What do you do with the poo!

The title is especially for my husband :)

I have recently had a few friends interested in cloth diapering. It is fun to share this with them, but the big question I always get is, but what about the poo!

When I started out, I searched how to wash cloth diapers. And man, is there A LOT of opinions on this! And they are all different and contradict one another. So, I thought I would add to the mess and share what I do.

I try and keep it as simple as possible.

Before I even get to washing them in a machine, any diaper that has that dreaded poo, I first take and dunk shake the poo off into the toilet. I then use my Spray Pal (amazing invention!) and sprayer to spray off anything that may have been left behind. So, there is no actual poo going into the washer (as many fear).

As for the actual washing portion. I have a front loading he washing machine. I do a rinse cycle first, then do a heavy duty cycle with an extra rinse at the end. That is it!

I originally did not use anything extra in the rinse, but now use Eco Nuts ammonia bouncer. I also used to use Tide Free and Gentle which worked great for the first few months. My diapers just didn't seem to be getting as clean as I would like and I won a sample of Molly's Suds and so I tried that. It was great and worked well! I decided I liked using a specific detergent for Cloth Diapers, so I decided to get GroVia's Tiny Bubbles detergent and then also a packet of their Might Bubbles to try. I chose them as I have a lot of GroVia products (I think I have most of them now!) and have always had good luck with them. They work great! I use the Might Bubbles when I have a load that sometimes goes that extra day before cleaning and they always come out nice and clean. So, I will continue to use this awesome product!

For drying, I line dry them outside. Since we are in California and it is usually sunny, I like hanging the diapers outside to dry. The sun helps with any stains and I don't have to run the dryer forever to dry them. At the end of the day when I bring them in, I just pop the inserts in quickly to fluff them back up as the sun can make them a bit rough.

The other question I am often asked, is how many extra loads of laundry does this really add. Well, for me, it is two. I do laundry on Tuesday night and then Friday or Saturday night  depending on what is going on that weekend. I do the rinse cycle at night. And then set my timer to do the heavy duty cycle at 4am so it is done when I wake up. I then put them out on the line in the morning and then bring them back in that night.

GroVia Cloth Diaper Review

I have mentioned the GroVia diapers a in a previous post about using cloth diapers at daycare. We are now 6 months in of cloth diapering and GroVia are by far my favorites! I love them so much!

They are an All in Two product which means they have a cover and an insert that snaps in (awesome!). I like these systems the best as you can reuse the covers multiple times! I have used their covers, prefolds, biosoakers, stay dry soaker pads, and organic cotton soaker pads. So, a lot of their products! Here is a breakdown of each item:

Covers: These are my favorite covers (ok I will stop saying favorite as it will get redundant!). I love the prints they have as they are so adorable. Drift and Poppy are probably the cutest of a very cute bunch! I don't have the older prints and really want to find some to add to my stash. I also like how easy they fit on A. One of the fastest covers I have to put on. And as A has hit her very wriggly, I want to roll all over the place, phase, having a cover that I can easily close (aplix) is fantastic. I also like the mesh lining covering the TPU. I find that they breathe better than my covers that have exposed PUL or TPU. I usually only need 1-2 covers a day as well!

Poppy, Drift, and Pudge Prints!

Stay dry soaker pads:  The stay dry part is super soft! I find that these also hold a lot and are very trim. The fact that they just snap right into the covers is so amazing and again make those changes much faster and easier. These also tend to dry a bit faster than the organic cotton soaker pads. And they do not seem to stain as easily.

Organic Cotton Soaker Pads: I love these one the best. Just like the stay dry they fit right into the covers. I like that they are organic cotton against her skin. They do stain easiest out of all my diapers but I just put them in the sun to dry and like magic, the stains are gone! They do also take longer than others to dry but again the sun helps with that. I also feel that these hold a lot more in them than other inserts that i have. The gussets also help keep any of her poos from getting out (stay dry also has gussets).

Bamboo Prefolds: I had a service for the beginning of our cloth diaper adventure (where I fell in love with the GroVia covers) so when we decided to go it ourselves I wanted to try GroVia prefolds, too. I only have a handful as we only use at home (daycare does not like prefolds) but they are so great! They are softer than the cotton prefolds we used with the service. They seem to hold a TON! I can padfold them into the covers when I need to do a quick change, or do the jelly roll fold and snappi it shut when she is calmer and will sit still enough for that! I got size 3 (Infant Long) which was just above her weight but wanted to use them longer and haven't had any issues with them being a bit bigger. I just fold the back down a bit and we are good to go!

Biosoakers: These are the disposable inserts that you can use in a cover when needed. We don't use these often as it is so easy to just use an actual soaker pad but when we have used them they worked great. My only suggestion is to not pull the sticky part off and just lay it in the cover. I  didn't have any issues with it moving around by not be attached and the sticky part was too sticky in my opinion. We are taking a vacation this summer where we will be flying across country so planning to use these for our trip!

