Cloth Diapering -The Info

In the most basic way possible I am going to give you some info on all of my favorite and most important diaper info.  This is kind of hard to do because there is actually quite a lot that goes along with cloth diapering and I could write an entire book.  If anyone has questions, I can answer those, but lets just go with a list of my favorites for now....

My favorite place to buy cloth diapers is Kelly's Closet!  Because they are out of state for me and they offer free shipping on orders over $49, I don't pay shipping OR tax when I purchase through them and I can do it from the comfort of my own couch!  You can also earn reward points for ordering through them to be used on future cloth purchases.  And since they have almost everything you can imagine on their site, you hardly need to think of buying anything from anywhere else!  

Kelly's Closet (which is a part of DiaperShops.com) also has an AWESOME blog called the Cloth Diaper Whisperer!  They talk about EVERYTHING you ever needed to know about cloth diapering.  Yes, ALL of the answers are there!  But they also do weekly giveaways of cloth diapers and other related products.

Dirty Diaper Laundry is my favorite mom run blog.  There are an unbelievable amount of different types, styles and brands of cloth diapers and this mom has made tons of youtube reviews of them.  She is adding new ones all the time, so if you are thinking of purchasing a new diaper, I would check out her thorough review of it first!  

My FAVORITE cloth diaper detergent - which is now the ONLY detergent I use, is Rockin' Green!  It comes in many yummy scents.  The soap is scented with essential oils that will not leave build up on your diapers but unfortunately for us, Little E seemed to have an allergic reaction to the oil.  Fortunately they also make an unscented version!  They also have different formulas depending on if you have hard or soft water.  (Can be purchased from Kelly's Closet and earn you points!)

It would take too long to go into explaining the different types of diapers in this post, but for those of you who are curious, I have several favorites diapers.  I prefer One Size diapers because they grow with the child and don't require you to buy new diapers when your child grows - plus you can use the same stash of diapers if you have two children in diapers at the same time (just need to adjust the snaps).  I also prefer pocket style diapers and diapers.  My favorite brands are Bum Genius, Knickernappies and GroVia (formerly known as GroBaby).  Out of the different diapers I have used, those are my favorites.  Although there are many more I would like to try!  

I believe every single one of these places and diaper brands can also be found on facebook.  Becoming fans of them will often alert you to special giveaways and coupon codes, so that is yet another way to save money!  

I more recently discovered that there was a cute little brick and mortar cloth diaper shop in my own town, and I believe in supporting local business so it is a good idea to google that and see if there is one near you too!  The owners are usually more than happy to answer any questions you have and then you can check out the different kinds of diapers live and in person!

There are also many WAHM (work at home mom's) that make and sell cloth diapers, and people also sell gently used cloth diapers.  I haven't fully explored those options, because when Little E started on cloth I thought I was just using her as a guinea pig for the next baby.  I had no idea that she would take so long to potty train and end up wearing them for the next year and a half!  Anyway, I kept my stash pretty small because as a toddler she didn't need as many changes in a day and I was trying to be as money conscious as possible.  So I only bought what we needed.

I also didn't buy a lot of the accessories that would make cloth easier - like a diaper sprayer!  If I would have known I would be scraping poop out of diapers for the next 18 months I would have bought one when we started, but since I didn't, it will be the FIRST purchase if another baby comes along!  Another thing that makes dealing with the poop easier are diaper liners.  They are a very thin piece of gauze like material that you lay inside the diaper and when the child poops you just pull it out and toss the whole thing in the toilet.  It is flushable and biodegradable!  They aren't very expensive, but I wouldn't use them with every diaper change.  I only put them in diapers when we were going to be away from home or I was fairly confident that E was about to poop!

Well, that is a pretty good start!  I hope I haven't bored you silly!  If so, don't worry, we are now totally diaper free in this house, so I have no need to talk about my diaper addiction.

For now.

Katie