I would probably hesitate to say that cloth diapers are ENTIRELY leak-proof.  I mean, I doubt anything is leak-proof, if you want to get right down to it.  Plus, if you leave a diaper on long enough, it doesn’t matter what the heck it is made of or how many gussets it has.  It will leak.  That’s just physics, yo.

But in the couple months (has it only been that long) that I’ve been using cloth diapers, I’ve noticed one giant benefit:  There have been virtually NO LEAKS.

There’s been the odd leak here and there.  Mostly urine and mostly when she’s wearing a prefold trifolded into a prorap cover.  And most of those leaks have been fairly recently, as she’s been outgrowing her prefolds and covers at an alarming rate (hello, chunky baby!).  She pretty much NEVER has a leak while wearing her pocket diapers (right now: BumGenius and Rumparooz).

But I’m leaving out the most important aspect of all of this: NO POOP EXPLOSIONS!  Now, Evie only wore disposables for the first six weeks or so of her life.  But in that time, we learned that with her rather infrequent pooping schedule, poop explosions were pretty much unavoidable.  She would output a day’s worth of… poop and well, no disposable known to man could possibly contain it all.  Truthfully, I wondered at the time if any cloth diaper could contain it as well.

The prefolds in the cover are pretty good, to be honest.  We might get a little seepage around the legs, but nothing shooting up the back our out the front or sides so far.  The BumGenius just laugh at the audacity of this poop that would like to explode out.  “Not so fast,” they say.  And the Rumparooz double leg gussets have never failed to contain whatever is tossed their way.  Ever.

Now, there are some extenuating circumstances here.  I am pretty quick on the diaper changes, something that I’ve gotten even better at since she’s been in cloth.  I find I’m a lot more attuned to such things now.  Also, her poop has not met the worthy adversary that is the exersaucer.  If anything can compress a diaper, it’s an exersaucer.

But in the meantime, I’m pretty impressed.  This is something I wasn’t expecting from cloth diapers.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  But definitely a fantastic side benefit to cloth diapering.

Is my experience a common one?  Or am I just lucky?

Tags: bumGenius, disposables, Epic Poop, leaks, Pockets, prefolds, prorap, Rumparooz

In light of my recent goodmama diaper related posts, I wanted to get this out there to those who are new to cloth diapers or thinking about trying it out or who don’t know a thing about it:  Cloth diapering is as expensive as you want it to be.  It may look to an “outsider” or a “newbie” that all diapers are ridiculously expensive.  And, I guess it would appear that a $20 or more cloth diaper is outrageous when you can go down to Walmart and buy 88 or more disposable diapers for that same price.  Of course, here’s the difference: You throw away those disposable diapers, never to be seen again (except for the 500 years it takes them to decompose of course) and you wash and reuse the $20 diaper.   Often, that diaper is used several times a week (if you do laundry every other day like I do) for several months.  If it’s a one-size diaper, it can be used several times a week for several YEARS.  And if you’re having more children later on, that diaper can then be used for those children as well.  When put in that perspective, a $20 diaper is a darned good deal!  Plus, if you take care of the cloth diaper, you can turn around and sell it when you’re finished (Diaper Swappers is great for this!).  You definitely cannot sell a used disposable diaper!

Another point that’s often overlooked:  You don’t need to buy ALL the diapers you need right off the bat.  You can buy them one by one, little by little.  Go ahead and keep using disposable diapers while working cloth into the cycle as you’re able.  Before long, you may be able to use cloth a majority of the time and just use disposables for naps and bedtime.  That is what we’re doing with Liam right now.  We have plenty of diapers for 1-2 days for Evie, but not quite enough for 1 full day for Liam.  No biggie.  We’ll keep using ’sposies during naps, when out and about and at bedtime for him until we’re able to make the full switch over.  The only reason that Evie has enough diapers for 1-2 days really is because I’m using prefolds on top of my pocket diapers.

