Welcome to my chronicles in experimenting! Here are my initial thoughts on:
CLOTH DIAPERING
NEWBORN CLOTH DIAPERING--after the fact:
Babe is 6 weeks old now, so we're almost through with the "Newborn" diapering stage. Here's what I've learned:- Prefold diapers, when wet, STAY very wet against his skin until the diap is changed. Result = the peeling skin sort of diaper rash, poor guy. As soon as we switched to the big boy One Size pocket diapers, his skin healed. YAY!
- GroVia All-In-One newborn diapers, since they're 100% cotton inside, have the same effect on his skin because there's nothing to wick the moisture away.
- Diaper rash: Coconut oil is supposed to be CD safe for diaper rash (others like Desitin, Butt Paste, etc DO NOT USE on cloth diapers as it stains and makes them lose absorbency). I bought some at Trader Joe's for about $5. Unfortunately, coconut oil when lathered on little man's heiny does nothing for him. So, we a.) put him in disposables and lather Desitin on him, or b.) use a disposable liner in the CD and lather Desitin on him. Desitin seems to work really well for the lad.
- Get A Diaper Sprayer!! Washing is a nightmare if you don't rinse off the poop first. I had heard that you don't need to rinse newborn diaps cause their poop dissolves in water. Well, not my newborn's!! So to avoid poop all over my washer, my hubby installed on our toilet a diaper sprayer I got from Amazon and now we spray off the dirty diapers & put them in the diaper pail we keep in the bathroom: a little hamper with a lid, lined with a FuzziBunz Wet Bag meant to hang on a doorknob - these are great!
TYPES OF DIAPERS WE'VE TRIED:
We bought some used, some new of both Pocket Diapers and All-in-One (AIO) diapers to test out various brands. I already knew I wanted all "One Size" and all Snaps, not velcro/aplix, because snaps last longer & look better.Pocket Diapers:
Connor fit in them after he was a little over a month old...we had to wait till he got chunky enough thighs for the legs holes to not hang open. We ordered some new SunBaby brand and have a few other brands we're trying that we bought used.
----FuzziBunz, I thought I'd love these and I do, but I only have 1 used one as my sample. I love how trim and non bulky it is, but I hate how the 1 I have is so hard to stuff because my hand gets caught on the sticky PUL. Also a snap came off and the diaper leaks every time, so I stopped using it. Buy these new if you can help it!
----HappyHeiny, they're OK but are bulkier. Used. I need to replace elastic.
----BlueBerry, also got used and also are bulkier. Also need elastic replaced, so I havent' been using them much.
----Kawaii, I bought 4 Good Night Heavy Wetter diapers because Connor started peeing a ton as he got older. The outer layer on these is 3x thicker than normal. These are very bulky and I suggest using folded prefold diapers tstuffed inside because the microfiber inserts it comes with don't do much after a while.
All-In-One Diapers:
I thought I'd love these better than pocket diaps since pockets have an insert to stuff & remove before washing. BUT, they're actually generally a pain to spray off in the toilet with all the stupid flaps flying around, and I actually prefer Pocket diapers.----GroVia are expensive and 100% cotton, so they stay very wet against Babe's skin which we already discussed is a big DISLIKE. Another dislike is that his poop is like absorbed into the cotton so it seems to stain quite easily and is hard to spray off in the toilet. We sun bleach them to get them un-stained.
----BumGenius Freetime. I actually really like this one so far, I love the colors, but they're a bit expensive. Also, my mom has reported that she hates it because it was a nightmare to spray off when there was a big poopy diaper. It does have flaps which are a pain to spray since the poop gets on the underside of them, but I haven't had any trouble with it so far. We only have 1 of these to sample.
Prefold Diapers:
These are the "old fashioned" cloth diapers you use pins on or Snappies. Good news is they're cheap! To use these full-time you'll need a good couple dozen. We have 30 and it seemed perfect for when he was a Newborn, which is why we bought them. You need a cover with these. We got some covers off Craigslist for $3-$4 each. You only need like 4 probably. We have 7, brands include Thirties (love) and Bummis (like, got tight quickly), and some others I don't remember. These were great to use while he was too small to fit into One Size diaps, but I have to admit I'm glad to not use these anymore!WHERE I BOUGHT THE DIAPERS:
- Craigslist is awesome! I typed in "cloth diaper" and "cloth diapers" and found all of the Newborn prefold diapers & covers there being sold by various local moms.- Facebook Co-ops abound, just ask me for the name of my favorite (can't post publically per their rules). They get discounted/wholesale prices by a bunch of people going in together to buy a large quantity of items. This co-op and some others love SunBaby & Alva diaper buys (both made in & shipped from China, so are very cheap).
- Amazon for the brand new ones I wanted to try...no price break here.
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