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Monday, April 1, 2013

Adventures With Cloth Diapers

Hi readers! Here's a post from Stevie. We got a present in the mail a few weeks ago from our friends at gDiapers. This is not a paid promotion and the opinions are ours. There was no pressure to even write the review. We could have just kept them. Heck, I probably could have written 1000 words about how much we hated cloth diapers, then posted a video of us burning them while dancing around the gDiaper fire in a circle, chanting something about how much we dislike their diapers- and the marketing people at gDiapers would probably be super nice. Good thing we FREAKING LOVE THEM. Anyway... on with the Stevie!

Dad (John)

Before Duchess was born we decided to save the planet and use cloth diapers. Let’s lessen our carbon footprint! So three years ago I ran out and spent $200 on fancy pants cloth diapers and John was a nice enough to keep his mouth shut and let me bask in my pre-baby optimistic belief that I would be able to do laundry every night once Duchess arrived. I didn't really take into account the amount of work they would be. Also, the amount of bubble-butt that was about to happen. So bulky.

Cloth Diaper Baby


Fast forward to current day Kinnear house. We are lucky to have clean socks around our house. To any of you that interact with John on a daily basis, if he is in an exceptionally good mood one day, it’s probably because I just filled his drawer with clean socks. Seriously, you should see our laundry pile mountain. It like defies gravity at this point. It leans ominously depending on the position of the moon. Yes, our laundry pile has a tide.

So I started refraining from using the cloth diapers because I didn't want to have to wash them afterwards. They eventually took up residence in a little basket in the corner of Duchess's room, only to be used only when we went out and I wanted people to see how awesome we were at maintaining our commitment to cloth diapers. When I would go in the nursery, I would look at them and give myself a pat on the back for investing in our planet’s future. Then I would grab a disposable diaper, throw it on my kid and be on my way.

The thing to know about me is that I’m one part eco and two parts lazy. I recycle – but I don’t recycle glass because I would have to take it to the recycling plant instead of it being picked up by the curb. I think about composting. But don’t because it sounds difficult and smelly. And I love the idea of cloth diapers but not so much the execution.

Enter: gDiapers. Thanks to a good friend of the blog, Kelli M., we were able to try these bad boys out. When we got them in the mail I spread them out on the floor and rolled around in them like Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, only instead of cash it was diapers – and I didn't have to sleep with Kelli to get them. She is very cute though.


gDiapers


So now I can have my super cute little cloth diaper but I can put in a disposable liner. When my son pisses on it, I can throw it away and it will biodegrade in as little as 50 days. You can also compost them if you’re into that sort of thing. Or you can even flush them. Just make sure you read the directions first. Hey John, remember that time the toilet was clogged and I said I didn't know why? Yeah I lied.

You can check out their website to find out more information about them and see if they are your “thing”. They are definitely my thing. How could they not be on such a cute little squishy ball of awesome?

Baby in gDiapers


Yes, I know , I know. I’m not actually doing true cloth because I’m using disposable liners. I would love to but I still need to pick up some cloth ones. Then I’ll be true green! Except that I think the liners are white. And really only one of the diapers covers is green. It’s my favorite. But with my cloth diapers and cloth liners, I shall be the queen of laundry. You shut your mouth, John.

How about you folks, any cloth enthusiasts out there? Any favorite brands?

37 comments:

  1. Love our cloth! Started 2.5yrs ago with son & now have a newborn! Holy laundry!! Love Rumparooz! Be proud of yourself, most people don't even try.

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  2. Stevie - Keep me posted about your cloth diaper experiences - especially in terms of daycare. When I found out I was pregant, I too had the pie in the sky idea that I was going to save the earth, and my checking account, by using cloth diapers. Then, when I really thought about my postpartum life, it dawned on me that after maternity leave the Peanut would be in daycare for 9+ hours every day and cloth diapers may not be so daycare friendly. Are you going to send the Captain to daycare in the cloth diapers? If so, let me know how it goes.

    Thanks,
    Melissa

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    1. Hey Melissa - Captain does go to daycare full time but I have yet to ask them if they would be willing to use the cloth. Right before we got our gDiapers, we had just bought a GIANT box of disposable diapers from Costco and took about half of them to daycare for them to use there. So once he runs out of those, I'm going to have the conversation and see if they will work with us.

