Men and Cloth Diapering

**Have you entered the Now Family giveaway yet? Do it!!**

The Padded Tush is doing a segment about Convincing Your Man to Use Cloth Diapers, and I thought I would share with all of you our experience with this topic.

It all starts back in April of 2009, I decided that to try to save some money I would use cloth diapers, but I would use a service.

It was horrible. Mostly because of my lack of knowledge, I didn't know anything about covers, which I had to buy my own, and the company recommended Pro-Wraps, the Extra Large left deep welts on my 21-month-old. I knew nothing about wet bags, so I didn't know how to travel with cloth very well. And our pail smelled HORRIBLE. A weeks worth of poopy diapers in a tiny apartment will do that to you. I still am repulsed by the smell of those odor eaters. I also hated having to fish poopy wipes out of the diapers and throwing them away. Garbage can full of poopy wipes? Yuck!

After our 5 week commitment was up, we canceled and went right back to disposables.

Fast forward to November 2010, our second child (Audrey) had been having horrible skin problems, and a constant rash. While my husband was changing her diaper, and applying mass quanities of cream to her bum I innocently suggested cloth diapers as a way to help her bum.

He looked like I'd smashed his toe with a hammer, and broke his favorite toy.
Seriously.

I even started giggling at him, his face was too funny.
But he said through clenched teeth, "If it makes her bum better, I suppose..."

Luckily, I have a good friend who let us borrow some cloth diapers to try and see what we thought of them. So I borrowed 7 Kawaii pocket diapers, and showed Jordan how to use them.

The next day he told me that we must have been cloth diapering Sydney wrong because these weren't that bad.

But there were a few things that Jordan wouldn't do, and a few things that made him more likely to use cloth diapers.

He would not wash the diapers.
If the diapers were not stuffed he wouldn't use them. He'd search for disposables or he'd wake me up and make me assemble a diaper.

I also have my own list of "demands" when it comes to cloth diapering. I refuse to use prefolds or pails after the diaper services, lol.

It's now been a little over a year, and things have slightly changed. He still doesn't wash the diapers (which honestly is fine with me) but he will assemble diapers if they are not prestuffed. He usually grabs the Nana's Bottoms AIOs first, but if they aren't clean he'll stuff his own diapers. Sure, sometimes I change Audrey's diaper to find that he's paired a hemp insert with a Mother Ease insert, and that's it, but it holds the pee all the same, right? :)

I think for my husband, the biggest turning point was when we went on a week long vacation and used disposables, and we were pooped on so many times!! I think it was then that he realized how much he liked the cloth diapers.

When I asked him for his opinion on the matter he replied, "Cloth diapers are not more difficult that disposables, instead of putting the diaper in a Diaper Genie, you put it in a wet bag, which actually is easier, as you don't have to shove it in the pail."

Now Grandmas on the other hand...we might have another segment on them...

How is the man in your life when it comes to cloth diapers? Padded Tush has some great tips for convincing or easing him into it!

THE Balm Review and Giveaway

Whew, it's been a while! Sorry about the long break, but I am back, and I have lots of fun reviews for you all!

Starting with "THE" Balm by THinc!

I contacted this Mama back when I first started cloth diapering, and I was able to try "THE" Balm when it first came out for testing. Since that time, Malena has come out with many other products, and even opened a shop called Now Family.

"THE" Balm works great on rashes and sores that babies sometimes get (my Audrey especially) and it comes in a few different scents. I love the "Island Fresh" version, and since it's great with diaper rashes, eczema, and cracked skin (among other things) it's a perfect thing to coat Audrey's poor bum in! :)

Mad Rash is another product that I love, it is the first thing that I break out when Audrey appears to be getting ammonia burns or even just a simple rash, and within a few diaper changes it's gone! Malena has said to use a liner with this product, although, I must be honest, I haven't done that, and I haven't had any issues with my diapers, but if you want to be on the safe side make sure you have a liner!

SPRITZ Oh my goodness, this is my absolute favorite diaper spray. I was lucky enough to be sent two of them, one in lavender and the other in orange. The orange is my favorite, I love the fresh citrus smell! They small great, they work wonderfully, and Audrey's bum looks better when we use the Spritz, compared to when we use soap/water/baby oil.

