Also check out Cloth diapering at our house: why? and Cloth diapering at our house: what?
Using our BumGenius 4.0 with snaps is easy:
We start with the diapers all stuffed and ready in baskets on the changing table. We usually stuff the green ones as night diapers and those are on the left.
We change the diaper just like a disposable... there are no funny pins or covers to mess with. Even my husband's fat fingers have no problem with the snaps. I immediately pull the stuffer out of the liner so it's ready to toss in the diaper pail and then launder.
I put the dirty diaper on the stand next to the changing table while I re-dress Little Lady. Also there are our wipes (disposable) and a small bottle of olive oil. We can't use diaper rash creams with our cloth diapers so if she gets a little red in the diaper area, it is safe and effective to use a few squirts of olive oil to ease the redness. We haven't really had a major diaper rash to speak of with either child.
Once Little Lady is dressed, I set her down to play and take the diaper to the diaper pail in the bathroom. Note that our diaper pail is not wet - it's a dry bag.
If the diaper has poo, I use our diaper sprayer to spray it off, then it goes into the pail. I never, ever dunk or actually touch poo. I do always wash my hands after the diaper change. Doesn't everyone?
Every two days (we could go every three now, actually), I pull the bag out of the pail and take it to the washing machine. I turn the bag inside out into the machine and all the diapers fall in. Then I toss the bag in, too. I never touch the wet diapers. We have a nice system: At 6:00ish on diaper washing night, the diapers go for their first wash.
After Little Lady is in bed, they do their second wash. By the time I'm ready for bed, I put the stuffers in the dryer and hang the outer shells on a drying rack to air-dry over night.
In the morning, I grab the stuffers from the dryer and pull the outer shells from the drying rack. At some point in the morning I stuff them all and put them in the baskets on the changing table, ready for diaper changes. It takes me 11 minutes to stuff them. When I first started it took 20 minutes!
And that is our cloth diaper routine. It sounds complicated here, but it's not. We have "routined" it so much into our lives that even my husband, on diaper nights, will take the diaper bag downstairs after supper without being asked. It's just a part of our lives.
Easy for us. Cheap for us. We love our cloth!
I've really started to think about this with the second baby on the way and me possibly not working anymore or only working part time. Was it really overwhelming when you first started out? Because I find the whole prospect overwhelming (and expensive at the beginning) and I find myself getting discouraged.
ReplyDeleteHarlowe, the most overwhelming part was choosing which diapers to buy! There are all kinds of styles and brands. Once we had our BumGenius one size, it wasn't hard. Oh - I did read and re-read all the instructions to make sure I was laundering them correctly and that stressed me out for a couple weeks because I didn't want to ruin them. I did start cloth diapering during my son's first summer, which meant I wasn't teaching. It didn't take long to get it into our routine, though.
ReplyDeleteWe had several months between the time we decided to cloth diaper and the time our son was born so we were able to save the money for that first big purchase and it wasn't such a big financial hit. Just remember, cloth is a lot of money upfront and then you save hundreds over time.
I think you'll like cloth so I hope you try it!
This sounds a lot like the routine we had with my second. It was so easy! But my third child had such messy diapers that I just couldn't deal with it. The fourth, though, I've been thinking about trying again. We have been using g-diapers some for him. I'm already so overwhelmed by laundry, though.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good list of things to do!
OK, I love that you have a sprayer for the diapers. That's one of the main things that kept me from cloth, the cleaning out part, but you make it look manageable! I've never heard to use olive oil. I'll have to try that.
ReplyDeleteWow! I bet that save you a million dollars?! If I had to do it again, I would definitely consider this route. Great info, and I'm not even having a baby. :) Stopped by from Life's Lessons. :)
ReplyDeleteAh... I'm trying to get myself motivated to get back to cloth... my daughter was cloth diapered exclusively from birth to potty training. But I've had my son in sposies for 6mo now because I couldn't solve his sensitive skin diaper rash issue, even with obscenely frequent changes and fleece liners.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I'm procrastinating. Thanks for the post reminding me that it's really not complicated!
(and, thanks for the kind words on babycenter and following my blog! :D )
Sometimes I wish we would have used cloth diapers with our angels. I really admire you all that do use them. =)
ReplyDeleteI never learned to stuff diapers that quickly! You have such a great routine going with them!
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up to Learning Laboratory at Mama Smiles =)