I have been changing diapers for fifteen years! I have tried every brand of disposables, including brands they don’t make anymore. I remember Pampers before they had swaddlers and Huggies before they were supreme. And yet, after six babies I felt it was time to make the switch to cloth. Actually I started with cloth 15 years ago, but that was back when your options were rubber pants or rubber pants.
When I was pregnant with Cora I volunteered in the church nursery. I noticed during the service that there were several babies wearing cloth diapers. Being the inquiring person that I am, I asked a million questions and watched a few diaper changes. It didn’t take long before I was sold on the idea of cloth for Cora.
After spending way too much time online researching different types of cloth diapers I decided to go with Fuzzi Bunz and Bum Genius. I honestly couldn’t decide between the two. Fuzzi Bunz received a huge recommendation from Amy over at Mom Advice, and Bum Genius were the ones my friends were using.
The type I bought were pocket diapers, which basically means you slide an insert into a pocket inside the diaper. When the baby dirties the diaper you pull (or shake) out the liner and put both diaper and liner into the pail.
Here a few features I like about the two different brands I purchased.
- Softer on the inside. (The part that touches the hiney)
- Multiple snaps make for a better fit around the leg. (A benefit for skinnier babies)
- Velcro closure makes diaper changing very easy. For the first few weeks, my dh and daughter would only use the BumG’s because they couldn’t quite figure out the snaps on the Fuzzi Bunz.
I purchased a few extra inserts, a wet bag for traveling
, pail liner, and a kitchen trash can with a flip up lid. I purchased my diapers and accessories from Nurtured Family. However they have since stopped selling online.
You can now purchase cloth diapers on Amazon, or specialty shops.
My neighbor gave me some cloth wipes she made from old blankets and her husband’s t-shirts. I just wet them and use like a regular wipe.
I purchased 18 diapers, which last about 48 hours. To wash them I dump everything, including the pail liner into the washer. I put them through one cold rinse cycle and then run a hot wash cycle/ cool rinse, with an extra rinse. I dry the inserts in the dryer and hang the diapers on a drying rack. The diapers are dry by morning in a few hours.
It takes an extra 30 seconds to change a diaper using cloth, if they are poopy. If they are just wet there is no time difference between changing a cloth and a disposable. It takes me about 5 minutes to start the laundry load and then hang the diapers on the rack once they are washed.
They work very well and Cora has only leaked through a few times and that was more due to user error than diaper error. The only problem I had with the diapers is that they were too big for Cora until she was about 7 weeks old. It wasn’t until she weighed about 9 pounds that the diapers fit well around her skinny legs.
If you are hesitant about making the jump to cloth, take it from someone who switched after 6 babies in disposables. It is easy, better for the environment and will save you money long term. Diapers that are well taken care of can be resold on sites like ebay or diaperswappers, or used for your next baby. I even considered using cloth on our vacation, but didn’t want to use someone else’s washing machine while traveling. I do use them when we are gone for the day and she wears them at night too.
There are many choices for cloth diapers, so check out which brand will work best for you.
Heather says
another great site you should check out is http://www.cottonbabies.com They have good prices, and they also support out of country missionaries through diaper grants. I believe that the people who run the site are also the people who make the bumgenius diapers.
Michelle says
The cloth diagpers are so cute now. When my son was little they didnt’ have these really cute ones. All we had were the pinned kind with velcro covers. They turned out to be such a mess, and they always leaked…a lot. I turned to disposibles, they worked so much better for me. If I had any babies now, I’d try the cloth diapers again.
Serenity says
I was actually on my way to order cloth diapers when I read this post! Great timing! Sarah is my fourth baby and I have never used cloth diapers so I appreciate the advice. I was going to order all Bum Genuis but now I think I will order a combo of Fuzzi Bunz and Bum Genuis. Sarah is a HUGE baby so I don’t have to worry about skinny legs 🙂
Young Wife says
Wow, I’ve never considered cloth diapers. No one I know uses them. Thanks for the info. I didn’t realize they were so easy to use.
Amanda from Faith, Food and Family says
I used cloth diapers for awhile and really enjoyed them. They were not much extra work at all. And you can buy those special paper liners and that makes a poopy diaper even easier. They could be washed and reused if not dirty. I just can’t remember what they were called. Unfortunately when we moved several years ago I lost them and didn’t have the money to replace them. But I highly recommend them!
God bless,
Amanda
Michele says
Thanks for another great cloth diapering post! We’re expecting our second child in November and plan on making the switch. Now I wish that we would have used them with our now 2 year old daughter.
