Cloth Diapering 102
*Accessories*
So the last post I did on cloth diapers covered all the different types and the cost associated with them. I even ended that post with a chart comparing all the prices for each cloth diapering system. The question I've been getting since then is "what system do you plan on going with?" Lots of people knowing me to be the thrift and cost savvy person I am assume I'm just going to go with the cheapest system and call it a day, (flats with covers) BUT I'm not. I have an awesome amazing friend who does flats and is a genius at it, and I may use flats as doublers, but I'm really trying to avoid a lot of folding; especially with us being first time parents AND first time cloth diapering parents at that.
BUT! Before I get into what we are hoping to use as our system, I do need to mention some of the many accessories that come with cloth diapering. A lot of them are similar to what you would use with disposable diapering, just different. Now this is where I'm not quite an expert and will only be mentioning the accessories that I know about and plan on using. But trust me, there are a BUNCH of accessories, for a really good look at ALL the accessories associated with cloth diapering, watch the video below! This lady has a great youtube channel that has a lot of cloth diapering info and sources for those who are curious! And in all honesty her and a couple other cloth diaper ladies on Youtube are where I got a lot of my info on modern cloth diapering from!
Now for the accessories I'm going to use:
Pail Liner/Wet Bag:
Back in the day (when I was a baby and before that) mommies used to have what is called a wet pail. They'd have a pail with water and bleach and maybe vinegar where they would put the soiled diapers in it until it was time to wash the diapers in the washing machine or (God bless these ladies) or wash by hand. But, this way is NOT recommended anymore because bacteria grows and mold and other nasties that end up growing in the pail.
SOOO what is recommended now is to have a pail or hamper with a liner or wet bag in it to hold the soiled diapers until they get washed (as mentioned before diaper laundry is usually every other day to every 3 days depending on the age/amount of soiling baby does and size of diaper stash). Both the liners and wet bags have a waterproof material like the diapers on the inside to keep them from leaking all over your baby room or changing area.
Pail liners are usually the size of a trash bag and fit over a normal garbage can or diaper pail (yes the ones for disposables, so if you have a pail already, the liner will work with it!) The specific ones I registered for is by planet wise and is $17 each. Its recommended to have two of these so one can be in the wash while you use the other one. So I registered for two for a total of $34.
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| Pail liner |
Another way to store soiled diapers are wet bags. These like pail liners have the waterproofing material inside, but the bags as a whole are much smaller as they are usually used for on the go. They are usually also equipped with a zipper closure and a strap of some kind to attach to a door knob or diaper bag or stroller, etc. They also come in many different sizes from small (usually can hold like ONE diaper or most use it to store pre moistened wipes) to extra large (these are the equivalent size to the diaper liners but MUCH MORE expensive).
For my stash I registered for a small ($10) medium ($18) and Large ($19) wet bag. The small and medium bags will be used as my everyday diaper bag wet diaper holders and wipe holder, and the large wet bag I'll take with me if we have an overnight trip to a place.
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| Large wet bag |
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| Small wet bag |
Total cost of pail liners/wet dry bags for my stash: $81
Diaper Sprayer:
The diaper sprayer is just what the title is. It's a sprayer for soiled diapers.
These are attached to the water system on your toilet and have a little hook thing that you can hang it from the tank between uses. Basically when the diaper is soiled you use the sprayer to spray off the poo and pee into the toilet and rinse off the diaper. The waste gets flushed (like its supposed to! Check out my first diaper post if this comment confuses you) and the now rinsed diaper goes into your pail liner or wet dry bag.
This specific sprayer is $45. Though they can range from $40-$70 depending on brand and you could also make your own if you are a savvy plumber.
Liners:
Diaper liners are a way to avoid needing a diaper sprayer... kinda
As you can see from the pictures, they come in both disposable and reusable form. Basically you would put one of these in the diaper as a barrier between the baby's bum and diaper. These are used as a stay dry (so the baby doesn't feel wet after going) and a protectant of poo getting on the nice white inner part of the diaper. The disposable ones are just flushed between changes. The reusable ones are like diapers in the sense that they need to be washed and its probably best to spray them off after being soiled. The reusable ones can be made from pretty much any material, such as fleece, micro-fleece, bamboo, hemp, flannel... etc (except microfiber, that can't touch a baby's bum, but can be stuffed into a pocket diaper for slow absorbency). The cost can differ depending on the material or you always can make your own for cheaper :)
A lot of mom's who want to cloth diaper literally from birth will often times use liners when the baby is first born because the baby's first poo's are like tar and super thick. Also, new moms often worry that these first poo's (and other poo's) will stain the diapers so they use liners do avoid the brown. But fun fact, as long as baby is exclusively breast reading, the poo is water soluble and technically doesn't need to be rinsed, but I sill will be ringing them!
As for my stash, I'm on the fence, I'm contemplating making some liners because as you can see, purchasing them can be pricy, but I may also purchase a pack of disposable liners for the first few poo's, not because of the staining but because I don't know how the birth will be and if I'm not the one changing Teagan, it may be easier for those changing her to have a liner. Also having the disposables will be helpful for traveling or if we have our family watcher her.. so I still am not sure on these.
