silly question! cloth diapering. - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[Martha83]

it's more work to NOT use cloth wipes...cause you gotta make sure you dont roll up wipes in the diapers LOL..whereas the cloth wipes dont matter :) AND they rock for wash clothes too!

[MaineCoastMama]

Bambi-I had a similar situation when I posted about my new stash of cloth diapers on Facebook- yea, I couldn't avoid my parents on there. My dad was totally reminiscing about cloth diapering 30 years ago- rubber pants, all that! He was like, we gave up on that with our second child. I was like Dad, they've come a long long way!

[bambihelton]

I actually thought about just getting a bunch of inexpensive baby wash cloths to use for wipes. They just seem easy on the hiney and they're not expensive anyway. It's not like they won't last forever. 

Haha, MaineCoastMama, I know exactly what you mean! I have avoided making anything facebook official because I don't want to hear the grief. BUT I meant to tell you at some point that somewhere on here, you had mentioned that you made your own jewelry and had your etsy posted on here or something. I looked at it... I'm definitely ordering a few things sometime soon! I'm in love! 

[1babysmom]

Originally Posted by bambihelton 

I actually thought about just getting a bunch of inexpensive baby wash cloths to use for wipes. They just seem easy on the hiney and they're not expensive anyway. It's not like they won't last forever. 
 

That's what I did, I actually bought the dollar store packs and serged 2 together per wipe so they were a little thicker. 

I'm actually one who uses sposie wipes more than I do cloth wipes! 

[MaineCoastMama]

Originally Posted by bambihelton 

I actually thought about just getting a bunch of inexpensive baby wash cloths to use for wipes. They just seem easy on the hiney and they're not expensive anyway. It's not like they won't last forever. 

Haha, MaineCoastMama, I know exactly what you mean! I have avoided making anything facebook official because I don't want to hear the grief. BUT I meant to tell you at some point that somewhere on here, you had mentioned that you made your own jewelry and had your etsy posted on here or something. I looked at it... I'm definitely ordering a few things sometime soon! I'm in love! 

My hubby has a favored "homemade" disposable wipe "recipe" that he used with his daughter, so I'm gonna see how that goes. We may just find the cloth wipes to fit better with the cloth diapers, though!

Thanks about my jewelry- it's a huge joy for me.  It's also what I hope enables me to stay home for the baby's first year. So thanks for your kind, kind words!:)

[Martha83]

I do like sposie wipes for things like boogers and cleaning up when we are out of the house....but for cloth diapers I find it easeir to use cloth wipes.

[Munchkin08]

Hi All,

We too want to CD. I find all of the different products overwhelming - esp since the general consensus seems to be "it depends." I want to make sure that we are all set with what we need when our first is born, but not too much so that we cant change to another product. I found the gDiaper NB kit online (with mixed reviews). But also really like the BumGenius All in One Snap Diapers. What confuses me the most is what inserts to use with these products? (I too dont want to flush the gDiaper but just use the covers). And then - how much to buy/register for?

Thnx, 

[firespiritmelody]

My personal experience with the gdiaper covers is that they really don't work that well and the velcro is backwards which is weird. I would personally not recommend buying those "just for the covers" as there are lots of cover options that are similarly priced that will work better. Thirsties covers are really inexpensive and simple to use. They're not the fanciest or anything but they work and are a nice product to start out with while you figure everything else out. It doesn't get more basic then prefolds with a cover. My recommendation would be to start with that and buy a couple AIOs/pockets that look promising and go from there. Prefolds make great burp cloths, inserts/doublers for nights or long car trips etc and even wash cloths so they wont go to "waste" even if you decide you like a different diaper style better.

[Munchkin08]

One thing I noticed about the gDiapers that I had previously overlooked was that they are velcro. Whereas the bumgenius are snaps. (Which makes me lean towards the bum genius product). Any thoughts on this factor? Whats the difference between the pre fold/insert/duo etc.?

[MaineCoastMama]

I thought I liked snaps but then I was looking at these really sweet Good Night Mama diapers I have, and the backing of the snaps on the top row looks like it goes right against the baby's belly. Can anyone clarify? Maybe the inserts come up far enough to make a barrier? This makes me wonder a little bit and want to lean toward velcro.

[MaineCoastMama]

Munchkin, I have heard better things about Bumgenius than gDiapers. I was first really intrigued by gDiapers because the whole disposable/biodegradable/flushable liner thing, but...It is starting to sound like gDiapers are the McDonalds of the cloth diaper world? Cheap, convenient, but maybe not the best quality.

[1babysmom]

gDiapers CAN work for a lot of people, but IME, if you're going to be doing full cloth anyway, you might as well go with another option.  I liked them for smaller babies (I made fleece pockets that I stuffed with microfiber towels for them), but I ended up selling them all because I just preferred "normal" cloth diapers.  They seem to work well for people who don't want to deal with all the washing, though.

As for velcro vs snaps, I like them both for certain things.  Velcro is a pain in the rear over time, as it builds up gunk and has to be cleaned out or loses it's effectiveness.  But I find velcro MUCH easier to get a custom fit for baby.  Snaps are much nicer and more reliable, especially in the long run, but because they are set, sometimes they are harder to fit well on a super skinner (or super chunky) baby.