Elizabeth says
Okay, so to clarify (I know we’re having supper tomorrow night, but I thought maybe others there might not want to discuss it over dinner–lol ;)… Anyway, when you change a diaper, you just dump the mess…and put it in the pail, no rinsing? Or do you rinse it then too? And you wash these every night or every other? With regular laundry soap? No soaking? No spray’s or anything for stains? Sorry…the cloth diaper thing still escapes me–lol. I’ve thought of trying it…just haven’t gotten there yet.
TheHappyHousewife says
I am regretting not bringing some with me on this trip. Then I could give you a live tutorial. We can chat more tonight. And for those of you who are not eating dinner with me tonight, I promise a follow up post when I return from vacation.
Rebecca C says
We have been using cloth diapers since about day 10 with our 18 month old. The solution to not having big enough legs at first was to use the old fashioned style pin on diapers. We did have grandma knit some wool diaper covers though.
As for Elizabeth’s comment: before the kiddo was on solids, we just tossed everything into the pail (we use a ‘soak’ cycle and prewash at the beginning of our wash load to counteract not doing anything else). Now, if its solid enough to get knocked into the toilet with a washcloth/wipe it goes. Anytime we have a really soft one we just stick it through the soak pre-rinse cycle, followed by washing.
Also, we tried different types of laundry detergent and I now only use Tide. It gets the diapers clean the first time around unlike our greener baking soda based stuff. I washed diapers at least twice to get rid of the smell with that stuff.
christina says
I love fuzzi bunz too! We have been using cloth diapers for over 2 years now, my youngest is allergic to disposable diapers so we had no choice but to go with cloth. After a slight adjustment period we loved them. We have tried everything out there. the fuzzi bunz are great (after you figure out the snaps.) I’ve had a few issues with some others that have velcro, the velcro has worn out but we have had them for 2 years now. We are going to stay with cloth for our next little one too.
Reba says
I am within days of having our third child. I had tried cloth with our first and hated folding the diaper, pining the diaper (I always got my fingers!) and then soaking the diaper (wet pail style) For our second child I absolutely refused cloth diapers. We had major money issues that year and she was always having rashes. Now that I am soon to have our third a friend of mine offered to sew and mail out diapers for FREE! I didn’t want to turn down free and with three kids living on one income I sucked up my painful memories and agreed. After doing research I’m more and more convinced I can do this.So many more options then a piece of towel and a plastic cover.
I’m a newbie at this all still and spent hours on line. (I went into pre term labor so had plenty of time to spend on bed rest) Since I haven’t received any diapers yet I haven’t been able to play around with them to get the feel. But.. I’m so excited! I wrote on my blog I couldn’t believe I was so happy over diapers! But do be honest, cloth diapers are cuter, softer, more natural then plastic for sure. Who wouldn’t want to see your little angel crawling around in those cute things! (other then the ugly white/beige with partial designs) Since you have to do laundry anyway it’s a step up from taking out the nasty diaper pail garbage!
Well, I’d love more information on cloth diapers. The more encouragement there is out there the more confident I am that this can work! I’m lost on the process but know I’ll eventually get the hang of it.
Thanks for the post! Just in time for our newest angel to arrive! What a blessing.
Serenity's Husband says
Ok, ok, ok ladies. Speaking from the husband’s perspective… See, its not about convincing us to your way of thinking, although this may seem like a completely rational idea. It rarely works. And as a very wise man once said (I believe it was the Dalai Lama)”if it don’t work, chuck it.”. A much better idea is to present us with the facts, figures, savings and (here’s the important part) relative ease of the upcoming change you would like to impose. Then, almost magically, we will either realize what you are trying to do and go along with it with ‘relative ease’; or have absolutely no idea and suggest the change ourselves. Just some random thoughts from the husband’s perspective.
On a completely separate note, I would like to hereby declare that my family should start using cloth diapers. I believe they are superior for a number of reasons which I will outline for you on my next post…
TheHappyHousewife says
Serenity’s Husband-
You are silly! I already wrote a post about cloth diapers for men. I even included an excel spreadsheet, just for the few guys that read this blog. If you missed it, you can check it out here.
Cassy says
Yes, please record a diaper change. I am making the transition to cloth from disposables with my 14mo old and preparing to use them on my newborn due in Sept. The amount of information & diapers out there is way more than I can process. Thanks for this post!
Would you consider posting a checklist for those who want to buy cloth diapers, like myself, but don’t know everything they need to purchase?
