Cloth Diapering…1 year later

It has been over a year of cloth diapering for us and I figured it was time for an update! Here’s some of the questions I would have asked a mom myself when I was learning, so I will answer them below in case it could help anyone out!

Here are all of the diapers I own listed in order of favorite to least favorite…

1. AppleCheeks {size 2}-my absolute favorite-I wish I had more, I only have 1. I waited too long to try these and couldn’t justify the cost once I found them. You can see my review here.
2. BumGenius OS 3.0-although the velcro is annoying at times, I still love these diapers. They are the ONLY things I use at night. These make up a majority of our stash.
3. BumGenius FLIP-LOVE these for so many reasons. We own many inserts and I actually use the Flip inserts in my BG 3.0 covers and my Flip covers. LOVE that they can lay on top—so much easier!
4. Knickernappie OS Pocket-I only have 1 but I really like it! See my review here.
5. FuzziBunz OS Pocket-we have 4 of these and I do like them a lot. They were perfect for my older son at night when he was potty training. They enlarged bigger than our other adjustable dipes. Ladybug doesn’t wear her FB much, but I am sure she will when we get to that stage with her!
6. BumGenius Organic OS AIO-I am not a big fan of the AIO-it takes longer to dry.
   
7. Happy Heinys-like it fine, just don’t love it. We have it in black, with snaps.
8. Monkey Doodlez AIO Medium-I really don’t like this diaper and it was way expensive, so glad I only got one to try! It’s super cute, I just personally don’t like the All-In-One aspect of it, I prefer the inserts to come out, makes me feel “cleaner.”

If I could buy diapers all over again knowing what I know now, here’s what I would get…

• 5 pack bumGenius 3.0-use mainly for nighttime
• 2 kits of Flip (that makes 4 covers and 12 inserts)
• The rest AppleCheeks ;-) as many as I could afford!
• maybe a Knickernappie or FB for color selection-I really like our brown and black diapers-they are cool.
• PREFOLDS-if I had it to do all over again I would definitely try prefolds and covers early on. I could have saved a lot more money!
  

What about accessories?

• Diaper Sprayer-yes love it. We have this one and it is great.
• FuzziBunz Hanging Pail-we have 2 that switch out and I love them although the zipper did break on one, but I still love it and use it.
• PlanetWise Wet/Dry Bags-yes love them. I use one for travel and one in our kitchen for dirty bibs and towels ;-)
• Fleece Liners-we have about 10, use them for when she wears diaper creams. They are great and cheap.
• Disposable Liners-I use these but don’t really like them. I only use them if we are traveling and I am afraid she might poop ;-). I don’t like how rough they feel, but they do the job.
• Cloth Wipes-yup, we use them 90% of the time, with Seventh Generation wipes as a backup if we need them! I love our BabyKicks sets {we have 2 sets of those}, and my mom made us a bunch of custom wipes…we use all of them! We also still use the same wipes solution.

The perfect wash routine for us…

• RockinGreen. Period. I wish I had started with this {I began with Charlie’s Soap}. It is simply the best cloth diaper detergent out there, I am convinced. I do think we’d be better off with the new Hard Rock version they have now, but we are still using up our Classic Rock.
• Here’s my routine {we have a front loader}…
  • cold wash no soap, low spin
  • HOT wash, 1 tblsp RockinGreen {set to heaviest cycle with highest spin}
  • hang to dry if sunny, or hang covers inside on stair railing and dry inserts in dryer if I must.

Where to Shop?

• I only use Squishy Tushy, the customer service is wonderful and always has been. It was a blessing to find a retailer online who not only had great prices but also great support!

Blogs I have learned the most from…

• Cloth Diaper Whisperer
• Dirty Diaper Laundry
• Diaper Discussions

We only CD, unless we are on vacation and CAN’T wash diapers. Most vacations we can, so we have CDed even when away and it is fine. You can see the rest of my cloth diapering here.

I plan to CD until Ladybug is potty trained, and then plan to use cloth training pants. I am so thankful for all of the money we have saved! I was a HUGE skeptic of cloth diapering, but now I recommend it to everyone!