Tuesday, November 16, 2010

our love of cloth diapering

Well, we've finally made the big "leap" to full-time cloth diapers.

And, guys, I couldn't be happier.



I was a little "worried" that cloth might be too hard. That there might be too much laundry. Too big of a mess. Too much to fiddle with. Not enough diapers to last her. But I couldn't have been more wrong. I am IN LOVE WITH our FuzziBunz, and that's no joke! I know a lot of you to-be mamas are prospective cloth diaperers, so I thought I'd give you insight on how we do it. It's so simple that you'll be shocked.

So, we bought 15 FuzziBunz from FuzziBunzStore.com. I was concerned that 15 wouldn't be enough, but it's completely fine. We bought a wide variety of bright colors, and I love them to death. You might know that FuzziBunz is unique because of the elastic in the legs and waist. They fit perfectly to our daughter's body, and poop never ever ever escapes. And, let me tell you, our daughter can really go...

FuzziBunz has 5 "settings" 1 through 5. 5 is the tightest and smallest elastic setting, used for newborns. As of now, we have her legs on 4s and 3s (there's two sets) and her waist is at a 3. So we snap them on her - and the snaps are GREAT, by the way - and off we go!



When we have a dirty diaper, I remove it and place it in a designated area. Right now they go on top of the washing machine, because I do a load of diapers daily. As she grows, and goes less often, I'll put them in our Arm & Hammer diaper pail. But newborns go quite frequently, so I wash diapers daily. Now, I'm not washing them ALL daily. I wash about 5 per day. So once I have 5 (or so) dirty diapers, I remove the insert and throw them in the washing machine.

Run a cold rinse with no detergent.
Then run a hot normal wash with 3 tablespoons of Rockin Green detergent.

When they're done washing, I dry the inserts on low heat.

AND THAT'S IT.

Guys, the washing machine does it all. It's the easiest thing ever. Our diapers don't have a SPECK of a stain. Rockin Green is AMAZING, and I *highly* recommend it. Our beautiful FuzziBunz are completely spotless, and they smell so fresh. I would like to add a note that using cloth isn't gross at all. I exclusively breastfeed, so her poop doesn't even have an odor. At all. It doesn't even begin to gross us out. Once she starts solids, it will be a different story :) But right now it is so easy and there is absolutely no ick-factor.

Now I'm off to stare at my beautiful daughter, who is sleeping in my arms as I type this blog post. Oh, and relish the thought of how much money we're saving by not buying those expensive disposables. We use our cloth diapers at night, too, so our disposable days are over!! Yahoo!!


The best decision we ever made.

Edited to add: Since I breastfeed her, there's no need to remove poop before I throw the diapers in the washing machine. Breastfed poop is water soluble, so I toss them in. It sounds gross, but that's how things roll. Once she starts solids, I'll have to knock off the solid poop into the toilet (or use rice paper, which I will). But for now, it just all gets thrown in.


9 comments:

  1. and they're so cute, to boot! we love cloth diapering. and it's sooo much better for our babes.

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  2. That's so cool! I really love the idea and we aren't pregnant at the moment, but will be one day so I have a question: Do you still use them when you go out? What do you do with the diaper if you have to change her when you are away from home? I love that you are doing this, because I have played with the idea too! this is helpful for me!

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  3. so so so glad you're loving them! we use the perfect size fuzzibunz and love them as well! I think for Christmas I'm going to get her a couple of the multiple size ones. I really love my cloth diapers! and the rice paper works great!

    we haven't tried rockin' green but i think i might get that sometime to try.

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  4. yep, we use them all the time. when we're out, we put them in a "wet bag" in our diaper bag. it's like.. a special material that can get wet/dirty and you can wash it. easy peasy!

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  5. She is precious!! Thanks for the post; I love the thought of cloth diapering one day!
    Rebecca (fm Bowling Green)

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  6. I'm so glad, Shannon, that you've had such a great experience with cloth diapering. It seems that everyone I talk to that has done it LOVES it and talks about how easy it really is, so that gives me hope for one day when I have a child of my own!

    Oh, and A really is the cutest little thing ever!! So beautiful!

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  7. So i have a question, when she gets a little older and if you take her to a sitter for a day (be it your Mom, Sister, someone) would you use a disposable diper or give them a bag to put the dirty cloth diaper? I never thought about using them, but reading your blog about them makes me think that when I do have a child (years from now..haha) I am leaning towards using them!

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  8. My mom or sister wouldn't have a problem using the cloth. But if it was someone else, and they were iffy on it, I'd bring disposables while they watched her.. no biggie! I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable! Although it just snaps on, so it's pretty easy. And they'd just fold up the dirty one and put it in my wet bag!

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  9. And I have to add that cloth is much much cuter. :)

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