I was not paid to say this, but for cloth diapers, I love All Free & Clear! It's cheap and it does a great job. I have never once had to strip my diapers due to detergent build-up, I've never had an issue with diaper odor, and I've been using the same dipes for 18 months! At first we started with Charlie's soap laundry powder, but I just decided it was too expensive and on the advice of another CDing friend, Aletta, decided to switch to All F&C about a year ago.
So to those new CDing mamas, don't let the interwebs convince you you have to buy special, fancy, expensive soap to safely wash your diapers. All Free & Clear will do the job just as well.
Showing posts with label cloth diapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cloth diapers. Show all posts
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Oh, Snap!
I am way too excited about this, so you all can laugh at me, but I just picked up my new-and-improved BumGenius one-size all-in-ones, now with snaps! No more velcro for our cloth diapers - yay! I had the velcro taken off and the BG snaps put in instead. Take a look!
While I do now recommend to any newbie CD users that they generally avoid aplix/velcro in general (especially in OS dipes), I will say that I did like the velcro for a few reasons:
While I do now recommend to any newbie CD users that they generally avoid aplix/velcro in general (especially in OS dipes), I will say that I did like the velcro for a few reasons:
- I liked the adjustability; it was infinite and allowed for a really nice fit, which was especially nice when Eliza was a bitty thing.
- Even though the velcro eventually started to fail, it did take quite a looong time - I mean, we used those 11 diapers for about 16 months straight (we moved her into these dipes - the one sized ones, that is - when she was about 2 months; they just didn't fit right before then. Once she reached about 11 or 12 lbs, I found they were perfect, but before that they were just too big and we had a little trouble with leaks). So, overall, given that they got continual use and went through the wash probably hundreds of times, the velcro actually held up fairly well, considering.
- Recently, Eliza figured out that - hey! - these diapers come off if I pull this tab! COOL (no, no, not cool).
The reasons that I am glad to have snaps are many, but that last point right there is really enough of an argument for me.
The cost was $3.50 per diaper, so it was $38.50 total for 11 dipes, or, about the cost of two new diapers. What it gave me was a greatly extended life of those 11 diapers (and rainbow colored snaps on the white ones, teehee!), so it was definitely worth the price. Do I wish I would have just bought the OS with snaps in the first place? Yes. But, I did buy them at a discounted price on eBay (I think BG discontinued the velcro OS AIO line soon after?), so financially speaking, it worked out.
If anyone would like the info of the woman who converted them for me, let me know and I'll send you her email address.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Cloth Diaper Update
A few commenters (most recently Wendy, who is expecting her little miracle in only 10 weeks! Hi Wendy!) have asked about the cloth diapers we use and how it's been going, so here's the deets on our dipes.
We've been using cloth on Eliza since she was about a month old. We started out slowly, only using cloth when we were at home, and using disposables when we were out and about. Then I bought myself a super cute travel wet bag, and from then on we've used cloth everywhere (well, we did go with 'sposies at the state fair this weekend, but that was a unique situation - limited carrying space and not a lot of diaper changing opportunities).
When she was tiny, we used fitteds and prefolds with covers as well as a handful of all-in-ones (AIOs) made by DryBees. I LOVED my DryBees (we used the small size until Eliza was about four months old/17 pounds). I liked the fitteds/prefolds with covers, too, but I was partial to the ease-of-use of the AIOs. When she grew out of the DryBees small AIOs, we switched her to our stash of One-Sized BumGenius Organic AIOs . I also had a few sized BG AIOs, so I used those as well at that time because she was already starting to fit into the size Mediums we had (she's a big girl and always has been!!).
Around the same time, I got a great deal on a couple of used DryBees pocket dipes off of eBay. Oh how I wanted to like these diapers. They were made by the same company as my beloved small AIOs (I really loved those dipes, can you tell?)... so I wanted to like them. But, I didn't. In DryBees' defense, it wasn't their fault - I just never took to pocket dipes. I just hated the stuffing and unstuffing - OH, the unstuffing. YUCK. I just don't understood why people like them given that you have to stick your hand inside the wet/dirty diaper and fish out the liner(s). To each their own, I guess! The one thing I *did* like about them was that they dried super fast in the dryer, but in the end it still wasn't worth the ick factor.
Currently, we are still using our BG OS Organic AIOs (how's that for confusing acronyms?), which are still going strong. They have velcro closures, and after using them for five months straight, I now wish I had bought the snap closure dipes because the velcro is starting to show a bit of wear. I hope the velcro lasts, but if not I know I can have snaps put on them. We also purchased two Dream-Eze AIOs on sale recently, and we like those too!
