The Cloth Experience

I am a cloth diaper mom. As soon as they fit our little newborn without falling off, we plunged into this cloth-diapering adventure and after three months we can honestly say we wouldn't go back. It was initially my idea and ever since I shared it with my husband, he has fully supported me and even helped me be strong at times when I wanted to give up. Oftentimes, that includes taking care of the extra-gross explosion diapers for me. He is my hero!

DETAILS PLEASE!
I don't think I knew exactly what to do until I changed my first few diapers and figured it out. Being the "details please!" person that I am, I consider that to have been a great step of faith! However, three months into this journey, I still have some questions. After all, there seem to be a zillion different brands and styles and opinions on it all. So PLEASE, if you have any kind of cloth-diapering experience, share your comments, recommendations and opinions!

First let me explain some lingo which didn't make much sense to me until I actually had the diapers in my hands. Remember that I'm still new at this, so what I'm sharing is out of my limited experience, which is why it's important for YOU to SHARE! :)

The majority of brands seem to have two parts to the diaper: the cover/pocket and the insert. (See web-sites at bottom for pictures.) Pocket cloth diapers have an opening at the back end into which you put the cloth insert, which usually looks like a thick, long, soft pad. Other diapers look very similar but instead of putting the insert into an opening, you simply place it on the inside of the diaper cover. Some of these inserts are more like a squarish piece of thick cloth that you fold into three parts before placing it on the diaper cover. Most diapers have either snaps or velcro. Some have sizes and others are adjustable. Some diapers are what they call AIO (all in one) which means they don't have multiple parts. Still other diapers have even more than two parts such as will be described next.

MY EXPERIENCE
We have used three different brands of cloth diapers: gDiapers, bumGenius, and Fuzzi Bunz. Here are my opinions on them:

gDiapers: Great for travelling because of the biodegradable/flushable inserts they sell. Cumbersome since they have three parts that aren't easy to assemble in a hurry: cloth or biodegradable inserts that you place on a plastic liner which you snap onto the diaper cover which you close with velcro. The nice thing is you can re-use the cover and plastic liners multiple times provided they didn't get soiled. Not very soft on baby's skin. I've been majorly disappointed with the quality. When using the cloth inserts, they almost always leak. After a month of use, the velcro and some snaps have fallen off on some of them and the sewing on the liners and inserts is also falling apart. We've decided to only use these for traveling, if at all, from now on.

bumGenius: A pocket-style cloth diaper, one-size-fits-all because of snaps that allow you to make it longer or shorter. It uses velcro to fasten. The opening for the insert has a flap so that the insert doesn't wiggle out (although I never have this problem) and so far I haven't had any problem with the velcro at all. Fits very nicely, it's easy to put on and it's very soft on baby. Our favorite so far!

Fuzzi Bunz: Also a pocket diaper but no velcro. It has many snaps on the front so it can be adjusted to be tighter or looser, but they do sell these diapers in sizes. We presently have the medium size with fits our three-month old very high on the waist, but good enough to use regularly. These may become our favorites once they actually fit him well since they are even softer than bumGenius and don't have a flap at the opening of the pocket, which makes it easier to put in and take out the insert. The insert is much thicker than bumGenius inserts, but we haven't noticed much of a difference except for bulkiness.

STEP ONE, STEP TWO...
But really, HOW do you do it!? That was my big question until I actually did it since there doesn't seem to be a detailed list of steps anywhere...at least not detailed enough for me! So here are the details of what I do:
1. Prepare the clean diaper before taking off the used one! (Inserts, snaps, etc.)
2. Take off used diaper, clean baby, put dirty diaper to the side temporarily and put on clean diaper.
3. Once baby is changed and in a safe place, take dirty diaper to the bathroom and throw away wipes, rinse any excess dirtiness down the sink, squeeze water out of diaper, roll up and put into a cloth bag that I hang behind the door.
4. Once I am almost out of clean diapers, I throw the whole bag of dirty diapers (including bag) into the washer for a rinse cycle. Separate inserts from diaper covers first and make sure any velcro tabs are closed. Cold water, no detergent.
5. Once the rinse cycle is done, pour detergent into washer and wash on the delicate cycle with hot water. Not all detergents are safe for cloth diapers. Check this list: http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html
6. When wash cycle is done, I line-dry them outside unless it's raining.
7. Start over. (Obviously don't wait until you are completely out of clean diapers so that your poor little baby has something to wear meanwhile!)

So this is what I do. When I travel or I'm out and about, I take a large zip-lock bag with me for the dirty diapers. Things like this and the cloth bag that I keep behind the bathroom are my spur of the moment solutions to the needs I have encountered, but I'm seeking better solutions.

QUESTIONS
So I want to know from other cloth diaper moms...
*What do you store your dirty diapers in? Wet or dry?
*What do you do with the wipes? (I find it rather gross to just put in an open trash can.)
*What brands have been your favorite and why?
*What brand would you not recommend and why?
*What do you do when travelling?
*What is your washing technique?

I hope this has helped any new cloth diaper moms or anyone thinking of giving it a try. As far as costs, they are obviously more expensive than disposable diapers at first, but definitely NOT in the long run! We have been so glad not to have to run to the store for more diapers ever few days since our little guy tends to soil 8 or 10 diapers a day. (It's getting much better!) I'm sure we've gotten our money's worth already!

Web-sites that have been useful to us are http://www.diaper.com/ , http://www.target.com/ , http://www.diaperjungle.com/ and the individual brands' web-sites.

So go on and share your ANSWERS to the questions, your EXPERIENCES, your own QUESTIONS...we all can use each others' help!