Thoughts:

Cost: The covers are around $17 and the soaker pads are between $17-19 for two of them. So, they are a bit pricey but the covers can last for more than one change which helps with the cost. The ease of use also makes it worth while for me!

Trimness: I find these to be very trim! The only item that I would consider bulky would be the prefolds and that is because I got the bigger size. If I am using either of the Soaker Pads, they are one of my trimmest diapers. She is able to fit in clothes no problem and I have not had to go up a size because of these diapers.

Ease of Use: I feel I covered this already, but these are super easy to use! Snap in the Soaker Pad, and put on baby! I can do this one even with all her flipping and wriggling!

Overall: I think the GroVia system is the best one. My daycare also loves them which just adds to my love for them. In fact, the first day I brought the soaker pads in rather than prefolds, when I picked up A, they sought me out to say how much they LOVE the new diapers. And then another day, I overheard them telling a mom whose son has bad diaper rash to consider my diapers! Such a big change from our first days diapering with them! I would highly recommend this diapering system!

Update 1.10.15 - Now 16 months into cloth diapering and GroVia is still our number one go to diaper! I have also added Grovia's Kiwi Pie fitted and wool to my stash and they are also amazing! And my daycare still enjoys them as well :) End Update

Cloth Diapers at Daycare

So we have almost hit the month mark of A being at Daycare. There are a lot of things I could say about this topic but for now will focus on Cloth Diapers!

I wasn't sure if we would even be able to do our cloth at daycare as a few places we looked at flat out refused to even consider doing it! Luckily, we got into a great daycare and they were willing to try! I read a ton about diapering in daycare but was getting discouraged because everyone suggested taking AIO's or Pockets as they are easy and very similar to disposables. Well, I don't have any of those kind, so was starting to worry, that maybe I would not be able to cloth diaper at daycare because we use prefolds and covers.

So, we went the first day and brought our prefolds and covers. The teachers were so great about it and said, sure, we can do this! They had never done prefolds before but had such a great attitude about trying which really makes a difference. That first pick up day, they asked questions, and I asked if they preferred a particular diaper cover over another and slowly we found what worked best for us!

Their favorite covers are the GroVia hook and loop(velcro) as they are super easy to close and they liked the mesh material better (as they don't wipe and reuse covers anyways). GroVia was one of my favorites so I was happy for an excuse to buy more! They also use the Angel Wing Fold which they found the easiest for them to do. I had offered that they could padfold (basically just folding prefold in three and placing in cover) so they didn't have to worry about using a snappi or anything but they said they are fine with the Angel Wing Fold!

The only issues I have found is they tend to forget to tuck the diaper into the cover so she goes through clothes a bit faster as they get dirty. And a few times they have put her in disposable because they said they didn't have time to mess with getting the cloth on! Though, I had taken a few disposables the first week and never replenished them (and won't when they run out unless they request it) so don't see this being used that often.

We have gotten into a good system now where I drop off at the beginning of each week all the wetbags for the week. ( Originally we had less but I would forget them and just found it easier to buy enough for each day and take on Monday and know they were all there!). I drop off about 10 diapers which lasts about 2 days so usually bring diapers in Monday, Wednesday, and the Friday if we don't think we will make it that last day. Then at the end of the day, they leave the wetbag out for me to pick up with my used bottles from the day and I take this home and add to my diaper pail at home and do laundry on Wednesdays and Saturday or Sunday depending on what is going on during the weekend.

So, you CAN cloth diaper at daycare with prefolds and covers! Just takes some willing teachers but they got it down pretty quickly! We are now looking into getting some of the GroVia inserts to try those out and consider adding those to our rotation but for now the prefolds are working for us! Update 3.18.14 - We have now switched to the GroVia soaker pads and covers for daycare and the daycare is in LOVE! No more complaints and they were even trying to convince another mom to switch to cloth because her son gets really bad diaper rash! See full review of Grovia here End update

Here is a list of covers we use at daycare and the thoughts about them:

GroVia Hook and Loop - Both the daycare and our favorite at home. I love the fun prints and the hook and loop is nice and stong and easy to do!

BestBottoms Snap: This is one of my husband's favorites. This is my second favorite after GroVia. I like the double gussets and the trim fit. Daycare does not like this one though because they struggle with the snaps.

Flip Covers Snap: These are probably my least favorite (though still good covers). I wrote an earlier post about Flip so you can see my thoughts there. The daycare does prefer these ones even though they are snap, the larger size and stretchy sides do make them more disposable like and easier for them.

Thirsties Duo Size 1 Covers Hook and Loop: These were my favorite when A was first home until about a month ago. Once she hit 4 months they started to not fit as well. They still fit now at 5 months but these are probably the last ones I go for now versus being the first ones when she first got home. The daycare seems to use these ones after GroVia and Flip but before Best Bottoms. These ones also seem to be the ones she gets the most leaks with at Daycare as they don't always remember to stuff the prefold in and the other covers fit well over that if you forget to check, the prefold is still usually covered. Whereas now, with these you always have to check and stuff the prefold in.