we are locked and loaded with diapers! We are going to purchase more since Libby will still be diapered, and we don't want to wash any more frequently than we already do. The covers look great! The diapers are fantastic!
PRODUCTS WE LOVE!!!
Flip snap covers!
They are our favorites. They come in fun colors. We don't like Velcro closure, because the Velcro sticks to the covers themselves in the wash. Then you have pulls and fuzz and ugly. Pre-fold inserts!
We DON'T like the flip inserts. They worked well for a short period of time. Detergent build up was an issue. We did switch the way we wash our diapers to prevent build up, but still haven't been able to strip the flip covers enough to trust them. Many people were peed on. They are also quite narrow so messy diapers were sure to soil the covers.
Cheap and well worth it. We bought all of our diapers at Cotton Babies.
Flannel Wipes!! Libby's poor little tush does not like disposable wipes. No problem there, because we don't want to buy them. We bought 2 dozen bumGenius wipes.
And when we determined we wanted more, my mom cut up some white flannel she had in her sewing scraps. We are back to using 2 dozen or less, but will be glad we have extra when #2 arrives. We fill a spray bottle with water, a little baby wash, and occasionally olive oil. We spray the wipes as needed, and her tush as needed. :) We can easily put the spray bottle in one of the cup pockets on the side of the diaper bag too!
Buy a WET BAG!!
I bought a really cute wet bag from Planet Wise. Their prices and options were great. I got the medium size and am very happy with it. It holds a lot of diapers. It is so nice to have something that holds the odor in while out and about. Not noisy like a plastic bag, and it looks cute!
We also bought a diaper pail liner from Planet Wise.

We put it in a white trash can, and it works great. They wash well and work as intended. We do have to wipe the pail down while the bag is being washed due to ammonia smelling sweat between the bag and pail.
As far as detergent goes. We started using Nellie's All-Natural from Cotton Babies, then we made our own, then we switched to a squirt of Dawn. Why? When we first decided to make our own we were trying to avoid soaps. Soaps cause build up in diapers. Build up prevents the diapers from absorbing as much. So obviously you don't want that problem! (Strip diapers via multiple hot washes to get rid of build up- add Dawn it helps!) Mostly the only thing that worked well to strip our diapers was Dawn. So now we just use a squirt of Dawn when we wash them. I'm sure someone out there has written a blog on why not to do that. Oh well. There are sooo many ways of doing this, and sooo many more opinions. Eventually you get tired of reading about options. Find one that works and what you're happy with. Our wash cycle is usually: cold rinse, hot wash with Dawn, cold rinse, dry. Sometimes the covers get dried. Sometimes they hang to dry. Sometimes the wet bag and liner get dried and washed hot. So far no problems with anything even though we don't always follow the washing instructions.
Cloth diaper! Not only does it save money, but think about all the disposable diapers sitting in landfills. Ew.
Time to go swish a diaper in the toilet. :) Tag teaming it. I clean the bum, and the hubby swishes the diaper!
Any questions don't hesitate to ask!!
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