Cloth Diapers

My mom used cloth diapers on me and my siblings (there are 5 of us all together) way back in the 70's and 80's before it was cool. Before I was even pregnant, I knew that I wanted to do the same. Or at least give it a shot.

I didn't actually put Amelia in her cloth diapers until she was 5 weeks old simply because when she was first born she was really little and then as time went by I felt a little scared to try. Finally, I sucked it up and did it and she's been in them ever since (except at night and longish ventures out of the house that will require diaper changes). I only use prefolds and diaper covers, specifically Thirsties covers. Love 'em!

When I was shopping around for diapers and saw all the different options, I was a bit overwhelmed, but once I price compared I knew that prefolds were gonna be the way to go. I was/am on a budget and just couldn't afford the cloth diapers that come with all the bells and whistles (ie. BumGenius). I bought 3 dozen unbleached Indian cotton prefolds in the infant size and four Thirsties covers XSmall. This initial stash lasted me until just recently. Right around 4 months Amelia grew out of the covers (which according to the manufacturer are good to 12 lbs. but fit her to 14 1/2 lbs.). Now I am still using the infant size prefolds and the next size up Thirsties. Although, I do have 40 Chinese cotton prefolds in the regular size for when her butt gets too big for the others.

Washing the diapers was one of the reasons I was hesitant to finally start cloth diapering, but really its not difficult at all. If there is a substantial amount of poo, I just do a quick swish in the toilet and into the diaper pail it goes. By the way, my diaper pail is just a small trash can with pop-up lid and I've never had any issues with smell. About twice a week I do a load of diapers. I do a regular wash cycle with some free & clear detergent on cold, then a second cycle on hot with an additional rinse. Unfortunately, I don't have an outdoor space for a clothes line so I use my dryer.

So that's the basic rundown of my cloth diaper routine. Yes, it was intimidating at first and a lot of people in my family thought I was crazy or wouldn't last but I have no plans to stop and I feel so much better about what goes on my baby's bum than I would otherwise.

Edited to add: I got the chinese cotton prefolds from the clearance section of Soft Cloth Bunz because they are all supposedly defective in some way. I have yet to see any problems with these diapers, and I got a great price.