Cloth Diapers - Littleton,CO

If I were to do it again, I would buy whatever brand that you think will work for you in cloth diapers in the small sizes because that's when they go through the most diapers and the messy ones aren't as stinky! Then, once they get bigger, you can decide if you want to continue or just go back to disposables since they won't go through as many at that point. Good luck. It is so overwhelming.

Cloth has come a LONG way since the "olden" days. There are so many different types and brands out there now. I've used cloth for well over a year and I love it. You'll have to decide what type will work best for you. I have a mix of everything. I started with Green Mountain Diapers prefolds with Thirsties Duo Wraps. My daughter was itty bitty and that's what fit her best. As she's grown, we're converting all to pockets. I prefer snap closure, but my husband prefers the applix. I have several brands that I really like for different things. I love Smarti Pants for the diaper bag or the baby sitter. Fuzzi Bunz rock for overnights. Baby Kicks USA Bumboo Pocket are my favorite if we're going to be out running errands or at the zoo. I like prefolds with covers for at home. Blueberry Minkys for sheer cuteness (the work really well too, but look amazing under little baby dresses :) )
The best thing to do is to try a little bit of everything. When I first started cloth diapering, I wanted to get all of one brand of diaper. I'm glad I didn't. I love having a variety to choose from. I've bought some diapers that I just plain don't like (Haute Pockets and Mommy's Touch) and we keep those for our laundry day diapers.
The best thing to do is to decide which type of diaper will fit your lifestyle the best and go from there. As far as how many of each to buy, I just started with 1. If I liked it, I bought more.
I store my dirty diapers in a regular kitchen trash can lined with a Planet Wise Wet Bag, the large size.
I use Rockin' Green detergent to wash my cloth diapers. I wash a load every other day (or at least I try to). My wash routine is fairly simple. I do a cold rinse on the dirties with no detergent. Then I do a hot wash with Rockin' Green. Then I do another cold cycle with no detergent. I hang mine in the sun to dry. If they feel crunchy, I just shake them and the stiffness goes away.
I highly recommend you look at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer before you buy anything. Their website is the absolute best for everything cloth diapering. You might also want to google "Cloth Diaper Retailers Littleton Colorado" and see if there are any actual stores near you. I really wish I had been able to have more hands on experience before I took the plunge.
I'm so glad that I made the choice to cloth diaper my kids. Even if my oldest was 2 when we started :) I've saved SO much money by using cloth. I am very passionate about cloth diapers and have done about a gazillion hours of research. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I'm more than happy to help!

I have just made the swtich to cloth this summer, after using disposables with the oldest 5. I wish I had made the switch sooner and saved money. Right now I am soley using prefolds and covers. It is so easy. Much less stressful or gross than I ever thought. If you decide to go with prefolds, pay attention to the dimentions. They shrink about 2 inches. Some wind up being a little too skinny. I have 3 in diapers right now. I got the prefolds for my 3 month old from greenmountaindiapers.com. They work great for him. The other prefolds I am using are from babycottonbottoms.com (located in the springs). They are great except not wide enough to be fasten on my 3 yr old. Prefolds are very ecomonical and if you are on a tight budget probably the best. Which is why I got them. There is a store in denver that has a class. I think someone else listed it. Go and check it out. It is so helpful to be able to get some hands on experience with it. Baby cotton bottoms also has a little store and I got great info from her. I am going to get some pockets for nights and the diaper bag (and dh). I was every other day and use the bum genius detergent (free sample and love it). I have a front loader, so washing is a little more. two cold rinse cycles, a normal warm wash with 2nd rinse using a 1/4 scoop of detergent, then a heavy duty cycle with detergent and 2nd rinse. Sounds more complicated than it really is. With a newborn, your wash would be pretty simple. But you do have to change them pretty often. HTH

C.