Snappi:
I've mentioned snappis in my other diaper posts but here's what they look like:
These are basically the new age pins to keep the prefolds and flats secure on the baby. With covers some parents choose to not use the snappis because they count on the covers keeping the cloth secure, but with the diapers not secured around the baby... well blow outs happen! They are not recommended to use for more then 6 months before replacing because the plastic wears out. One can be used throughout diaper changes and really you could get away with just buying one, but extras are good to have just in case one breaks or you are like me and tend to loose things.
This specific pack of five is $15 and will last through the time that we will be using prefolds.
Wipes:
I have talked about the cost of wipes in my first post, but they are considered an accessory. The cost of wipes can very depending on if you get disposables or cloth wipes (Check out my first post for the costs!). Making cloth wipes are a very cheep option as they can literally be made out of most cloths, even old clothes! And if you are cloth diapering, why not cloth wipe too?
Cloth wipes can be purchased and have a variety of prices depending on where you buy them from. they tend to average about a dollar a piece to two dollars or more a piece depending on the material, size and maker of the wipe. I did register for some, but just got some coupons in for the fabric store and will defiantly be making my whole wipe stash for the price of what it would cost to get one pack!
Total Accessory Cost: $141 (plus the cost of making wipes)
What we choose:
So here we go! Here's what our choices for our cloth diapering stash is:
First I started a couple months ago when I purchased 5 bumpkins pocket diapers for $10 a piece from woot.com
These five diapers however are NOT enough and bumpkins are not as easily available in baby stores as other brands are.
So I registered on amazon for the brand bumgenious freetimes and 4.0s. The freetimes are an all in one diaper with the extra absorbency attached as flaps instead of the absorbency being sewn in all the way around. (there is a pic of these diapers in my second diaper post under the All in One section) These are about $20 a piece and are "one sized" fitting from "8 pounds" to 35 pounds. The 4.0's are pocket diapers where the absorbency is added into the diapers and cost roughly $18 a piece and have the same weight limit. Knowing I'll need about 24 cloth diapers for my stash I registered for 13 of each kind (nice to have extras!) making this stash $260 for the freetimes and $234 for the 4.0s.
Total for Cloth diapers 8 pounds to 35 pounds (including 5 already purchased) will be: $544.00
Now if you noticed I put quotes around the 8 pounds, and if you remember from previous posts this is because the "one sized" diapers are not the best when it comes to newborn sized babies. They are often too bulky and don't have a good fit around the legs which can cause blowouts. So I will also be doing diaper covers and prefolds.
Green mountain diapers are the go to place now for really good prefolds and I registered for 2 dozen newborn sized prefolds (6-10 pounds) for $50 and 2 dozen size small prefolds (10-15) for $58.
Prefolds totaling: $108
With prefolds comes the covers so I registered for Rumparoos covers: 9 newborn (4-15 pounds) at $10 a piece because newborns use the restroom more then when they are a little older. I also registered for 6 one sized ("6"-35 pounds) Rumparoos diaper covers averaging $15 a piece. These though, I will have to purchase different sized prefolds. But, I'm waiting to see what I get at the showers and plan on using these as a supplemental purchase if I don't get all the freestimes and 4.0s that I registered for. Each came to $90 for the covers.
Covers totaling: $180
So my diaper stash WISH LIST in total:
$50 - 5 bumpkins pocket diapers
$260 - 13 freetime AIO diapers
$234 - 13 4.0 pocket diapers
$90 - 9 newborn Rumparoos covers
$90 - 6 OS Rumparoos covers
$50 - 2 doz NB sized GMD prefolds
$58 - 2 doz Size Small GMD prefolds
The total will cost roughly (give or take a pocket/AIO diaper): $832 plus whatever cost of making cloth wipes and all the accessories for $141.
Now this may not be what we actually end up with! Like I said all but 5 are what I registered for. The hope is that I'll get the majority of what I registered for in the diaper area. But if worse comes to worse I'll stick with my 5 pocket diapers and do the rest of the stash with prefolds and the rumparoos and that would look like this:
$50 - 5 bumpkins pocket diapers
$90 - 9 newborn Rumparoos covers
$90 - 6 OS Rumparoos covers
$50 - 2 doz NB sized GMD prefolds
$58 - 2 doz Size Small GMD prefolds
$74 - 2 doz Size Med GMD prefolds
$80 - 2 doz Size Large GMD prefolds (if not potty trained by the weight)
Total cost out of pocket to us: $492 (plus or minus the $80 size large) plus the cost of wipes and the accessories for $141
But it's important to remember that either one we go with will still be way cheaper in the long run then using disposables! Especially if we have another baby, because then we would only need to buy a couple replacement covers/diapers and snappis. So there is HUGE savings across the cost of two babies!
My registries for Amazon and Green Mountain Diapers are on the Registries and Wish list tab above if you would like to check out the looks of all the diapers in details!
As always questions are welcome, just keep in mind I'm not an EXPERT, as I have not actually tried these out on real babies and have only done lots of research! I also welcome feedback and support :)
Until next time!
Bre and Teagan (the bump)
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