Melanie says
Yes, I agree with Cassy and would like to see an actual diaper change. And would LOVE to see a checklist as well.
We are expecting our first in September and I am sold on cloth diapers. Just have to order them when we are back in the States I guess (we live in Ireland). Haven’t seen too much in the cloth “nappy” department over here!
Rachelle says
Toni-
would love to see a video of the two different ones. It would be helpful, I want to try some, but not sure which ones. I don’t want to spend a ton of $$ and then not like the ones I get!
If you could show the pocket thing and how it works that would be great. Also do you use your reg. laundry soap or do you use something else??
Thank so much for sharing about your cloth diapers.
Blessings-
Rachelle
Tabby says
Toni, it took me 6 kids to try cloth diapers, too! LOL We’re on #8 now, and still using them. Though I’ve never had the money to sink into the fancy bumGenius ones (which I’ve been coveting since they came out, what–3 years ago?). I use the traditional chinese prefolds (please pass by the Gerber brand in the department stores–they’re good for nothing but burp cloths), with a Snappi and a homemade cover–I made 2 from polar fleece and have knitted 2 from the Curly Purly pattern in the last month. I’ve also got 2 diapers that I bought from eBay about 4 years ago–they’re PUL covers with fleece lining and nice, tri-fold cotton inserts that just snap on top of the fleece. Then there are a bunch of snaps on the outside so they’re adjustable enough to take your kid from newborn to toddler. Though they’re very bulky on tiny babies, they work and I’ve used them and used them. They wick wetness more often than the other covers I have, though, so only use them during the day.
A good friend bought a bunch of Fuzzi Bunz with her first child, and I don’t think she’s ever used a disposable diaper! I’m thinking about starting to invest in some BG’s or
FB’s, but I do feel silly for not having done it before my eighth child…just think of all that money we could have saved!
Anne-Marie says
When we were expecting our first (11 yrs ago), my in-laws tried to force us to use cloth diapers. Dhs evil step-grandma (at the insistance of his parents) bought two 10pks of the old standard cloth diapers from Wal-Mart and mailed them to us to “encourage” us to use them. We were so turned off by the interference of his family that we never even looked into other possibilities for cloth diapers.
This is the first time I have really seen any good alternatives to the old standard cloth & the myriad of disposables. If we have another baby, I would definitely consider using cloth diapers like these.
BTW…I thanked his grandma & his parents for the burb rags. I still have plenty of them hanging around the house which work great for polishing stainless steel and other household chores. We’ve put their $20 to good use over these 10 yrs.
Melissa says
Here is a video post on how to change different cloth diapers from Simple Mom:
http://simplemom.net/visual-demonstration-how-to-put-on-a-cloth-diaper-and-how-to-get-one-clean/
This page contains links on discussions and more about cloth diapering from Simple Mom:
http://simplemom.net/resources/cloth-diapering/
Hope that helps!
Amy Lynne says
I will definitely be trying cloth when we have another little one. Thanks for sharing what you have discovered!
Keeley says
I LOVE cloth diapers. I’m really digging your beautiful purple and pink fuzzies. I’ve only ever had a boy in cloth. Wish I could have a girl just so I can stick her in pink and purple. =)
And breastfeed. Need to have another baby so I can breastfeed again…. =D
Kim says
I had 2 boys using disposable diapers, and by the third I was ready to attempt the cloth. I chose Mother-Ease one size, which I LOVE, and have been happy ever since. I used them for the 3rd AND 4th boy. I am now expecting #5 next month and the diapers are starting to look a little ragged, but we aren’t in the position to buy new ones. They will still function fine. I can’t believe I’ve used the same diapers all this time!
Once I figured out the snap thing it was no problem. The diapers are one size, and the covers come in different sizes you get as baby grows.I spray solids into the toilet & soak in wet pail with water&some vinegar. Then a pre-wash cycle&wash w/hot.
I highly recommend them; you save so much money and hassle & you never need to worry about running out of diapers!
VeggieMomma says
I also love these two brands. I have mostly all BG 3.0 and they have served me very well. People complain about the hook-and-loop becomming ruined after a while and so Fuzzi Bunz might be better for that reason, but I’ve beed CDing for a year and my BG work very well and still look great! I LOVE the bamboo wipes from Applecheeks, but I do use old cut up t-shirts as well. 🙂 Another great brand is JamTots–especially their minky diapers–soooo cute!
