After almost 6 months, the gravy train of free diapers has come to an end. Between our church baby shower and my mom's love for buying mega boxes of diapers for her grandbabies, we have had a steady supply of diapers for the past 6 months.
Secretly, or publicly now that I've posted it on my blog, I'm completely thrilled to make the switch to cloth diapers again.
What's not to love? They're cute, they're green, and they save around $40 a month. And cloth wipes? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! I'd rather use a cloth wipe to clean a dirty diaper any day of the week instead of a thin disposable wipe. And check out these wipes:
I started cloth diapering when Isabelle was 8 months old, so I've never done cloth with an exclusively breastfed baby. The perk is that until solids are introduced, their poop is completely water soluable, so there's no need to clean off the dirty diapers before washing. Even with a diaper sprayer, that's my least favorite part of cloth diapers. A close second would be telling people that we cloth diaper. They usually think I've either gone insane or that I'm a total hippie. While both might be partially true, I'm really just frugal and industrious.
Fortunately, Isabelle is completely potty trained during the day and even wakes up dry most mornings, so I won't be cloth diapering two kiddos at once (yep, she tells me when she needs to go and never has accidents!). Our entire stash of cloth will only have to diaper one baby.
While I've got a decent supply of pocket diapers, I was still thrilled to go to a friend's house yesterday and get a gazillion prefolds and covers that someone had given to her. She received so many that she didn't need all of them, so she split the jackpot with me. What a blessing! Instead of washing diapers every other day, I'll probably wash twice a week or whenever the diapers start to stink. Fortunately, right before I stopped cloth diapering Isabelle, I found a couple of really good hanging diaper pails that solved the stinky diaper problem, so I'll tell you about those soon.
I'm completely new to the world of prefolds and covers, so I'd love to know about how to care for them. What's your wash routine with prefolds and covers? Do they require a special detergent? Can I wash them with my pocket diapers? Hot water, cold water, or both? I do a cold rinse and a hot wash with the pockets. Please tell me what you do. I'd rather not spend an hour or two googling the subject. Laundry is waiting to be folded and I've got a good book that is just begging to be read before naptime ends. Enlighten me.
I love how you labeled it "frugal and industrious;" totally stealing that line.
ReplyDeleteI have been washing my pre-folds with my pocket diapers for about 10 months and haven't had a problem. Cold rinse, hot wash, cold rinse, line dry. I use baking soda and a mild powder detergent (without dyes or perfumes) because it rinses cleaner than liquid, and then vinegar in the rinse cycle. They get a little stiff when you don't use a dryer, but it's worth not paying for the electricity. (I really don't use the dryer a lot because of the cost but it makes me feel like I'm doing something "green.")
I wash my pockets and prefolds together. I cannot dry outside because Titus has severe grass allergies, and I do not have room inside, so we use the dryer, but hang the covers. I use Rockin Green detergent when we can afford it, Purex Free & Clear when we can't.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! Glad to know I don't have to change my wash routine when using prefolds. It'll make it easier to use a combination of both types of diapers.
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