My absolute favorite hands down are prefolds. Alot will disagree BUT I had one kid who coludn't tolerate microfirber, one skinny legged kid who peed through the legs of anything and one "normal" kid. The best thing about prefolds is they can be custom folded to work for every baby, and easy to get super clean. Get 24 infant or regular or even premium if you don't mind the bulk size prefolds 5 snappis (you will want them all eventually) and 4-6 covers Thirsties are my very favorite easy everyday cover. but I also like dappi nylon covers too. I had several designer covers made by WAHM's that I liked but thirsties is a powerhouse. I tried bumgenious and fuzzi buns and moterease and I just always went beck to my prefolds, HTH happy diapering!

Cloth diapers are so much easier than they used to be! For a newborn if you plan to do cloth I would start with a basic prefold stash..you'll be changing them so often! A prefold, snappi and cover are all you need in the beginning. As they get into the the bigger sizes (small and up) you can do the cuter diapers. A few I really like are the Grovia by the Natural Baby Company! It's really one stop shopping at this mama's store. She has EVERYTHING! GroVia is good because it is SIMPLE!

I have a very small stash so I am doing wash every day. The more diapers you have then you can get by washing every other day or so. The most effective detergent for me has been the Rockin Green. It smells good and it works very well in my HE machine.

As for what else you need, make sure you have soft cloth wipes, a good spray for clean up and a good diaper cream. All these can also be found at the company listed above but Earth Mama Angel Baby also has a great natural bottom cream!

Good luck! Cloth is such a good investment and they are so cute to boot!!

BumGenious3.0 is what we use and I love them. When my son was little we washed every other day but we did throw other clothes in w/ them since my washer is HE and can't do a load that small. But since they need to do 2 wash cycles, a cold then a hot (and you need to do an extra rinse after the hot wash), I figured everything got clean and sanitized anyhow. We use an all natural cleaner we get at Meijer and you can't use fabric softeners, not even vinager since chemical ones can irratate baby and vinager deterates the diaper.
We do have a regular bucket that stays in the bathroom and we rinse the inserts (BG 3.0 are pocket diapers that will fit newborn-toddler, thus saving LOTS of money b/c you can adjust the size) and if needed the poopy ones (use an old toothbrush, it helps).
Although they do leak if you let the insert get too full, like any disposable diaper does too, we have never ever once had a blow out poo diaper with my 4th baby, as opposed to often w/ my older 3 when they were babies, had a lot and wore only disposables. So no stained clothes!! YIPPEE!
We do use disposables at night since now my son is 18months and makes more pee, and doesn't get changed at night. But these leak at least once or twice a week. Frustrating! But oh well.
We got the diapers when my babe was 2 months old and have saved over hundreds of dollars already just not buying so many disposables. And we still have up to a year or two left!
Then there is the environment... Of couse you'd not be throwing away diapers, so helping there.
Then there are the chemicals put into the disposables that are not in the cloth. Granted when baby pees, you can smell it w/ cloth, but I think it is worth it not haveing the chemicals on him.
Anyway, had I have been wiser almost 8 years ago, I would have cloth diapered all of my kids! Congrats on the new babe!

p.s. These diapers we use are not like the ones in pioneer days, yes you do have to take care of the poo, so it is not for the weak of stomach, but it honastly isn't bad and I say that having rinsed a pooy diaper of my toddler, new baby poo is nothing! You wipe it off there butts, it isn't hard to get off the diaper. And if you really don't want to, look into a diaper service. My grandma, who didn't have an option when my ma and aunts were babies, said she would have loved our diapers then! and my ma said the same thing since I had to be cloth diapered b/c of a sensitive behind.
Then there is less diaper rash...
It isn't hard! Get BG3.0!! I wouldn't use prefolds and covers and what not, too much more work. These, you just put the insert in, stick it on your baby, velcro it on and there ya go!

My daughter is allergic to all disposable diapers. In May we decided that I would stay at home with her and we would make the switch to cloth (she was 15 months). Within a few days all rash was gone and the only time since then that she gets any kind of rash is if we leave a swim diaper on for to long (i still use disposable swim diapers).

