One recurrent theme in the “What Should The Natural Mommy Write About” comment section was cloth diapers.
And I can TALK about cloth diapers. Watch out.
A lot has changed since the prefold days.
Like, for example, the fact that we don’t use prefolds anymore.
They were completely functional. They were cheap. But, they were bulky. And they made for some red bums. I’ve decided we’ve got some sensitive skin issues over here. I’d put fleece down to keep Olivia’s skin dry, and the part touching the fleece would be fine – and surrounded by pink blotchiness where the fleece didn’t cover.
Not ready to jump completely into more expensive diapers, we did an inbetween step with some insert socks.
(They look like this:
and are stuffed with this:
and all go inside this:
And that concludes my pictoral parenthetical interuption.)
The insert socks kept her dry, and away went the rash.
So it was pure discontentment that made me ask for more bumGenius one-size pocket diapers for the following Christmas. I honestly can’t remember a better reason.
(Cloth diaper lesson: A pocket diaper is one that you stuff with an insert (see middle picture above). It has a pocket for the insert. Get it?)
But I was loving my bumGenius diapers:
- I stuffed them right off the line, so they were ready to go, just like disposables.
- Combine the pre-stuffed-ness with the velcro, and they were SO much faster and easier to put on a wiggly baby.
- Baby’s skin was dry and un-rashed.
- One-size! One diaper to fit infancy through toddlerhood! The money I will save!
Oh, happy sigh. I was content for the longest time.
Until…
The velcro started to die. First went the handy laundry tabs (the soft flannel square to which you fasten the velcro before dumping it in the diaper pail to be washed). Without those, the velcro tabs stuck to anything and everything in the wash. And they quickly filled up with lint and hair and became quite less effective.
And, then and there, I vowed never to buy a velcro diaper again. I bought cloth diapers that I had hoped would be an investment and would last through multiple children. That expectation is just too unrealistic for velcro.
Somewhere around there, I met a real! live! person! who also used cloth diapers. She had used FuzziBunz on her twin boys, and now had a singleton infant. (Read: EXTRA DIAPERS.) She generously let me borrow some. Because up until that point, Benjamin was still in prefolds while his sister enjoyed the comfort of the bumGenius.
A quick lesson on FuzziBunz:
- They are not one-sized, so you have to buy three times the diapers.
- They are pocket diapers – no rashes, and ready to go, just like ‘sposies.
- NO MORE VELCRO.
She was using all her smalls and was about ready to move up to medium on her little guy, so all she could spare was her larges (She had sold half her stash after her twins were done with them – wise financial move). And larges were too big for Benjamin, so the order of things around here became, and still is:
Benjamin wears the bumGenius diapers and Olivia wears the FuzziBunz.
And, because we ALWAYS ran out of diapers on laundry day, I used my reward points from my Amazon credit card to get three Mommy’s Touch diapers – the only well-heard-of diaper I could find on Amazon.com.
Mommy’s Touch diapers:
- Are a one-size diaper, yet only have two size settings.
- Are a pocket diaper (easy, no rashes).
- DO NOT HAVE VELCRO.
- Have a nifty “easy clean” feature – You do not have to take the insert out before washing it. I’ve tried this. It does work.
I was afraid to get the Mommy’s Touch because:
- I thought with only two size settings, it couldn’t possibly have the range I would need.
- I was afraid the insert would come out one of the two openings while being worn.
- I thought all those snapping options would confuse me.
Mommy’s Touch diapers have become my favorite diaper because:
- They fit BOTH Olivia and Benjamin – FuzziBunz are size-specific, and the bumGenius velcro doesn’t span a 30 pound Olivia. I’ve yet to try the Mommy’s Touch on a newborn, but I have folded it down, and it gets pretty small. Could it be that I have found a true one-sized diaper?!
- I can just throw it in the diaper pail – no shaking out a liner. And let’s face it: the least amount of time that diaper pail is open, the BETTER.
- THE SNAPS. THEY WILL NOT COLLECT HAIR AND LINT. I LOVE THAT.
- I’ve yet to have the insert come out either opening while being worn.
- The snapping options are really quite easy to figure out! Especially if you study the diaper online first. 🙂 I admit, I had an unfair advantage over Josh in that area.
But, keep in mind, I’ve only had them for about a month. I’ll update you if anything major starts failing. Or if I find an awesomer one out there.
Better yet, you tell ME, what’s your favorite diaper?
I like Mommy Touch diapers too! The FuzziBunz have elastic issues that if you are not aware of them a big mess can happen. We don’t use pocket diapers too much but I do have them for longer trips ect.
The work horse diapers of my stash are some fitted ones that I bought locally and I don’t even know what brand they are or anything. They have the basic diaper shape and then there is a soaker sewn in the front so you can adjust the padding for boys or girls. I love them because they are one sized. I never had to hunt for a diaper to fit a specific kid. Evan has potty trained late yet he was still using the same diapers as Harry. It also looks like should the Velcro go out on the diapers it would be easy for me to replace it.
