Cloth Diaper Update

We are a good 3 months into cloth diaper usage and things are going great! I have put away the smaller sizes and am onto the bigger one-size options. It's amazing how easy they are. At this point I even prefer them to disposables.

I still am using covers with prefolds for the most part. After finding the best fold for Elliott, it's a breeze and I have had zero leaks. I'm way more likely to get poop on her clothes or changing pad when changing a poopy disposable vs a poopy cloth. Here is how this works:

Prefold and cover

Set prefold over cover, fold in back if too big (for boys you fold in the front)

Set diaper under child (not shown, obviously) and fold the sides between the legs in front

Then you pull the front up and snap wherever needed. Voila.

Sometimes after you put on the prefold sticks out a bit. Just shove it back in.

First, I prefer snaps over Velcro. All of the new covers I bought are snaps and I just feel like they fit better. When it comes to brands, I have developed a few favorites. I have one Blueberry, three Flip, two Thirsties, and one Rumparooz (so 7 covers in rotation). Blueberry and Flip are my favorite brands because they aren't too bulky and I like the fit. (Flip is thinner and cheaper, which is both good and bad. The pink cover in the pictures above is a Flip). Thirsties I also like because they are thin and you can't tell when Elliott has a cloth diaper on because no bubble butt is on display. My least fave by far is Rumparooz because they are super bulky, awkward fit, and the elastic is really tight. I only bought one new Rumparooz but I shouldn't have bothered.

I have two all in ones that get good use too. These are both BumGenius brand and I like the way they fit. They also hold a gallon of pee. Even though we mostly use overnight disposables at night, I have put Elliott in an AIO before and it didn't leak (and she pees a lot at night). But I also use these randomly during the day. 

Andy still doesn't use any cloth but I'm not pushing him to either. He is set in his ways, so it's not worth my effort at this point. I have started using cloth when we leave the house. Most of the time I don't need to change her when I am only gone for 1-2 hours so I've realized it's stupid for me to put her in a disposable for that. I have a smaller wet bag if I decide to push the envelope. 

Washing is a breeze, really. I keep a wet bag on the back handle of Elliott's bedroom door which is right next to her changing area. I wash everything on a delicate cycle (I feel like my washer has weird settings) with warm water, sometimes hot if I feel like it. I add pre-soak and extra rinse to it. Regular powdered Tide is my preference, occasionally I'll add some OxiClean. Everything air dries. I probably average 2-3 loads a week, but could do less if I had more diapers in the rotation or more than one big wet bag. It's not hard because nothing requires folding, which is the biggest hassle of laundry, amiright? 

Overall, I'm really happy I took the plunge with cloth. I think we've broken even with cost so far, which will make using them with future kiddos even more worth it. We've only had to buy maybe 3 boxes of diapers total at 5 months old and we have some left over. It's super simple, really, I swear!