My First Time Experience With Cloth Diaper

This starts my official stream of cloth diapering posts,  reviews, and giveaways (YAY)! 

I am so excited to be able to review different brands for you ladies who are interested in cloth diapering as well as sharing my first time experiences as a cloth diapering mommy.

This is my first time cloth diapering as I'm a total newbie. I was so overwhelmed in the beginning because there were so many different types of cloth diapers as well as brands of them! I not only wanted to know how to cloth diaper in itself, but also which brands to stock my supply on. I had so many questions and wanted to know which pail to use, what detergent, and how on earth to wash them!

I did my research and have done a few tests on my son and I've got to say-cloth diapers are the cutest thing! He did well on them and so we will begin full time cloth diapering tomorrow. 

I had Grey in disposable diapers for the first two and a half weeks of his life and I experienced:

*rash

*blowouts

*yeast

*redness/irritation

*patchy red, bleeding spot on his scrotum

I then said to hell with disposables and immediately tried on the long awaited cloth diapers to see if he would improve. Sure enough, the rash, redness, irritation, red spot went AWAY-GONE! Kaput! Not to mention, NO BLOWOUTS! 

It's amazing how harmful the chemicals in disposable diapers truly are. Yuck. The only reason why I started him out in them is because we got so many at our baby showers and he was a little too small at the time for the one sized cloth diapers I have. 

Which cloth diaper did you decide to stock up on? We decided to go with mainly All in Ones or Pocket Diapers. These are the type you stuff with inserts. They tend to be pricey, but they're so easy. 

So, how do you change them? The changing routine with these are to wash the diaper cover with a sprayer, remove the liner, and rinse it.Then wring it out a bit, leaving it damp, and toss into your wet or dry diaper pail.

What diaper sprayer do you use? While special diaper sprayers out there cost you about $60, I simply bought a long stretchable shower head sprayer to use instead for only $20! 

Which diaper pail do you use? Well, based on my numerous conversations with mommies-I don't use a pail! Instead, I'm using a laundry basket. 

Wait-doesn't that stink? Nope! Keeping diapers in a sealed pail is what stinks. Also, by using a laundry basket, I saved a good bit of money and worry. 

What's your washing routine and which detergent do you use? I use Tide Originak Powder. It's the best thing out there and you can get it from any store so you don't have to worry about purchasing online and waiting for your special shipments to arrive. Don't get me wrong-there are special detergents out there that are great for cloth diapering. But why not use what you know works AND save a buck!

My washing routine is simple:

1) Pre-rinse on cold without detergent, this helps get the gunk off.

2) Wash on hot cycle with detergent.

3) Do another rinse cycle.

4) Tumble liners/inserts on low in the dryer and hang the diaper covers to dry. Yup! Bought me a clothesline and some pins. It's going down!!

And that's all folks.

But how do you prep your new diapers?

For new cloth diapers, you must prep them to rid them of the factory chemicals so they do not irritate baby. How you prep them depends on the inserts/liners you have. 

Micro fleece, microfiber, or anything synthetic: wash 3 times with detergent on hot. Diaper covers only need to be washed once.

Organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, or any natural material: these must be washed up to 5-6 times on hot due to the natural oils. ***never prep these with synthetics-the oils will clog the pores of your synthetic inserts, making absorbency less*** Diaper covers only need to be washed once.

I plan on washing every two days since I have about 50 diapers or so. It's best to not go longer or they will develop a funk to them.

Good luck cloth diapering and I will be sharing my updates and cloth diaper reviews soon!

Sia