There are always things that you wish you had done differently with your kids. I can’t be the only one who sometimes second guesses themselves. Sometimes it is the big stuff. If I had delivered Lizzie naturally maybe she wouldn’t have been in the NICU for her first week. But mostly If you are anything like me, it is the little stuff that you think about the most. For me the one I think about the most is using the cloth diapers. I knew about cloth diapers when I was pregnant with Alex, and for a short time, very short time I even considered them. Then I found out that there was no longer a diaper service in our area. The little exposure I had with cloth diapers was with my younger brother. My mom used them with him, and she was lucky enough to have a diaper service available to her. I realized that without a diaper service I would be washing all the diapers myself, and I wasn’t really a big fan of the pre-folded diapers and covers. At that time I wasn’t aware that there was anything else available. So like almost everyone else I just went with disposable diapers, and didn’t think much more about it. I was an overwhelmed brand new mother, who could barely keep her family in clean clothes, much less keep diapers clean.

When I was pregnant with Lizzie, I was watching a friend’s little boy, who is about the same age as Alex, twice a week. She used cloth diapers, only she had a kind I had never seen before. All in one diapers. They were cloth diapers that worked like disposables. WOW!! I had never seen such a thing. They were easy to use and cute to boot. So I started thinking again. The one thing I kept coming back to was the laundry issue. Laundry has always been difficult for me. I really dislike laundry. I can never seem to keep up with it. I felt like I was crazy for thinking that along with adding another persons regular clothing to the mix, I would be adding diapers as well. And since infants go through a ton of diapers I knew that would mean washing diapers every day, just to keep on top of them. I thought there is no way on earth I can do that. So I stayed with the good old disposables.

Then along came Lizzie. Lizzie can’t do anything easy. She has a very sensitive bottom. Lizzie developed a yeast rash that never really went away. It started when she was about 6 weeks old. It caused her to have problems sleeping through the night as she got older. She would constantly wake up to have her diaper changed since it hurt when she had a wet or dirty diaper. She fights constantly to be changed since it hurt her for so long to have her diaper changed. When she was a year old and we still had not completely gotten rid of the rash, despite constant doctor visits and medication, I decided we needed to try something else. I had never really forgotten about the cloth diapers. And seeing my baby in pain was just enough of tho motivation I needed to try them out.

When I first started I didn’t want to spend more than what I would have spent on a months worth of diapers. So I searched Free-cycle for diaper covers and I bought the cheep diapers from Gerber. I though I would try it for a month and then see what I liked and disliked about them. Almost overnight Lizzie’s rash went away!!!! At the end of the month I was a believer. I had a whole new baby. The laundry was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be, and I still wanted to try out the all in one diapers. I found out that Whole foods sells Bum Genius one size fits all, all in one diapers at our local store. I bought a few to try them out. I loved them. Not only that but Jason liked them as well. They are very husband and baby sitter friendly. When we realized that we preferred the all in one diapers over the covers and pre-folded diapers. We spent the extra money and bought enough diapers to last about 2 days.

I now wash diapers every other day. It is not nearly as bad as I once thought it would be. I try to wash them either first thing in the morning, or last thing at night. I have a HE washer so I put in a tiny amount of detergent and run the super wash cycle. That takes about and hour and a half. When that is done I run another super wash cycle with no detergent. Into the dryer they go, unless it is a nice day, in which case they go out on the line. About once every other month or so I need to strip the diapers of extra build up.

I also use cloth wipes. I have about 3 dozen baby washcloths. I mix together 5 cups boiling water with 1/2 cup California Baby Diaper Area wash. I pour that over my washcloths and let them cool. I keep them in a container with a tight locking lid. They last me about 2 weeks, and I just wash them with my diapers.

I have also started using diaper liners to make clean up easier. They are rice paper liners that catch any solid waste and it all flushes down the toilet. It makes clean up easier, but does add to the cost each moth. Not much but a little.

I can’t believe how easy it has been. Lizzie is doing so much better, and we are saving a ton of money on diapers every month.  Jason wrote a blog entry on how the cost compares between the disposables and the cloth diapers, check it out.

We love our new diapers. If we were to have more children, I would use the diapers from the start. That is the great thing about these diapers. They can be used from birth until your child is out of diapers, with a little adjusting. Since we already have the diapers we would be ahead of the game from the get go.

I buy my diapers and other accessories through Cotton Babies. Their prices are the same as other sites. Plus they have a great grant program for out of country missionaries.

That is our story of how we went from a disposable diaper family to a cloth diaper family.

Heather