Cloth Diapering a Newborn – Final Chapter

Violet is two months old. I think I have to admit that the newborn stage is over. She is officially an infant. *sniff sniff*

At her two month check she weighed in at a healthy 11 lbs 7 oz. Sooooooo...the Rumparooz Lil' Joeys don't quite fit the best anymore. Technically, they say they will fit up to twelve pounds. I still use them, but only when she won't be in them long. They are just a little too snug. The bummer is that the very last setting of snaps is too large for her, but the other setting is too tight. That's just one of the cons of using snaps, I guess. Anyway, I do feel like I got my money's worth. By my calculation, if I used them for only six weeks, they would've paid for themselves. (In comparison to the cost of disposables.) Since they fit for eight weeks, and I can still use them in a pinch, I feel really good about the purchase. Overall, they were awesome.

Here's the sum up of what I really ended up using during the newborn stage: An easy all-in-one cloth diaper and disposable wipes. I never got the hang of using cloth wipes. I'm sure it's a cinch, I just never got a good system down, and in the middle of recovery and sleep depravity it was just too much for me. But it doesn't really matter if you have a newborn or a two year old, cloth wipes are cloth wipes. So I won't go into my lack of cloth wipe commitment in this post. :)

I'm not sure I would've stayed the course with newborn cloth if I hadn't used the awesome all-in-one diapers. Even as a cloth veteran, I still get overwhelmed with snappis, prefolds, and covers. Maybe it's the layers that make me feel cluttered. The simplicity of an all-in-one is more my cup of tea. Although, I will say that I had a couple of fitted diapers that I used occasionally with a cover and that seemed pretty easy. A fitted size 0 Kissaluvs fits great under the size 1 Thirsties duo wrap. My only problem is that my babies seem to have slightly sensitive skin. Both girls have trouble without a stay dry layer between their tiny bunzies and the absorbent diaper.

The Rumparooz Lil' Joeys that I used do have a stay dry layer on top. But around the four week mark, I did notice that if I left them on Violet too long she would get a rash. I was able to leave her in them overnight the first few weeks, but then I noticed she was waking up with a very red bottom. At first, I just had to make sure I changed her halfway through the night. But then that wasn't even enough anymore. I noticed that if I didn't change her as soon as she pooped, or if I left her in a wet diaper more than a couple hours, her bottom was very irritated. I decided to pull out the BumGenius one size diapers. Voila! A couple of days using those exclusively and her bottom cleared right up. I started using these as her overnight diaper. They fit her well on the smallest setting when she was about four weeks old, and probably 8 or 9 pounds.

 
The rash issue is not necessarily a flaw in the Lil' Joeys diaper. It could be that I needed to give them a super good rinse to get  left over soap out (although I do use Rockin' Green exclusively and it's pretty awesome) or it could be that she was simply out growing them and the absorbency wasn't enough to keep the wetness away from the top of the diaper. I still use them when I know she will be in them less than an hour. This is usually while I nurse her because I know I'll be taking her potty when she's finished. (I'm a freak and take my babies potty. I take Violet right when she wakes up, and then again a few minutes after nursing. Believe it or not, she frequently pees and occasionally poops at this time. You can read about this crazy process on my blog.)

So is cloth diapering a newborn with all-in-one diapers worth the expense? Yes! I feel so good about the amount of disposable diapers that are NOT in a landfill because of my decision to use cloth. Evidently, I don't love the planet enough to fold and pin and cover. But I do love it enough to spend a little money on a convenient way to cloth diaper my newborns. I'm a lazy earth mama.

Check out Charity’s other posts on Newborn Diapering.
Part 1
Part 2

In The Middle of It: Newborn Cloth Diapering

Let me begin this post by summing it up: I LOVE THE RUMPAROOZ LIL' JOEYS!!!! I bought them for three reasons: Convenience, Fit, and Umbilical Cord friendliness. They fit the bill perfectly. I am so, so happy I took the plunge and bought them before the baby was born. And since I already had them, I was able to get some super cute pics of my baby in them before we even left the hospital.

This is Violet. She was 7lbs 14oz at birth, and the Lil' Joeys fit her perfectly on the smallest setting. I didn't end up putting her in cloth for the drive home from the hospital. Fail. I don't know why I didn't. It was just a lost detail in the very long nightmare that is getting dismissed from a hospital. But she did wear them as soon as we got home. I love how well they fit underneath her newborn size clothing. No cloth bubble butt.

