Thank you!  I’m venturing into the world of cloth diapering with our first, expected in April, and while I’m very excited about our choice, I’m always overwhelmed by the amount of information out there.  I appreciate being able to benefit from your experience, and am glad I read this in time to add another wet bag to my registry : ) Thanks for the post and Happy New Year!

So glad you have had a good year, Mika!  I am doing cloth diapers with my new one, and after trying some prefolds and fitteds, we ultimately decided on the BumGenuis, too.  For anyone looking, they are now available at some Target stores!

Thanks Margie S. and Sara! I wanted to add that I didn’t go into detail about what I thought about the BumGenius diapers since this post wasn’t a review about the diapers. We do like them, but if money wasn’t an issue, I would have probably gone with the Fuzzi Bunz. They are less bulky, have many cute colors, easier to stuff, and the snaps will last longer than the aplix tabs. You just have to buy them in different sizes since they aren’t one size, so you will spend much more.

Mika - Thanks for the honest feedback!  We’re expecting our first in Feb. and would love to use cloth diapers.  How many loads of laundry can you do with the 5 lb bag of Charlie’s Soap and where did you find the large waterproof bags?

I’ve used Fuzzi Bunz size medium and BumGenius One Size with my first child. The Fuzzi Bunz medium fit him from age 7 months when I started cloth diapering to almost 2 years old. Medium is the most versatile size. I am now pregnant with my second so I bought some size small Fuzzi Bunz for the new baby and some larges for my 2 year old.

I thought I would like the aplix better than the snaps, but after using both Bum Genius and Fuzzi Bunz, I like the Fuzzi Bunz with snaps better.

I am going to try the Bum Genius one-size on the new baby to see how well they work on the smallest setting, but since Fuzzi Bunz are thinner, I think I will prefer them.

I have used Imse Vimse liners since shortly after my son started solids. I have found that they contain the mess very well and when they stop, it is time to move up to toddler-sized liners. If you have the right size, they will work most of the time, though there are some blow outs where you have to dunk and swish in the toilet if you don’t have a sprayer.

I second Mika’s kudos for Charlie’s Soap-- what an amazing product! 3 lbs lasted us 6 months. We love CDs too! I always have to give a shout-out for pre-folds-- they are really easy to use, durable, and inexpensive. We used pre-folds and snappis, and that savings in diapers meant we could splurge on Imse Vimse wool or velour covers. I swear by all of these products.

I might have a really high poop-tolerance-- I’ve never felt I needed a sprayer-- thought i kind of want one)--I never even shook the poop off into the toilet until MG was over 6 months old and don’t use pail liners-- we just rinse out the plastic liner of our Simple Human can.

We don’t have a sprayer either, although my baby hasn’t yet started solids - a sprayer may definitely be in my future.  We spray dirty diapers with Bac-Out before throwing them in the bag, and we usually don’t have any staining.  Anything that does stain usually comes right out after some time in the sun.

Great post!  Congrats on a year of CDing!

I liked what you said about starting simple before branching out--it applies not just to the wash but to the whole journey.  I was so overwhelmed by the wealth of info on CDs that I didn’t know where to begin, so we started slow, with pockets and then branched out to try fitteds, etc.  Eventually I went back to “simple” and we just use one brand of pockets (bG). 

We don’t have a sprayer and it hasn’t been that bad--mostly the waste can be shaken off into the toilet.  Also, it motivated me to start teaching DD to use the potty earlier than I probably would have if we used disposables.

Thanks for everyone’s comments. Its great to hear other’s experiences with cloth diapers.

Christy- You can purchase the bags at many online retailers including http://www.kellyscloset.com which has the small zip bags I like to use in the diaper bag and http://www.softclothbunz.com, both of which carry the large diaper pail liners. I buy the Charlie’s Soap in the 2.64lb bags which does 80 loads! On their website (http://www.charliesoap.com) if you order 2 bags, you’ll get a discount on the second bag AND get free shipping. One bag is $15.49.

Hi Mika - interesting post, thanks.

I too have used Charlie’s Soap for CD’ing and liked it enough to start using it with all of my clothes. Unfortunately, I found so many stains (on our clothes) taht I stopped using it. It just didn’t seem to get stains out the way other products did.