That’s another thing: Prefolds are insanely cheap.  Yeah, if you look hard enough, you can find some pretty pricey prefolds out there made of bamboo velour or custom dyed or embellished with embroidery and appliqués, but you certainly don’t have to buy those.  In general, you can get simple cotton prefolds for $1-$2 apiece that work just fine.  I found some good prorap covers to go over the prefolds as a waterproof cover on Diaper Swappers’ FSOT forums for $5 apiece that looked just like new.  The prefolds work great and get the job done.  I suppose, if I really needed to, she could wear them around the clock and they would serve as her only diapers just fine.  A lot of people do it that way.

For the most part, $50 a diaper is pretty expensive about twice what I would ever want to pay for a diaper.  I have never spent more than $25 and I pretty much never will.  (Never say never, right?)  I’m far too frugal for such silliness.  Plus, I’m a big fan of one-size diapers.  The benefit being that Liam can wear them too and they’ll last her a looooong time.  For what it’s worth, even the pricey goodmama diapers are one-size and have a reputation of lasting a long, long time (as well as having amazing resale value).  The prefolds, unfortunately, aren’t one-size but they’re so cheap that buying new ones isn’t a big deal.

Basically, when it comes to cloth diapers, you spend as much as you want to spend on them.  They truly are less expensive in the long run.  I plan on this being the first in a series of the Economics of Cloth Diapers, detailing the price comparisons to disposables and the longterm benefits of using cloth.  In the meantime, check out this interesting article from Jillian’s Drawers comparing a couple different diapering systems to disposables and showing that virtually no matter what method you choose, you’re always going to save money.

Tags: cost comparison, Diaper Swappers, disposables, Goodmama, prefolds, prorap

I’m a little sad that I’m only just now starting to use cloth diapers, now with my third and final child.  Why didn’t I start with my first, back when he was born in 1999?  I knew people then who were using cloth diapers and was aware enough that I knew the process of cloth diapering was different than it was for my mother’s generation.  But something held me up.

I know exactly what that something is.  It’s the same something that holds any of you who are reading this from trying cloth diapers.  It’s the poop.  I was nervous about having to deal with it more than I already had to.  And dunking a diaper in a toilet to rinse poop off?  Oh hells NO.  Anyone who even remotely knows me knows that’s about the LAST thing I’d ever want to do.  I’d rather throw the damned thing away than do that.  Which led back to disposable diapers.  It’s a lot cheaper to throw away something that is meant to be thrown away, you know?

I was also nervous about the cost.  It’s a lot of money upfront.  It’s a tremendous savings in the long run, pretty much no matter what you do.  But having a couple hundred dollars on hand to start a stash of cloth diapers?  Well, that doesn’t happen too often around here.  It’s a lot easier to rustle up the $14 for a box of cheap diapers from Walmart than $300 for a couple dozen pocket diapers.

But I’m here to tell you that it’s not as hard as all that.  If you are unfamiliar with today’s cloth diapering methods, take everything you think you know about cloth diapers and throw it out the window.  I thought I knew, only to learn that I don’t.  It’s like learning to read all over again.  It’s so much different, so much easier, than I ever expected.

There is no dunking diapers in toilets if you really don’t want to.  Honest!  First off, if your child is a newborn you don’t even need to do anything with the poop since it easily washes out.  You just toss it in the pail and you’re done with it.  You can use flushable liners that catch all the poop and just dump them into the toilet.  The best solution, the one I’m going to be using, is a diaper sprayer (like Brit mentioned in her post).  Just spray the diaper and it’s contents into the toilet and voila.   Toss it in the pail and you’re done.  And that’s another thing.  You don’t have to have a “wet pail” or anything like that.  I have a regular garbage can from Walmart with a lid that closes.  Inside, I have a waterproof and washable liner and when it’s time to do laundry, I just take the whole liner upstairs and dump the whole kit and kaboodle in the washer.  Never have to touch a diaper.

And, believe it or not, I realized that you don’t have to buy your entire stash all at once.  If you are still pregnant, you can set aside money each month or buy little by little until the little one arrives.  If you already have a child, you can buy a diaper here and there and fill in the gaps with disposables.  Using prefolds and diaper covers is a lot easier than I would have figured and it’s VERY inexpensive.  Trust me, if I can afford it, anyone can.  I use those in the day, when we’re going to be home and it has worked out great.  One dozen prefolds lasts me about a day and a half with using the pocket diaper at night.  I do laundry every other day.