One of the other things I love about "The" Balm products is that they come in glass containers or recycled aluminum, no plastic! And it's heavy duty glass, I've never had a container break, although I have had a few dented tops, from toddlers dumping diaper bags everywhere, hehe.

THE STORE- I was given a gift card so that I could review the store as well. I choose to use this gift card on a Rumparooz diaper, and I loved how quick and simple their site is to navigate. I was quickly able to find what I wanted, add it to my basket, and the diaper was at my house only 3 days later! Oh, how I LOVE quick shipping!!

WHERE TO BUY- Now Family is the place to buy any of these great products, along with many other cloth diapering products.

Want to win one? Malena, of NOW Family is offering one lucky reader their choice of my favorite three products ("THE" Balm, Mad Rash, or The Spritz). And you have four chances to win! "Like" A Whole Lot of Fluff on Facebook, "Like" NOW Family on Facebook, Follow A Whole Lot of Fluff's blog, and "Like" "THE" Balm on Facebook :) Enter using the Rafflecopter below :) Good luck!

**WINNER IS CHARLOTTE R! CONGRATULATIONS! LOOK FOR YOUR EMAIL SHORTLY!***

Tushies

This will be my final post on disposable options while traveling options, at least for now. Previously I've talked about why I dislike disposables, and Flip disposable inserts. I also briefly mentioned that I had a tried Tushies and wasn't impressed.

Well, I'm here to tell you all that I was wrong. This option, which I originally dismissed, has actually become my favorite.

But first, I'll tell you why I wasn't too fond of it at first. These diapers have absolutely no gel in them, which is wonderful if your baby breaks out like crazy from the gel. The diapers are made out of cotton which is great!!!! However, the diapers are pretty thick, and are very stiff, their tabs are old school 90s tabs, so they are sticky instead of the fake-velcro that are on most of todays disposable diapers. Half the time the tab would unstick, and the diapers would fall off pretty easily. Which is no good, and instantly turned me off on these diapers.

So how did Tushies become my favorite vacation diapers? My wonderful husband couldn't find any of the clean diapers one morning when he was letting me sleep in, and so he found the Tushies and he put on one Audrey, and then he put a Flip cover over the top of it. It fits perfectly over the Tushies, and if the tabs unstick throughout the time they are being used it doesn't matter, because the Flip cover keeps it in place.

Another thing I loved is that since it's an entire diaper in a cover, all the mess is totally contained. It drove me crazy that when we used Flip disposable inserts that when she pooped the poo got all over the cover, which can be extremely frustrating and can cause some anxiety while on vacation (running out of covers is no fun when you are in the middle of no where, trust me!)

Another great thing about Tushies is their sizing, it's newborn, small, medium, and large. When I bought Huggies for a week long cruise I was so worried I might choose the wrong size because I had no idea which "number" she wore!

I hope that these few posts have helped you all with choosing what type of disposable options for traveling for long periods of time :)

My New Must Have Items

I said previously that I'm having big stink issues with my diapers.

No one likes stink, it's gross. And nothing is worse than having your husband crinkle his nose every time he walks upstairs, but is too polite to say anything about the stink. (Except of course, when he mentions the stink!)

First, I needed a new detergent. I had been using Tide (I've also tried Charlie's Soap, Rockin' Green, Bio Kleen) because it was the only one I felt actually got my diapers clean, and they didn't smell like poop when they came out of the wash.

However, I could tell they were starting to build up pretty badly, so we needed a change. I was at my local Cotton Babies, and asked what they recommended, I explained my issues (stinky diapers, build-up, terribly sensitive baby) and was told that I should try a liquid soap instead of powder, the lady suggested Mountain Green.

One thing I love about Cotton Babies (besides looking at an entire store of fluff!) is that their section of laundry soap is all cloth diaper approved, which is wonderful! I don't have to stare at the soaps hoping one will jump out at me.

Now, as to my thoughts about the detergent. I do like it, it gets the diaper clean, it seems to help Audrey's poor bum, and not irritate her skin. My only issue is that it has no smell, which isn't a problem to most, but I feel like my diaper should come out smelling nicely...well, they didn't. They came out smelling like clean poop.

