little feet, big sky

Is such a thing really possible? I didn’t believe it until I was in Europe over the holidays. Maybe it’s because places like Denmark incinerate their trash, but the dispoables we bought there were super thin and were covered with a paper-like material, rather than plastic. (We took cloth diapers to use mostly, but kept ‘sposies around for nights and outings.)

A brand I discovered there was Nature Babycare. They make 100% chlorine-free, compostable diapers! I’ve been using them for a while now and love them. They seem to run a little small on my chubby-thighed 6-month-old, but other than that, I’m pretty happy with them. They also make awesome wipes and breast pads, also compostable.

Best of all is that diapers.com carries most of their line, and if you buy a case of four (120 diapers) and a few packs of wipes, you get free shipping. :-) I’ve calculated the price of Pampers Cruisers w/ free shipping at Amazon to $.30/diaper and these come out to $.37/diaper. Not bad for being a little greener.

So the gDiapers with cloth inserts didn’t really work out for Spice. In fact, the gDiapers themselves haven’t really worked out, sadly. They’re okay for wet ones and super trim, but leak consistently with poopy breastfed blowouts. The worst part is the cleaning; toss the insert, either handwash the liner and wait for it to dry, or wash it with cloth diapers and have it be out of commission until the next load. God forbid it leaks, ad then you have the cover out for wash, too. None of which sounds impossible for the average cloth-diapering parent, until you factor in that you should have about 4-6 covers on hand and that they cost about $12 – $18 each… about the same or more than a quality cloth diaper cover! (A bumGenius one-size AIO is $18.)

I now have a great stash of Thirsties and Litewraps which are working out fantastically. I have a ton of gDiaper inserts left over, so I cheat and line a cloth diaper with one at night for better absorbency. I noticed that lots of people trifold the prefold and just lay it in the wrap, but this ALWAYS ends up in a poopy wrap for us, so I do a newspaper fold and snappi, then put the wrap on. If I’m good with my folding, I only have to wash a cover every 2 days. :-) Maybe later today I’ll try a jellyroll fold. I have two steel stepcans next to the changing area, a small one for the gDiaper trash and a large one for the cloth diapers. We have a large stash of cloth wipes, a wipes warmer and use Kissaluv’s Diaper Lotion Potion, with good results. Cloth is just so much easier! Spice hates being wet, so frequent changes happen anyway.

If you’re thinking of trying cloth diapers, I can’t stress enough the need to try out different brands of wraps, pocket dipes and AIOs. For example, Bummis are really well reviewed everywhere, but I hated them; they felt plastic-y on the outside and the velco was rough and dug into Spice’s legs. The Proraps were almost as bad and just felt cheap. On the flipside,Imse Vimse is the softest one I have and the Litewraps second. Getting one of each let me try them and figure out which to get more of. I also wouldn’t recommend buying up sizes in advance. The bumGenius 3.0 (one size) we have worked great when her poop was tiny, but it’s leaked twice with blowouts, so it’s at the bottom of the stash right now. I’ll try it more as her pooping schedule lightens up later. My sister gave us some Kushies she had never used, but those also leak a little on blowouts. I’m learning not to trust anything that doesn’t have a leg gusset!

Okay, so we’ve been partly doing the cloth thing for a week now, and I must say the easiest part is the washing. (Right now, at least, since breastmilk poop doesn’t need to be scraped off first.) The hardest/most frustrating part is trying to find a damn diaper cover! I had started with 4 newborn-sized Dappis, but I f&%king hate them! They make Spice look like she’s wearing parachute pants, they’re inches loose around the legs, the plastic-y bit feels awfully sweaty, she hates me for pulling up something on her, and just UGH!

I’ve knitted/crocheted two soakers and two of Little Turtle Knits ribby wraps. The soakers might be big enough to go over the infant indian prefolds we’re using, but after using the Dappis, the pull-up style on a newborn with changes every two hours is so not for me. The two wraps are cute, but too small to fit the bulkier infant prefold on her. *sigh* So annoying. BTW, I got both chinese prefold and indian prefolds and I like the indian prefolds much better. They’re softer and feel generally nicer than the chinese prefolds, and the not-white color appeals to me somehow.

I’ve ordered a few more things from Cotton Babies, like flannel wipes and wipes solution, but I also ordered a Bummis Super Brite to try it out. I’m desperate for a diaper cover that works, looks cute and doesn’t make her look like she has a rump the size of the Grand Canyon. Which usually means that I’ll just have to make it myself. I’m working on the Tickle Turdle wrap, and hoping that the newborn size will fit over the the infant-sized prefolds.

In the meantime, with only the Dappis-from-hell and waiting on the Cotton Babies order, we’ve paused in the cloth diapering saga. We’ve been going through the pack of Tushies disposables I picked up as “emergency backup” and I can say with confidence that I truly hate disposables. The Tushies are the best, IMHO, for one reason only: that they don’t have SAP, the super-absorbent stuff. They suck in that they’re still disposables, which means they’re crazy wasteful and creepy in just how much they still manage to absorb and look dry. Spice’s runny breastmilk poop looks almost dry sometimes, and that’s even with prompt changing. Add to this that their “convenience factor” is ruined by the terrible One-Chance-Only! tape closures and I really, really hate them.

So, I’m trying to use them up as quickly as possible, which is easy with a change every two hours, and I know that I’ll probably only go back to disposables when I’m truly desperate one day. In the meantime, I’ve also been trying out the gDiapers, which are really nice and easy to use. Their downside is that they have SAP in them, and that we don’t trust our pipes to flush anything unusual down them. Their upside is that you can use cloth with them! There are lots of parents successfully using cloth prefolds or inserts in them, as a cloth diapering system. Woohoo! I added two dozen preemie-sized indian prefolds to my Cotton Babies order so I can try it out. :-) The gDiapers look so trim and cute on Spice’s little behind, so being able to use cloth at home and grab a flush-able/compost-able/disposable insert for going out seems like a really efficient compromise. Here’s to hoping it works!

Oh, I also have two bumGenius 3.0. These are by far the Bentleys of cloth diapering. They were super-easy for even the spouse to put on and take off, and washed up with the rest of the prefolds like a dream. Their downside is the hefty price. At about $18 a pop, they’re disgustingly expensive next to prefolds. Considering that the 3.0’s are one-size and grow to fit, I’ll probably invest in a few more down the road for caregivers, going out, etc., but will probably keep them on-hand more for occasional use and swaying public opinion.

If you have any suggestions for good diaper covers, please, please comment and let me know! :-) (Especially any quick-to-knit/crochet patterns!)