Cloth Diapering Essentials

We have been using cloth diapers with Little Man for almost a whole year now! We started about 4-6 weeks after he was born, when we ran out of newborn sized disposables and didn't want to buy more. It took a little while to get our routine down, but once we did, it has been smooth sailing ever since!

I have been pretty loyal to the bumGenius brand of cloth diapers and have NOT been disappointed! I will explain more about our specific choices in an FAQs post coming up, but for now...

Here's a list of MY cloth diapering essentials:

• 24 "changes" of diapers - you can get 24 one-size diapers, or a combination of one-size, all-in-ones, and cover & inserts diapers so that you have enough diapers for 24 "changes"; of course you can buy fewer if you want to do laundry more often, but I find this is a great number for doing laundry every 2-3 days (I will explain more about our laundry routine in a future post)
• 12 bumGenius 4.0 one-size diapers ($15 ea/$180 total)
• 3 bumGenius Freetime all-in-one diapers ($20 ea/$60 total)
• 6 Flip covers ($14 ea/$84 total)
• 9 Flip Stay-Dry inserts ($4 ea/$36 total)
• Extras for nighttime diapering - your baby will probably need something extra at night to avoid leaking - it takes a little trial and error to figure out what works best for you (I put 1 hemp liner and 1 doubler under a Flip stay-dry insert at night)
• 4 Thirsties hemp inserts ($4.50 ea/$18 total)
• 4 Hemp Babies diaper doublers ($3 ea/$12 total)
• Place to put dirty diapers
• 2 Planet Wise diaper pail liners ($16.50 ea/$33 total) - I like having 2 pail liners so that as soon as I take the one with dirties in it out, I can put a new one in, so I'm not stuck later with a dirty diaper and no liner in the pail!
• 1 Planet Wise wet/dry bag ($21) - this is perfect for on the go and for the nursery at church

Bonus:

• 1 bumGenius diaper sprayer ($45) - some people would say this is an essential, but we have not used ours as much as I originally thought we would
• 1 Planet Wise large wet bag ($19) - when Little Man stays with my mom, I send 4-6 pre-stuffed diapers and this large wet bag for her to put dirties in, instead of having a separate pail at their house

So for a little less than $450, you have a complete cloth diaper system! Sound like a lot? It is an investment, that's for sure. But if you think about the fact that a baby will wear diapers for 2-3 years, and on average you would be spending $72/mo on disposables, you would spend $1,700-2,600 on disposables for one child. With cloth, you are making a sizable initial investment, but then you'd break even at about 6 months, PLUS you'd be able to use your cloth diapers for future kiddos! WOW!! (This is the main reason that we decided to do CDs - we are cheap.)

Having changed a bazillion diapers over the last 10+ months, I feel that I am somewhat of an expert on the subject (at least that's what I tell Little Man). Please feel free to ask any questions and I will add those to my FAQs post about cloth diapering.

Next time with CDs - Our Laundry Routine!