That's where this second "must have" item comes in handy. It's called Bac-Out! It's wonderful! I put a little in the pre-wash, and when my diapers came out they smelled so pretty and wonderful! No gross smells, just clean. I think I'm going to start buying it in bulk (or just make a stock pile.)

I always thought that in order for clothes and diapers to smell "clean" they had to have a scent, but with the combination of Bac-Out and Mountain Green my diapers come out with no smell, none at all, it's like smelling (clean) air!

It's Okay!

I don't know about you all, but sometimes I feel like life is swallowing me whole.

At the end of August my husband returned to school. He is going to be an accountant...in 19 VERY long months (no I'm not counting down or anything!)

There is homeschooling, cleaning, dishes, laundry, playdates, sewing, scrapbooking, and the cloth diapers.

And yes, sometimes some of those things get pushed to the back burner.

Because at this very moment I am 4 months pregnant and all I want to do is sleep.
However my four-year-old and one-year-old completely disagree with this idea.

In the midsts of all this Audrey's rash occurred again, my diapers began to smell horribly and the girl's room needed a constant air-out, otherwise the room smelled like poop, which could be made worse by the heat we were having.

So I'm here to tell you all, that when life feels like it's crushing you, it's okay to go to the store and buy a (small) package of disposable diapers and take a break.

Are disposables still bad for the environment? Yes, of course.
Do disposibles still have yucky and dangerous chemicals in them? Yes, they do.
Are disposables still expensive? Yes, they are.

But is your sanity important? YES.

Make sure you buy the small package, because otherwise it might be hard to come back to the light :)

Also, make sure you wash your diapers, because otherwise they still stink!

But, yes, for the past 5 days Audrey has been in disposables, along with heavy duty cream over her sores (which actually can't be used with the cloth.)

With one less thing to do, my motivation has gone up, and now that I have a big basket of clean fluff, life is good again. And full of cloth.

But look out, because there will be there will be some fun things coming up. New detergent reviews, new shop reviews, new products, and a few giveaways.

Next month is my 1-year-anniversary of being a cloth diapering Mama, and you'd better believe there will be a celebration! :)

Flip Disposables

After going on our cruise and having a horrible time with Huggies, I decided to try Flip Disposable Inserts when we went on our camping trip with my parents.

Some of the things I liked are:
1. They don't cost too much 18 inserts for $4.95 ($.28 center per diaper)
2. I can use my cloth diaper covers, so no blow outs!!!!
3. Since I used my covers, most of Audrey's pants still fit nicely and didn't fall off her bum
4. They didn't stink when pooped or peed in
5. There are less chemicals

Some things to consider:
1. It is easiest to change the diaper by having a cover and insert all put together, and just switching for the soiled cover/diaper. Diaper baby up, and dispose of the insert.
2. The insert isn't as wide as the Flip over, expect that when you have poopy diapers it WILL get on the cover (especially if you baby eats way too many raisins while camping!)

Several years ago, my husband and I tried a diaper service as our first dabble into the cloth diapering world. I hated it, he hated it, there was a lot of hate. The biggest reason was simply that when Sydney peed, the inserts would wad up and the cover had urine in it, and if she pooped the poop would get all over the cover. I hate poop stained covers! This problem is repeated with Flip disposable inserts.

But, all in all, I consider them a success, and for any future vacations I'll be using Flip, I'll just make sure I have many more covers! ;)

The best part, for me, was that I was NEVER pooped on, and the poop never left the diaper, yes, the cover might have been covered in poo, but it was never on me or anyone else who was holding the baby!

Disposable Diapers SUCK!

For the last week my family has been on an Alaskan Cruise with my in-laws.

Yes, that's right, we took a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old on a week long cruise.

The first thing I realized was that there was no way I could cloth diaper. I didn't have enough diapers to last a week. Plus, I didn't really want to do a weeks worth of yucky diapers.

First I bought Tushies, I bought these several months before the cruise, and I quickly dismissed using them because they did NOT stay on at all. Nor did they absorb very well. And the tabs were HORRIBLE.