That brings me to the issue of laundry.  You might be thinking: I don’t think I can handle ALL THAT LAUNDRY.  I thought the same thing.  I can hardly stay on top of the regular laundry around here, after all.  Anytime I would look into it, I would see instructions on all the different cycles of wash and the process and get freaked out.  But, seriously, it’s not too bad.  If I had a real nice washer that had programmable cycles, it’d be even easier.  Still, it’s not at all bad.  And while I may have piles of regular laundry stacking up around me, I have no trouble getting the diaper laundry done.  I do a cold wash or a cold rinse first (depending on how dirty the diapers in the wash are), followed by a wash in hot water.  I use maybe 1/2 the detergent you’d normally use (and I’m using Purex Free and Clear, which comes recommended and is so far working really well for me).  I finish up with another cold rinse before putting the diapers in the dryer on medium heat.  I take the prorap covers out and let them air dry.  I also take out anything that has a stain on it.  All you need to do is let that lie or hang in the sun and the stain will be gone.  BELIEVE ME, IT’S TRUE.  And that’s it, ya’ll.  It’s that easy.  I stuff the pocket diapers with their inserts when they come out of the dryer, fold up the washcloths we’re using as wipes and put them in the container and stack up the fleece liners and prefolds and I’m ready to go.  It is as easy as that.

Today’s cloth diapering is all about convenience.  Well, convenience and cute patterns, soft fabrics and adorable designs.  But convenience and functionality most of all.  In the immortal words of Alka-Seltzer and Kathy Griffen, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

Tags: cloth diaper, One-size, Pocket, prefolds, prorap

As I said, we’re very new to this whole cloth diapering thing.  New, but EXCITED.  Or, actually, I am.  My husband is mildly interested.  But, considering Evie wore only ’sposies on Mother’s Day when it was his job to change her diapers all day, I’m guessing he has some catching up to do.  Then again, he might be more interested once we get more “convenient” diapers in our stash.

Yesterday, Evie spent the day in infant prefolds (folded with the “bikini twist fold”), a homemade fleece liner and prorap covers.  I thought it went pretty well.  We only had one pee leak early on in the day and I think that was because I hadn’t made sure that all of the prefold was tucked into the prorap.  Oops!  I also think I need to perfect my fastening technique.  I think I’ve been making it too tight for the little dear as she has, at times, seemed uncomfortable.  And, well, the prefolds aren’t as comfortable as they could be.  I think they could stand a few more washings.

We put her in a BG 3.0 for bedtime and that worked great.  Not even the barest hint of a leak all night long.  And she had a significant poop overnight that I wasn’t even aware of until I changed her diaper this morning.  Whoops!   But I don’t think she’d sat in it for too long, which is good.  I was impressed that the diaper held up as well as it had.  Just as impressed as I was Saturday night she wore a BG 3.0 to the drive-in and had an Epic Poop and it was easily contained.  Now that’s something even your average ’sposie has trouble with!

I did some laundry last night and washed the pail liner I’d purchased at Walmart with the diapers.  Unfortunately, it was a pretty cheap liner.  It bled blue dye on the microfiber inserts and some of the prefolds.  To top it off, a big hole tore open in the side during the wash cycle.  Ugh.  That’s what I get for being cheap.  So I went over to Diaper Swappers and got a Wahmies pail liner off of FSOT.  It’s what I should have done in the first place.

***

In other news, I got an email this morning that gDiapers has released their new little g pants.  The new colors are Golly Molly Pink, Grasshopper Green and Goodnight Blue.  They look really cute, too!  Also, you get get flushable liners for 10% off for the next three days only.  That’s definitely a good stock up opportunity!

Tags: bumGenius, Diaper Swappers, Epic Poop, FSOT, gDiapers, little g, new, prefolds, prorap, sale, Wahmies