Yes, I Cloth Diaper (Part 3)

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

So here it is, the final post to wrap up Yes, I Cloth Diaper. If you missed any, you can see them all here.

Around the time Lucas was 6 months old, I bought more prefolds. They are actually the same size as the Orange edged ones, just wider, which makes them easier to wrap around him. We use them under a [amazon-product text=”Flip Diaper Cover” type=”text”]B00469ZSTO[/amazon-product] most of the time.

I also bought some more pockets to give them a try. I got a really good deal on some used Alva pockets from a local Mama and I recently bought some used Fuzzibunz from another mama. The microfiber inserts that come with pocket diapers just stink, in my opinion. I can’t stand smelling them, so we’ve been stuffing the pockets with the Orange edge prefolds, which fit perfectly. This works really well for us, and is our preferred diaper choice overall.

And here’s the big one… our nighttime solution. When Lucas was younger, just a prefold and cover were fine. Then he started sleeping longer and wetting more and that just would not hold all of it in. We experimented with a few of the diapers we had and then we broke down and bought some nighttime disposables. Those worked most nights, although, sometimes he still leaked out of those. I hated using them though and the smell of them seriously grosses this Mama out! So I started looking around for a cloth nighttime solution. I know wool is very popular, but I was intimidated by it because I had never researched it at all and just assumed it was difficult.

But finally, I looked into wool and it really isn’t all that hard. You just use a diaper of your choice, we like pockets, under a wool cover. If the inside diaper leaks, the wool cover will absorb 30% of its weight in liquid before it starts to leak. Wool is naturally antibacterial so it doesn’t need to be washed after every use, either. And don’t worry if it smells when you first take it off of the babe. Once it dries up, the smell just evaporates.

When you first get a wool diaper, you prep it by washing it in the bathroom sink with wool wash and then you lanolize it with lanolin, or nipple cream as we call it in our house, in the sink and then let it dry for 24 hours and then you just do the same thing once a month or when the diaper starts to hold a smell or leak. Wool can be very expensive, to the tune of $50 or more a cover, but being my thrifty self, I bought two that were upcycled out of old wool sweaters and made by mamas for around $5 each. The maroon one is a little more fuzzy and thicker than the blue, so it works better at night for us. We are loving wool.

Ok, ok – let’s talk about the dirty word – POOP. What do we do with it? Well, we flush it down the toilet where it belongs, of course.

We have two separate spots for dirty diapers in Lucas’ room. One is a pail that is a regular kitchen sized trash can with a trash bag in it. Then we put a [amazon-product text=”Planet Wise Diaper Pail Liner (Hedgehog)” type=”text”]B00A3V33TQ[/amazon-product]in it. The trash bag is to try and keep smells from soaking into the plastic trash can. This pail is for dirty prefolds, which is all cotton. We also keep a [amazon-product text=”Planet Wise Wet Bag” type=”text”]B00A3URYFG[/amazon-product], which is only for covers and the pocket shells.

I separate them because I wash them separately and I don’t want to have to sort through dirty diapers on laundry day.

When Lucas has a dirty diaper, we dump any solids in the toilet and spray it with a diaper sprayer attached to the toilet and the cover/pocket shell and prefold in their respective wetbag. That may sound nasty to you, but consider this: any time Lucas poops in a disposable, it goes everywhere! To compare, he has only had 1 or 2 blowouts wearing cloth.

[amazon-product alink=”0000FF” bordercolor=”000000″ height=”240″]B0041287A8[/amazon-product]

We try to wash laundry every other day or the diapers do start to stink. The prefolds get bleached with a second rinse and dried regular and all of the covers and pocket shells just get laundry soap and a dry on medium heat.

I love cloth diapers. I know that we are saving so much money and I just generally like them. They feel so much better against my skin than a disposable does, so I’m sure they feel much better on Lucas’ sensitive little bottom.

Would you consider using cloth diapers? Or if someone else would have done the research for you, would you have considered it? What is holding you back?