For the poster that said cloth diapers are older days, they aren't for everyone but I really haven't noticed much difference. There is a little more laundry but we have saved sooooo much money, and my little one isn't in pain anymore. So that is the best thing ever!!!

We use Flip and Econobum diapers. I really like both kinds, I bought the one day box of each from diapers.com. They were $50 each and free shipping. Flip is a little better quality for the cover, but they are pink so they show through some clothes. The Flip inserts we only use at night, doubled up, they tend to leak if I use just a single one during the day. In the $50 box there were 2 covers and 6 inserts. The econobum are a little bit cheeper (hince the name) they came with 3 covers and 12 inserts. The econobum inserts are prefold, and fold two different ways for a change in growth of the child. I'm not sure if all do that. These are the only ones I have used. The econo covers are white.

What I really like about both of these brands are they will grow with your chidl and you can use them the entire time your child is in diapers. They snap up to change length and there are tons of snaps along the sides to change the width of the diaper. My daughter is 18 months, and she is no where near outgrowing them, and she is starting to use the potty occasionally.

If I was starting with cloth from the begining I would buy at least double what I have. Becuase she was already starting to show interest in potty training, she is my old child, and I"m home during the days with her, I have a little more time for laundry. With you already having two other little ones you want to make sure you have enough for at least a week of covers, without doing laundry - so about 10 covers.

I wash the covers with her regular clothes (as long as they weren't messy) and I wash the inserts seperately. I rinse with cold water first then wash with All Free and Clear detergent (just a tiny bit, no where near the amount it says to use on the bottle) and then I do another rinse to get all the detergent out. If there is still detergent on it and the little one pees inside you get a horrible smell so this final rinse if very important!

There are diaper exchanges where you can try some good condition older diapers and see what kind you like best. I agree with previous poster, you might want to buy one or two of a few different kinds and see what works best for you.

Hope this helped, message me if I can help you with anything else.

We've used "I Love Cloth" (via www.diaperkits.com), Motherease, FuzziBunz snapping pocket diaper, plus prefolds and fitted diapers with a cover. I prefer the fitted diapers with the diaper cover, or a prefold with a cover. My husband likes the all-in-ones, and uses the fitteds as a back-up. I actually really like using prefolds (except on newborns with breast-fed poop, but I did have decent luck containing the poop by trying various folds for the prefolds).

The fitteds we have were made from the free Mama Bird pattern, some by me, some by my friend. If you have basic sewing skills (ie, you can sort of sew in a straight line), you can sew a fitted cloth diaper. Most of our covers are ProRap seconds ($4.50 each--much more reasonably priced imo!). I don't like the MotherEase covers very much at this stage for our skinny 22m old; they are either too loose around the legs or too tight.

Sometimes we add an extra layer of absorbency (I sewed some flannel over some microfiber towels and use those, or you can buy “doublers”). Our 22-month-old holds his pee all night and lets it go usually right after he wakes up and the diaper is pretty darn wet but no leaks, as long as I make sure none of the prefold is sticking out.

I do know some people end up doing disposables for night time, and cloth during the day. I figure whatever cd'ing you're doing, it's good for the pocket book and the environment....

I will also say, as my husband says, "Cloth diapers would not be do-able for us if we didn't use the flushable diaper liners." That was the only way I could get DH on board, and he has been a champ about the whole thing since we've been using them. Bummis makes some, I believe, and so does Imse Vimse. They are like really thick toilet paper, and you just shake the liner and poop into the toilet, with very minimal handling of diaper (shake liner & poop into toilet & put the diaper straight to the diaper bin till wash time). It won't take care of every little bit, but it sure makes it a lot less gross to deal with.

If you're not sure what you want, you might try one of the starter packages that have a couple of each kind (they usually have an AIO, a pocket, a couple of different fitteds and some prefolds, plus usually 2 kinds of covers. It's a good way to try out a variety of options.

