Lots of people have asked me about cloth diapering, so I thought I would dedicate a post to it. Not to mention, it's a great excuse to post pictures of my Zachariah's cute little bum!
I start with a changing pad, prefold diaper, diaper cover, cloth wipes (Almost all of my cloth wipes are made of recycled fabric from around the house such as old sheets, pj pants, etc. I keep them in a wipes container pre-moistened with a solution of 1 tsp baby shampoo, 1 tsp coconut oil, and 1 1/2 cups of warm water), coconut oil, and a baby!
Unfasten the cover, and pull it from underneath the baby's bum. If it's not soiled, it can be reused.
Clean off the bum, and slather coconut oil on it if baby is looking dry or has a rash. Or just because it smells good! ;)
Put the clean cover and prefold under the baby, pull out the edges in the back, and wrap the prefold around him just like a disposable diaper.
Fasten the cover over the prefold.
Throw all the dirty stuff in a wet bag.
And you're finished!!! I bought enough diapers and covers that I only have to wash every third day. I could actually probably go longer than that with the number of diapers that I have, but I don't want them to get too ripe. When washing day rolls around, I just turn the wet bag inside out in the machine, and throw it in after everything. Right now, since Zachariah is exclusively breastfed, I don't have to do anything with the poop, because it's water soluble. All I do is run a short wash to rinse everything out, and then run a heavy soil wash. All done! The biggest difference is that I use a different detergent than I do with my normal laundry. You have to be really careful with what kind of laundry detergent you use because a lot of regular detergents can build up on the diapers and cause them to repel moisture instead of soaking it up. Not exactly what you want in a diaper. Best of all, I haven't had a blow out diaper once since starting cloth. It really does contain everything in those covers! And let's be honest, isn't that one cute stripey bum?