      Thanks for the comment!

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    2. Melissa,
      We use cloth and have our son in them for daycare. Some daycares we looked at said they aren't allowed to do them. That is bull. At least here in North Carolina. The state health law says that they just have to be in their own step pail. So we bought a little step trash can (like for a bathroom) and a medium sized wetbag and we just grab the wetbag with the dirty diapers in it every day when we pick him up. We try to use the easier ones at daycare (like the pocket or all-in-ones) but they will do any of them. Just check with the individual daycare. I found 3-4 here in Charlotte that are willing to do it.

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  3. Cannot shake the image of rolling around in g's a la Demi Moore. Nor do I want to. It's perfect. You might not be doing "true cloth" with gDiapers, and we say that's a-okay, cause we're not a "true cloth diaper", but we ARE adorable diaper covers with the only biodegradable disposable insert there is (that you can flush by the way!). Or use cloth inserts if you wanna. We're pretty flexible. Cause as parents, don't we kind of have to be? Thank you John and Stevie and Captain and Duchess! mwah mwah mwah

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  4. When I was pregnant with my son a co-worker encouraged me to try cloth. I laughed hysterically. No. Gross. Poop. For some reason though, when Little Man was 9 months old (and my checking account was waning & my disposable diapers were smelling up their pail) I decided that I'd give it a go. I went out and bought several brands of pockets...and had a love-hate relationship with them. Sure, they were soft and they were cute, but they also seemed to leak an awful lot and I had to wash them...and...and...and...after about fifteen billion types of cloth diapers, I found an all-in-two (Best Bottoms) that I really liked, that contained all of the messes, and didn't seem to leak. They were still bulky, but cute, and not quite as labor intensive.

    AND then I found out that I was pregnant with my daughter. Wheeeeew, it would cost an awful lot to use disposables for TWO babies, so the only logical thing would be to keep cloth diapering. As I was looking for newborn diapers -- I'd never cloth diapered a newborn before... -- I stumbled upon these super adorable, itty-bitty things called "tiny g's". I was sold! I swiped up a 'starter' kit and ran with it. As it turns out, g's are my new favorites! They are adorable, ultra trim, and convenient as both a cloth & a disposable alternative. No other diaper compares!

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  5. I am a gMum and I absolutely LOVE the disposable inserts, however I am a faithful gcloth user. I promise, wash them nicely and they will stay bright and white. I watch a friend's boy through the week and instead of using the "million-snap covers I can't wash because I'm scared to ruin the plastic coating they have and the cloths that just don't fit inside of them in any way that makes sense" I put him in my g's, last week keeping him disposables because he had a terrible rash. Enjoy them as they are perfect. Absolutely perfect. Even my husband likes them!

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    1. Good to know! I would love to pick up a set of the cloth inserts because they really are nice to use, especially with babies prone to diaper rash. So did your friend become a g-convert after that?

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  6. I really REALLY love flip diapers. There's a waterproof cover and you can put either cloth or disposable liners in them. The nice thing is that they take any kind of cloth insert. Got prefolds laying around? fold them in thirds and stick 'em in. Got inserts from those pocket diapers laying around NOT being stuffed? Have old tee shirts laying around? Fold 'em in (okay, maybe not the tee shirts...)

    If you find the laundry not getting done, try buying more diapers! I have enough diapers for a full two weeks if I wanted to let them sit around stinking up my house. It equates to 1.5 extra loads of laundry a week, which I don't mind so much. Yaay for cloth diapers!

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    1. Thanks for the advice! We have 6 covers right now that will hopefully suffice. What's nice with the gDiapers is that I don't have to wash the covers every time. Unless he explodes. Which happens. A lot actually. But not every time at least :)

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  7. I'm glad you guys are having a good experience with the gdiapers. I tried them from birth through maybe 3 or 4 months (can't quite remember now), and we had so many leaks that we had to give up on them. (And then it was hard to get anyone to buy our supply - wound up giving them away!) But I loved those flushable inserts. I still think that is a brilliant idea.