I have been a cloth diapering Mama for 10 months.
I was a disposable diapering Mama for 3 years and 4 months.

Why Disposable Diapers Suck:
1. My heavy wetter causes even the most absorbent 'sposies to explode during the night.
2. My stinkerbell realized very quickly that she can pull off the diaper, and that it was easy. She pulled off her diaper, threw it on the floor, and with a smirk she continued to walk around the room naked.
3. During that nap time she pulled off the same diaper that was pooped in and continued to pee all over her port-a-crib.
4. I was using 5-7 wipes per poopy diaper!
5. Ug, they stink when pooped in.
6. UG! They stick when peed in!!!
7. During dinner she pooped and instead of the poop being IN the diaper, it went right up the top of the diaper!
8. On the way home she pooped, and instead of the poop going in the diaper, it seriously went straight out of the leg. When we took the diaper off it didn't even have any poop in it!

And of course, me being me, I also have my vain reasons for disliking disposables:
9. None of my baby's pants fit anymore, her jeans were falling off her flat paper bum.
10. Letting her run around in a t-shirt and a diaper lost it's cuteness when it's a paper diaper
11. I never felt like the diaper fit properly.

I never felt like I could trust the diapers. I was expecting to be pooped on at any moment.

Sure, as a cloth diapering Mama I get peed on, probably a little more often than I would be if I used disposables. But I'm NEVER pooped on. In 10 months my cloth has always kept all the poop contained.

Of course, this list is just why I dislike disposables for their functionality, there are many more reasons why we, as cloth diapering Mamas, choose cloth; environmental, harmful chemicals, budget, etc.

So, in my professional opinion, disposable diapers SUCK.

I think I'm going to make a button...

The Natural Baby Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations, KarilynAley! You'll receive an email from The Natural Baby shortly!

And thank you to all those who entered, and to The Natural Baby for sponsoring the giveaway!

The Natural Baby Review and Giveaway

**CLOSED**

First of all, I adore Autumn's blog All About Cloth Diapers. It's a great source of information.

Recently I was reading one of her posts and someone commented about The Natural Baby's Cloth Diaper Trial Package, and I thought, what a great thing to try!!

I have a hard time keeping my baby dry at night time, she is a heavy duty wetter, and she sleeps for so long at night. So this was the perfect opportunity to try out some diapers for night time.

The details: The trial package costs $10, and you get to choose any of the diapers that The Natural Baby has in their store. You get to try them out for two weeks, your two weeks start the day you receive the package. The owner, Rebecca, even sends you a note to remind you when your two weeks are coming to a close. Whatever you decide to not keep you just package up and send it back. Super simple :)

In my trial package:
Thirsties Duo Diaper
Fuzzibunz Perfect Size
bumGenius 4.0 with Velcro


My thoughts: Thirsties Duo Diaper- I honestly loved this diaper. It was an amazing fitted diaper. I really wanted to buy it, but my hubby lectured me about having too many diapers, hehe. It fit great, I never had a leak, and the diaper had a perfect spot to add hemp inserts when needed.

Fuzzibunz Perfect Size- I was more impressed with the perfect size than I was with Fuzzibunz's one size. It was nice and wide in the crotch, so we didn't have any leaks, but I really disliked that there was only a hip snap and one top snap, unlike with the one size. I'm not totally sure it really made much difference though...

bumGenius 4.0 with VELCRO- I've made my dislike of velcro no secret on this blog. I don't really buy anything with velcro, and I don't have any one size diapers with velcro, I simply don't like it very much. But I'll admit I was intrigued, I have a friend who prefers velcro to snaps, and I was very curious as to what's so great about velcro. And I am here to tell you all that I kind of prefer velcro. It makes such a nice snug fit, the velcro on the bumGenius is very thick, so I wasn't worried about Audrey pulling it off. And best of all, I can change her anywhere extremely easily with velcro, those silly mobile 1-year-olds! :) I kept this diaper.

I also kept my hemp inserts, I love me some Thirsties Hemp Inserts!! They are a night time neccesity.

I enjoyed my experience with The Natural Baby, Rebecca was very fun to work with. They ship fast, and they included a free sample of Country Save laundry detergent. And luckily for me, Rebecca was up for doing a giveaway!!