You could also try posting on Craigslist or freecycle--that might turn up some inexpensive (or free!) options to try out. You can also try www.myuseddiapers.com or www.diaperswappers.com (I think I have those sites listed correctly, but you might have to google them). They offer people the chance to see used cloth diapers and it's a great to try some kinds out without having to pay "new" prices.

If you have a Whole Foods or similar market, or a "natural parenting store," you can probably find cloth diapers for sale, and you could buy one each of a brand or two to try out, or talk to the salesperson and ask them what they recommend.

I LOVE CLOTH DIAPERS!!! My son had blow outs everyday. So I asked on here what others suggested I do, I got cloth diapers. So I tried them out. For the past 5 months I have had a grand total of 2. Both when he has been sick and when his BM's were pure water.
I love EnviBums diapers. you don't have to deal with snaps for sizing, but is an all in one and a one size. They also have the more economical route of prefolds and a cover which is what I use 90% of the time. It's also a one size diaper and fits my large chunky little man very well. I do use sposoeasies AIO, and love them too. I've tried thirsties duo and LOVE them, but are more for a thin child and my son out grew them. I hear that their regular diaper is pretty acurate for their sizing, and it's just the duo's that run small.
I wash whenever I run out because I only have enough for 2-3 days when I am home all day, so the weekend. But during the week I wash every 3 days usually. . . depending.
I can't afford the specially made detergent for cloth, but I did my research and found a site that rates the qulity of use for CD's with different detergents. I use Sun Free and clear. It is rated high on this list.
http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html
I also have a blog that you can go read. It's more geared towards the chunky babies, but still has some good info for cloth in general.
www.largebummies.blogspot.com
I would suggest a diaper sprayer. .. It's a luxery item but sooo worth it. It's usually around $30 and this way you don't have to dunk the poopy diaper in the toilet. Just spray it off. I'm getting one soon, and I can't wait!!!
Oh and Grandma is clearly a grandma. CD really has come a long way from having to dunk, hand wash or wash with a not very good washer. Using plastic pants, and diaper pins. No way is it like that now.
If you use the prefold and wrap route it's the one that is most like the "olden diapers" but you can use pins or they have things called snappi's. You don't even need to use that because you can just fold it into thirds and put in in the wrap and put in on like a normal diaper. But there are the modern diapers of Pockets and All in ones (AIO) where they are just like a disposable. Don't let Grandma deter you from cloth.
As for the diaper pail, you can just use a trash can with a lid. You can get a can linner so you can just dump the bag into the wash and call it good.
GET A WETBAG!! I love planet wise wet bags. Basically it's just a bag to carry your used diapers when you are out and about. I like Plante wise because of their wet/dry bags. One side you put your unused, and the other side is a sealed area to put your dirty ones.

I love BumGenius. I would be using 4.0 if they didn't come out RIGHT after I got my 3.0s. My son has used them from 14 days to now (28 months), and he is about 35 lbs. I started my daughter on them too (I wait for the cord to fall off), and no blow outs, but then she became a HEAVY wetter at about 3 months. I am having trouble getting enough absorption onto her tiny bottom. I had to go to disposable while I figure this out and I HATE them!!! A blow out every morning, and the cost is crazy! I use Cottonbabies.com, and they are working with me to figure out how to make these work for me. They also have a thing on their site called Cloth Diapers 101.

I wash about every other day to every 3 days. That is more for the fact that you don't really want the urine on the elastic too long. My son has 36 diapers (daycare), and my daughter 24. I use Kirkland HE detergent.

Check out the Giggling Green Bean in Denver and go to a free class. They go through ALL the kinds you can use and show you what and how... the class is great
I have a 2 year old and a 10 month old. I just started using cloth this month. A little late I realize, but it was something I had wanted to do all along, but having babies back to back kinda threw me for a loop.