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    1. I'm still having a hard time flushing them successfully. But at least knowing they will decompose in ~50 days makes me feel better. That sucks you had so many leaks! We actually haven't had any leaks yet (knock on wood)

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    2. We love the gDiaper system. During our two months of use, we have only had one major issue with leaks. We didnt switch sizes when we should have, resulting in a week of leaks. Once we switched up to the next size (about two pounds before the stated size/weight), the leaks stopped.

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  8. I use bumgenius 4.0 and am loving it! One size fits all and I would rather toss a load in every other night than worry about running out. The bulk is a bummer and it can be annoying carrying them back and forth but they're cute and my baby's bum seems less rashy.

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    1. I went back and forth between bumgenius and fuzzibunz with Duchess but ended up going with the fuzzibunz. I think they are just as bulky but yes, definitely help with the diaper rash.

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  9. I'm a gDiaper mom, and I can't tell you how much I love them and recommend them to others. I think they're the perfect "starter" cloth diaper. You get the way cute cloth covers with the disposable liners for convenience. We use cloth exclusively at home, and the disposables on the go and at gramma and grampas (our day care). I wash about every two days, and it's not really too much out of my normal routine, just another small load that runs in the background while I love on my little unit! I hope you enjoy the g's, they're amazing!

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    1. They really are a greater starter cloth! (Even though this is technically not our start to cloth....c'est la vie)

      But yes, the covers are ridiculously adorable. So far we haven't had an increase in laundry because we are using the disposable inserts and everything's been contained so far. So I've only had to wash a few of the covers and I just throw them in with the normal laundry.

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  10. We use a combination of cloth diapers. During the day, GroVia which you can reuse the shell a few times and just change out the inserts (assuming we're not dealing with poop). During the night, a single over-stuffed Flipz works very well and rarely ever leaks. Did this with my first child, and am using the same ones with the second.

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    1. The GroVia sound a lot like the gDiapers. We use a combination of gDiapers and disposables only because we haven't asked the daycare to use the cloth yet. We'll see how that conversation goes.

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    2. Our daycare has been fine with the cloth diapers. But i think the majority are not.

      However even if they are, you will likely still have some issues with leakage, because people used to dealing with disposables don't realize how tightly a cloth diaper should fit. So even though they've been fine with them, we get a fair amount of dirty laundry coming home as well.

      I don't know a lot about gDiapers, but the GroVia fit extremely well. However, avoid velcro. It doesn't last.

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  11. We use Fuzzibunz cloth diapers exclusively, and love them. They are a little bulky, but otherwise we have no complaints and only compliments. They've saved us a ton, they travel well even, you can use them as swim diapers if you need to, they wear and wash easily. We only have to do an extra 3 loads of laundry a month. There's even a strong resale market for them when we get potty trained here pretty soon (and his potty training readiness has been helped by them - he knew and could self-identify being wet long before his classmates and now can anticipate needing to go before anyone else). Love them, can't say enough about them.

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    1. We used fuzzibunz perfect size with Duchess. I liked them in how well they held up but I just couldn't get over the bulk. Some good friends of ours used One Size and those were even bulkier. They didn't seem to mind though. Maybe I will look into reselling the ones we used with Duchess..

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  12. Also, I saw someone ask about daycare. Our son's in his second one now, and both were initially reluctant to "mess with cloth." We asked them to try it for a few weeks and if they found it too problematic, we'd go to disposible. Both of them were fine with it after that and never requested throwaway diapers. We bring fresh ones for each day and the wet diaper bag, they put all the mess inside, and we do the washing. Once they see how really easy it is (and that you don't want them to wash for you), they will probably find it's really no trouble.

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    1. That's a great idea! I really hope they will work with us, I'd love to avoid the expense and landfill issue. I really do love the idea of just asking them to do a test run at first.

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  13. Being of the lazy yet eco-minded mindset, I feel like I found the best of both worlds. I used a cloth diaper service exclusively for my son's first 2.5 years...$70 a month for all the fresh, clean inserts I could want delivered right to my doorstep, without ever having to wash the icky poopy ones out! The company I used drives biodiesel trucks and uses low-impact soaps/bleach so I felt double good about my investment. I had to supply my own reusable diaper covers (that I laundered with the rest of my son's regular clothing, bedding) but for me, not having to do separate rinsing, soaking, washing of dirty diapers every day was the bee's knees. I highly recommend a diaper service if you live in a city that has one!