The Natural Baby is giving away a $50 gift certificate to their store!
Want to win it?

MANDATORY ENTRY
**You MUST do this entry in order to enter the giveaway**
"Like" A Whole Lot of Fluff on Facebook, and post a comment about the giveaway.

Additional Entries
1. "Like" The Natural Baby on Facebook
2. Follow A Whole Lot of Fluff
3. Go to The Natural Baby and tell me what you'd like to get if you win!

EACH entry should have your email address in it. For Facebook entries, write your facebook name. (ie: Liked A Whole Lot of Fluff, FB name is Samantha Thyme Sherman, email diaperfluff AT gmail DOT com.)

Contest ends July 17th, 2011 at 11:59 PM, PST.

Slight Mishap

So we've had a slight mishap.

I went to move the blog it wordpress.

And when I thought it was moved I deleted it from blogger.

Only to find out that it wasn't at wordpress.

Boo.

So I start all over.

Any questions you'd like answered in our upcoming posts, as I try to remember everything I had written? lol

WHEW! Thanks to Google Viewer, I was able to copy and paste all my posts back together. I'm so glad to be back, and I can't wait to tell you all about new reviews and have some giveaways! :)

Day Two: The Snappi

Since I already disqualified myself yesterday, I decided to not do this challenge fully.

This choice comes because I have to go to the doctor's office four days out of the five this week, and our doctor is on the other side of the city.

I also don't own any flats, I was planning on using receiving blankets until my flats came in tomorrow.

So we will call this my abridged version =]

I couldn't get the origami fold to work with a receiving blanket, so I used the kite fold, which worked great.

I still can't quite get the snappi to work. I could get the left and right side to work, but the bottom didn't work so great.

I was also a little worried about the diarrhea that Audrey gets for a few hours after she gets her antibiotic shot, but I actually liked the flat better than her regular fitted for the containment of diarrhea.

How did your day 2 go?

Day One: Fail

How did all of your first days go?

Let me tell you about my day.

On April 28th I took Audrey into her doctor, she'd be pulling at her ear, screaming and running a fever for the past several days.

She was had a double ear infection.

So we got our antibiotics and went on our way, and she took them for 10 days.

At the end of 10 days I didn't see much improvement, so I took her back to the doctor.

The doctor told us that one of her ears was better, and the other was still infected.

Second round of antibiotics, and the ear was NOT better. In fact she hasn't been sleeping much, she's too busy screaming at us.

So I took her back in today. Not only is that ear MUCH worse, but the other ear (which had previously healed) was reinfected and not doing well either.

I was told that there was a pretty good chance that her ear drums will rupture in the next few days, and that when it happens, to bring her back so they can assess damage.

We were also given a referral to the ENT doctor, and Audrey started her first round (out of the 3) of antibiotic shots.

I was told this shot will cause diarrhea.

This week I get to go see the doctor 4 days.

So, yeah, I didn't exactly get around to doing the flats challenge. This kind of disqualifies me, but I still plan on doing this challenge, I'll just start later than everyone else.

Do you have a story? I'd love to have you as a guest blogger!

(Oh, and I can't figure out the snappi, any tips?)

Flats & Hand washing Challenge: The Why

Why do the flats and hand washing challenge?

Well, it's simple, in my church we are encouraged to have supplies in case of an emergency. We are encouraged to have 72 hour kits, 1 year of food storage, etc.

With Sydney I always had an extra box of diapers, that I kept in storage. When I bought a new box, I would replace the one that was in storage.

For the past few months I have wondered how to have a storage of cloth diapers. I knew I could hand wash if necessary, and we just added extra water to our food storage.

So I figure this challenge is the perfect excuse to try out using flats, which is something I have never tried to use, and have no knowledge of.

My daughter's skin is very sensitive. If we put her in ANY disposables, she breaks out, horribly. In the event of an emergency, in which water or power would be cut off, flats would be a better choice than our pockets or fitted diapers.

