I spent quite a bit of my time researching cloth diapering while I was pregnant. I knew it was something I wanted to do primarily because it was so much less expensive. The other reason didn't occur to me until I did some research and that was exposing my baby to the chemicals in the diapers. I have a hard enough time with feminine pads giving me a rash and drying me out, my children will likely be the same with their diapers. My mom and dad cloth diapered us growing up and I recall my mom telling me that I was potty trained before my brother came along and we are only 17 months apart.
I found a great prefold package deal online, bought some covers made with PUL, and made my own laundry soap to wash them with and consequently our regular laundry too since it was so much cheaper than store bought laundry detergent. So far the most challenging part of this was keeping track of how many times I pre-washed the diapers. 60 diapers take a long time to pre-wash 5-8 times. I also knew that I would want to make my own wipe solution and avoid having to buy those as well. My mom used to use wash cloths and soap water. It just didn't seem all that complicated. Why was everyone making such a fuss over how hard cloth diapering was?
I knew at the hospital that they only use disposable diapers and wipes. This was fine by me since those first poopy diapers were filled with meconium which is a sticky tar like substance that is very hard to get off the skin of the baby let alone the diaper. I thought it would be good to use those disposables for the first few days so I didn't have to worry about getting meconium out of my cloth diapers. The hospital sent us home with two bags of diapers and wipes, we were set for a while. The next question was when would we switch to cloth. Me being lazy I had not made up the baby wipe solution that I wanted to use, so I put it off for a few days. Then yesterday, my husband asked when we were going to switch over. We only had about a dozen disposables left and I wanted to save them for any trips we would be making in the future. Plus I wasn't a fan of the garbage we were producing.
That evening I made up a batch of wipe solution (2 Tbs baby wash, 1 Tbs baby oil, 2 cups of water), got out my cloth wipes, snappies, covers, and cloth diapers. The first really great thing I noticed was that the diapers kept the poop in and didn't leak out through the legs like the disposables were doing. I had to change my boppy covers 4 times in two days from leaks. Thank goodness for protective waterproof covers or I would be washing the pillow too. The next thing I noticed was that the dry skin around his waist was going away. I suspect that the disposables were irritating his skin. Last, my son doesn't cry the same with the cloth diapers. He hardly cries at all now when I change his diapers.
One thing that really jump started me into cloth diapering was a youtube set of videos that answered all my questions about what's out there, legislation, and how to use cloth diapers. Here is the first video in the series. I recommend watching them all.
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