Do you not have that problem, or do you deal with it somehow? I’d love to start using it again…

thanks!

p.S. we’ve never used a diaper sprayer either. No problems.

Hi Dianna,
We haven’t had problems with stains so far in my clothes, I’ll have to keep my eye out for that, thanks. If I do have a stain and I remember, I do spray it with some stain remover.
That is great that so many people have done cloth diapers without the sprayer. What do you do if the poop doesn’t just fall out? We’ve had some really sticky ones that we wouldn’t have been able to shake out. I’ve heard some people use a spatula that they keep by the toilet.

LOL - well, that’s a good point re: the spatula. We use mostly gdiaper covers with prefolds. So, we have a swish stick we use for when we use the flushable inserts in the g’s. Whenever we have a particularly stubborn poo, we have had to resort to using the swish stick as a kind of “spatula.”

Good point!

We’re almost halfway through one year of CDing with our first kiddo, and my husband and I are both *so* happy we went this route over disposables.  We went w/the BG One-Size as well after reviewing tons of options and even ordering a few sample dipes of other brands.

I completely agree w/the assessment of CDs being less work than you probably think.  They’re not necessarily as little work as some would have you think, but it’s not a big deal.

I think I’m another w/a high poop-tolerance...no sprayer for us, and we’ve not had a problem, and no pail liners here either.

As far as detergent, we use Ecos (get the huge bottles at Costco), and we use that for our clothes, diapers, and E’s clothes...it works great, and smells good too :) I’ve heard lots of good things about Charlie’s, so I might have to check it out in the future.

Great article!  Cloth diapering is definitely overwhelming to the new parent… this is a helpful perspective!

how do parents do it in an apartment building where the washing machines are communal? Anyone know a good service in nyc? Also, need a good simple cloth homemade diaper wipe recipe (no oils)

Thank you so much for this post. I went down the cloth diaper road a 13 months ago- and after much research and confusion, went wtih bum genius- however, after a year, they are leaky, very bulky on my little one and the velcro tabs are not fastening as well, so because he is SOO acitve- climbing and running- they fall off. My husband wants to go back to disposable- and I agreed, thinking we did a lot, and now I need something that works
HOWEVER- upon reading about fuzzibunz and the snaps I am going to give that a shot before throwing in the “cloth diaper”
Thanks!

lauren m - using cloth diapers with a communal washing machine is more difficult, but I’ve heard of people who have done it, just don’t have experience myself. My most recent post has a wipes recipe but it uses olive oil. Were you referring to essential oils? You can leave out the Tea Tree Oil and it will still work well.

sara - Good luck with the fuzzibunz, hope they work for you! My BumGenius still stay closed but the laundry tabs are shot. Regarding the leakage: there is lots you can try, such as “stripping” your cloth diapers to solve the leak issues. You made have had some detergent build up.

Sara - I would second what Mika said about trying to solve the leak issues.  If you liked the design of the BumGenius, you may also want to try Blueberry one size deluxe.  You can order them with either velcro or snaps.

This was a really honest and informative post!

It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine, parents who throw their dipes into a diaper genie, or similar wrapping device, adding one more layer of plastic to break down. But it does contain the smell.

We’ve found that if you don’t wash every day (i.e. every second day) bi-carb soda, or teatree oil help minimize diaper pail odours.

I am a first time mom and am using bumgenius as well.  I started out with Kissaluvs but had leaking issues.  I really like the bumgenius. I have one fuzzi bunz that I use that is got with a sample pack. I don’t really like the snaps, I like the velcro beter, but I am noticing that the velcro is starting to curl.  I may have to look into fuzzi bunz again. 

We aren’t at the sprayer stage yet, my son is only 4 months old.  But I think we will be investing in one of those.

We bought a small stainless steel pail and that seems to help with the odors.  We do a wash every other day and so far so good.

I had the same issue with the Kissaluvs.  I got the size 0 because I heard they were so good containing newborn poop, which was true, but after he was two weeks old, my son needed a doubler if I didn’t want to change him every hour.  Maybe he was a heavy pee-er, but that was more effort than it was worth.  We just stuck with prefolds and flats until he could fit in his one-size diapers.