Do you want to learn more about the flats challenge? Maybe do it yourself?
It starts tomorrow. I will be using ONLY flats for 1 week, and hand washing them myself. WITHOUT the use of my diaper sprayer (shocker!)
The exact details are here.
Will you be joining me? :)

Flats & Hand washing Challenge

This challenge starts Monday. Look for my daily posts about using and hand washing
flats! :)

Information is here.

Rumparooz One Size Cover

There were 2 major things I look for in a diaper cover.

1. One Size
2. Snaps

And I kind of wanted the gussets. I thought those were pretty awesome.

And I saw two diaper covers that fit that bill, Blueberry and Rumparooz. Rumparooz were less expensive, so I decided to try them first.

Oh, I love them! It was kind of strange for me at first, there are 4 sizes instead of the usual 3. The diaper also seems pretty tight, which is something that I like, but my wiggly baby did not! (She's got things to bite, don't you know?)

I love all the pretty colors.

Rumparooz are not made with PUL, instead they are made with TPU, which is suppose to be better environmentally (from my understanding.) The TPU is much thicker, which is another feature that I really like.

This is going on my list of current favorites!

Where to buy: I bought mine from Squishy Tushy, simply because they have lots of the pretty colors in stock, and the shipping was free at $50. This was my second order from them, and I plan to make future ones. They have great customer service, and are very quick to ship. Both of my orders went out the same day and were at my house within 2-3 days! :)

Next on my list is to buy some Blueberry Coveralls! I can't wait to try them!

CJ's BUTTer Giveaway WINNER!

Happy Mother's Day to you all! :)

The winner of CJ's BUTTer giveaway is:

#8 is Marsee Family who said: "Love Cj's and hope to win some free stuff"

Congratulations, I will be emailing you shortly!

Thank you to all of you who entered :)

Mama Cloth

I guess this doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.

It depends on why you cloth diaper.

I cloth diaper because of my daughter's sensitive skin. And after doing a bit of research I decided that I would try to avoid as many harmful chemicals as I could.

Autumn over at All About Cloth Diapers has a semi-funny story about disposable pads vs. a flash flood.

Which reminded me of when I was about 5-years-old. I had stolen my baby brother's diaper and put it on one of my dolls. Somehow the diaper got left outside, and as it does so often in Washington, it rained. When I woke up the next morning and went out side to play, I discovered that the diaper had exploded! And there were all these gelly chrystals everywhere. My friend and I proceeded to play with them. And that afternoon we began to steal more of our younger siblings diapers and left them outside so they would explode. I believe this went on for two days before our parents caught on and put a stop to it. Though, I don't believe either of our parents realized we were playing in harmful chemicals, they simply didn't want us wasting their diapers. (ha!)

But, I figured, cloth diapers are softer than disposables, right?
So cloth pads would be softer than disposables as well!

So I bought some from 4 companies, and I attempted to make my own.

All with wings, because I can't stand normal pads without wings. Here was something that was interesting to me though, I normally buy overnight pads and wear them during the day. With cloth pads I was able to buy regular pads and be just fine! They were more absorbent and SOOOOO much more comfortable.

I bought 13 pads, figuring that it would last me through 2 days. I also purchased 2 wet bags, one for home and one for on the go. I was also instructed to use stain remover on them once they are used, so my on-the-go wet bag has a mini spray bottle of Shout in it.

It was just as simple as cloth diapers. I personally didn't wash them twice (unless they were thrown in with the diapers) I just threw them in with my everyday clothes.

Here are the four different types I bought:
Pink Lemonade
GEM
MotherMoonPads
Tamarack Creations

Pink Lemonade: This was the last site I bought from, and the first to arrive! Super fast shipping, and shipping is FREE!! I loved how soft these were, they were a little expensive. About $10 per pad, but they are so soft, and of great quality, and they are extremely pretty! Plus free shipping, which you all know I'm a sucker for! These were my preferred and the first I would grab. I plan on buying 2 more. **I guess shipping isn't always free, it was part of an Earth Day promotion.**

MotherMoonPads: I was slightly disappointed by this site. Shipping was $2.75, I spent $18 on two overnight pads, and $7.75 per pad on regular pads (I bought 2.) The quality is a good, the shipping was also fast, but they pads themselves were kind of blah. But they were super soft and stains came out super easy. I just really liked bright colors.

