Transformation: Complete
It’s official, I have become a crazy hippie tree hugger. First it was the breastfeeding. Then the co-sleeping. Then the baby wearing. Then the baby-led weaning. Then I started foraging for all my food in the woods, sticking mainly to twigs, berries and the occasional mushroom cap.
Ok, so not that last one. But I am FINALLY making the switch to cloth diapers.
It was something I have considered before, but never got around to actually doing. Sort of like scrapbooking, making my own whole wheat bread and learning Italian. Only with a lot more poop. But the stars aligned and suddenly it seemed ridiculous NOT to cloth diaper. The final straw was the promotion Franklin Goose ran, where they paid $5 in store credit for each product review you wrote. After racking up over $200 in totally free money (seriously, whoever came up with that promotion is SO TOTALLY FIRED) I broke the news to E that we were switching to cloth and he couldn’t object because they weren’t costing us anything.
Of course, then I spent $60 on accessories at Papoose. And then $95 on a huge lot of (barely) used diapers from my friend Emily. But she gave me a really really great deal – REALLY great, like, I sort of feel bad taking advantage of her great – and I’ve heard you really can’t have too many.
Since I don’t have all my diapers yet, I’m currently only part-time cloth diapering. And by “part-time” I mean “after I know Baby Evan has already pooped because I’m not sure I’m ready for that mess yet.” Plus I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing. For example, laundry detergent. I usually use Dreft and All Free & Clear for the babies clothes and our clothes, respectively. But for some reason I’m not supposed to use Free & Clear on diapers? So I bought a bag of Charlie’s Soap powder for my diapers. Although apparently Charlie’s is an all-or-nothing sort of soap, so I can’t switch back and forth with the detergent I already have. But I’m not willing to throw out 100+ loads of laundry detergent just because I’ve got THREE diapers to wash.
Like I said, I don’t really know what I’m doing.
But doesn’t Baby Evan look adorable?
This one is a Katydid, which is a pocket diaper. If I stuff it with both the regular insert and the infant insert it hold a LOT of pee. It’s also a nice soft cushion on his butt when he falls down. Plus I don’t have see Elmo in my kid’s pants anymore. THANK GOD.
Tags: 12 months, attachment parenting, baby evan, cloth diapers, crazy hippie, papoose, pictures
Hi, I’ve never commented before, but I cloth diaper my son so…
Yes, you can use All Free&Clear on your diapers. A lot of people use it with no problems at all, myself included. I just make sure to do an extra rinse cysle to ensure that all the detergent is out of the diapers.
That is quite the mullet li’l chubby legs is cultivating there. I like it.
Aww shoot lady! Don’t feel bad for a second about the deal I cut ya! I love a good bargain – used to own a thrift store, after all! (; I really support cloth diapering, and I wish it had worked out better for my family. So helping you get started makes me so happy! Can’t wait to see little E in the cute Goodmamas – also sent you a great Swaddlebees AIO free of charge! Oh and I used All f&c on my dipes, with a couple drops of lavendar & tea tree oil, never had a single issue. Wash on warm & smell-check – you’ll know right away if they need an extra rinse round! :D
Very excited for you and your adventures in cloth! Those photos of Evan are just plain yummy!
Cheers!!
He looks so cute in his cloth diaper! Poop isn’t that bad – kinda squicky the first few times, but after that…and cloth is WAY better about blow outs than ‘sposies. :-) Happy hippie tree hugging!
my cloth diaper guru says the “free and clear” detergents react with the urine causing a strong ammonia smell on clean diapers. it doesn’t happen right away – the detergent builds up over time. but when it happens the diapers have to be “stripped” – washed and rinsed in HOT HOT HOT water a number of times to get all the detergent out. this may be worth it for you if you’re only using the cloth part time and need to throw them in with other laundry.
we bought 18 one size fuzzi bunz pocket diapers for our peanut (s/he’ll be here any day!). we’ll start using them after the meconium passes (meconium can stain cloth diapers). based on the prewash we did, it looks like washing 6-9 diapers and inserts at a time will make a solid load – worth the water but with enough room for the diapers to move around a get clean. we’ll be using charlie’s soap exclusively and bac-out when necessary.
good luck, suzanne! i think you’ll find it worth it in the long run. and i’ll keep you posted about our progress.
I know my other blogger friends that turned me onto soapnuts use them for their cloth dipes! did you order a sample? also, he is really chunking up! So cute!
Love it! Cloth diapers are the best, and once you get used to them, they’re no more or less convenient than disposables!
Tip: We just wash with the store-brand stuff from the Costco, and it has worked just fine.
We are planning to cloth diaper so I can’t wait to see how this works out for you, please keep us posted! We’re going to use a local diaper service, because we live in an apartment building w/a communal laundry room and I don’t know that I’ll be able to trudge up and down the stairs enough times a week to get all that laundry done. But we may switch to doing it ourselves as it is more cost-effective than the diaper service.
Suzanne,
I used Cloth with Alyssa and used All free and clear. Nothing went wrong. I also got lazy and used a diaper service. UGHHH
Congratulations on switching!!
We love our cloth diapers! and i’m so glad you are trying them! the pooh realy isn’t a big deal, especially if Evan is still not eating much real food. we use a bum genius diaper sprayer (got it at Papoose of course) for when the pooh is really smushed into the diaper. if you have any questions…let me know! we had some detergent and hard water issues, but i’ve got a system that works for us now. Hey, now you can knit him a wook diaper cover! i made a crochet one for Rory for night time and it works awesome!
I meant wool diaper cover, not “wook”.
props to you, as dirty hippie as i can be, I have not made the jump to cloth