She wore them on the smallest setting until her cord fell off at two weeks old. After that I was able to undo the snap down feature which gave her a lot more wiggle room, while still on the smallest setting for the waist. I did put fleece liners in the Lil' Joeys while I waited for Violet to get rid of all the dark meconium poo. That was a tight squeeze. Maybe the biodegradable liners would have been better? I never tried. But her poo turned a lovely shade of yellow within a day or two, so I didn't have to squeeze the liners in for long.

I have 14 Lil' Joey diapers. This stash is enough when washing every night. I hardly use my tiny prefolds and covers that I got for laundry day. But I LOVE the newborn sized Bummis Super Brite. It is a little tricky to get the prefold under the flap in front, but once you get it in it has a super trim fit. I never leave Violet in it for long. So although it has never leaked on me, I haven't give it a good chance to prove it's leak proofness. The Thirsties Duo Wrap in size one fits snugly around her legs, and has more room for stuffing a prefold, but is just generally bulkier than the Bummis so I don't use it as much. But it is a good cover economically speaking because it will still fit Violet for a few months, I think, while the newborn Super Brite is nearing the end of it's usefulness already.

Violet wears her Lil' Joeys even at night. They have only leaked maybe once or twice when she has slept longer than four hours at a stretch (isn't that delightful?!). She has gone over four hours other times without them leaking, though. Maybe I didn't have them snapped just right those other times.

I have been using cloth wipes. My favorite is actually the cheap Gerber wash cloths. I got some in plain white so I could designate them specifically for diapering, and not wash Violet's pretty little face with a pooped on wash cloth. I bought other cloth wipes to try, but haven't liked any of them.

I haven't tried my Wee Essentials wipes cubes yet. Simply because I haven't had the time in these busy first weeks with baby. I've just been wetting the wipes down with plain water as I need them. That's been a little bit of a pain. I need a better system. At bedtime, I put about four wet wash cloths in a ziplock baggie for middle of the night changes. That has worked well so far.

And Rockin' Green laundry soap. Should you get some? Yes, you should. It is simply delightful. After a few washes with the Rockin' Green I did notice my Lil' Joeys smelling a little bit funky. But after an extra long soak in that magic stuff, I could shove 'em straight up to my nose and sniff nothing but cleanliness. The Lil' Joeys do have slight yellow staining. But I don't think it's anything a good long soak and some sun bathing (I guess I'll have to wait till Spring) can't take out.

So far, so good. I was worried that using cloth at the newborn stage would be overwhelming, but it really isn't. I'm really glad I decided to go for it. Give it a go! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Featuring: CJ’s BUTTer

We just got this email the other day and I totally had to share! We love it when our customers find the same love that we have for all of our WAHM’s.

I Have a new favorite diaper rash and dry skin solution! It happened like this:

I got my son up in the morning and changed his diaper to find a VERY red, VERY swollen penis in that diaper. The poor boy screamed in pain any time I so much as touched him, which made diaper changes interesting. I immediately reached for the CJ's Tube o' BUTTer, only to discover that we were nearly out! What to do?! I called Jess: "I have a horrible diaper rash on my hands and I'm almost out of CJ's! Help!" Then I headed out to Top to Bottom.

Jess had just got in a bunch of new products and one of them was CJ's Spray BUTTer. Perfect! I can spray it on to take care of the diaper rash and I don't have to rub or wipe it on.

Turns out, it was no regular diaper rash. My little man has extremely dry skin. So dry that it cracks and bleeds. Not fun... The doctor suggested we put Vaseline on it EVERY time we change his diaper. That's all fine and dandy, but Vaseline is heavy and messy and somehow, my son always gets his feet in it before I can cover him up with the diaper. Not to mention I would have to use a liner with his cloth diapers all the time. So, I tried the CJ's Spray Butter.

It works wonders! Three sprays with every diaper change, and no more dry skin. Plus, it smells fantastic! When I'm out and I change a diaper, someone almost always asks "did someone spray air freshener?" They're amazed when I tell them it's my diaper cream. I also love how easy it is to keep in my diaper bag. It makes less mess on my hands when we're out and it's much faster than a tube. I'm officially hooked!

-Amanda Kloke, local mom

Baby Greek

Hi. My name is Megan and I want to use cloth diapers.

Jess: You have to buy Rumparooz® wet bags and pail liners Me: What exactly are wet bags for?
Jess: Wet clothes
Me: Right. And…?

Extent of my cloth knowledge: Disposables bad, Cloth good.

There you go. That’s it. Even though I’ve listened to Jess talk about everything cloth diaper for the last year it didn’t sink in, because well I was NEVER going to have another baby.

Surprise my daughter hit 3 and I want another baby. I’m lucky enough that my wants have aligned with possibility, so now we’re trying. Now before my daughter was born, I was type A. After surviving her infancy and toddlerhood, I’m uber type-A. Like relentless. My Nook, has bookshelves organized by subject then by author. I’m probably crazy, but that’s how I keep My-Bee (my daughter) alive.

