OT cloth diapering

[newamy]

Go Cloth diapers!! I used a diaper service for my son, they were rectangular diapers you folded and put in a wrap that had velcro fasteners. I washed my daughters having inherited some cute hour glass shaped dipaers and again used the velcro diaper wraps. I was not a knitter than, if I was I would have tried wool soakers.

If you use a service it is about the same cost as buying disposables---and better 1) they are delivered to your door, 2) you don't have to wash them and 3) you do not pay for extra garbage and 4) way way way better for the environment. The disposables people used on their kids 20 yrs ago are still in a land fill somewhere.
I have a co-worker who is due in 3 weeks who is planning to wash her own cloth diapers. She was getting Wee Bunz items, I think. http://www.weebunz.com/index.php

Go cloth!!

[Jan in CA]

Omigosh...I was just going through my 'rag bag' and guess what I found? Yep.. 3 of the old rectangular cloth diapers that I used for dusting pre-housekeeper! My girls are 33 and 30 yrs old..that's how those diapers are.

[yarndolly]

My first baby is due the end of this month and the hubby and I would like to give cloth diapering a try. As with everything else, cloth diapers have gone high tech....while the "old" Gerber pre-folds and rubber pants are still made but now they also make G Diapers, Bumkins and Bum Genius that as far as I can tell are self contained units and look like disposables but are washable. They are $$$$. So my question is have any of you done cloth diapering and have a recommendation?

I used cloth diapers for both of my boys. They are extra work, but they saved us enough money that we could get a babysitter, and go out for an evening, once a month. It is important to disinfect so staph and other germs are not spread, so I'll list the steps I used. At the bottom of my list I'll tell you about a really neat find I made that made my life easier.
1) Have a diaper pail with a lid.
2) Pee diapers go straight in the pail.
3) Poop diapers get washed out in the toilet first, to remove solid waste, and then put in the pail. (I used rubber gloves for this nasty chore.) I kept my diaper pail, with the rubber gloves on top, in the bathroom.
4) Machine wash daily. Run the diapers through the rinse cycle first (spin out). Wash with hot water and add chlorine bleach. After finished, run through another rinse. Don’t use fabric softener. Fabric softener cuts down on absorbency. Machine dry is softer than line dry.
5) Wash and disinfect your toilet daily. It is the largest source of staph germs in a home.
6) Cloth or disposable…WASH YOUR HANDS!!
My neat find was “diaper liners”. I was living in England when my second son was born. The English had diaper liners. They dispensed from a box like Kleenex, and were placed on the inside of the clean diaper. Then if there was solid waste in the diaper, you just picked up the diaper liner and flushed it away with the waste. Glenn was out of diapers when we moved back stateside, so I don’t know if you can find them here.

[yarndolly]

My first baby is due the end of this month and the hubby and I would like to give cloth diapering a try. As with everything else, cloth diapers have gone high tech....while the "old" Gerber pre-folds and rubber pants are still made but now they also make G Diapers, Bumkins and Bum Genius that as far as I can tell are self contained units and look like disposables but are washable. They are $$$$. So my question is have any of you done cloth diapering and have a recommendation?

Stick the diaper pins in a bar of soap and they will go into the cloth easier. If you are out and don’t have a bar of soap handy, run the open, pointy end of the pin through you hair. The oil in your hair helps the pin slide into the cloth.
Make sure you put your hand between the baby’s skin and the cloth before you pin. That way, if you go too far with the pin you feel it and stop. (And you don’t stab the baby!)
Diaper pins need to be horizontal on the diapers. Not vertical. That way they are not in the way when the baby curls or pulls up their legs.
Use “diaper” safety pins. They are safer.

[vaknitter]

Thank you for all the wonderful advice and encouragment on tyring to cloth diaper. While I really like the FuzzyBunz I think to start with we will do the chinese "prefolds" with the rubber pants and if we can make it work I will look into other options. I am going to order the disposable liners for removal of solids and pinless diaper clips so that we don't actually have to use diaper pins.
Jan - my parents still have old rectangular diapers in their rag bag too !
I better stuff ordered and washed soon - only 3wks left !!

[MellieThePooh]

Stick the diaper pins in a bar of soap and they will go into the cloth easier.

I think I mentioned them before, but seriously...don't do pins. Get a snappi. There's not even a fair comparison to make between them.

[vaknitter]

Mellie - Snappi is the product I was talking about when I said pinless diaper clips - couldn't think of their name. They look pretty cool.

[MellieThePooh]

Ok, pshew! I just really wanted to spare you the ordeal of diaper pins...