Li’l Cotton Bum, or, Cloth Diapers Continued

We’ve officially switched to cloth diapering and I wanted to post an update to my previous post in which I explained why I cloth diaper. But the rubber has hit the road (or should I say, the poop has hit the pad?) and we’re ankle deep in cloth diapers at this point, so I thought I would chronicle (my word of the month) how it’s going!

So I started out with the Cadillac of cloth diapers – the Bum Genius 3.0 One-Size Pocket. This is truly a hefty diaper and well constructed. But I discovered that I dislike stuffing the pocket diapers b/c the inserts fit so snugly in the pocket, I was always struggling to get them to lay flat. I tried the FuzziBunztoo and liked that they have adjustable side elastics and their top layer is soo sooo soft, but same issue with the stuffing.

Then I found out about the Flip System – made by the same people as Bum Genius 3.0. This essentially takes the stuffing out of the mix. Flips are One Size with snaps instead of the Velcro (which I like better) and the insert simply lies in the diaper cover. I love it because there’s no stuffing AND if my baby only does pee-pee, I can reuse the cover with a new insert! I did try their more thrifty counterpart, the EconoBum (sounds thrifty, huh?), and while it can do the job well, it just isn’t as much fun (only sold in white now sold with color trim) and the insert is a prefold so it adds a little work. And the whole point if I am going to do cloth is to have as much fun as possible! So I try to buy various color covers and fun and fabulous wet bags from Bummis and other places! Hey, if I’m going to save money cloth diapering, I can splurge a little on some fun cloth diapering gear, right? 🙂

Now, something else I am not liking – the Diaper Sprayer – I thought this would be the niftiest little gadget. But I think I have almost taken an eye out with this thing more than once. The water pressure on this is amazing – and unfortunate: it sprays poop EVERYWHERE but in the toilet! And since we had to mount the handle on the left side, and I am right handed, it makes cleaning the diapers rather awkward b/c I have to reach across in the back corner, pull the sprayer out and around to the right… you get the idea. So… I am cheating and not spraying the diapers until he gets solid poops… my DH (DH = “dear husband” for those of you who are like me and couldn’t figure out what this meant for weeks after becoming a blogger!) is so sweet to always spray off the diapers – then again, he has the patience to control the water pressure! 🙂 The manufacturers claim that you can also use it for personal hygiene but… I’m not sure that would be advisable considering the force with which the water comes out (and that it’s cold water! brr!).

UPDATE: I now could not live without my Diaper Sprayer, and would highly recommend people get one! I figured out that I can control the strength of the spray with the handle (not so much with the sprayer button). I think it helps keep our bathroom from being smelly and our diapers from getting too stained).

But otherwise, cloth diapering is going well – doing laundry isn’t so big of a deal b/c mostly I do it overnight – I just have to remember to restart the washer right away (you have to run it through 2x) so I can throw it in the dryer in the morning. But it’s not like I’m doing WORK! ha ha! The machines do it all!

There is the occasional disposable used when I fall a bit behind on the laundry, or when I find myself downstairs with a dirty diaper and all the cloth inserts are upstairs. But I imagine those will start to fade out as well. For now, it’s happy diapering for us!