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    1. That's the way to do it! Unfortunately, there's actually not a diapering service anywhere near us. Booo...

      But now that I have tried the AIO's and the inserts, I'm definitely a fan of the inserts because the covers don't get nearly as gross as they did with the fuzzibunz. Ah poop.

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  14. We cloth diapered for two years, only because it was hubbys job to launder them. Then a local here in nz invented a disposible nappy composing system...we were into that like a rat up a drain pipe. But cloth nappies are pretty (on other peoples kids) aren't they!

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  15. I've been cloth-diapering my bubs for a year, now. It's easier with 8+covers and 12-15 diapers. I keep the smaller sized diapers after she outgrows them so I can double-up (1lg, 1-2sm) for extra absorption without much bulk. Also: wool covers are a dream, esp if you have fitted cloth diapers that will help contain poo. If you just get pee on them you only have to wash the covers every 2-3 weeks! Weird but true.

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  16. I've been CDing my Nugget since he was 6 weeks old. I planned to do it from birth but the bugger showed up a month early and his 5lb butt didn't fit any cloth. When he was about 8lbs, he rocked g-diapers proudly. But I'm clumsy and the fastening in the back was hard for me. So we switched to mostly Sunbabies and BumGenius with a few flips and some homemade ones thrown in for good measure. The laundry isn't a huge deal for us 'cause he only does this at night and over the weekend. Daycare won't do it. I get it. So we send Luvs to daycare and CD at home and on vaca and whatnot and I feel less bad about the landfills. Cheers!

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  17. The home daycare my 9 month old daughter goes to has no problems with the Smartipants one size pocket diapers we use. Of the various friends and relatives who've watched her, only one objected to cloth even after seeing that they wouldn't have to deal with any folding or pins. We've been doing cloth since the bag of newborn size disposables from the hospital ran out and we're very happy with it. Since she started solids we've been using flushable liners (tried Cutey Baby and Grovia so far, like the Cutey Baby ones a bit better but the Grovia ones are cheaper) that we can just lift off and flush before tossing the diaper in the wash. Only time laundry was a problem was when we moved and didn't have a working washer right away. Of course, I'm someone who has never minded doing laundry and hates taking out the trash, so that may help.

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  18. We're planning to use cloth! Our little one is due September 7th :) We bought bunch of different kinds so that we could figure out what works best for us. There are some great cloth diapering advice forums out there that are full of great info and tips. We've started blogging about our intention to use cloth: http://daydaddynightdaddy.blogspot.se/2013/04/weve-been-practicing.html

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  19. We have beein CDing- we use the flip diapers one size fits all/velcro and they are awesome. Love the blog!

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  20. I'm a dad who loves using cloth diapers. I went with

    40 Osocozy unbleached cloth diapers (infant size)
    40 Osocozy unbleached cloth diapers (toddler)
    2 GroVia diaper covers (one size fits all)
    4 Thirsties covers (one size fits all)
    4 Bummies covers (infant)
    3 snappy's
    12 Bumkins biodegradable diaper liners 100 pk
    2 wool diaper covers

    You can totally get away with using the infant size inserts at first and save some cash by not getting the newborn size down. Your call.
    For any dads out there debating cloth or a little apprehensive, I would say it's really not hard. I change a diaper in 60 seconds flat without thinking about it. As for washing yeah it's a chore but if you get a routine going where in you do laundry every other day on your diaper pail it's all good. Plus the cost is a major savings which a lot of guys I know love.

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  21. This is a great resource for anyone wanting clear concise information on the subject of cloth diapers! This helped me and my wife when we were considering going this route.

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  22. OOps

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVo6SMebcX8

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  23. My baby has been on Honest diapers since she was born. They are soft, quilted, and worked really well for watery poop. I would love to keep her on Honest. When she outgrew size 3, I bought small packs of size 4 diapers for her to try. They fits babies well. They are smaller, thinner and softer
    honest company

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  24. Hi, dear I want to purchase best baby products for my baby. I know that you are expert in this subject, please if it will possible for you than provide me some info about honest diaper.

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