Cottonbabies

I've had a few friends ask me about cloth diapering so I thought I'd share the info here. Also, I'm using this link to enter a contest. :)
Here's the email I just sent one friend.

I shop pretty much exclusively through cottonbabies.com which is the manufacturer for the type that I use- the FLIP diapers. I decided to purchase through them because they have a guarantee for like 30 days or so. I've also heard that if you have problems with the product, they'll back them up ONLY if they're purchased directly from them. They also offer free shipping. Bonus. :) So far, they've given me great customer service, but I just had a snap break on a diaper so I'll let you know how that works for me. I'm calling them tomorrow.

I do use the diaper sprayer and I think it's a must for older babies, but it's something you can put off buying for a while. You don't need to rinse out diapers until the baby is eating solid foods (around 6 months old), as far as I've heard. And so far with Stella, the liquid poo is all soaked into the diaper and washes out in the washing machine. You use the sprayer for when they have solid chunks of poo that are in the diaper. Those need to be put down the toilet and the sprayer helps immensely with that. If Scarlett has an accident, I use the sprayer and don't have to get my hands in the business. :)

I store the dirty diapers in a tall kitchen garbage can with a Planet Wise diaper pail liner in it. They come in a million colors and so far it's been great, I just wash it about every other time I wash diapers. Or if there's a particularly gross poopy diaper I'll wash the liner every time. Before I had that, I just used garbage bags as liners, but then you're throwing away a garbage bag each time. Also, I don't put a lid on my diaper pail and it's sitting in the middle of my dining/living room and it doesn't smell at all. I have noticed in the past that if I have a lid on it, when I open the lid it smells, but without the lid the odor seems to dissipate.

I will tell you that I've had to strip my diapers quite often (like once a month or so) to keep the smelliness at bay. That just means that I wash them on hot with a half of a cup of bleach and a tablespoon of dawn dish soap and then do 3 rinse cycles. That seems to keep the diapers smelling clean. Otherwise, the detergent builds up over time and then the baby's pee reacts to the build-up and makes a strong ammonia smell which also burns the baby's bum. Not fun. And you have to use a special detergent with the diapers- I use Country Save and I just use 1 tbsp per load so the box of detergent will last me forever.

To wash the diapers I do the following: cold wash with detergent, hot wash without detergent, extra rinse. Then I hang the diaper covers to dry and either hang or machine-dry the inserts- depending on how hot it is outside.

FYI, I have 7 covers and maybe 30 or so liners (which is way too many). I'm using them on both Scarlett and Stella and have to laundry every day or every other day. If I were just doing Stella, I would probably get by washing every other day or every 3. For one baby, I would suggest 4-6 covers and 12 or more liners. The more you have the less often you need to do laundry, but you don't want to do laundry too infrequently or you'll have stinky diapers. They shouldn't sit for more than 2 or 3 days. Ew. With a baby Stella's age you would probably use 6-10 liners per day and 2-3 covers. It seems like at least once during the day she poops enough to soil a cover and then I always want a clean one on her for night.

You'll also want a wet-bag to put in your diaper bag, and I try to always keep an extra cover in my diaper bag so I don't accidently forget. Or you can just keep a few disposable diapers in your diaper bag. But you need a wet-bag for the dirty ones. In a pinch I've used a ziplock, but again then you have to throw it away and make waste. It would probably be a cost effective solution though. You'd have to use a lot of ziplocks to make up the $15 wetbag!

I would consider buying 2 of the flip daypacks http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=139&products_id=2156

I have also tried the Bumgenius Pocket diapers and I didn't like them at all. They're much more expensive and you need way more diapers because you have to change the whole diaper each time, rather than with the flips I can just change the liner if the diaper is poo-free. Plus, Flips have snaps which are nice because Scarlett can undo velcro and the velcro snagged her clothes. Boo.

Trust me, I did TONS of research. Including borrowing a friends stash of diapers for 3 weeks.

Any more questions? Oh- and you can also make your own baby wipes by cutting flannel into "wipes" and soaking them in a water/baby soap solution. They work great and then you can just throw them into the wash with the diapers. Smart!