Lawanda says
YAY FOR CLOTH!!! 😀
I used the rubber pants and pins with Kela and Cassie. Had some old old old velcro covers with Faithy and finally discovered the other options with Raechel! LOVE MY CLOTH DIAPERS!! 😀
Michele says
We’ve been using cloth since my first child was born over 7 years ago. I am on my third child and the diapers are just starting to wear out. I use Motherease diapers and absolutely love them!
Serenity's Husband says
H.H.
There’s a post about cloth diapers for men? I am NOT wearing those!
Just kidding…I love the spreadsheet!
Thanks a million!
Christina says
I used cloth and hubby changed them. Of course we didn’t use premades anything. We used the ones you buy called prefolds at the store and diaper pins. I asked for them at the baby shower, I bought 2 packages. It was like buying 1 pkg of disposable diapers at a time. And I did it while prego. Just added a extra prefold down the center to help prevent leakage. A friend who used cloth diapers gave me 2 covers. And I used those when we went out of the house. And it is a ton cheaper than buying all the made up ones.
Plus made my own wipes using old receiving blankets. Cut them into squares. wet them with a lil bit of water and babysoap. Total spent to diaper my kid.. 40 bucks… And thats 2 years.
ChristinaP says
I do not agree that cloth diapers are better for the environment. One needs to take in account the resources used to launder the cloth diapers and from there its about the same.
I think the point should be that parents should be exposed to all options for their babies. One method is not better universally because each parent and child have different needs, schedules, etc. I think it was a great post overall but they are not better for the environment. The saving money argument could be won when the diapers are purchased for more than one child and that would be almost enough for me to do cloth diapering had I never had any experience with them.
Anyway, just my 2 cents
TheHappyHousewife says
Actually some friends of mine created a spreadsheet detailing the cost of cloth vs disposable and found that you break even at about 8 months, so even if you only cloth diaper one baby they are a good deal. Plus if you take care of the cloth diapers they can be resold for a pretty decent price.
As for the environmental issue I must disagree. A disposable diaper takes about 500 years to decompose, not to mention the resources used to make disposable diapers.
As for cloth diapers, you have the energy used to run the washing machine and the water. But many cities across the US recycle water (from things like the washer and shower) and it is used to water lawns through a gray water system. The cost to wash a diaper per kwh is less than a penny per diaper, so it isn’t really using that much energy. According to our current diaper usage with Cora, if she wears cloth diapers for two years, we will have spent about $50 in energy cost over that time period.
Most people I know hang their cloth diapers to dry so the expensive part of laundry (the dryer) isn’t used.
Anyway- It is not my intention to claim superiority for the moms who cloth diaper. I am just spreading the word that cloth diapering has come a long way since I had my first child 15 years ago. And for those who were not interested in using prefolds and rubber pants, they are some new and pretty easy to use options out there today.
Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship says
I was hemming and hawing about switching to cloth when my daughter (baby no. 2) was 8 mos., but I thought it might not be the economical choice at that age, in case God doesn’t have any more children in store for us. Now she’s 13 mos., so it’s definitely too late, but if we have a baby no. 3, you’ve sold me on switching! Thanks!
Christina says
AS far as the cost including using my wash machine. It was a no brainer. Since I did not buy the pretty ones. And just used the plain white ones. And washed 2-3 extra loads a week, hung them out to dry(so no electricity with the dryer) I also did not use special soap. You can make it get very expensive with the special dreft soap, etc. I used disposable with my oldest. I wanted to use cloth, but had no idea how to go about it. The 2nd time around I had made friends that did and who were very happy to teach me. If I want to add in 2 years of laundering. I MAYBE spent 8- bucks in 2 years. Since I bought 2 pks, and I received 2 or 3 packs from friends. The home made wipes cost me nothing. Since they were just old blankets given to me by family. The cost of water is not that much. People seem to think you have to wash daily. I washed every few days. If you clean them out when a 2 is made and soak in some fresh water. Theres no issues with the house smelling awful(believe me I would flip if there was a smell) 2 years of diapering my youngest. Cost less than 4 months of disposables. And I never had to make a run to buy diapers cuz of running out. Or worrying if I had enough money to spend to buy diapers.
Christina says
Sorry redid my cost on diapers including water usage and electricity etc. Included the cost of soap and worked it all out. And what I came up with was about 100 dollars for 2 years. And then added up how much I KNOW we used with disposables with our oldest. and it was 100 bucks within a few months.