I have been feeling the prefold love of late and have half a dozen in my stash. I have also been flirting with the idea of flats which are supposed to have a really nice drying time and can fit trimmer than a prefold. I like the diapers that need covers because I knit and I love making cute wool covers.
No favorite yet because this is the first pregnancy my husband has agreed to try cloth diapers – thank you Human Footprint on Natn’t Geo (if I recall correctly)! But I loved reading this because I have to figure out what to buy before baby comes in January or February. Always good to get some leads.
I thought you were telling my story!! I also use Bum Genius and Fuzzi Bunz and have recently become unhappy with the BG and the velcro issues that you describe. They are certainly easier for the babysitters, but the snaps are by far a better buy in the long run. A friend of mine started out with Mommy’s Touch. I wonder how she is liking them now. Great post! Can you replace the BG velcro? Do you know of anyone that has attempted this?
Another issue I was having lately is the leg holes gaping and leaking. I have shortened the rise back to the middle (19 mos old DD is thinning out) and that has helped with the gap. I can’t remember if the BG elastic was always this loose or if she is really just changing shape. An interesting dilemma as well.
I just bought a couple of Happy Heiny one size (they also have velcro though) Not sure how that will work out. I’ll keep you posted.
You can replace the velcro tabs on the BumG’s. Cottonbabies.com sells the velcro tabs that are the right size! If you bought them from her, she will give them to you free.
I have been using some used BumG’s for 20 months and just now am starting to have velcro problems. I hate snaps, they take longer to get the diaper on. Not that it is incredibly longer or intensely difficult, but I have 7 kids, I don’t need the extra time and my husband said if I was going to go cloth it had to be NO different for him to use. It works for us!
However, it became quite tempting to switch to snaps when our son learned to strip at 6 months old, lol.
Some great snap diapers come from Mudpiebabies.com. She is amazing and a friend of mine who used Mothers Touch switched to all Mudpies when her three in diapers would fight over who got to wear the Mudpie. LOL
Yay! I’m glad you found some diapers you like! I haven’t started cloth diapering yet, but I’m definitely going to come October!
I’ve spent many, many hours researching the different types of diapers, and I think I’ve settled on the Baby Kangas, just for the reasons you mentioned. I really wanted a pocket diaper that came in one-size and had snaps. I ordered a few to see how they work and such, and I really like them. I have no idea how they’ll hold up after years of washing, how they’ll actually fit, etc, but I can let you know once I find out!
We had lakes in the bed with fuzzi bunz, due to the above-mentioned “elastic issues.” If your child is older & no longer stops at the all-night booby buffet as often, not a problem.. but when he was littler & still nursing 3-4 times a night, we had to switch away from the FB.
We use prefolds during the day & pockets, double-stuffed, at night. The prefolds are harder to get on a wiggly child, but the economy can’t be beat. There was certainly a learning curve to getting them clean enough each wash to avoid rash issues, but now that we’ve figured it out, life is good!
As you mentioned, I used Fuzzi Bunz with the twins. I bought the smalls and mediums new, and LOVED them – worked great, no rashes, and rarely any leaks (but my guys are super soakers, so we stuffed them with tons of inserts at night – if we failed to do that then we were looking at wet sheets). I was so excited to get my money’s worth out of them for the next baby. For larges, I decided to try some other dipes out. I have a few friends who CD, and one friend sent me several different ones to try out (can’t remember them all, but I think Kissaluvs, Little Lambs?, and a few others). I still liked Fuzzi Bunz the best. I got some Swaddlebees, which were nice and trim, but I found out I needed contoured inserts (which I did not want to buy). Plus the were really small in the rise, and like I said, I have super soakers. So I sold those. I bought a batch of BumGenius dipes, which I thought I would love, but didn’t realize until I got them that you can’t put them in the dryer. So I sent those back. I’m kind of glad I did, now that I know the velcro is an issue.
Then with the baby, the small FB’s were in perfect shape still. When I went to move up to Mediums, as you found out, the elastic was SHOT. So I put in new elastic in the legs, but haven’t done that with the waist (yet). Pretty disappointing, as the biggest money saver was in subsequent children. And when I first bought my FB’s, there wasn’t the option of a diaper that was one-size.
I’ll still use my FB’s, and I do still think they are great diapers. But if I had to do it over again NOW (which I won’t because we can’t afford it and I already have these), I would definitely try the Mommy’s Touch or something similar. I’ll let you know when we get close to needing the larges. I think it will be a while yet.
Glad you are getting good use out of them!
