Cloth Wipes & How to wet them
Written by Diaper Diva
If you’re using cloth diapers, you’re going to want to use cloth wipes. I’ve heard some people say they use disposable wipes, but I really can’t figure out why. First, you’d have to throw them away separately. Second, they stink at wiping up poo! If I’m at home & using a (rare, I promise it’s rare!!) disposable diaper, I still use a cloth wipe even though i’ll have to ‘dispose’ of it separately, b/c I really hate the inefficiency of disposable wipes. However, i do use them in my diaper bag for on the go. I don’t carry around a spray bottle, so it’s a necessary evil.
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Cloth Diaper Pail Liners
Written by Diaper Diva
I used a diaper dekor+ with regular trash bags as my diaper pail for nearly 2 years. Until a few days ago. It would’ve been easier to use a different pail, but I wanted my pail in the bathroom (easy access for poopies) & we have a small one. The dekor was the only option (plus it’s nice looking & holds in odors great). It’s really a terrible pail for cloth diapers. It only fit one day’s worth of diapers…maybe. I also didn’t like to throw plastic bags out that often, so I reused them until they had holes. Yes, it was kind of icky & stinky (not in the pail but transporting the bag to & fro the laundry room), but it worked.
A few months ago my dekor broke. A long time ago the foot pedal went on me, but recently the door to remove the bag cracked. It still technically worked but it was a daily irritant as the door fell off the hinges at the slightest touch. For months prior, I had been eying some zippered pail liners that could be used as a “hanging pail”. However, I knew I would want 2 and I could not fathom spending $50 on essentially a diaper pail. Read more
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Written by Diaper Diva
The expense can be overwhelming. A hand-knit pair of longies can run you around $50 +/- & even ‘recycled sweater’ longies can be $20-40 depending on where you’re getting them. I don’t care how cute & well made they are, i just can not spend that kinda dough to cover my baby’s butt. However, I do really like wool! My solution? My mother in law gave me her old sewing machine this past summer & I spent a month stalking Goodwill for wool sweaters. So far I have made 4 pair of longies, Two shorties and one soaker. I spent about $20 for all of them (including miscellaneous items like thread & elastic). Read more
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Wool Cloth Diaper Covers
Written by Diaper Diva
Wool falls into the same category as fleece as far as cloth diaper covers go. As in it is water-resistant, but not water-proof. It is also highly breathable.
I’m just going to be honest here & let you in on the cons first:
- Expense. Wool covers, whether snap/aplix covers, soakers or longies/shorties, wool is expensive. There are however a few ways around it (we’ll talk tomorrow).
- Care. You have to hand wash wool & it needs to be (occasionally) lanolized. However, the washing & lanolizing are not at all difficult, & you don’t do it NEARLY as often as any other type of cover. The trick is to not have all your wool dirty at once. Having to wash a huge bunch IS annoying & then you’re left without any covers until they’re dry (I have a few longies that take 2 full days to dry in the winter!).
- If you get a little forgetful on diaper changes & baby gets sopping wet, there will be compression leaking (as in, if baby sits down on an absorbant fiber, like a couch or your jeans, it will wick through the wool onto the absorbent fiber). Though it won’t be dripping wet like going coverless would be.
So why would anyone use wool?
- Well, it’s SO breathable for one, but not as “dangerous” as going coverless (dangerous for your furniture or carpet anyway).
- It’s a very natural fiber that will easily bio-degrade.
- In the case of longies/shorties (even soakers in the summer in my opinion) the pants ARE the cover & can get super cute at that.
- Last, you don’t have to wash them very often at ALL (unless of course poo gets on them). The lanolin in the wool creates natural antibacterial properties. Just let the covers air-out when they get wet or have a ‘pee smell’ & after 15-30min, i promise, they smell fresh & clean. It’s crazy. I have only been using wool for a few months, and I’ve gone a month before needing to wash/re-lanolize, whereas my fleece covers have to be washed after one night-time or naptime use (I wash PUL every other day). So you don’t need that many, particularly if you are only using them for night-time/naptime (a lot of people go this route since PUL is admittedly just easier to deal with for busy day-time).
