cloth diapers

I get a lot of concerned looks when I mention that we use cloth diapers on Quinn. Pretty much their facial expression says, "you're crazy" without their mouth making a sound. I want to talk about my experience with cloth diapers to try and show y'all it's not as bad as you think!

How we decided to use cloth diapers:
Our number one reason was cost. I had read that disposable diapers cost an estimated $2000 over a two year period. That's only if you get your baby potty trained by that time. That's a lot of money! While the brand of cloth diapers we chose aren't cheap (we paid $375) we will only pay it once and plan on using them again for future babies.

Some other benefits were less trash and less diaper rash. The diaper rash was important to us because I had pretty intense diaper rash as a baby. If Quinn inherited my sensitive skin then he was doomed to a similar fate.

What diaper we picked:
We bought the bumGenious 4.0 one size pocket diapers. As far as how we chose that brand over another it really came down to being a copy cat. I have a friend that uses this brand and she loves them. They have two options, one with velcro and one with snaps. When I heard her little girl figured out how to undo the velcro I decided to go with the snap option.

These diapers are meant to fit a baby 8 to 35 lbs depending on how you configure the snaps. We did have to use disposable diapers for Quinn for about the first month because he was too small to wear them without having leaks. For me this worked out perfectly because it took me about a month before I had my life is semi-order again to be showering consistently, let alone doing laundry.

How many:
We have 24 diapers. This was based on the recommendations on the websites and from other mamas. On average a newborn will go through 12 diapers a day with it progressively lessening as they get older. You don't want dirty diapers sitting around for more than a couple days because of bacteria growth. Made sense to us and it's worked out perfectly.

Accessories:
Wet bag:

We use this bag to store the dirty diapers while we're on the go. It's water proof and machine washable. I got ours on sale for $10.

Diaper pail and liner:

For the diaper pail we just got a red trash can from Walmart to match Quinn's nursery. I bought a red waterproof pail liner that is also machine washable for $16.50.

Diaper sprayer:

The hubs created a homemade one with a kitchen sprayer to try and save money, but it really didn't save us anything. Just buy that already made one. It attaches to your toilet so you can spray the poop right in the bowl and flush it on down. Easy peasy.

Maintenance:

I wash a load of diapers every other day with the free and clear Cheer. There is special detergent out there, but I've never seen the need to use it. I add bleach to the load once or twice a month to get rid of any stains. I've heard to also use just a drop of dawn to strip the diapers of any build up once in a blue moon, but I haven't had to do this yet. 

I dry the diapers on low in our dryer. Some like to hang them outside to dry in the sunshine (which also helps with stains), but this time of year would leave a lovely layer of pollen on the diapers. I've been doing this for four months now and haven't seen any rise in our water or electric bills.

Ease of use:

Since these diapers are shaped just like disposables I find them incredibly easy to use. They go on just like a disposable. There is no folding and pinning like most think. Another plus for me is that I never get upset if Quinn dirties a diaper seconds after I put it on. I just toss it in the diaper pail and grab another one. No "wasting" a diaper. 

I pack clean diapers for the nanny and she just puts the dirty ones in the wet bag. At the end of the day I pull the liner out from the cover and either toss it in the pail or in the wash depending on the night. The hubs thinks they are great. He tells everyone how awesome and easy they are ha! You know they must be great if they are hubs approved.

Where we got everything:

I highly recommend ordering everything from www.nickisdiapers.com. They often have great deals and sales including free shipping. We bought our diapers when they were buy 5 get one free. I recently had trouble where the snap came out of two of the inserts. I sent an email to customer service and they had two new inserts in the mail to me that day! Love great service like that!

I think that's everything but please feel free to ask any questions!

**I was not compensated by bumGenius or Nicki's Diapers for this post. All opinions are strictly my own and I just love all of the products I mentioned.