Amy says
I’ve used cloth on and off for 10 years. I agree it’s not hard once you are in the routine. Back in the day I’d even lug them along on vacation. My one daughter was allergic to disposables although we did later discover she could wear Tushies but they were pricey so we rarely bought them.
Between the two I’d probably rather use disposables but I hate throwing diapers out into the trash so most of the time I use cloth. If I didn’t have to wash them I’d probably exclusively do cloth. I just can’t see how there is a comparison between something that takes hundreds of years to decompose and something that can be reused hundreds of times.
I always keep disposables around for nights, outtings, and a dh who has apparently “forgotten” how to change a cloth diaper. We even have a nice stash of Bumgenius and Fuzzi Bunz.
We were just on vacation in St. Louis where the Cotton Babies retail store is. They had tons of used Bumgenius in the store for $5 each. I didn’t really need any new ones since my older diapered child is too big for them now but for $5 I could resist picking up a few.
Casual Friday Every Day says
Cloth diapers are just so adorable, too!
Nell
TheHappyHousewife says
yes, the adorable factor is pretty powerful!
Holly says
I’m here as a blogfrog leader. I love to see other moms CDing. We CD too. We use Tiny Tush OS Elite. I have that same drying rack too. CDing is indeed so easy and better for the environment and baby’s bum!!
TheHappyHousewife says
I have never heard of Tiny Tush… will have to check those out!
Leslie says
I found your website through WE ARE THAT FAMILY…I thought that I was over the notion of cloth diapering…but, we are about to purchase another home and the one we live in still has not sold and probably won’t. Needless to say, we will be on an extremely tight budget until we can get this home sold or rented out. Anyway, I am pregnant with my third child and heard about cloth diapering with my second…but never tried it. I have researched myself silly. One of the websites that I read pretty much all the way through was Green Mountain Diapers (google it) Anyway, I think I became overwhelmed. I guess I just need some support and someone to tell me that it really is better and it really will save our family money. ANY HELP OUT THERE??
Rebecca C says
Leslie – I did the research knowing I would be on a super tight budget after #1 was born and we were on 1 income. It seems like a bit of money up front, and we even used the super cheap option of prefolds (with just a few of the fancy one size diapers for sitters and convenience) until we went from literally poverty level to barely middle class. One thing to take into account is that the velcro closing diapers will start wearing after about a year or so. If I had to do it again I would buy the snap close ones instead (check Etsy for lower prices).
Also, I actually started using a more expensive laundry soap, but we use less of it even for regular laundry so I consider that a gain. I do a load of diapers every 2-3 days, and I the energy and water costs are pretty low. Especially if we can line dry (putting up a rack inside can take a LONG time in humid places).
We have bought 2 bags/boxes of diapers in the last 18 months. One was because we weren’t sold on cloth with the umbilical cord (that changed when we realized the price and that prefolds are easy to adjust lower) and one for a vacation including 4 days of car travel. We should welcome #2 in January and aside from adding a few more diapers to account for 2 people using them, it will cost us close to nothing to diaper him/her.
Also, if you buy the nicer diapers, you can often sell them when you are done saving you even more money.
Keeley says
Not sure if this is ok to do here….
I used cloth for my third and fell in love with them. I have drawers full of the wonderful things, some barely or never used.
I was hoping for another child to use those diapers, but I’m nearing 40 and that 4th child just hasn’t appeared. I’m so sad. =(
Soooo, here I have drawers full of sad, not-being-used, unlikely-to-be-used cloth diapers going to waste. And here some of you are on a tight budget. If you’re interested in said drawers of diapers please feel free to contact me at keeleysbrooks at yahoo dot com.
I even have some wonderoos. I loved my wonderoos.
Sidnie says
Thanks for your comment on my CD post! I have read all your info on cloth diapering, and have decided to make the switch! Even though our boys are over a year, and one is actually close to potty training, I feel like we really will save money. And the money in the bank sounds so good to me!!
I’ll be ordering this weekend– lets just hope they ship to the APO fast!
Gabrielle says
I’m on boy number two and have been using cloth diapers for 5 months now and i’m loving it. I have some Bum Genius and then i found out about a cheaper brand that i like just as much (maybe more) it’s called Kawaii Baby. They are also a AIO one-size pocket diaper and they are about $10 less per a diaper than the BumGenius ($18 less up here in Canada)
Sharon says
Hi I just discovered your “Motivated Moms” checklist-I love it! However I’m due to have my first baby this December. Any chance that you have a checklist for new moms-especially moms who will be using disposable diapers? It might help me feel like I can get things done along with having a newborn 🙂