Cloth Diapers Accessories

Last week for Kristin's Baby Talk link up, I spoke about how we plan to cloth diaper Baby W and how we decided upon the cloth diapers that we plan to use.

This week, I want to talk about the accessories we plan to use to help us with our cloth diaper adventure.

 

Diaper Sprayer

Tate was adamant that we get a diaper sprayer to use after a soiled diaper and before washing. I did some research and found a very useful tool in making our decision. John & Sherri @ YoungHouseLove had a post (HERE) regarding the diaper sprayer. We decided to get the same one they purchased and installed. It's the BumGenius diaper sprayer and I am really excited to get it installed and use it! We heard it helps out with smell, staining and making the cleaning process a whole lot easier.

You can purchase this diaper sprayer @ Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby for $59.99. Keep in mind you can use 20% off coupons @ Buy Buy Baby (you can even use Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons there....they are owned by the same company).

Spray Pal

My husband actually informed me of this accessory. He has a friend that cloth diapers also and they had this and said it's great to use because it keeps the mess from spraying everywhere. We decided to go ahead and purchase it. It only cost $26.45 on their website. They even have a demo video on how to use it...check that out here!

Laundry Detergent

There is so many options out there for laundry detergent when cloth diapering. It can be very confusing and overwhelming. Everyone has their own experience and you really need to see what works for you. I decided to take the advice of a fellow blogger. Melissa over @ i carry your heart is a cloth diaper mommy and uses Charlie's Soap. She has had great experience with it. Tate's friend (the one that recommended the spray pal above) also uses Charlie's Soap. After researching and hearing personal experiences, I was confident choosing this laundry detergent for our cloth diapering. I ordered it off Amazon.

I decided to order 2 containers so I could take advantage of free shipping. This soap should last us a long time as it will only be used for cloth diapering and you only need to use a little bit.

Wet Bags

Many people ask what you use with the dirty diaper after you change it. There are a few options to choose from for storing until you wash. You can do wet bags or a diaper pail. We decided on wet bags for a few reasons. One reason was that the bag gets washed right with the diapers and it's easier for travel purposes. We will need to bring the bag to daycare with our lil' guy. After you decide on using wet bags, it's then time to figure out which brand to use. There is mixed reviews on all of them. We decided on PlanetWise. I ordered 3 large ones (holds 16-17 diapers) and one small bag for the diaper bag. I ordered the large ones off ebay. It's the best deal I could find.

They come in super cute fabric...which is always fun with baby stuff!

These are the main accessory items we bought for cloth diapering. We hope these items will help and make the process easier.

If any of you have questions, ask away!!!!

For those cloth diapering parents out there, do you have any cloth diapering items you use that I should know about?

Cloth Diapering

We have decided to cloth diaper Baby W. I knew that I wanted to try cloth diapering even before we were pregnant. The question I always had was whether Tate would be OK with.

The main reason we decided to cloth diaper was because of the cost savings. Yes, it's also better for the environment and baby...but the number one reason for us and what convinced Tate to go along with it was the cost savings. I love saving money and if you tell me there is a way we can do that...I will try and work a bit harder at something to be able to do it.

When we found out we were pregnant, I immediately decided to start my research on the different types of cloth diapers. I wanted to pick out something that would be easy for Tate to use and not be complicated. I read reviews, hung out 'cloth diaper' message boards and watched YouTube videos to better my knowledge!

I ultimately decided on pocket cloth diapers as the type we would use. I decided on these because they seemed very easy to use and they were very similar to disposable in the sense that we would remove the whole diaper when needed and just put a new one on. I thought these may be easiest for the daycare provider we choose to use if they said they would use them.

After picking out what type of cloth diaper we wanted to use...then I needed to research the different brands. We decided on Sunbaby, Alva and BumGenius. We decided on three different brands so that we weren't just stuck on one brand in case that brand didn't work for us. I've read great things about all 3 brands and I have even read reviews about not so great things. When researching, I learned that every person has a different experience and you really just need to try it to know if that will work for you. Sunbaby and Alva are both made in China and that is where I ordered them from. BumGenius is sold at many stores here in the United States and are better quality (and more expensive). I am thinking Sunbaby and Alva will be used for daytime and BunGenius will be a night time diaper.

Why we picked the diapers we did...

1. Cost friendly (Sunbaby & Alva)
2. Super cute prints (Sunbaby)
3. Adjust to growing baby (All of them)
4. More good reviews than bad reviews (All of them)

Sunbaby Diapers

Source

Source

Source

If I were to pick ONE diaper to just use, it would have been the Sunbaby. I loved all the different print options and the diaper design. 8 out of 10 reviews I read on them were great and those moms said this would be their pick of diapers if they picked one. We ordered 12 diapers for $60.

Alva Diapers

Google image

The Alva diapers come in MANY different series and is so confusing. In my research, I found the B series to be the most like Sunbaby and BumGenius and went with those. They only come in solid colors and are priced about the same as Sunbaby. The one added pro to Alva vs Sunbaby is that the snaps around the waist have an overlap in case the baby's waist is smaller. I can tell that they are 'cheaper' diapers then Sunbaby just by the material, but I am hoping they work for me like they have for other moms. We ordered 10 of the Alva diapers for $48.

Both Sunbaby and Alva come with one microfiber insert for each daiper purchased.

BumGenius


 Source

BumGenius are the most expensive pocket diapers of the three. I purchased one from BuyBuyBaby (with a 20% off coupon) to be able to show at daycare interviews and show Tate. We did register for these also from Target and Babies R Us and received some. I also plan to buy the 6 ply cloth diaper inserts from Target to use inside these for nighttime. I am going to try really hard to avoid leaks (which sometimes happens during long periods of time when the diaper is worn). I really like the quality of the BumGenius. We will see if they are worth the extra cost. The BumGenius currently sell for about $18/diaper. You get 2 inserts with each diaper purchased.

Click this sentence to be directed to a website for some interesting facts about cloth diapering.

Ultimately, cloth diapering is not for everyone, but I hope it's for us. We won't know until he gets here and we try it. We will be using disposables at the beginning since the diapers we purchased are meant for babies that are at least 8lbs (but he could be born above 8lbs...we will see). We will also need to use disposables because of his umbilical cord and he will be circumcised, which requires a little TLC with ointment. We don't want to ruin our diapers with any creams/ointments.

This is how we decided on cloth diapering and which diapers we picked. I hope to be back in a few months to let you all know how it's going.

I will be back next week with another linkup with Kristin for 'Baby Talk' to talk about the 'accessories' we got for our cloth diapering adventure!!!