I have decided on one sized pocket diaper. They have inserts you put in and the other cover snaps into place on the baby. Cleaning is easy and they look and act just like a diaper. So simple! As for the poop I put in flushable liners making the poo issue super easy. But I also have a spray attachement for the toilet. I am thinking of taking that back only because the liners are working so well.

As far as brand, that is so different for each mom. I really suggest trying a few out to see before you invest. Google cloth diaper trial. There are sites that will "loan" you a variety for a fee, so you can test them out.
I ended up with Smartipants https://www.smartipants.com/
They are pocket diapers that are made in the USA, insert comes out in wash (no need to touch) and are user friendly. Plus they are lower in cost than some of the other well known names.
I also got a few off of Ebay (new) but are from China, I am sure. Same style at the Smartipants, but super cheap. I just tested a few out since the price was so good. They actually work really well, but not sure how they will hold up long term. Time will tell. I guess I like them because they use Hemp for the lining and it is so soft! I do wish Smartipants did Hemp.... but they are working on getting that.

I wash every other day and I have about 26 right now. That seems to be working well. I have a "dry bag" I put the diapers in and you just throw the whole load, including bag, into the wash.
You do have to change every 2 hours! They will not hold the mass amounts that disposables do. I learned that lesson soon!
I wash them in Country Save. There are other brands meant just for cloth diapers, but they are pricey and reviews I read had mentioned that some kiddos were getting burns from the chemicals in them?? Not sure why, but I didn't want to find out. Use about 1/4th the amount you would use for a normal load of laundry. Rinse them in cold water, wash them with soap and then rinse again after the wash. 3 step process... you want to make sure all soap is gone. If not build up occurs and they won't be as absorbant.

Anyhow look up Giggling Green Bean and go in for a class! Plus their store has everything you will need!!! They have SO many brands to choose from that it was a bit much to take in, so I went home to think it all over. They do not have Smartipants, so I just got mine direct from the source.

Good luck and you can always message me if you want to ask anything else :)

My son is extremely tall with a long torso, so I had difficulty finding diapers that fit him. I love fitted diapers with covers, and so I use Little Lions with Bummis covers. My husband prefers the pocket diapers, and so we also have some Fuzzi Bunz, and I really like Motherease diapers, too. However, since you're truly a novice, I recommend you do a diaper trial to help you make a decision. The site below came very highly recommended to me, or you could do a Google search for cloth diaper trials (I know several sites offer them).

http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/products/clothdiapers/tryc...

I wash the diapers every other day. I throw them in a covered trash can when they're dirty, and I dump the poop in the toilet and then throw those diapers in a bucket of water. I have heard great things about diaper sprayers, but have personally never seen the need. So many people love theirs that I am tempted, though. I use Charlie's Soap on my diapers (if you don't have a store that sells it near you, you can get it on Amazon.com) and love it - no fragrance, no harsh chemicals, and doesn't do anything to hinder absorbency. I have also heard good things about Rockin Green, but it's a bit expensive. Also, this site is a good resource (it's like a Mamapedia for cloth diaperers!)

http://www.diaperswappers.com//

And finally, Grandma is a bit out of touch. Cloth diapering has changed a lot since our mothers did it. I used disposables for the first 8 months of my eldest child's life, and I did not find them that much more convenient than cloth, and I felt a lot worse about the chemicals and environmental impact. Cloth diapering is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it, and it's worth it! Good luck!

Um, seriously, I tried being green back in the day with cloth, and went back to disposables within just a few weeks. You hafta be really dedicated to use cloth. When they poop em you have to rinse them in the toilet right away and get them into some sort of container that doesnt stink until you have enough to throw in the machine. Trust me, moms of the olden days slaved over cloth diapers and that is why we have the disposables today. Would you use a cloth menstrual pad when you are on your period? Probably not. It's a good thought to think like a pioneer and do the cloth thing, but trust me when I say the disposables were the brainchild of a weary woman with poop stained hands ;)

**Wow I got spanked on that one! Maybe I'll use cloth diapers instead of Depends when that day comes! hehe