Cloth diapering updated.

Now that the little one’s almost 9 months old {how is that possible!?}, I thought it might be good to do a cloth diapering update.

Amount of diapers

I think I have about 27 diapers and about 32 inserts. {Check back to this post for all the details on purchasing them & reasoning for using them.} I work from home half the time and from the office the other half, so realistically I don’t have time to do laundry every day. I wash diapers about every three days now. When the little one was younger, she went through more diapers so I was doing it about every other day. My routine still works well, but I did add an extra pre-rinse to my wash cycle because they were getting a little stinky/leaky {see below.} I store the dirty diapers in a kitchen style trash can and when it’s full, we do a load of the entire diapers including inserts together: pre-rinse, wash with 1/4 of the usual amount of detergent {I use a free & clear, but I bet there’s a better type to use, I just haven’t figured it out}, regular cycle, and then extra rinse at the end. After that, I hang them up to dry. In the Summer, I hung them outside {oh how I miss this!}, but when it’s not nice out I hang them on a drying rack in our spare bedroom. They usually dry overnight. I also usually have diapers drying {or hanging waiting to be folded} on the drying rack at all times, ha!

I think we have plenty. If I had more time to do laundry, I could easily get away with less diapers. As far as the variety {I bought 3 types, look at the post linked above for details} I like the Awesome Blossom best, the it’s probably a tie for the Assunta and the Bonnibuns. The Assunta were so affordable, but the Bonnibuns are easier to rinse when dirty and easier to assemble/fold.

The little one likes to play with our laundry baskets…often yelling at them. {Who knows.} She also loves playing with the clean diaper covers, especially the buttons.

Accessories

I have two wet bags for my diaper bag to use when we’re out and about for the dirty/wet. Both wet bags go in the wash with the diapers. The Assunta store gave me a free wet with my order…how kind! I bought another kind that has a plastic lining. I like the Assunta type better – dries way quicker.

The diaper sprayer {I have the Bumgenius variety} is an absolute MUST. I wouldn’t attempt cloth diapering without it. We have one in our nursery bathroom and one at Eugene’s mom’s since she has the little one a few days a week. When the babe was little, it was so helpful to rinse the dirty ones. Now that she’s on solids it’s not as necessary because you can mostly just shake the diapers into the toilet, but I still use the sprayer on every dirty diaper.

Fleece liners

The little one gets some diaper rash every now and then. If you use diaper cream on cloth diapers, it ruins their absorbency. To avoid this, I cut some extra fleece fabric in rectangles the same size as the inserts. I can then slather on the diaper cream {usually at night}, then the fleece liner goes on her skin, then the diaper. All of it goes into the wash together. Easy peasy.

Nighttime

For a while, the little one was waking up at 2 am every night and it seemed all she wanted was to be changed. I was double stuffing her nighttime diapers. We switched to disposables for the nights to see if that would help; however, she still woke up. Apparently she really doesn’t like a wet diaper. {Can’t say I blame her!} Lately, I’ve been triple stuffing the cloth diapers at night. Those suckers look like a big fat towel around her, but it worked! She hasn’t been waking up to be changed. I’m glad I have the extra microfiber inserts {bought from Assunta} because they have come in really handy. I may buy a few more just to have for the future.

Stripping the diapers

A little while ago the diapers started leaking and smelling a bit. Sometimes the diapers get a build up from the detergent, minerals in the water, or just from the urine. Our water’s has a lot of rust, so it didn’t surprise me that they were leaking already.

I researched and asked around for different ways to strip cloth diapers. My sister has used the “Dawn method” a few times, and she found it successful. Since we bought a new high efficiency washer & dryer this year, I didn’t trust the dish soap in them. I read a few posts online that said the Dawn was fine and a few others that said it messed up their machine. Wasn’t worth the risk to me, so I threw the clean diapers into the bath tub with some really hot water {as hot as possible} and about 2 tablespoons of the classic blue dawn dish soap. I used my hand-dandy pasta spoon to stir them well. I let them soak about two hours, stirring them around every so often. After they soaked, I rinsed them out by hand as well as possible and then transferred them to my washing machine. I ran at least two normal wash cycles {but without detergent added} for my diapers: pre-rinse, wash, and extra rinse at the end.

I could immediately tell a difference after they had been stripped. They smelled better, felt better, and worked better. Success!

We still use disposables when we leave the little one in the church nursery, or when we’re out and about and it’s too inconvenient to pack the cloth. Now that the little one’s crawling and standing and moving more, her diapers leak every now and then around her legs. I think a lot of that issue is the fit of the diapers. When I get them on snug, they don’t usually leak.

All-in-all, I’m still absolutely loving cloth diapering. I’m so glad we made the decision to give it a try!