A little bit of back story- My husband is a writer, and shortly after My-Bee was born we moved from Kansas, to Brooklyn, NY. Cloth was not an option for us. We lived in an apartment that didn’t have a washer and dryer, in fact the washer and dryer were 3 blocks away in a horrible neighborhood called “East NY.”  We lived at the corner of Pitkin and Schenk, pronounced Skank. What? Yeah Skank, well I suppose it could be shank, but that’s not much better.

Did I mention prostitutes worked out of the bathrooms in this Laundromat? Yeah there was NO way I was walking down there every two to three days to wash diapers. Instead I was OBSESSIVE about changing My-Bee, which means Nate became obsessive about how much diapers cost.

Well 3 years later we are living in Los Angeles (for the most part) the Mecca of all things hippie, including the environment, and why not? Have you see what the human species has done to LA?

When we started talking about a new baby, I started dropping hints like “what do you think about cloth diapering” and “do you really want to go back to buying diapers?” and “diapers are so expensive. I guess we could do cloth” in order to appeal to my husband’s inner cheap-o. It worked. It got him to agree to cloth. I just needed time for him to come around “by himself.”

Ok now what? Google of course. I’m an intelligent woman I can research this shiz right?  The first Google search got me confused. My follow up call to Jess had me more confused.

Ok so I was going to try the newborn rental package and she uses the pail system (what? No diaper genie?) and only fitteds (ok… ) and huh?

This is like Baby Greek to me people. I have no idea what I’m doing, or looking at. I don’t yet understand the difference between fitteds, and all in ones, and inserts, and why I can’t use my All Free and Clear soap, and, and, and… The real problem for me is that I learn by seeing, and I don’t understand things if I can’t see them.

So in addition to my twice daily calls to Jess, I’m looking for a physical store in LA or NYC. But until I find one, or several, I’ll be looking at Top to Bottom Baby Boutique’s website and trying to figure out the differences between the products.

Oh, and keeping you updated on my progress, or just the panicky calls to Jess whichever happens more often.

Megan Mascorro-Jackson is wife, sister, daughter, a stay at home mom  to one sweet little girl. Just relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, but she tends to be a bit bicoastal. After deciding to try for another child, Megan convinced her husband that cloth was the way to go. Come along on her journey though the rabbit hole of cloth diapers.

Cloth Diapering a Newborn – Preparation

When my daughter Nola came along, I knew I wanted to use cloth diapers. For me, it was largely an economical decision. Everyone thought I was crazy. Without much support, I doubted myself a little, but once I started researching the cute factor pushed me over the edge! I really had no idea what would really work or not work with her, so I had a mish mosh of options. I tried a few things when she was a newborn, but they didn't work well and I got discouraged. When she was about three months old, I finally knew what I wanted and stocked up on easy to use BumGenius 3.0 all-in-ones. With all the experience I got with Nola, I feel confident to dive into cloth with my second baby right from the get go.

Here's my plan...

Supplies

I stocked up with 14 Lil' Joey all in one diapers from Rumparooz. I chose these diapers for three reasons.

Number 1: Convenience. With Nola, I realized that what worked for me was for the diaper to be as convenient as possible. I didn't do well with covers, or liners, or pre-folds. They overwhelmed me and made me feel like a little bit of a failure. Once I got my 12 BumGenius 3.0 with Nola I felt so successful! I used them exclusively, even when we were out. I felt such gratitude from the planet. :)

Number 2: Sizing is important to me. My husband was a little hesitant to invest in the Lil' Joeys because they won't fit very long. But I'm a little bit vain, and I like my babies to look cute in their diapers. When Nola was a newborn, all the diapers I had looked just HUGE on her, and it made me not want to use them, especially when friends and family came to meet her. Yep. Forget the earth. My baby was going to look cute! These diapers should be just right for a newborn tushie to look it's best. In the picture, the diapers are laying beside a newborn size onesie.

Number 3: Umbilical cord. You just never know how long that thing will hold on. And it just looks so tender, I never wanted anything to touch it, if possible. The Lil' Joeys have a snap down in front for just that reason.

To round out my stash, I also bought two covers, a Thirsties Duo Wrap in size 1, and a Bummis Super Brite in newborn size. These are both very, very small. With these, I bought some tiny pre-folds. I got a steal of a deal on some used ones at Top To Bottom's Fluff Again event in October. Since I have experience now, I don't think it will overwhelm me to use these occasionally when all my Lil' Joeys are in the wash.

