Cloth Diapers
In all honesty, I don’t get that much enjoyment out of doing all the research it takes to find the most perfect option. Luckily, I have lots of people in my life who enjoy this kind of work (like my best friend, Andy, who told me exactly what kind of laptop to get).
When it came to cloth diapers, I read a lot on this website, but I ultimately decided to follow the advice of my “internet mentors,” John and Sherry, over at Young House Love. They opted for bumGenius Elemental One-Size cloth diapers with snaps.
Here are the benefits:
- They are made with organic cotton, which is super-soft.
- They are “all-in-ones,” which means you don’t have to mess with separate covers and inserts.
- They are designed with many, many snaps that supposedly allow you to adjust them to fit children from 7 pounds to 35, so you don’t have to waste a lot of money investing in different sizes that your child inevitably grows out of way too quickly.
We ordered 12 of them so far. John and Sherry said that 18 cloth diapers seems to be the magic number for families that use cloth diapers.
Our stash arrived last week, and now we have to wash them 5-7 times before using them. We quickly realized that the reviews were right: These suckers take way, way too long too dry. Honestly, if we dry them in the dryer, I feel like we would be negating all of the environmental benefits of using cloth diapers.
So, we need a solution. Matt and I ordered this drying rack and figured that we could let them air dry. Before we ordered it, we searched high and low for a concealed place to use it in our house. We are trying to minimize baby clutter as much as possible. We seem to have two good options.
Once the drying rack arrives, we’ll see how long it takes for those suckers to air dry. My brain is guessing it will be a while! Depending on how long it takes, we’ll probably have to order more diapers to use while the other set is drying.
And for those of you who are interested, we ordered this trash can with two of these liners to hold our dirty diapers. We are using cloth wipes, mainly just old cotton flannel receiving blankets that I cut with pinking shears to prevent the edges from fraying. For the first few days of meconium, we are using disposable diapers and wipes. For diaper changes on the go, we still plan to use cloth and store them in this wet bag. We also bought a sprayer for our toilet to clean off the poop before we put everything in the washing machine.
I think that’s everything! Let me know if you have any questions…
7 Comments
Cate Subrosa
They do take a long time to dry, and can get smelly (or even mouldy) if they take too long. I find a quick blast in the dryer (say 20 mins) really helps get them started, then they air-dry quick enough (say 24 hours, inside). I too would love to avoid the dryer altogether but this feels like a good compromise.
Good luck with everything!
Anonymous
Is there a reason you can't let them dry outside?
Julie
One of the families I nannied for used the BumGenius pocket diapers, which were pretty great. A quick spray of Bac-Out after poop-removal seemed to help them not get too stained or stinky.
Jeff
I'd recommend diversifying your collection a little, although my wife and I really do like bumGenius diapers. We've been liking the Softbums Echo system a whole lot. Our daughter was born at 6.5 pounds and they fit her out of the gate (we waited until post-meconium, though I'm sure she was actually a little smaller by that point and they still worked), and they adjust up to 35 pounds, I think.
Also, they have liners, but not pockets, so swapping them out is not a super messy affair. About 9 out of 10 times, the shell doesn't get dirty, so you just change out the liner and you've increased your diaper supply for less than buying a whole new diaper.
That should give you more time while they dry. We'll use a rack and dry outside come summer/spring, but Dallas winters are just not made for air drying cloth diapers.
saracotner
@ Cate: I think I'm going to have to take that compromised route, too! It makes a lot of sense.
@ rachelshoots: The weather has been on and off yucky here, so I have an indoor mindset right now, but I just realized that the little hanger will work perfectly on the wooden pole with metal arch we set up to grow tomatoes upside down. Thanks!
Mary
I love the regular bum genius- get some v.3 on sale if you can. Its not too hard to stuff them all after they are dry and that part of the design makes them dry super quick! I found that my rumparooz fit first and have a big stash of them and bum genius with a few others that I've tried.
on a plus rumparooz have 4 snaps in the rise so the fit sooner in my experience.
Lindel
We used a similar one-size diaper but also found that 6 – 10 bamboo flat or prefold diapers were indispensable. You can make them yourself but you will need covers. They dry relatively quickly and are great to have on hand if you run out. Good for newborns as they can fit super small babies. We found it a good way to make our diaper stash bigger while we saved for a few more fitted ones. Also, when my son grew out of them we used them to stuff pocket style diapers or just laid them in a well-fitted cover. You can continue to use them as rags too.