Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth

With all my kids I have used cloth part-time, off and on. I have always liked the idea of cloth, but I just never really found that I wanted to use them full time . . . until now. I have been using cloth very regularly during the day with Annika, but was still using one disposable at night. This had been working out okay and the package I have right now I think I bought way back in early May, so I haven't spent much on them. There are even about 20 diapers left, but they are size 3 and she is really too big for them. I've noticed that every time she pooped in a disposable there was a big explosion up her back. But when she poops in a any of the cloth diapers that I have it can still be a bit messy, but is contained. So I decided to take the big leap and put her in cloth at night too. And low and behold she is leak free in the morning.

So why hadn't I made this change sooner? Actually I think that I may have done more with Kiersten, but she outgrew the size that I had and I was too cheap to spend all the money at once for a bigger size. Thinking back, that was really stupid logic because if I had just bit the bullet and bought them I would have been saving money after using them for about a month and a half. I also went back to work and found that sending the cloth diapers with Kiersten wasn't working that well, (but I think I've figure out why and will have it fixed when I go back to work in November).

The diapers I had with the boys were not the greatest cloth diapers. On the surface they seemed to be better than the ones my mom used on me, but really didn't prove to be an improvement. I had two different brands of fitted diapers and neither was particularly absorbent, which is kind of important for a diaper. They needed a waterproof cover and I ended up with Bummis covers. These were the one thing that was an upgrade from the icky plastic or rubber pant that were around when I was a baby and I'm actually using Bummis covers now.

When I was pregnant with Kiersten I did some looking around for cloth diapers and was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many more choices than when the boys were babies. And cloth diapering is far more mainstream, people aren't surprised when you tell them that you use cloth diapers. I bought some prefolds and covers, which are cheap and easy to use. I'm still using these with Annika, but I recently came across some inexpensive pocket diapers that are what I've started using at night (and during the day too). Anyways, why are they working this time? I LOVE the diapers that I have because they work and are simple. Now the benefits totally out weigh any tiny bit of convenience that disposables might have had for me.

The pocket diapers are a one size diaper (well not for my larger than average kids) but going from about 10 lbs to 35lbs or so is pretty darn good, no need to keep buying bigger sizes all the time. The inside is fleece so little bums don't feel too wet and poop comes of it really easily. they also have a pocket, (hence their name) that you stuff with absorbent inserts. You can put in one or more, which is helpful at night and why I dared to try them. And they have a built in waterproof layer and don't require a cover. So once you've stuffed it, it goes on pretty much like a disposable with one exception, it has snaps. Annika had started to pick at the tabs on disposables and the velcro on the covers I have, but she can't undo the snaps!

I think I'm becoming a bit addicted to cloth diapering I want MORE. More colours, cute prints and I want to try wool covers. So goodbye disposables, hello cloth!

Annika in a Hipkiddo pocket diaper, chewing on a prefold.

I know It's not a great photo, but the models are sometimes difficult to work with. ;)