A Gust of Wind...: March 2012

I have been wanting to share this for awhile! What's that? Well its my new found love of cloth diapers!

I had been wanting to try cloth diapers since DD#1 was born. But because we had her in daycare & I worked 15 hours a day (no lie) I decided that breastfeeding would have to be enough. So here we are five years later with baby #3, and I started my "great cloth diaper experiment"!

After hours searching the internet, reading about the various diapers and methods I decided that good old-fashioned prefolds would be the most economical and offer the greatest flexibility. Prefolds have multiple layers of cotton gauze with multiple layering in the middle; think Gerber Birdseye Diapers, like you find at WalMart or Target, just more absorbent. They come in a multitude of sizes & absorbancy - I selected premium, unbleached infant Chinese prefolds (CPF); this means they can fit a baby weight 15-30lbs & have 8 layers in the center. I also picked up some gently used Green Mountain Cloth-eez® Prefold Diapers (GMD) with the "red edge" - these are basically CPF that have been cut down to different sizes so they are less bulky. The down side is that they fit a smaller size range, unless you fold them & lay them into the diaper cover instead of wrapping them around baby. I even decided to pick up some used all-in-one pocket diapers, which work the most like disposables, from the Cloth Diapering Parents group on Ravelry.

Jelly Roll

Here's what we've learned...there are many ways to fold a diaper, wash a diaper & there are TONS of really cute diaper covers but we have found a few things that have worked better for us then others. We like the "jelly roll" because it seems to helps contain the mess by creating a gusset or a roll around each leg.

Angel Wings

As for covers - well we tried Thirsties Duo Wraps (with snaps), Bambino Miosoft Nappy and Bummis Super Brite but the Bummis winby a mile! They are roomer so they go around by fat baby and her diaper with ease. And they contain the leaks better. I plan to pick up Bummis Whisper Wrap - they company calls them their work-horse and they are suppose to work even better for fat little babies. The other two wraps are really designed to work with inserts - sold by their manufacturer - but we have found that the Thirsties work okay with GMD since they are less bulky.

We have also found that the all-in-one pocket diapers work well for at night; we've only had one leak. I think the only down side of these diapers are the aplex/hook-n-loop; it catches on everything & since we have pets it hard to keep the hair out so it continues to work properly. Finally, we recently picked up some flush-able diaper liners and let me tell you that wow-we they are nice! It really cuts down on poo cleanup time and has allowed me use the all-in-ones during the day more frequently.

In the end I really am loving the cloth diapers. Disposables in some cases are easier - nothing to wash and you don't have to remember a "wet bag" (we use a 2.5 gallon Ziploc bag) to put dirty diapers in while you are out, but overall I really like them. I don't think my darling husband loves them as much as I do but since I change the majority of the diapers he doesn't mind them. So if you have been considering trying them, give it a go! Around $50-60 will get you 12 prefolds & two covers, which is a two day supply for a infant (3+ months) - and I am always willing to share my favorite cloth diapering websites.

And for your viewing pleasure, more photos of my little fattie sporting her cloth diapers.