Category Archives: adventures in cloth diapering

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: Pre-folds vs. AIO

Posted on September 28, 2011

There are so many different choices when it comes to cloth diapers and brands. For my family, we’ve chosen the bum genius brand (one size, all in ones). It just made more sense to buy one diaper that will last from newborn to potty trained and for us the fit is great.

However, bum genius, at $18 a diaper, could be a bit pricey.

Pre-folds, on the other hand, are about $12 for around 12 diapers — do the math. That’s $1 a diaper. Plus since you can reuse the covers from diaper change to diaper change, you can get by with fewer covers.

Oh I want to like pre-folds. I happen to have quite the handful of pre-folds, but I can’t get them to work for me.

The AIO (all in ones) work like a regular disposable diaper – you put it on, they pee, you change it. With the pre-folds, it seems I have to change them every 2 minutes. Other cloth diaper-ers out there. What am I doing wrong? I have a few covers and a woolie, but whenever I use pre-folds it seems the prefold is completely pee drenched leaving my baby smelling less then yummy (and I’m only leaving the diaper on for 30 minutes to an hour). I also know that with woolies you can re-use multiple times between uses because it’s wool and won’t soak anything up — however, my woolie after one use is smelling yucky.

So, for those of you who use/have used pre-folds… what was your secret?

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Adventures in Cloth Diapering: The Diaper Routine

Posted on September 14, 2011

Most people would assume that cloth diapers = a ton of extra work.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it that. There is a little extra work involved, but really I barely notice it.

When changing the diaper a cloth basically is just like a disposable. I take the diaper off, clean the bum, put a new diaper on. Only difference is with E. Since she has “big people poop” (aka “I eat solids so my poop is disgusting” poop) I always put a liner in her diaper (except when I forget — and I always regret that). So after taking her diaper off, cleaning her bum, and putting on a new diaper, if there is poo I dump the liner out in the potty and flush. I then plop the diaper in the diaper pail (which happens to be a OU 5 gallon bucket. Awesome).

Then to the wash. Since I mainly use pocket diapers (think Bumgenius — love!) I take the inserts out of the diapers and throw everything in the wash. I put in a teaspoon of this detergent (in Smashing Watermelon flavor — yums) and run the rinse cycle in cold water. After the diapers are done rinsing, I put in 3ish tablespoons of detergent and run a full wash in the hottest hot water.

Then I dry on low heat.

That’s it. That’s the routine. Not much to it and nothing to crazy. It works and I absolutely love saving $80 bucks a month that would be spent on said diapers (ok, not that much right now because we’re still currently using disposables during the night — and sometimes when I’m lazy and we’re planning on being out all day, but I’m getting better I promise).

I can tell you that I am so ready for my toddler to finish being potty trained so that I will have one less in diapers. I don’t mind diapers, but I am absolutely loathing the potty training. If anyone has any good tips let me know. For now I’m just kinda letting her figure it out on her own.

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Adventures in Cloth Diapers: Why do I do it?

Posted on August 30, 2011

It is a question universally acknowledged — why in the world do I cloth diaper?! There’s the issue of the extra laundry, the “inconvenience” of out on the town, and the poo. Oh the poo. (Can you tell that I know really want to read Pride and Prejudice… again).

Most people would think it’s an issue with money. In fact, I had a family member ask a few weeks ago if we were hurting for money so much that I had to use cloth diapers. We aren’t hurting for money. There is no reason I couldn’t go out and buy diapers every week for my kids’ tushies. I figured out the cost and for two in diapers it would run approximately $80-$100 bucks a month. $100 bucks! For  something you throw away!!! I wasn’t to thrilled about that number. Personally I’d so much rather spend that money on something else.

Being a stay at home mom now and actually staying at home most of the time, I don’t really mind the extra laundry and there isn’t much “inconvenience” of our on the town when you rarely go out on the town anymore. (Oh how living with two will change your life). And the poo. Honestly, it’s poo. It’s a part of life. I’m dealing with poo with or without cloth diapers. That happens when your toddler is just potty trained enough that she knows that poo feels yucky and she’s not supposed to go in her diaper… So when she does go in her diaper, it promptly comes off. So poo dealing is a daily occurrence.

With all that being said, we still haven’t gotten back into the cloth diapering groove here at the Krumm house. Momma is still half-way recovering from only getting about four hours a sleep a night (yes, peoples this is what I live off of now… coffee is one of my best friends right now — thankfully it doesn’t/hasn’t bothered Drew yet). I did get all the diapers prep last week for when we do decide to give it a whirl. Mostly likely that’s going to happen when my “free-gifted” diapers run out. Honestly? I’m looking forward to it. Cloth diaper bums are simply adorable. What can I say. I’m addicted to fluff.

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