Tamarack Creations: $7.00 per pad, and $2 for shipping for the first item and $0.75 for each additional item. I really liked these pads, they were so bright and pretty, and had some PUL on the inside. They were great, and my second choice pads. They were nice and soft. :)

GEM: I bought these first, as they were not expensive (I believe I paid $15 for 4 pads) and shipping was included. However, they took about 10 days to get to me, and I only got to use one of them, which it was soft and nice, and they are well made. If you're on a budget, or want to use Mama Cloth inexpensively than I would start with them!

What I Liked About Cloth Pads: They were SUPER soft, they didn't chafe. They weren't hot or uncomfortable.

What I Didn't: I was never sure if I should throw them in with my diapers (as you use stain remover on them) or with my clothes (fabric softener.)

One thing that I learned though, was that using my diaper sprayer didn't work so great with the cloth pads. Instead I use ran it under the sink in my bathroom, worked much better. But I suppose you could always stick the entire pad in the toilet and then spray.

$16,144.83 vs. $1,385.05

When I first looked into cloth diapering I was blown away by the price, seriously $19.99 for a SINGLE diaper? I was a major coupon-er, I looked for deals, I would hold out until I found an item for a certain price. If I was handed $20 and told to go buy diapers with it, cloth diapers would not have been how I would spend my money, I would have gone straight to Rite Aid with a fistful of coupons and bought about 6 small packages for $20.

So, yes, the cost can knock the wind out of you. But there are several ways to make it more cost effective, as well as different ways to cloth diaper.

A Diaper Service

I’ll start with the different methods of cloth diapering. The first way is one that I would not recommend, it won't save you money, and I've personally tried it and really disliked it; was a diaper service. My local diaper service cost me about $70 a month (for 50 diapers a week, I used the service when my daughter was 21 months old.) Once a week a man in a truck would come, take my yucky diapers and replace them with clean ones. I had to provide the covers, and wash those myself, the cheapest I have found are called Econobums, they are a PUL (waterproof material) one-sized cover so you have to snap them down to make them a size small or medium, so it’s nice not to have to keep buying the different sizes of covers, and these covers are $8.95. It was nice because I didn't have to wash the diapers. It was terrible because the diapers were only washed once a week. I had a pail of gross diapers sitting in my tiny apartment for 7 days, odor-eaters didn't work. I also didn't have the flexibility to choose what type of diapers I wanted; I had to use prefolds, the old-school cloth diapers.

Service Per Month: $70 (840 per year)

7 Econobum Covers: $62.65 (You need one cover per day)

I’ve heard many women say that they don’t cloth diaper simply because the diaper service is not eco-friendly, which it’s not. But I was shocked to find out that they thought that that was the only way of cloth diapering! Washing the diapers yourself cuts down costs exponentially.

Prefolds

If you want to do the work yourself, buying prefolds and covers, this is a truly inexpensive way to go! On Amazon you can buy a package of 12 for $10.99! Buy two packs and you'd have more than enough diapers to wash them once every other day You'd also need a cover to go over the diaper, and you don't need as many covers as you do diapers, because unless they get poo on them, you just replace the prefold, so I'd recommend buying 4 if you plan on washing every other day.

24 Gerber Prefolds $21.98
4 Econobum Cover: $35.80
Prefold Total: $57.78

Fitted Diapers

Fitted diapers are like the prefolds, except that they are in the shape of a diaper. They usually

Velcro or snap together, and also require a cover. I know some people who let their kids walk around in just the fitted diaper. They are more reliable than fitted or flats (they don't move around and get poo on the cover.) These are great, because the diaper allows the bum to breathe a lot more than some of the options listed below. Fitted diapers start at $8, these also are mostly sized, same as the cover.
The least expensive route that I have found are Mother-Ease One Size, which cost $11.95 each. These are great fitted diapers, and the fact that they are one-sized helps cut costs, as you don’t have to keep re-buying your stash.