🙂 Nancy
Right now, I only have prefolds and BG (one-size and a few AIOs) – my velcro is starting to get a wee bit fuzzy, but I’ll probably replace the tabs because I really do love them so far. Nancy- my BG have been in the dryer since the beginning (except when it’s nice out, then I line dry outside) – and they’re totally fine. I’ve had NO ISSUES with absorbency or anything.
I’m hoping to try a few different brands as my gal gets bigger and as there are (Lord willing) more children in our home. I’m always totally interested to hear what other people think.
I use bg 3.0’s and just love them. I haven’t had those velcro issues, though. My Bummis SWW cover velcro does stick to everything which is annoying, but my bg’s velcro stays put. 😀
I like prefolds and fitteds, meself. 🙂 Boring I know!
I should clarify – I have bG 2.0. It’s very possibly they improved the laundry tabs on the 3.0’s. And, QTPies7, I will look into those free replacement velcro tabs – that would be AMAZING.
And, Nancy, I’m betting the kind you sent back were 1.0’s? I had those once upon a time. I remember those were NOT supposed to go in the dryer – they weren’t using PUL back in those days. 🙂 I’m betting, Katie, you have a later version.
Look at all these bG fans out there! I do retain a bit of loyalty to them because of their AWESOME customer service and the fact that they were my first pocket dipes (you never forget your first… not after months and months of prefolds… :-P).
The only time that pre-folds have caused a rash for my babies was if there was detergent build-up in the fabric… 100% cotton pre-folds shouldn’t cause allergies unless the child is allergic to cotton or to the processing (like bleaching) used, right? 🙂
My favorite diapers are my homemade prefolds from receiving blankets… at about 10 cents each (plus 10-15 minutes of pinning/sewing) I would feel guilty about spending 50-100+ times that amount on just one diaper! Cheap, I know… 🙂
Tammy – It could very well have been something like that.
But another reason I forgot to mention previously (another commenter reminded me) was the stiffness of line-dried chinese prefolds. When I had originally bought them, we had a dryer hookup, and they were delightfully soft, fresh out of the dryer. But when we moved and no longer had access to a [decent] dryer, the prefolds just felt so uncomfortable!
So when Olivia’s bottom started turning red, I was more than ready to move on to something else. 🙂
But receiving blanket diapers… oh, I bet those are soft, even when line dried! Great idea! Do you make your own covers, too?
I don’t make my covers, but I did recently find a wool knit hat at a garage sale that I’m hoping to re-purpose! 😉
Nice and Thorough! After reading this, I have to try Mommy’s Touch. We have 3 Bum AIO’s and a few other velcro diapers. I’m kinda sad to hear that the velcro will wear out :-(.
I totally wish we had done cloth. But since my children were 6 and 7 months old when they joined us, I wasn’t sue that it was the most economical solution. As it way, my daughter was potty trained at 20 months, so at least we stopped with all that diaper waste early!
We’re BG fans — I have had to replace the tabs on several, and the elastic on a few hand-me-downs I received. BUT otherwise I love them!!! I have a few 3.0s (warranty replacements from some of my 2.0s with elastic issues – love CB customer service!) — so I’ll let you know how the aplix / touch tape (I’m pretty sure it’s not regular velcro 🙂 )holds up on those – it does seem “stickier” than the other ones were new . . .
We have mostly prefolds with BSWW, because of cost. But I have two fuzzi bunz and one Bum Genius 2.0. The Bum Genius is my absolute fav. I love love love it. I bought it when my son was 8 months old and he is now 23 months and 30 lbs and it still fits. My next baby will be in nothing but Bum Genius. Anyone looking to start CDing, don’t look any further than Bum Genius. I can’t say it enough- I looooooove them.
We have really liked the bG! 2.0. they’ve lasted almost 2 years now in a rotation with other dipes. I don’t like the FB. The elastic didn’t even last through one kid and they aren’t even one-size! I thought I was all set w/ bG! if we have more kids, but now you’ve got me wanting to try some Mommy’s Touch. We use lots of PFs and covers at home too. My friend Deb at MadeByMama.com makes the best covers! They are so cute too that I don’t think I could give them up completely.
PS Linked ya here:
http://mamaknj.blogspot.com/2008/08/linky-love.html
I’m new to cloth…can you recommend something for a newbie who will have a newborn soon? And bare in mind, my newborn babies are a bit big. Close to nine pounds. 🙂
I’ve just invested in a ton of BabyBeehinds (an aussie brand) on the advice on my friends. They’ve had NO problems with leakage, they can use either PUL or wool covers, and the bamboo and hemp fabrics are great against bare skin. Also, they’ve used them from newborn until two, nearly three years old (only stopped due to toilet training!) They can be bought online. My other friend was given a bunch of BumGenius, but only uses them in emergencies, cos they seem to have a few leak-around-the-leg issues!! That’s my two cents anyway.