Poop and Washing it

The last one for tonight. This full time working mom is super tired and I'm sure my grammar and spelling are suffering. Oh and the pic is to show that sporting a cute birthday shirt and a pink diaper, is completely adorable for cake time on your first birthday party.

My baby was exclusively breastfed until 6/7 months old. Those poopy diapers go right into the diaper pail. I use PlanetWise liner bags. (Always making sure that all Velcro tabs are put in place BEFORE you throw them in the pail.) Every other day( can go a day longer, but this routine helps keep me on a schedule), I empty the diaper bag into the wash and then throw the bag into the wash. I don't touch them :) The liners have always come out of the pockets during the cycle (I have a top loading machine).

When she had formula and solids a diaper sprayer is handy. Mine wasn't that great. Spray the poop and then put in the pail. Most of the time I can "plop" it into the toilet.

I use the Bumgenius detergent. I bought a case on sale and still have 4 boxes left and baby is a year! I wash one cycle cold and then a hot wash with an extra rinse. I usually do a scoop of detergent in each cycle. You may not need to do that for the first wash, but you need it for the second. I skipped the detergent on the second wash and my diaper smelled bad!

I have a few wet bags with zippers from PlanetWise for the diaper bag/church and Weekday School. It's good to have two, one to wash one to "wear" (I use this theory for everything not just diapering).

Hang to dry in the sun when at all possible! It helps get rid of stains, bacteria, smells and yeast.

Types of Diapers and Brands

For the first 2 months or so we used a combination of Newborn kissaluvs and disposables. These are fitted diapers, and are great for tiny babies and have a fold down for the belly button. The covers we used were the fitted Thirsties diaper covers. Around 3 months we used one size Bumgenius diapers and the newborn fitted diapers.

Now that our baby is bigger we mainly use one size Bumgenius diapers and fitted Kissaluvs with Thirsties diaper covers.

At night time we add a Hemp Babies liner to the pocket of the Bumgenius. In the Kissaluvs I put the hemp and a Kissaluv doubler on top. I just think the hemp is scratchy.

I order everything I can from CottonBabies. They have free shipping, and they have been good for when I needed refunds and questions in customer service.

First in a Series

This will be first in a series of posts about cloth diapers. In the past year I've told many friends our story of cloth diapering our baby girl this past year. We've even converted people, which makes me happy too. My husband keeps referring to this blog I'm going to start on these things, so here it is. I'm only going to post about what our family does. There are tons of blogs and websites who are dedicated to the subject, and I'll let them go into all the crazy amount choices and advice.
So this post is a quick list of things you'll need to start.

1. 12 newborn diapers, 4ish covers (Really we could have used more, and I might get more for our next baby, but this cut down on disposables for the first 3 months)
2. 24 one size diapers
3. 6 fitted diapers, 2 covers
4. 2 swim diapers
5. diaper sprayer
6. diaper pail
7. 2 diaper bags for pail
8. 2 wet bags for diaper bag/church/day school
9. wipes warmer
10. cloth wipes (Get as many as you can get your hands on, they seem to disappear like socks. We use flannel and cheap baby wash clothes from box stores)
11. cloth diaper friendly detergent