Diapering Follow-up

Spencer is only 5 months old... and yet it feels as though I have changed a million diapers! I now feel fully experienced and ready to write my follow-up post on diapering. The following is an outline of my personal experiences using a variety of earth and baby friendly diapers.

Fuzzi Bunz

I love these diapers! They are user-friendly, earth-friendly,baby-friendly and you can really count on them to perform. I always thought that cloth would be a pain to deal with out side of the home. Not so. I'm happy not to leave dirty diapers at anyone's house. We simply zip the diaper and re-usable bum cloth into an air tight washable bag and deal with them when we get home. Easy-peasy! As much as I love Fuzzi Bunz these diapers have thrown me a few monkey wrenches. For starters- be sure to put your new diapers and liners through 3 hot water washes before putting them into use. The more they are washed the more absorbent they become. Do not pre-wash a new hemp or bamboo liner with your diapers as their oils will cause your diapers to repel moisture. If you have a front loader washer you must find a way to get more water into your diaper wash and/or do smaller loads. I found this out the hard way! What happens is the front loader machine takes in little water and you end up putting in too much soap... then the diapers end up having a soap build-up issue which causes repelling and a terrible ammonia smell. I now put the diapers on the "towel" mode which means more water. I add very little of the recommended Nature Clean Laundry Powder (you should see no bubbling through glass window) and then do one more full hot wash but with no soap just baking soda and vinegar. 1/4 cup or each. This releases any soap that may not have rinsed out during the first wash. Ever since I've started this routine all has been good. Lastly, being that cloth diapers do not contain moisture wicking gels (more on this chemical in my previous post) it is important to be sure baby is dry before the diaper goes on. Even after drying baby off their crevices can be slightly tacky. This can cause diaper rash. In order to avoid rashing I give Spencer diaper free time and also use a little corn starch. Corn starch acts as a chemical/perfume free baby powder and works wonders! Fuzzi Bunz do cost $22.99 per diaper (you will need x12 for a daily wash routine). Making them the most expensive upfront... but they are also the most cost effective in long run. You can even re-sell your used diapers on Craig's List once you are finished with them. It's no different than someone using a diaper services used diapers. Check out New & Green Baby Company for the purchase of your Fuzzi Bunz. They are a great local cloth diapering company!

Moltex OKO

Chris and I found these diapers at Choices Market. They are a fully baby and earth healthy compostable diaper! I keep a package of these on hand for two reasons. It's good to keep a couple back-up diapers in the diaper bag plus these diapers can be used with diaper creams. Diaper rash cremes are not allowed in most cloth diapers. The creams can cause moisture repelling issues. (Note: make sure you wash any bum cloths that have come in contact with rash creams separate from cloth diapers!) Although these diapers are all the way from Germany they are actually slightly cheaper than the other environmentally friendly disposable diapers. All that said, disposable diapering of any kind remains the most costly to the earth and pocket book in the long run.

gDiapers

These were a great transition diaper for Spencer. Once he outgrew the new born disposables but was a little too small for the small Fuzzi Bunz we moved him into the gDiapers. These diapers are a semi-disposable that consist of a cloth outer with a flush-able insert. I found these diapers to be good some days and leaky on other days. A friend who has a girl seemed to have better luck with them. I was told by the gDiaper customer care reps. to make sure all baby boy "equipment" is facing south when doing up the diaper and also make sure that the waste band isn't too tight... I tried this and found less leakage. Although a somewhat costly system- similar in cost to disposables. I believe these diapers are better than disposables on many levels- healthier for baby and the environment too. Baby gDiapers are my #1 choice for someone who is apartment living and without in-suite laundry! No stinky diaper pail, flushable/biodegradable inserts with a cloth cover that needs washing every 3-4 uses. Great system!

Seventh Generation

These diapers were alright for disposables. I liked that they were small enough for a new born, could be folded down to avoid the umbilical chord area, and that they were non-toxic to baby and the earth (to a certain degree). What I didn't like was that they were not compostable or biodegradable... and big "messes" often equaled a leaky diaper. If I were to do it over again I would once again choose a baby and earth friendly disposable for the new born phase. Either Seventh Generation or Moltex OKO. This is a phase where you will want to just toss your used diapers in the trash. For starters you are still healing and don't need the extra laundry duty. Newborns have very frequent BM's! Secondly the newborn black-tar-like BM's are difficult to get out of cloth diapers.