Before I had Lucas, I decided I wouldn't worry too much about diapering in the first months. The most important thing to me was getting going with nursing and, as it turned out, that ended up being quite a challenge when we first came home from the NICU! After getting used to the convenience of disposables in that first month, we were kind of touch and go with the sampling of cloth we had on hand. Also, babies poop a LOT the first three months, and I wasn't a fan of rinsing out soiled diapers every two hours! Once Lucas wasn't pooping all the time, we were able to fully transition to cloth. At first, we used a sampling of pocket diapers, then moved to the cloth gDiapers since I liked the option of the biodegradable inserts for outings. Unfortunately, the fit wasn't what I had hoped for. We ended up going back to the pocket diapers, but decided to hold on to the g's for backups.
It didn't take long to get into a good groove with cloth. A big part of being successful with cloth diapering is having the right tools. The biggest hurdle is deciding what diaper works best for you. Unfortunately, you won't always know until you've tried them out. A lot of websites offer sample packs of the various types and brands of cloth diapers, with a return policy that allows you to return diapers within a set trial period for credit toward another purchase. If you're lucky like we were, you'll have friends who can lend you diapers to try out before you commit one way or the other. The obvious neccesities are a wet bag for the nursery and a trash can with a lid. I wash every couple of days or so and I just dump all the diapers and the wet bag directly in the wash. Speaking of wash, since you can't use plain old Tide on cloth diapers, you need to find a soap that you like. We have been using Rockin' Green soap and have been happy with it. The Diaper Jungle has a handy ranking of soaps here if you are looking into different products. You'll also need a small wet bag for on the go, which lends yet another opportunity to buy a cute accessory for your diaper bag. Having a sprayer hose attached to the toilet is invaluable. Poop needs to go where poop belongs - the toilet. I rinse all poopy diapers and deposit them to a lidded trash next to the toilet to avoid any drips transporting them back to the nursery until laundry day. One little gem of a product for pooppy diapers are liners, which are basically like a drier sheet that is flushable and sized to lay on top of the cloth. The idea is the liner catches the poopy mess and allows the wetness to pass through to be absorbed by the cloth diaper. Just toss it in the toilet and you're done!
If you're interested in cloth diapering, the best advice I can give is talk to other moms who do cloth and pick their brain. If you don't have friends who have gone the cloth route, find a cloth diapering store. Part of the mystery of diapers (One size! Fitted! Pocket! Prefold! All in ones!) is unraveled when you actually get your hands on them. It's not as difficult as most think it is. It's a bit of an investment up front, but you save a bundle in the long run, particularly if you do one size diapers, which grow with your baby. I won't lie, they aren't as convenient as disposables, but they aren't nearly as time consuming as I thought they would be. Laundry adds a bit more time to your diapering routine, but now that we're up and running and we have all the right tools, it feels like second nature.
I have to admit, part of the joy of cloth diapering is how stinking cute they are! Plus, with names like BumGenius, Happy Heiny, FuzziBunz, and Rumparooz, how could you not love them!
Drawers of drawers! Aren't they cute?!
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