Cloth Diapering!

I am so pleased to say that I have a guest blogger for this post! Callie is going to be telling you a little about cloth diapering and some of her faves!  I think we are going to try to do something like this every once in a while because I'm pretty sure you get tired of hearing from me all the time! So without further ado...

Hey ya'll this is Callie aka River's Mommy!  I thought since this blog is mostly about River that I would do a post every once in a while letting you know some of my fave stuff for him.  Cloth diapering (CD) seem as good a place as any to start so here goes!

At first when somebody mentioned cloth diapering to me when I was pregnant with River, I thought, no that is gross and the immediate picture that went through my head was pre-folds and diaper pins!  Little did I know that I would an exclusive cloth diapering mama in just a few months.  Kate first mentioned CDing to me a couple a months ago because she had seen it on a few blogs that she reads, at first I was a little apprehensive, until I really started thinking about it.  Kate decided to order a few to just try out and it has really just taken off from there!  The first 2 that we tried were Bum Genius 3.0 and Rumparooz. These are still 2 of my faves. 

So I figured I would break it down by diaper type and other categories.  First of all CD can be a little overwhelming at first because there are so many options.  For example, you can choose from, one-size, all-in-ones, pocket diapers, hybrid diapers, prefolds and covers etc. Needless to say, we definitely did our research before starting our stash!

Favorite Nighttime: Bum Genius or Rumparooz (these are little harder to get the perfect fit for River right now but I really love them. Hopefully as he grows, he will grow into them).  Both of these are pocket diapers, meaning they have pockets that you stuff with inserts. 

Favorite Daytime: Bum Genius.  We use the Bum Genius 4.0 with snaps and I like them but I also like the velcro that is standard with the 3.0. Velcro just seems to be easier than the snaps sometimes, especially when River will not be still long enough for me to change his diaper!

Favorite for Trimness: Fuzzi Bunz One Size diapers.  These aren't as bulky as the others and fit well under clothes and they also come in adorable colors!  This is a pocket diaper as well. 

Cutest and Softest: By far would be Lil Smudgeez.  I came across these through a giveaway over at http://www.exploitsofamilitarymama.com/.  I immediately ordered 2 of them and then actually won the giveaway.  These aren't as absorbent as pocket diapers but they are so soft and River seems to really like them.  They are actually pretty trim as well. Lil Smudgeez are all in ones meaning that everything is all together, no inserts to stuff which is also very easy when it comes to laundry day.  Happy Heinys are also very cute and I adore the cow print one that River has, it also has velcro and that is always a plus in my book!

Favorite All Around: FuzziBunz One-Size or at least for now. They seem complicated at first as they have adjustable elastic to get the perfect fit around the legs, but once you figure out the best fitting for your little one then you're set.    These just seem to work the best with River right now and I like them the best!

In a pinch:  If we are in a pinch we will use hybrid diapers.  For one they don't take up as much room in the diaper bag so if we are going to be somewhere for a while I will take a few pockets and one hybrid.  Hybrid diapers have a cover that can be used several times and you just change out the insert.  We have a few gDiapers with cloth inserts and the Flip with cloth inserts. 

We started out with 14 diapers but since our stash has grown to about 28 including the gDiapers and Flip.  You definitely don't need that many if you wash every other day like we do!  We just kept trying different diapers until we found the ones that we liked the best.

As far as washing goes, that is something that was somewhat of a challenge.  We started out washing every other day with Tide Gentle and Free.  This detergent seemed to cause some stink issues so we stripped the diapers and starting using Regular Tide and everything has been pretty good since then.  If you do have some stubborn odors as we did with a few of our diapers, you can use Bac-Out and seems to have worked pretty well for us! Oh and I have noticed since we've been on vacation that an older, top-loading washer works the best as far as getting the diapers the cleanest!

This pretty much covers it when it comes to CD but I will be back next week with a post about my fave CD accessories!  Hope everyone has a good week!