cloth diapers

This is not a real blog post, just a short explanation for those who are curious about how we're doing cloth diapers.  I'm a big fan of the system we're using, especially after it contained an epic poo yesterday.  I'm serious.  This was the kind of poo that, once the diaper was opened, the entire area was immediately contaminated and there was nothing to do but strip everything off the baby and changing table and hose it down!
Anyway, we're using probably the most economical cloth diaper method which is prefold diapers in combination with waterproof covers.  I bought the entire stash we're using now for $40 on craigslist.  That's about 36 diapers and 4 covers of each size.  At home, we also use handmade flannel babywipes with homemade wipe solution in a spray bottle.  We still occasionally use disposable diapers when we go out or when we get behind in laundry.  They are faster and easier to put on, but they also leak more often.





So here's what we need to diaper the baby- a prefold diaper, a snappi to get the diaper on snugly, and a diaper cover.

And here's the stack of wipes and spray bottle.  The recipe we use for the wipe spray has water, olive oil, baby soap, tea tree oil, and lavender essential oil.  The tea tree and lavender oil have natural antiseptic qualities.  For the wipes, I cut out 50 or so squares of flannel and zigzag stitched the edges.






After wiping the baby and removing the old diaper to the diaper bin, we fold or roll the section of diaper that goes through the baby's legs, pull it up in the front, and attach it with the snappi.  Here's what it looks like: 

Then, wait 30 seconds so that the baby can immediately wet the new diaper and you can repeat the last steps.  Oh wait, maybe that's just my baby.  Moving along!  We cover the diaper and snappi with the waterproof cover which attaches with velcro and we're done.  What a happy diapered baby!

The dirty diapers and wipes sit in the reusable diaper bag.  We wash them every other day with a special detergent.  They come out nice and clean and our washing machine isn't icky.