First, our reasoning was doing cloth diapers was probably 55% for environmentally conscious reasons. Over 20 billion diapers are used in the US a year with most of those ending up in landfills. These diapers will take 500 years to decompose... just gross! The other 45% was for cost and health benefits of cloth diapers.
I didn't know what to expect with cloth diapers and I was wary of trying to figure it out with a newborn. We decided to get a cloth diaper service for the first three months, so we could get used to the cloth routine without having to wash them. We used Do Good Diaper service and it was really great. Their diapers were cotton prefolds and Thristies covers. They picked up the dirty diapers and dropped off clean ones on our front porch. So easy! We couldn't justify keeping the service after our three months ended, but it was so convenient for us.
Diaper Stash: Once we started using our own diapers, our stash started out with a few different brands. For pocket diapers, we had mostly Charlie Banana with a few Tiny Tush and Fuzzi Bunz. We also had Flip one size covers and the Flip stay dry inserts. We quickly realized that Maddie had a sensitivity to suedecloth, the material Flip inserts are made of. Thankfully we had bought those from Cotton Babies and they let us return them all! I'd say that the Charlie Banana are by far our favorite pocket diaper. They have easily adjustable elastic in the legs and we haven't had any leak issues. They aren't bulky compared to other diapers and they also seem to hold up really well with all the washing!
I eventually decided to order organic cotton prefolds from Green Mountain to use in the Flip covers we had. I had gotten used to prefolds with the diaper service and cotton prefolds are so easy to get really clean. I don't why I didn't get these sooner! Our nanny still uses the pocket diapers because they are so easy, but we have increased our stash of prefolds because Ben and I actually both prefer to use them.
Pre-solids Diapering: Washing the diapers with a breastmilk fed baby in the summer was so easy. Just throw all the diapers in the washer (even the poopy ones) and wash. Yes, that sounds gross, but breastmilk is water soluble so they get super clean and it doesn't ruin your washer. Trust me! After the diapers were washed we'd hang them on the clothesline we strung on our deck. Any sort of stain magically disappears in the sun and the sun is great for the extra sanitizing as well. We use a plastic diaper bin with a lid lined with Planet Wise or Kanga diaper pail liners. Any plastic trash pail would work for this though. To get the diapers in the washer you just take the whole liner out and dump the diapers in without having to touch them. The pail liner gets washed along with the diapers too.
Post Solids Diapering: Once Maddie started eating solids, the washing routine had to change slightly. Now all of the diapers had to be sprayed off because poop no longer was water soluble. We have a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet, so it is pretty simple to spray off the dirty diapers. After some trial and error we got a good system down (aka don't have the sprayer on high or water gets all over the bathroom!).
So now onto the actual washing cycle...
On our front loader we wash the diapers in three loads.
1. First cycle is a rinse: Cold express wash with no spin and the heaviest possible soil. Since we have a front loader we keep it on no spin to get the most water in there. If I am washing a smaller load of diapers I add a towel to make sure there is enough weight to get a good rinse.
2. Second load is the main wash: Whitest Whites on hot with no spin and heavy soil. This is the load where I add detergent. We started out using Rockin Green diaper detergent, but have switched to original Tide powder in the past few months. Both worked great, but I think that Tide actually gets them cleaner. (I've heard some babies can have sensitivity to the enzymes in Tide, but we haven't seen any issues)
3. The last load is another rinse: Cold express wash with medium spin and heavy soil. This load is to make sure all of the detergent gets out, so you'd probably be fine with a shorter rinse as well.
4. I always hang the covers to dry, either outside or in the laundry room. The inserts and prefolds are thrown in the dryer or hung outside in the summer.
We started out washing the diapers every other day when Maddie went through more diapers, but now wash on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. No washing on weekends anymore! :)
Piece of cake, right?! We had a quick bout with a yeast diaper rash that threw a wrench in things and caused us to be in disposables for a bit, but overall have had a super easy time with cloth.
I felt so overwhelmed with all the information before I started, but once you get your own routine down it is so easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment