Baby of the Cloth

I had decided even before I was pregnant that I wanted to use cloth diapers.  Most people I knew thought I was crazy.  "Why would you want to wash a diaper when you can just dispose of the stinky mess," they would ask.  For me, it wasn't even an environmental issue (well, partly it was) but more of a cost savings for us.  After pricing out what we would spend on disposables each year and a one time buy of a Bum Genius 4.0 with snaps diaper ($17x24 diapers), my mind was made up.

Bum Genius 4.0 in clementine

I decided to purchase 10 newborn AIO Bum Genius diapers in addition to the 4.0s after reading reviews on various websites that the 4.0s may not fit a newborn baby so well.  This turned out to be a good decision and Elise wore the AIOs until she hit about 14 lbs.  When she hit 12 lbs. we put her in the 4.0s at night with a doubler as she was soaking through the newborn diapers and once we did that not only was she not drenched but she started sleeping through the night.

Many websites recommend using Rocking Green detergent to wash the diapers and get the "funk" out.  I have used Method Free + Clear and haven't had too many funky diapers except when Elise started solids.  Once things got a little stinky every once in awhile I would add a tiny amount of bleach to the load or a squirt of dish soap for very stubborn odors.

A few things that I learned this go around that I will remember with the next child (if we are lucky enough to provide Elise with a sibling):

1. Buy a few more of each kind of diaper.  Not only will this save your sanity when you are up every few hours, it will also mean less trips to your washing machine.
2. There will be times you may have to use disposables, despite how much you don't want to.  We lost power for five days and were staying at the grandparents' house so it was a no-brainer.  Also if some day cares do not like cloth diapers and only use disposables.
3. Never wash a load of diapers with fewer than 8 diapers in a load.  They just don't seem to come as clean.