A friend of mine, Sophie, has started her cloth diapering journey and would like to share her experience thus far with some of my other readers. I've also included a little feedback to some of her comments! :) I hope some of you new cloth diapering mommies find this information useful.
While I am still a cloth diapering novice – I’ve only been completely in cloth for a little over 2 weeks I’m definitely glad we decided to go this route. Alicia has been so awesome to share her wealth of knowledge and my husband was surprisingly agreeable to the idea so we decided that cloth diapering was the route to go. I started to build my stash and decided on 3 different brands to try out. BumGenius, Kawaii and SmartiPants. I created a diaper registry online and started telling people our plan to cloth diaper. Some people were supportive of the idea…many were not, but I had no problem putting people in their place. This was mine and my husband’s decision and the unwarranted opinions definitely got irritating, but I was sticking to my guns. Like Alicia, I decided to start out in prefolds and then move to pockets when the baby was big enough. I got a little bit of a late start with the prefolds because my baby was having trouble feeding. We had to make sure he was getting at least 12 wet and 6 poopy diapers per day. I decided I didn’t want to transition from disposables until we were sure he was getting what he needed and his output was what it should be. After the baby was peeing and pooping like a champ I decided I was ready to embark on the prefold journey.
The problem was the covers I got. There was no cut out for the umbilical cord so the cover kept rubbing against it and irritating it. So I decided he would remain in disposables until the cord fell off. It took only 2 weeks (the pediatrician said that was early). I had received a prefold package from diaperjunction.com. It contained 24 unbleached cotton prefolds and 3 bummis whisper wrap covers. It was around $85 and I thought this was a great deal. Well unfortunately, you get what you pay for. I didn’t care for the covers at all. The fabric was stiff, it wasn’t easy to clean and like I already mentioned there was no cut out for the umbilical cord. Thankfully, I had a rumparooz cover that I had received as a gift. That cover was
a lot better. Fabric was softer and there was a cut out for the cord.
Alicia - We had a great experience with the Thirsties Duo Wraps. They have an umbilical cord cut out and double layered leg gussets to keep contents contained within the shell and not on you and your baby's clothing. They wipe clean and had a great fit for Marissa.
I decided to go with the
angel wing fold for the prefold. I will say I wasn’t a fan of the prefold process. My baby doesn’t do well with diaper changes. He gets really fussy (unless he’s about to pee on me ). So trying to hold him still while doing the fold was difficult. Also, I found he had a lot more diaper rashes simply because the urine wasn’t being drawn away from the skin and I was constantly changing his pants because the diaper leaked constantly. I wasn’t leaving him in the diapers for hours. I changed him every hour to two hours and was still having these problems. I’m not sure what the problem was. Maybe my fold was crappy or maybe it’s because you get what you pay for, but the prefolds were getting tighter so I decided it was time to transition to the pockets.
Alicia - I'm not going to lie, prefolds are a learning process. And I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I think Danny was better at it than I was (he was also a pro at swaddling Marissa, he must have a knack for that sort of thing!). Anyway, youtube videos are very helpful and different folds work for different babies. The angel wing worked great for Marissa and with our Thirsties covers we rarely had a leak or blow out. I also highly suggest using a Snappi with the prefold. They help hold the diaper together and contain everything.
As far as the rashes go...if your baby has super sensitive skin, you may want to line your prefolds with a fleece liner to help wick away moisture. You can easily (and cheaply) make these with cut up pieces of scrap fleece either found at the craft store or an old blanket or fleece jacket you no longer use.
You can also use a cloth diaper friendly rash cream to create a barrier on the skin, Grandma El's is a great one to use and I have also grown to love CJs BUTTer. You have to remember that the outside world is all new for your baby and you may find some skin sensitivities along the way (Marissa had baby acne, cradle cap, an occasional diaper rash...pretty much the works, just within her first month or two of life). Keep an eye on any rashes that may occur. Especially since your baby has likely not started solid foods yet, it could be anything from the formula he is on, something you've eaten if you are breast feeding, too much detergent (remember to rinse diapers until you see no soap bubbles in the wash) or it could be a sensitivity to the cloth diaper detergent you are using. It can be tricky to rule these sensitivities out, but with a little digging you should be able to (literally) clear your baby's bum up!
Back to Sophie... =)
I love the pockets!! What a
HUGE difference. The diaper rash has gone away and I haven’t had any leaks. I just started with the pockets this week so I’m still trying to decide which brand I prefer.
Alicia - I will say that Sophie is lucky that her barely 1 month old baby boy is already fitting in his pocket diapers! Marissa was closer to 3 months before she was big enough (most one sized pocket diapers recommend 10-12 pounds before use). So again, keep in mind that all babies are different and what may work for one person may not work for another.
If I had to rank them now I would rank them in the following order:
1. BumGenius 4.0
2. Blueberry/Swaddlebees – I got this as a gift at my shower. I like the hemp insert that came with it.
Note: Hemp inserts are more absorbant than microfiber! These are great for heavy wetters and for use in night time diapers.
3. Baby Kicks – I got this as a freebie from Kelly’s closet. It’s hard to stuff, but it fits really well because my boy has skinny legs.
4. Kawaii
5. SmartiPants
I would love a follow up on how Sophie's preferences change as her little man grows. Since most of the diapers she is using are one size, meaning she can use them from 10-35 pounds, it will be interesting to see how he grows and what diapers have the best fit.
I do the majority of my ordering from
Kelly’s Closet. It’s so easy to get free diapers (they have an awesome points system) and I love the free shipping. I have 2 kinds of wipes I am using. I love the babykicks hemp washies. They absorb the wipe solution right away and they are nice and soft. They also hold up well in the wash. The other wipes I have are just flannel wipes. While these were cheaper they aren’t as absorbent. I have only had them a short time and some have already started to fall apart in the washing machine. I have also been using the baby bum drops for my wipe solution. I put it in a spray bottle. I think it smells great and I think it’s nice on his skin. I have been using Grandma El’s with every diaper change and it is keeping diaper rash at bay.
My washing machine doesn’t have a pre rinse cycle so I decided to get a diaper sprayer. The jury is still out on whether that was worth the money. The poop has left some stains, but the diapers are coming out nice and clean. I plan to put the diapers out in the sun to bleach out the stains.
Alicia - Fact: Poop Stains! Especially breast fed babies' poop. While it can be annoying to look at, it in no way impacts the effectiveness or cleanness of your diapers. The sun does work wonders on stains (put them in the sun clean but wet) and I've noticed that prefolds stain much worse than my pocket diapers. Also, using a fleece liner helps protect your diapers from staining. Seriously, I can't recommend fleece liners enough.
Overall, I am enjoying my CDing experience and I’m excited to continue to add to my stash!! Also, a great tip when changing boys is to throw a wash cloth over him so you don’t get sprayed!!! Even though my boy is a kicker the wash cloth has saved me multiple times!
Thanks so much for making a guest appearance on my blog, Sophie! I hope that you enjoy your journey in the CD world and continue to spread the love one fluffy butt at a time! ;)
Q&A's??