So, as you can see we are now a strictly AIO family. Though, when they are small, I will happily use fitteds/prefolds and covers on any future child(ren); I liked that system a lot and it was easy when they were teeny and didn't fight diaper changes like SOMEONE I KNOW DOES NOW!
As for washing: we keep dirty dipes in a large wet bag until it is full, and then I wash them - this is usually about every three days or so. I start a cold cycle, dump in detergent (we're currently using All Free & Clear, but we've also used Charlie's Laundry Powder - I've been happy with both), hold my breath, open the wet bag and dump out the diapers (and the wet bag follows right behind them), and then bolt out of the basement. EEEEGGHH, the smell of old urine is quite possibly one of the most foul smells in the world to me. After the cold cycle, I do a hot cycle and then one extra rinse. Easy peasey!
Oh, and we have a diaper sprayer, which I LOVE, and would highly recommend. I admit, I miss the breastmilk-only poo -- oh, it was so easy, no spraying needed, just dump it in the wash and go -- but having the diaper sprayer makes things better. Eliza is still nursing so much that I can't exactly just "plop" out the poo into the toilet yet (it's still more of a "transitional" nature) so the diaper sprayer plays a key role in keeping our dipes from getting stained.
Well, I'm sure I could go on, but baby girl is up from her nap, and it seems like I've droned on long enough about diapers for one day! Hope this info helps someone out there!
Happy CDing!
We've been using cloth on Eliza since she was about a month old. We started out slowly, only using cloth when we were at home, and using disposables when we were out and about. Then I bought myself a super cute travel wet bag, and from then on we've used cloth everywhere (well, we did go with 'sposies at the state fair this weekend, but that was a unique situation - limited carrying space and not a lot of diaper changing opportunities).
When she was tiny, we used fitteds and prefolds with covers as well as a handful of all-in-ones (AIOs) made by DryBees. I LOVED my DryBees (we used the small size until Eliza was about four months old/17 pounds). I liked the fitteds/prefolds with covers, too, but I was partial to the ease-of-use of the AIOs. When she grew out of the DryBees small AIOs, we switched her to our stash of One-Sized BumGenius Organic AIOs . I also had a few sized BG AIOs, so I used those as well at that time because she was already starting to fit into the size Mediums we had (she's a big girl and always has been!!).
Around the same time, I got a great deal on a couple of used DryBees pocket dipes off of eBay. Oh how I wanted to like these diapers. They were made by the same company as my beloved small AIOs (I really loved those dipes, can you tell?)... so I wanted to like them. But, I didn't. In DryBees' defense, it wasn't their fault - I just never took to pocket dipes. I just hated the stuffing and unstuffing - OH, the unstuffing. YUCK. I just don't understood why people like them given that you have to stick your hand inside the wet/dirty diaper and fish out the liner(s). To each their own, I guess! The one thing I *did* like about them was that they dried super fast in the dryer, but in the end it still wasn't worth the ick factor.
Currently, we are still using our BG OS Organic AIOs (how's that for confusing acronyms?), which are still going strong. They have velcro closures, and after using them for five months straight, I now wish I had bought the snap closure dipes because the velcro is starting to show a bit of wear. I hope the velcro lasts, but if not I know I can have snaps put on them. We also purchased two Dream-Eze AIOs on sale recently, and we like those too!
So, as you can see we are now a strictly AIO family. Though, when they are small, I will happily use fitteds/prefolds and covers on any future child(ren); I liked that system a lot and it was easy when they were teeny and didn't fight diaper changes like SOMEONE I KNOW DOES NOW!
As for washing: we keep dirty dipes in a large wet bag until it is full, and then I wash them - this is usually about every three days or so. I start a cold cycle, dump in detergent (we're currently using All Free & Clear, but we've also used Charlie's Laundry Powder - I've been happy with both), hold my breath, open the wet bag and dump out the diapers (and the wet bag follows right behind them), and then bolt out of the basement. EEEEGGHH, the smell of old urine is quite possibly one of the most foul smells in the world to me. After the cold cycle, I do a hot cycle and then one extra rinse. Easy peasey!
Oh, and we have a diaper sprayer, which I LOVE, and would highly recommend. I admit, I miss the breastmilk-only poo -- oh, it was so easy, no spraying needed, just dump it in the wash and go -- but having the diaper sprayer makes things better. Eliza is still nursing so much that I can't exactly just "plop" out the poo into the toilet yet (it's still more of a "transitional" nature) so the diaper sprayer plays a key role in keeping our dipes from getting stained.
Well, I'm sure I could go on, but baby girl is up from her nap, and it seems like I've droned on long enough about diapers for one day! Hope this info helps someone out there!
Happy CDing!
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