Expectations

I am going to take a couple of Lil' Joeys with me to the hospital. I don't plan on using them during my hospital stay, but I would love to take my new baby home wearing one. (And have an extra in case we don't make it all the way home without a blow out. :) I may use some liners the first few days, as well. Just until I know for sure that the meconium stage is over, and I'll only have easy peasy breast-fed poo to deal with. I would hate to stain my beautiful new diapers, and I really hope we'll be blessed enough to use them again someday.

I am taking a little bit of a gamble by investing in so many diapers without trying them. Experienced cloth mamas will advise against this. My problem is, my nesting urges have really overtaken me and I want to be READY the minute this baby comes. I want to be fully stocked, and not have to do any diaper shopping during those first few weeks. It's such a short stage anyway, I'm afraid if I don't get stocked ahead of time, my baby will outgrow them before I get around to ordering more.

Aside from stocking up on diapers I know I'll use for a newborn, this time around I'm going to use cloth wipes. I thought it sounded too hard last time. But really, it's pretty annoying to have to find a trashcan to throw your disposable wipes in when changing a cloth diaper. With cloth wipes, they can just get thrown in your dirty pail or wet bag with your diapers. And you're already washing diapers, why not add a few measly wipes? I got some wipes and wipes solution at the Fluff Again event to give it a whirl. I also got some Rockin' Green laundry soap while I was at the Fluff Again event (I really stocked up there! I grabbed a new wet bag, too!). Last time I used Tide for washing. I've heard such rave reviews for Rockin' Green I decided to try it out this time around.

So that's my plan...I'll let you know how it all pans out...:)

By: Charity
Watch for the next installments of this diapering a newborn series.

Why I Chose to Use Cloth

*This is a guest post written by Amanda. Check out her blog, Mom of Many, where she writes about her cloth diaper adventures, frugal living, as well as informs you of any contests going on!

                                                                                             

When I had my new baby, Isaac, I automatically turned to disposable diapers since I didn’t know much about cloth and was concerned with the expense of buying enough cloth diapers to last for an entire two days. Using disposables didn’t last long, however. I chose to cloth diaper for three reasons: Convenience, my baby’s comfort, and reducing my impact on the environment.

The biggest reason I chose to switch didn’t come until after I used a Pampers that had been given to me as a gift after I had brought Isaac home from the hospital. The skin on his bum actually started to peel off. I know that sounds graphic, but I just couldn’t believe something that so many parents trust to use safely on their baby was doing this to my sweet 2 week old. Since these were the only diapers I had on hand, and I refused to use them, I looked for instructions to make a cloth diaper. I found some simple folds that would allow me to use a t-shirt as a diaper, and used this method of diapering for quite a while. I experimented with trimming the waistline of t-shirts to make the fit less bulky on my tiny baby, who was only about seven pounds at that time.

The rash that my son got from the disposable diapers I had been using started my nearly month long research into diapers, both disposable and cloth. I learned that the chemicals in disposables can actually cause toxic shock in babies (scary!) and that the chemicals had been known to cause cancer in adults. Absolutely not something that I wanted near my son day after day. The cloth options were confusing at first, but I was diligent in learning as much as I could so that I could make an informed choice for my child.

Discovering cloth is overwhelming. I can now say that the best thing I did was to buy a sampler pack that had prefolds, pockets, covers and fitteds to try. I thought that I hated pockets until I got a soft, squishy Happy Heinys. I instantly fell in love! My son wore prefolds for a month or two while I found the brands and types of diapers that I wanted to use. Prefolds are cheap and can be reused, so if you aren’t sure what type of diaper you want, these are an excellent place to begin. You don’t have to spend much for a couple dozen prefolds and some covers, and you can resell them if you decide you prefer another style more.

I also love in a very rural area. It is over an hour to get to the nearest store that carries baby products, so I would have to commit to buying several boxes of disposables at once if I didn’t want to run out. I want to live my life in a green way, and it was hard to do so when I was throwing out dozens of diapers. We didn’t have a trash service in our area, either, which meant dealing with all of these disposable diapers week after week. It just wasn’t something that was convenient for our family.

The last reason I chose to use cloth, although certainly not the least important, was that I wanted to reduce our garbage as much as possible. We have a family of eight, so I already used cloth napkins, dish towels instead of paper towels, and real glass plates instead of paper plates. The cloth diapering community has opened my eyes to tons of products that are better for the environment and my wallet: Unpaper towels, mama cloth, handmade organic soaps and shampoos, and babywearing, just to name a few of the things I am most enthusiastic about. In the end, my choices all come back to my son. I now make the choice to use cleaner, safer, less harmful products because I know that it is better for him and my family.