The best velcro tabbed diapers we had were BumWare Extreme AIO's.  They stayed super strong, even when "gunked" up.  Best snaps have been Fuzzi Bunz, many of mine have lasted the full 6 years/3 kids of diapering. (I've NEVER had a snap problem. Have had to replace some elastic on my oldest ones but that's it)

[bambihelton]

I went ahead and ordered two gDiapers in a small, one pack of snap-in liners, and cloth inserts. The concept of them seem so convenient to me. But I have decided to just buy several of this kind and that kind to figure out what is going to work best for me.. 

I'm glad to have some reviews from you all, though! I guess I will see what works best for me. On another note, I don't see how much more convenient prefolds could get with just a diaper cover and an insert. That seems awesome! 

[firespiritmelody]

Originally Posted by bambihelton On another note, I don't see how much more convenient prefolds could get with just a diaper cover and an insert. That seems awesome! 

Maybe it's just me but I could never get passed the fact that the velcro is backwards. It was awkward to get it right, felt like I was putting the diaper on backwards lol. I had to check the directions about 10 times to be sure I wasn't missing something!! You might love them though, so don't take my word for it!! You've got to try everything and see what you like, what you don't and WHY.

[cagnew]

Has anyone CD'd with a front-loading washer? I've heard that it can be a pain to get the diapers rinsed out because the front-loaders don't use enough water.

I CD'ed for awhile with baby #2 and then switched back to disposables because it WAS easier. Then I gave my entire CD stash to someone who had just gotten pg, had nothing, and was in a bad situation. I admit... I mildly regret that now... it was a lot of diapers, many of which weren't used much. Oh well. I hope they helped her out a lot :)

I am considering doing CD's again if I can come up with the money (that's a big "if" since we are flat broke), but I am concerned about my washer. The last thing I want is diapers that smell because they aren't rinsed enough. And I am not interested in having to add any extra steps to the whole washing process to get them totally rinsed. This will be baby #4 and my oldest is only 5 so the last thing I need is more work....

[camprunner]

I CD with a front loading machine and it's all we've ever had except for the first week of my oldest's life (at which time the washing machine conveniently broke :) ).

We do a short cold wash (on our new machine, it's an express wash).  Then we do a hot or sanitizing wash with soap  and an extra rinse or two.

Now that our new machine is raised off the ground, it's easier.  The lower one was much harder to get dirty diapers into with touching them by hand.

[bambihelton]

Originally Posted by firespiritmelody 

Maybe it's just me but I could never get passed the fact that the velcro is backwards. It was awkward to get it right, felt like I was putting the diaper on backwards lol. I had to check the directions about 10 times to be sure I wasn't missing something!! You might love them though, so don't take my word for it!! You've got to try everything and see what you like, what you don't and WHY.

I might have a little bit of trouble with that too, actually. I've never been a mama before, but I've changed lots of diapers. And there's just a certain fashion in which your hands move to get things done quickly. Lol... I guess I should start diapering some stuffed animals and see if it works! 

[1babysmom]

Actually, there is kind of a benefit to the backwards velcro thing...babies can't as easily undo them.  I have some friends who went to g's solely because their little ones were taking off their diapers, and it solved the problem! LOL

[Martha83]

I did prefer my TL normal machine to my FL for diapers. But my routine seems to work ok. I put them in and rinse....then I do a soak (the heavier they are the more water they'll use so I do a soak so they are sopping wet and weigh more)....then I do a heavy duty on hot with second rinse. Then I do an express wash after that. Takes a lot of time but I feel they are nice and clean when I do it that way. I also have some RLR that helps with build up that I use occasionally....I need to get more then my plan is to use it once a month or once every other month....it does help.

Anyway...this is what I do. It works for us. Just wish I had a spot for  TL to use just for diapers LOL...

[momma-bear]

I'll admit I haven't read every post on this thread. So, my apologies if someone has already suggested the following. All the women in my family have used cloth diapers and my MIL even sewed her own. But this is my first pregnancy, I am notoriously lacking in domestic skills and we are expecting twins! I was also a bit overwhelmed by all the choices for diapering "systems" when I started looking into different brands. I found some great you tube videos on using prefolds. It was kinda of like learning to make origami swans. Basically you can use different folds with a single size of diaper as your baby grows. But we received a wonderful surprise for our baby shower! A few women got together and purchased us a diaper service for the first 3 months with the babies. I looked into it and the price is still considerably cheaper than using disposables. They use gentle diaper friendly soaps and the industrial washers actually use less water per diaper than our at home machine. (A plus since we live in the desert.) All we have to do is flush or throw out the solid waste and set the diapers out once a week for pick-up. The best part is we can order a different size each month. So we will be purchasing a few diaper covers and later on some prefolds. But those first few months of constant feedings and changing will be easier. Just an idea if people are offering to spend money on disposables for you anyway but you want to go with cloth. Good luck!