I never thought I would be addicted to buying diapers. With my first 3 babies I was a Pampers mom. I didn’t really realize there was another great option out there. Sure I had heard of cloth diapers, but I had visions of flat pieces of cloth, pins, plastic pants and a diaper service which is how my parents cloth diapered me back in the ’80s. So when I started running into cloth diapering Mamas on message boards it piqued my interest. So when baby #4 was in utero I started researching. One day we were in Scottsdale and I managed to convince my husband to stop at Wildflower Diapers. He stayed in the car with some sleeping children, and I ran into the store “quickly” to check it out. I walked in and was mesmerized by all of the diapers. It is a little overwhelming at first….prefolds, contours, fitteds, pockets, All in Ones, All in Twos, Hybrids….what the heck does that all mean?! The nice lady working at Wildflower took the time to explain the different types, brands, a little about washing etc. I have no idea how long I was in there, but it was definitely longer than “quickly” LOL Poor DH was totally bored sitting out in the car waiting for me and imagine his surprise when I walked out with a big bag of cloth diapers for our 4th (and last) baby. The look on his face said ” You are soooo not going to like doing this and this is a waste of money, but I’m going to be a good husband and humor you”. That’s when the addiction started.
Then I started shopping online. Finding other brands I wanted to try, cute little fitteds, the options were endless. So by the time baby arrived I had quite the little newborn stash going on. I wanted to try fitteds w/ covers, pockets, and All in Ones. So I just got a variety and when baby was born we tried them out. Some worked great, some didn’t thrill me. Totally trial and error. Then baby got a rash from his own poop and would get red from too much wetness so we went back to Pampers for a few weeks. Once we cleared that up with Aquaphor and Destin we moved back to the cloth. What I learned was my baby needs a stay dry liner because his skin is too sensitive to wetness held against his skin.
So which diapers do I reach for first? My bumGenius! 3.0 All in Ones. These are sized so they fit very well. Right now he is in a size small. He outgrew his newborn stash right around 8 weeks or so. I love the BG AIOs! They are super easy to put on…just like a disposable and they hold a ton of pee but my baby’s bottom still stays dry because of the stay dry lining. I can even add an extra insert to these for extra absorbancy as my little guy starts sleeping through the night more often. This is the only diaper my husband is truly comfortable putting on baby. They are totally daddy friendly!
The second diaper I reach for is the FuzziBunz Perfect Size Diaper. Once again, this is because of the stay dry microfleece lining and they are sized for a better fit. The FuzziBunz is a pocket diaper which means I have to stuff the insert into the diaper before use and remove the insert before placing the dirty diaper into the diaper pail (or hanging bag in our case). These are a few extra steps but it doesn’t bother me too much yet.
There are 2 diapers I can see really working well for us as baby gets bigger. Right now he is almost 12 weeks. The bumGenius! 3.0 One Size Pocket diaper is just now starting to fit him. I still find it bulkier than the BG AIOs so I tend to use the AIOs first. However, I am amazed at how dry baby’s bottom stays with this diaper. I took it off of him and it was hard to tell if he had even peed until I took out the insert. It is a pocket diaper so there is stuffing and unstuffing involved, but I think the BG OS 3.0 is going to be awesome as they start fitting him better. Oh and we have used the covers for a swim diaper and they work great for that as well.
The other system I like a lot is made by Cotton Babies (the maker of bumGenius!) as well. It is their FLIP diaper system. This system is made up of a PUL cover which is your waterproof layer, and then your choice of insert. They offer a stay dry insert and an organic insert. I have tried both inserts and I love, love, love the stay dry insert. Once again I was amazed that the stay dry layer that touches baby’s bottom didn’t feel wet to the touch at all, but when I flipped the insert over and felt the other side it was soaked. Just amazing! I kept asking my husband to feel how dry it was. Yes, he thinks I am crazy 
The covers of the FLIP are great too. They fit my guy well and they are snaps so they should wear better than velcro. You can use the same cover if a baby pees, you just change the insert. If the baby poops and it doesn’t get on the cover you can just change the insert and use the same cover. However, every time my baby has pooped in the FLIP, he has gotten poop on the cover so I had to change both the cover and the insert. That is really the only thing I don’t like about the system….the poop gets on the cover. This kind of defeats the purpose of the system when you have a newborn that poops after every feeding. As my guy gets older and starts only pooping once or twice a day this system will make more sense for us to use. I also want to mention I liked the organic insert as well. It is soft and fluffy, but I did find it a bit bulky and it didn’t work for us because we need the stay dry liner.
I also have some bumGenius! Bamboo fitteds that I love. They hold a ton of pee and contain poop very well. When paired with the FLIP cover mentioned above they make an awesome waterproof and trim fitting diaper. We do use them but only sporadicly at the moment because baby will get too red if he wears too many fitteds in a row. I’m hoping his sensitivity will fade as he gets older and we can start using these more regularly because I really do like them a lot.
Some other fitteds I liked:
Goodmama Newborns were so soft and squishy and they held an incredible amount of pee and poop, however the diaper just got way too wet to be sitting against my little guys skin so we had to stop using them.
Kissaluvs size 0 were also nice and soft, but we had the same problem with wetness being held against sensitive newborn skin.
Thirsties Fab Fitted is a fitted that I think has potential for us. It has a stay dry liner. We had 2 in newborn sizes but by the time we cleared up the diaper rash, baby had pretty much grown out of them. The few times we did get to use them, I did really like them. I just ordered some size smalls from babyhalfoff.com. I want to try them with some wool
Speaking of wool, that’s another addiction all on its own. It seems a little complicated with the lanolizing and special washing, but I think I’m going to give it a try with the thirsties fitteds. Maybe some easy to use fleece as well.
I discovered diaperswappers.com when I was looking to sell off my newborn stash of diapers since we are now into smalls. I sold my entire newborn stash on diaperswappers.com and then bought some other new diapers from Kelly’s Closet to try. I’m waiting for my fluffy mail. I can’t wait to try them out. I will let you know what I think of them. Selling diapers on diaperswappers was very easy. It’s a great site. They also have a ton of WAHMs that make wool and fleece diaper covers and shorties so I ordered some of those as well I hope I like them.
When I first decided to cloth diaper I was a little concerned about the extra washing. I already have a hard enough time washing all the clothes and towels our 6 person household goes through on a regular basis. However, I have found it to be not as hard as I imagined. My front loading HE washer does a pretty decent job with the diapers. I have a favorite cycle set up with a prewash (no detergent), a long hot wash, and then 2 rinse cycles. I’m using bumGenius detergent right now and it comes with a scoop especially designed to use just the right amount for cloth diapers. The wash routine is working well for me right now. Now to just get the rest of my laundry done too LOL. I may be addicted to cloth diapers, but I am totally NOT addicted to washing the rest of my clothes
Right now I am trying to reign in my addiction so we don’t break the bank buying cute diapers we are only going to use for one baby….but it is sooooooo hard to do Hey I can always sell them on diaperswappers.com when I am done so another baby can find the joys of cloth as well!
Isn’t my little guy too cute with his cloth diapered bum!
PS ~ Please excuse any typos…I’m typing with a sleeping baby on my lap
