I am about to start cloth diapering (finally!) and I need all the help I can get!
We will be using BumGenius One Size 4.0, plus a couple Fuzzibunz. We have a mix of velcro and snaps.
We have ordered this diaper pail and pail liner. We also ordered the diaper sprayer that hooks up to the back of the toilet.
I think we are going to use Allen's Naturally detergent, although we have not bought any yet. I might order some Rockin Green too.
The thing I have no clue about is washing. Help! Any and all information/advice you can give is welcome!
You have to wash them before you start using them, right? More than one time?
Then once they are dirty, what is a typical wash cycle like? I have a top loading washer that is about 8 years old.
Do you hang the diapers to dry or put them in the dryer?
Oh, and one last thing-- What about wipes? What kind do you use? Do you just run them under water before using? Do you use a wipe solution? Make your own? Put them in a wipe container and keep them moist all day? Or do you use a wipe warmer?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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I will answer what I can, but I highly recommend Baby Center's cloth diapering board as they know everything!!! You can find it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://community.babycenter.com/groups/a16235/cloth_diapering
Personally, I use disposable wipes and BumGenius diapers. I only washed mine once to prepare them. My wash cycle is:
*Cold Rinse (I use the delicate cycle because my front loader does not have a rinse cycle)
*Hot wash with Charlie's Soap
*Extra Rinse
I line dry them most of the time but about once a month I toss them in the dryer to fluff them up a bit. I have some BG organics that have an insert looking thing sewn in and I dry them in the dryer every time or they get really stiff. My other BGs line dry just fine though.
Hope that helps!!!
I've been using cloth for almost three years and I've tried a little bit of everything. I have BG 2.0 and 3.0 they've lasted through 2 kids and I've been really happy with them. I too had an older top-loading washer.
ReplyDeleteWe washed with cold water and similar detergents to the ones you selected. When waiting to do a load we left the used diapers in a pail dry (we rinsed them but didn't soak in water till running the wash).
After a while they started to hold the smell so we added a pre-wash cycle with Thirstees Pre-wash which has worked really well!
Sometimes we line-dry by mostly we use the dryer.
If you wash them once before using them that should be enough.
It's hard to get the hand of assembling them at first so I put them together after a wash, not when I needed it which was overwhelming to me.
I bought a package or two of cheap washcloths at Target (or similar) and wet them before use. I've also used Huggies disposable wipes, but newborn poop is better cleaned up with cloth it seems.
I cheat and use disposables on day trips, vacations etc. I used to feel guilty about that, but I got over it ;-)
The best advice about cloth is: (like parenting) everyone does Cloth differently and as long as what you do works for your family- just keep at it!
Enjoy that precious boy and his soon-to-be fluffy bottom!!
I'll let you know what we do... but you'll get a system that works out for you.
ReplyDeleteI wash once before using, except for anything that is natural fibers (ie Hemp), as they need about 4-5 wash/dry cycles to reach full absorbancy (we use hemp doublers for nighttime only).
I have a top loader and wash on hot with an extra rinse cycle. We put in the dryer and then hang in the sun to bleach once in a while when the sun is out.
I made my own wipes, but didn't use them too long. When I did use them though, I had a stack on the changing table and then a squirt bottle with solution in it. I'd just pour onto the wipes as needed and throw them into the pail to be washed with the diapers.
CD is totally overwhelming to get started, but then afte a while you're like "Ah! I get it... and this is what works for me."
Good luck, you'll love it... it's so much fun!
I worked for a firefighter once and he told me to never, ever use a wipe warmer...that's all I got :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about actually using cloth diapers yet but diaperpin .com is a good site for info!
ReplyDeleteWe do things the easy way (we do combined disposable and cloth).
ReplyDeleteWash is cold water soak, hot water wash with soap, hot water rinse. If the load is EXTRA yucky, we might do one extra wash with soap in there. We mostly dry in the dryer, and lay them out in the sun when stains get bad (seriously magic how that works).
We mostly use disposable wipes--for some reason my husband is fine with the diapers, but wigs out over the cloth wipes, go figure.
We opted for the old fashioned prefolds:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.naturalbums.com/bumshop-pages/perfolds.html
We had to wash them 6 times. We ended up buying 48 of the smaller size and 36 of the larger. We bought 4 dozen cloth wipes form diapers.com and a cheapy wet bag. We also bought Lite Wrap diaper covers:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=1445
We ended up purchasing about 6 of each size. So all in all I think we spent under $400. We had wash the diaper every other day and ended up liking Seventh Generation liquid laundry soap the most, go figure. We washed them hot and dried them hot, they are a little stained but you just kinda throw them outside on the a sunny day and it fades, lol.
It took 10 days to potty train our daughter at 21 months old. I love our stuff and it will all work great for our next kids minus the wet bag but we might end up doing something else this time. If your looking for decent cloth diaper reviews I recommend www.diaperpin.com also www.diaperswappers.com will let you swap and buy some used stuff to try out. Next year you'll totally have to sign up for this...
http://www.diaperdecisions.com/pages/greatclothdiaperhunt.php
If you have any questions about other stuff we used or tried shoot me an email any time. mypottyseat@gmail.com
I'm a lurker, but have someone to refer you too. She has blogged a lot about cloth diapering and washing. Here is her blog address. http://ashopkin.blogspot.com/ Check it out. She uses applecheeks and fuzzibuns. She also has comments about natural detergents. You might have to dig a little in her blog to find it.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing. But I support you in this venture! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a loser when it comes to cloth diapers not having used them but as for wipes, I used little wash cloths and warmed them under running warm water for about the first 6 months. Now that he's running all over, I use wipes & change him standing up (been doing that since he was 8 months). I've never warmed wipes and oddly never used bum cream either. He never got diaper rash.
ReplyDeleteI will be starting to use cloth diapers in a couple months so I don't have much to offer you from my own personal experience *but* my friend uses them and she swears by this diaper cream. You can't use Desitin so she recommends the Earth Mama Angel Baby Bottom Balm.
ReplyDeleteI hope it works out for you! Happy ICLW!
http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Mama-Angel-Baby-2-Ounce/dp/B001J6O6B8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1290454212&sr=8-3
Cloth diapers are the best! I used fitteds and woolies because we kept getting stink issues with synthetic fibers. Try getting samples of a couple detergents to try before investing in a full bottle. We ended up using Country Save and it worked wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteWe love our BG 3.0s. I have a fancy washing machine, so I do a prewash, sanitize cycle, and then rinse three times because I use a standard detergent (Tide Free). The super crunchy moms I know cringe at it but with limited storage space, I'm not willing to buy more than one detergent for the family. I put the inserts in the dryer but dry the covers on the three baby gates I have set up around the house. In the summer I dry everything outside and don't have to use the super-heated sanitize cycle because the sun takes care of odors. I find the Cotton Babies blog a great source of info.
ReplyDelete