Henry has now been in cloth diapers for 8 months!
Our cloth diaper stash is relatively the same since the last time that I posted about it, when Henry was six weeks old. We have added a few things, so here’s our running tally:
Softbums: 8 Echo Shells, 2 Omni Shells, 24 super dry touch pods, 20? mini pods
Bumgenius: 6 4.0s, 1 AIO
Bumkins: 2 pocket diapers
Blissful Booty: 1 AI1 medium
Rumparooz: 1 pocket diaper
Softbums: I absouletly love these diapers! They are the most absorbent of all of the diapers that we own. I actually started using the mini pods that we have to add absorbency to our other diapers, and it works great! I love the fact that the leg holes are adjustable. My favorite feature about them is the AI2 system. The fact that the shells are reusable is great. It cuts down on laundry and therefore cuts down on the amount that each diaper is washed so that they last longer.
Just last week I bought 2 of the Omni diapers. These are a little thicker than their Eco brothers, but it’s because you can use them as an AI2 and snap in the pods, or use the pods to stuff it like a pocket diaper. I think that’s fantastic because our daycare seems to have problems with cloth diapers, and the simpler we can make it for them, the better, so I love that it gives you options.
Bumgenius: These diapers are great. They’re affordable and they’ve been holding up great! We have the 4.0 pockets and one All In One. The only issue that we’ve had with them is that the insert has a propensity for staining. The diapers themselves are still white as can be, but after one poop the inserts are stained and have to go out in the sun to be bleached (The Softbums do not have this problem).
Bumkins: A while back, Zulily was having a sale on Bumkins pocket diapers. They have such cute designs on them that I bought two and anxiously awaited them to be delivered. I bought one that’s covered in fire trucks, and one that has owls on it (too cute!). Despite how cute these diapers are, they’re pieces of crap. The snaps tore out of the fabric after a couple uses. They leak like crazy. The insert that it came with is not at all absorbent, and it hasn’t been getting better at all over time. J and I now only use these diapers in emergency situations – like when we’re doing laundry and there are no other clean diapers left in the house. DO NOT BUY! These are a waste of money!
Blissful Booty: I like this AIO, but J isn’t the biggest fan. We do have to add one of the Softbums mini pods to it to make it absorbent enough for Henry to wear, but with the added pod, he can wear it over night just fine. I like the leg gussets that it has, it helps keep everything contained if you know what I mean.
Rumparooz: This pocket diaper is fantastic! The only downside to it, is that they’re expensive! It’s absorbent, they fit great and are very trim. The inserts do stain somewhat, but some time in the sun fixes that right up. This is a great diaper, but may not be the best option for those on a budget.
Now that Henry’s on solid foods, his diapers are reflecting that. Whenever he goes number 2, we had to take the diaper and hose it down in the toilet. Those solid poos are not water soluble anymore and would be too much for our washing machine to handle. Having to rinse them out does take a little bit of added time, but not that much, and it isn’t as disgusting as it sounds (technically users of disposables are supposed to do this too – read the label).
So, now when we get home from daycare one of us has to take the diapers out of the wet bag and rinse each of them out that needs it. It takes about 3 minutes of time to do it, and really isn’t that big a deal. We have a fuzzibuns diaper sprayer, and it does a really good job (just be careful of water rebounding off of the diaper and onto you/ the wall/ all over the bathroom). For those that are worried about having to install one, J did ours in about 20 minutes, and while I love him dearly, he isn’t the handiest of guys, so if he can do it, anyone can!
All in all, cloth diapering has been going great. After 8 months we have basically the same stash that we did when we started – and most are just as good as when we bought them. We haven’t had a single case of diaper rash, and slowly but surely our daycare is learning how to put them on the little fella. J and I have had to go over and over and over how to use them, but they’re making progress. Slowly but surely.
fighting for optimism 