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Fleece & Cloth Diapers
Written by Diaper Diva
Fleece is an amazing invention. You can use fleece liners INSIDE cloth diapers to provide a moisture barrier between baby’s skin & the wet diaper & oddly enough, you can also use it OUTSIDE the diaper to protect the world from the wet diaper as well! There are plenty of companies that make fleece diaper covers. Some popular brands are: Stacinator (the Cadillacs of fleece covers, but like the car seriously ENORMOUS), Calico Baby & Bear Bottoms. I have tried the Stacinator Delux Fleece (basically heavy weight for night-time use). It worked wonderfully, but it was definitely a NIGHT-TIME diaper cover. We always laughed watching diaper boy try to walk around in it. Read more
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PUL Cloth Diaper Covers
Written by Diaper Diva
A couple days ago I gave a brief overview on cloth diaper covers. I’m big into details, so I figured I’d dedicate a few posts to specifics.
As far as PUL covers go, I can really only give information on the ones I’ve tried. I have used Bummis (both the snap & “whisper wrap” versions), Mother-ease Air-Flow, and Green Earth Diaper Wraps.
Bummis Diaper Covers: I used the bummis for the newborn & small sizes. I was able to register for them on amazon.com so I received them as baby shower gifts (amazon has since started carrying more brands). They worked great and are really durable. They’re even supposed to be safe for putting in the dryer, but I have to admit I was chicken (i REALLY want my cloth to last through more kids!), so I never put them in. However, they air-dried pretty fast (a couple hours or less?). The leg elastic is encased really well, so they never caused any red-marks on the legs & did not dig in at all. They also held in any explosions that managed to sneak outside the actual cloth diaper, so with the cloth/bummis combo I never had to change diaper’s girl’s clothes due to blowouts/leaks. Read more
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Money for colllege
Written by Diaper Diva
Ok, this isn’t about diapers (technically) but I’ll get there.
So, if you aren’t aware of Upromise, it is this really great program where you can save money for your kids college fund by shopping. Every time you use your credit card or grocery store customer card a percentage of the purchase is put into your child’s college fund. It really is that easy.
So, with the holidays upon us, I thought I’d let you know about this offer Upromise is running. If you sign up now and make an online purchase (like, say for some cloth diapers) before Dec. 31st you’ll get $25 in your child’s college fund. Merry Christmas!
It is really easy to set up an account an, best of all, IT IS FREE! So, what are you waiting for? Sign up today!
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How do I know what Brand Of Cloth Diapers to buy??
Written by Diaper Diva
So by this point you have hopefully sat down & figured out what your criteria for a diapering system is. Congratulations, you’re on your way to building your “stash”. Once you decide on type (Flats, Prefolds, Fitted, AIO, Pocket & Any mix therein), you can begin looking for your brand of choice. My favorite sites for diaper reviews:
The Diaper Jungle
The Diaper Pin
Again, this may take some time, reading the reviews, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to take time to figure out what you’re looking for. This is particularly important if you decide to go the “one-size” route. You don’t want to be stuck with 30 diapers you hate. Sure, you can sell them, but that’s another hassle in & of itself. So suck it up, do a little reading & once you make your decision, stop reading!! Much like marriage, once you’re committed it’s best to not even wonder….you might end up straying & will never be satisfied. Unless of course you decide on a “hodge-podge” stash…a little bit of everything. Those crazy swingers…. Of course if you get your diapers & discover for example that your child is allergic to fleece (pretty rare) & you have 24 Fuzzi Bunz sitting in your drawer…You have my permission to dump those bad boys like a bad habit & re-stash asap.
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Written by Diaper Diva
I cannot believe I almost forgot my beloved One-Size diapers!! Nearly all cloth diapering styles have a one-size option. These Can fall into a few different categories. They’re convenient & cost-effective (you buy one set for all of diaper-hood). If you have more than one child in cloth, they can use the same diapers! Diaper boy & girl have been using the same dipes for well over a year now (it was pretty funny putting my 20 month old & 2 week old to bed in matching diapers) & it has been wonderful! No sorting by size when I’m folding. They’re all the same thing, so it doesn’t matter which dresser it goes in.
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Cloth Diapering for the Fashion Concious
Written by Diaper Diva
Everyone….well, most everyone wants to dress their babies cute. Of course, cute is in the eye of the beholder; some like lace & poofy sleeved dresses on their little girls. I like brown pants with pink cammo shirts. When diaper boy was a baby I was a little more particular about his clothing. He almost never wore overalls & rarely if ever sweatpants in public. Not sure what happened, but I’m much less particular with diaper girl. She’s been known to leave the house in slippers & M.C. Hammer-esque pants on more than one occasion.
Cloth diapers can seem daunting for those who hover on the “obsessive” side of “cool” for their kids. What about the “big booty”? Can cool clothes fit over cloth? Will he/she ever wear jeans again??
Yes. Not only can you have your cute, but you can kiss it too.
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