Cloth Diapering

Before Nate was born I amassed a cloth diaper stash. Then hubby and I decided not to cloth diaper and I sold off all of my stash except for a few random items which I sent to a friend who just had her second daughter.

It was on the same day that I dropped the last of my cloth diaper stash in the mail that I went to Target and saw the rack of Bum Genius diaper and I bought one.

Here's the deal. Although hubby and I decided that we were not going to cloth diaper, I really really really wanted to try it. So I bought the diaper, washed it, and used it one day when it was just Nate and I. I was pretty darn impressed. Nate is a soaker, and the Bum Genius did not leak at all! I was hooked. I figured that even if I didn't cloth diaper all the time, just doing it one day a week (like Mondays when I am off) would make a difference. Hey, that is 6-8 less diapers in a landfill.

So here is the system I have worked out.

Nate wears cloth diapers on Mondays. I have the washer filled to the small load level and every time I change a diaper I put all of the pieces (inserts and covers) in the washing machine to soak. If the diaper is just wet it goes right in the washer. If it is poopy, the solids get shaken off into the toilet. Flush. Then the diaper gets dunked and swished in the toilet again (flush before being thrown into the washer to soak. I know there are people out there that say you don't have to dunk and swish. I say that with my kid, you need to. I will stop there.

Once nate is in bed and back in a disposable, I run the washer on a cold prewash with no detergent and then a regular wash on warn with minimal detergent. The diapers are then hung to dry. Two weeks in a row and so far so good.

I bought one of my Bum Genius from Target and the other I bought at Cotton Babies. They have great package deals and even factory seconds (2 of my diapers are seconds and I can't tell the difference, seriously.)

Anyone else dabble in cloth diapers? Thoughts? What about the diaper liners. Do they make poppy diapers more manageable?