our saga of cloth diapering

Okay, time for another post about cloth diapers!

I'm all for cloth diapering, and there are so many options out there, so I hope this post can be helpful for you, if you're looking into using cloth diapers. If not, feel free to ignore this post. :)

Micah is modelling his one-size Fuzzi Bunz

For the first few months we used Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers with Micah, and we loved them. Then, something changed. I'm not sure if he just got bigger and started peeing more, or if I somehow had them adjusted wrong (we were using the one-size adjustables), but they started leaking. I tried stripping the diapers, in case of residue or build-up on the diapers. But to no avail. They still leaked!

My theory is that its a boy problem. Maybe they pee more in a concentrated area than girls? My friends who use Fuzzi Bunz diapers with their daughters seem to love them, and don't have this problem. But my other friend who uses Fuzzi Bunz with her boy also has major leaking.

Whatever the problem, our Fuzzi Bunz clearly weren't working out for us anymore. It got so bad that every single time he peed I had to change his clothes, because he leaked through the diaper. I ended up using disposables whenever we were out of the house, and doing laundry like mad when we were home. While Stew was in Africa back in May, I decided I had to find a better solution!

I bought a three different kinds of cloth diapers, all different styles, on Craigslist, or at local boutiques. Finally I found something that works for us!

Bummis Super Brite

We now use Bummis Super Brite diaper covers, which are just a thin plastic-y outer diaper, with prefold cotton diapers. They are a little more tricky to actually put on a squirmy baby, but he has much less leakage. And they are much cheaper (prefolds are only $1/each)! And doing laundry is easier, since I don't have to stuff the liners into the diaper pockets, like on the Fuzzi Bunz. Phew.

We also have three Mother-ease one-size fitted diapers, with doublers, which we use with Mother-ease diaper covers for Micah at night. These are super absorbent, and he lasts without leaks overnight.

this is the Mother-ease diaper cover, on my wonderful model, Micah

Both the Bummis and Mother-ease diapers covers are plastic-y on the inside, so when you change a diaper, you can simply change the inner cloth/prefold, and reuse the outer diaper cover (unless he managed to get poo on the diaper cover, in which case you probably need a clean cover). So for full-time cloth-diapering, I have only eight covers, and I do laundry only about every three days. You could easily use only five or six covers, I think. And we use prefold diapers, which are just big pieces of fabric, sewn so that they are thicker and more absorbent in the middle area. We currently have 22 prefolds, but again, you could easily make do with fewer than that. But then, at $1/each, why not have 22?

To put them on a baby just follow these simple steps:

Lay out the diaper cover.

Place the prefold over top, and fold down the top to make it the appropriate size.

Fold in each of the sides, so it is small in the front, and wide in the back.

Fasten the diaper cover around the baby. (My bubs is sleeping, so you'll have to imagine the baby in the diaper!)

Some people like to fasten the prefold on the baby (with pins or special snaps) before putting on the diaper cover, but we haven't needed to do that. The cover does a good job of holding everything in place.

Once the diaper is secure, you'll need to check around the legs and the waist to make sure there is no cotton diaper peeking out of the cover. If there is, just tuck it in the diaper cover, otherwise it will leak. Voila!

I'm sure some people will find that Fuzzi Bunz work great for them. Wonderful! They were a good diaper for us, before we started having leaky troubles. I just wanted to share more about our cloth diaper saga, in case you've read my post on Fuzzi Bunz and were thinking "Wow, Fuzzi Bunz sound great". (I recently got a blog comment that spurred me on to write this post! You know who you are!) :)