Oh the diapers!

   

Cloth diapering adventure- major cost savings!

We invested in cloth diapers before our first, Annabelle, was born and they have been a MAJOR cost savings through all 3 kiddos.  At first we were sold on the natural cotton and no chlorine and it did not seem like much of a cost savings since we had to spend around $250 to make the initial investment.  Looking back though, 3 kids later, we have had many more benefits than keeping chemicals off our babies bottoms! (which to many, including us, was a great reason in and of itself)

We invested in Bum Genius diapers which are made in our home town of St. Louis, MO, but they are available easily online too.  We looked at many brands and we picked Bum Genius because of their growth adjust-ability, dry protection and ease of washing at home.

Our next step in decision making, which has TOTALLY paid off, was how to store and clean our diapers.  We went with the Diaper Decor diaper pail which works with reusable pail liners (we like planet wise) as well as any garbage bag.  Planet wise also has great wet bags for on the go cloth diapering!

 

You also have to think about wipes.  You want wipes you can wash so you can just dump everything from the wet bag into the washer and not mess with separating anything.  We went with the Prince Lionheart wipe warmer and wipes, which have held up great over the past 4 years!

It is important to not put anything on your babies bottom that will build up a water barrier on your diapers, so traditional diaper creams are a no go.  Instead using natural remedies without zinc oxide work great for baby and the cloth diapers.  We use mother love diaper ointment, but there are many options out there.
 
You do have to buy ever fresh pillows for the bottom of the warmer to keep everything wet and sanitized while warm too, but I bought a few packs and I am still going through them and am on kiddo number 3.

So, that is pretty much the set up!  Now for the LOADS of fun ;)  It is very important which detergent you use.  You never want to use regular detergent on your cloth diapers.  They actually take very little detergent to keep them clean.  Here is a list of detergents that work really well with cloth diapers. My advice is to wash them at least every three days.  Rinse them on warm, then wash with detergent on hot and then do another hot rinse.  The inserts can go in the dryer (you do not need softener sheets) and you can line dry the covers, pail liners and wet bags.

If your diapers begin to smell not so fresh or start to leak here are easy instructions of how to strip them.

And that's the basics of cloth diapering.  There are many more things you learn from trial and error and honestly every kiddo has been a bit different, but overall we have saved lots with our investment and we sleep better knowing chemicals are not on our babies bottoms.