Clother Diaper Q&A

As you know, I cloth diaper my baby. It saves us money, it's better on her tush, and it's insanely cute and fun. And many (many!) of my friends have decided that they, too, want to make the switch! I get at least one question in my inbox a week about CDing, so I've decided to try and explain everything in one simple blog post.

Bear with me. I'm trying.

I guess I'll attack this as a Q&A-type post. Hopefully that will be easiest to follow (?) so here we go!

What brand of cloth diaper did you choose? After e.x.t.e.n.s.i.v.e. research, I decided on FuzziBunz. The sole reason is that FuzziBunz have adjustable elastic in 4 spots in each diaper. Two in the front of the legs, two in the back of the legs, and one in the back in the waist area. This is the reason that FB's fit my newborn so well. Adalyn began wearing FB's at 2.5 weeks without a single leak. Since the leg casings are adjustable, they fit her teeny little legs! They fit kids 5-35lbs, so you will only need to buy diapers once!

I got this video off YouTube. It explains the elastic.

What other diapers have you tried? I have five types of diapers: FuzziBunz, bumGenius, gDiapers, Thirsties, and Blueberry. I didn't need these diapers. I just decided to buy them on a whim because of sales.

bumGenius is very similar to FB's except they don't have elastic. Still, I have no complaints and have never had a leak. I would still recommend them!

Thirsties - I have the all-in-one Thirsties, which means there is a built-in insert. I dearly love my Thirsties and have zero complaints. We never, ever have leaks with them!

gDiapers - I hated these from the get-go. I tried the flushable liners on a car trip, and it seemed like the outside would always get wet. Who knows, maybe it was just me? But I didn't like them.

Blueberry - I have the "minky" Blueberry diapers, so they are cute and fuzzy on the outside. We use these only at night. I stuff them to the brim with jumbo inserts, and we don't have leaks. They are very pricey diapers, but I got them half-off on a New Years sale. But they are extremely cute and work fantastic at night!

How many diapers do you own? 16 FuzziBunz, 3 Blueberry, 3 Thirsties, and 1 bumGenius. I think. So.. 23?

How often do you wash them? Every other day.

What type of diaper rash cream have you used? Adalyn doesn't normally get rashes with cloth diapers, because cloth reduces the occurrance of rashes. But a couple times, she has randomly gotten red from who knows what. In those instances, I use flushable liners/rice paper. A lady in base housing gave them to me for free, and they rock! It's basically like a thin dryer sheet. Except it isn't a dryer sheet. I just fold it up, place it in her diaper, and put Aveeno cream on her. This way, the cream doesn't actually touch the diaper - it just touches her. Regular creams will ruin cloth diapers.

Is it gross? It is unbelievably not gross. Besides, once you become a parent, poop becomes second nature.

How do inserts work? FuzziBunz comes with inserts, which are like pads of "cloth" that you stuff into the back pocket of a diaper. They are what actually absorbs the urine. During the day, I just use one insert per diaper. But at night, I double-stuff the diapers with the huge insert and a regular size one. In past months, I used a hemp insert, which I bought from FuzziBunzStore.com, and they worked great. But they just aren't cutting it anymore. So these days, I send her to bed with a huge insert and a regular one, and we have no leaks.

How to get build-up off the diapers? I'm really not good at this. I've only had this problem once, and I cured it by simply washing them in water 3 times (no detergent). I've heard of other people using baking soda or vinegar or doing a Rockin Green soak, but I've never done any of this. Sorry!!

We got this as a gift - not sure of the brand! Sorry!!

Where do you buy them? I only use FuzziBunzStore.com -- you get 10% cash back. So if you buy a pack of 15 diapers for $284, you will receive $28.40 to spend on their website. I used this money to buy detergent and hemp inserts! Fun!

Extra Info: You must wash your diapers with special detergent. I've written all about my washing regime HERE. Keep in mind that you can't wash your clothes in regular detergent anymore. We use All Free & Clear to wash our regular clothes. But I think that we will go completely 100% Rockin Green when I move back to Virginia. It's also a bad idea to dry your diapers in a dryer in which you've used a dryer sheet or fabric softener. We never dry out diapers or inserts anymore - we just hang dry.

Okay. I hope I covered all the basics. We obviously love cloth diapering. My husband is so into it that he's told all his friends and never, ever wants to use disposables. We are completely sold on it, mostly because of the money we are saving! If you have any more questions, let me know in comments!!