Cloth diapering, or how to be way too excited about diapering solutions

Before Peanut was born,  I didn't really stock up much.  We didn't buy a crib,  since we got a pack and play and a bassinet as hand me downs.  I borrowed a car seat and stroller system from Pam,  and bottles and pumps and clothes and a changing table/tube combo and basically everything we  could need from my friends and sisters in law.  I bought a box of wet wipes,  a doctor brown's starter package of bottles,  a bunch of cute clothes and blankets.

And then I went crazy with the cloth diapers.  They are soooo cute,  and my mom was very encouraging,  since she cloth diapered all of her children.  I felt like maybe it wouldn't be that hard,  and I owed it to our carbon footprint,  and it would be cheaper on the long run (while I was pregnant I was obsessed with child rearing on a budget,  in a pregnant lady obsessive way,  probably because I feared being unemployed).  I initially bought 12 pocket covers with microfiber inserts,  and 6 diaper covers and two packs of snappi fasteners,  despite not having any prefolds because it was all very confusing at the start.  When Eli was born I got 12 more pocket covers with their inserts,  and we have been using the covers ever since.

So,  my experience so far:
It is really easy.  Cookie got it on the first try with everything, I do an extra load of laundry each week now,  two when Peanut was a newborn.  That's it.  No scrubbing,  no pain, we just spray the poop off the diapers,  put them in a pail,  wait until laundry day. Wash with hot water and neutral soap and vinegar,  then sundry. Living in a desert helps with the sundrying in any season.

We did not marry cloth diapers.  Which means we use disposables as well and it's okay!  No one will take my mom card for it.  We buy BioBaby,  which are supposed to biodegrade in 4 years,  and which have excellent absorbency.  We use them for nighttime and sometimes when we go out (and we used them all the time when Peanut got a yeast rash after the antibiotics last month).

They are a great investment.  When I crunched numbers,  we got our money's worth at 5 months on our initial investment the way we use them (mixed use,  not exclusive). Exclusive use would pay itself in around three months.  Eli is 10 months old and still using his one size fits all pocket covers,  and because he was born chubby and grew really fast,  these are the only ones we have ever needed.  They are also in great shape.  The lining is a bit worn in the second batch we bought (they are of a lower quality,  though) but still holding on great.

The microfiber inserts are not holding on so well,  though.  They started to leak around the 4 month mark,  and I think I need to strip them but I have tried it a couple of times with just not a lot of improvement.  I read that they aren't exactly great,  and thus I made other purchases: two packs of osocozy prefolds first,  three packs of flour sack towels later.

The preforms are amazing.  We went from changing his microfiber insert every hour or hour and a half to every three or four hours. The leaking accidents were due putting on the cover wrong,  not because of the diaper,  unlike with the microfiber ones.  Baby Peanut doesn't rash easily,  so I admit to not changing his pee diapers super often.  We learned how to put them on with a YouTube video,  and I got it after two tries and Cookie saw me do it and did it perfectly at once.  My mom never quite got it,  though,  so she prefers the inserts.  We finally got use out of our snappis with these.  Never ever had a blowout,  while poonamis were the norm with disposables for a long time.

Then I read about flour sack towels when I was going to get more preforms so we could stop using the microfiber inserts all together.  We bought three four-packs,  and we fold them to make inserts for the pocket covers.  These.  Are.  Amazing.  The preforms don't fit as inserts,  and I have to say,  nothing beats the ease of putting the insert in the cover and then putting it on,  so the flour sack towels are just much easier.  They are also very thin,  so his but doesn't look quite so comical.  We can probably double line the diapers and get a night time solution,  though I haven't tried it.  These are my new to-go liners and I only use the prefolds when they are all dirty (by the end of the week,  usually,  so I know it's laundry time).

My diaper covers are all Chinese  and on the very cheap side.  Each six pack cost around 35-45 dollars,  and the cheapest ones even came with two inserts for every cover.  The only thing I didn't use pretty much at all were the six newborn diaper covers with velcro that I bought with the snappis initially.  One,  because Eli didn't use newborn sized anything for more than two weeks.  Two,  because they were for prefolds,  I think,  but I didn't buy anything and they didn't quite work with the microfiber inserts.  Anyway,  the Chinese diaper covers (one was LBB brand,  the other doesn't even have a brand name)  are holding great,  and because I didn't know what to expect I'm glad I didn't go for a brand name and much more expensive ones (also cuter but mine are still very cute).  The exchange rate of dollars is also kind of a hurdle to get past,  now that the dollar is so expensive.

Next time around I have quite a stash to start with,  so here is what I plan to do,  and what I would recommend anyone just starting.  One size fits all covers will last a long time.  If they don't fit your newborn (Eli was 3.560 kg and always had chubby legs) buy some newborn pocket covers (I would get 6 and prepare to do laundry 3-4 times a week). I used disposables until Eli's umbilical cord fell off by doctor's instructions so by the time we got into the cloth diapers we was okay with the one size fits all.  I would still use the microfiber inserts as babies poop a lot at first so I put the insert outside the pocket so that gets soiled instead of the cover.  Once my microfiber inserts all die,  I wouldn't buy more,  instead would get small prefolds to contain all the watery baby poops and the blow outs to come.  Past 4 months,  when baby poops space out more I think I would get more flour sack towels and just switch to that for pee diapers.  Eli was very predictable for a long while,  so planning for his daily poop was possible.  Nowadays,  not so much (he poops every other day or so,  at different times). I still think prefolds are great for poop diapers until their poop stops beings so liquid, so up to 8 months for us,  pretty much.

So: pocket covers.  Prefolds small and large for diapering from 3-4 to 8 months (also,  snappis)  and flour sack towels.

We have spent around $280 so far.  At the beginning,  when he was using around 8-9 diapers a day,  we used 5 or 6 cloth and 2-3 disposables.  Now we're down to 1-2 cloth and 2 disposables.  I think they have already paid themselves,  and we still have diapers for a long while.  If you can fork the initial payments,  they are definitely worth it.

Also?  So,  so cute.

2 months old

10 months old