18 diapers Mother-Ease One Size: $215.10
4 Econobum: $35.80
Fitted Total: $250.90

Pocket Diapers
Pocket diapers are diapers that you have to put flats in between the PUL cover and another fabric. This requires you to stuff all the diapers prior to use. While they are very nice to have, because you don't have to wrestle a wiggly baby for nearly as long, they do get very pricey. These can also be sized, or one sized. The least expensive that I have found is called Kawaii diapers. These run about $6.99 per diaper (if you can get them from the main website, which can prove challenging at times) or $7.75 if you buy them elsewhere (I've only found this price at Jack Be Natural.)

18 Kawaii's: $125.82 (or $130.50)

I must say it though, Kawaii's are the least expensive by a long shot. You might have some that are even cheaper, but Kawaii's are good quality diapers for very inexpensive (I tried one that was $5.50 for a diaper and it was horrible quality.) The next closest price is $15 per diaper.

18 diapers for $15 each- $270

All-in-Ones

These diapers are super easy to use! There is no stuffing, no covers, it's a diaper that has everything you need in one diaper. It's like a pocket diaper, except that instead of having a pocket, it's sewn right across. These are the most expensive way of cloth diapering. They typically cost about $25 each. But they are what I call “daddy-friendly,” they are easy for people who don’t cloth diaper to use, as they (like the pocket diapers) are single use diapers, many day-cares require AIO diapers if you plan on cloth diapering while your child is in daycare.
18 AIO diapers: $450


Now that I've laid out the different types of diapers, and how much they cost for a 2 day supply, let’s compare them to disposables. Let’s say that you still use 18 diapers in 2 days, and that you get a box of 80 diapers for $26.99 (Size 3 Huggies, obviously this number is slightly skewed as when your baby is younger you will go through more diapers and the box has more diapers, and when they get older the box has less diapers.)


If you use diapers for 3 years:

Diaper Service: $2,582.65

Prefolds: $57.78

Fitted: $250.90

Pocket: $125.82 / $270

AIO: $450

Disposables: $3,324.83 (9 diapers per day * 365 days * 3 years / 80 diapers per box * $26.99 per box)

This is solely the price of diapers that you will pay. Let’s look at the other things you will need when diapering a baby for three years.

Things you need for disposables:

Diaper genie $40.39

Diaper genie refills $7.49 per month ($269.64 for 3 years)

Wipes $11.99 per month ($431.64 for 3 years)

Things you need for cloth diapering:

Spray bottle for wipe solution: $0.99

Baby wash (for homemade wipe solution): $4.79 for 15oz (this lasts me 3 months, so $57.48 for 3 years)

Baby oil (for homemade wipe solution): $5.99 for 20oz (this lasts me 4 months, so $53.91 for 3 years)

Large Wet Bag: $29.95

Travel Wet Bag: $21.00

Diaper Soap: $14.95 for 80 loads (15 loads per month, this will last 5 months, so $107.64 for 3 years)

Cloth Wipes: I made mine, I bought 1 yard of fleece from JoAnn Fabric for $6.99 (I used a coupon) and it made 50 wipes for me.

Total for Disposables for 3 Years: $4,066.50
Most Expensive Cloth Diaper System For 3 Years: $727.96
Least Expensive Cloth Diaper System For 3 Years: $335.74

Did I mention the best part? You can use cloth diapers for more than one child! I know some people who have used the same diapers for 4 children! Let’s do the math!

4 children in disposables for 3 years each: $16,144.83 (diaper genie was only added once.)
4 children in cloth diapers for 3 years each, expensive system: $1,385.05 (baby wash, baby oil, and diaper soap added for each child, all the other things only added once.)
4 children in cloth diapers for 3 years each, cheap system: $992.83

$16,144.83 vs. $1,385.05?!

(Let me tell you, even I was shocked when I got this number!)

What about the cost of washing the diapers? This is a question that depends on where you live. I live in the Pacific NW, and it only costs me about $2 more per month to wash cloth diapers every other day. But I do know others in different states whose bill doubled or tripled, it all just depends on where you live.

There are several ways to cut some of these costs down as well. For disposables you can follow couponing blogs, clip coupons and get the diapers for a fraction of the cost. The same goes with cloth diapers, stores are always having sales, discounts, and there are several work-from-home moms who sell these items for very inexpensive (Nana's Bottoms is a great route to go!) Or if you're handy with a sewing machine you can just make them for yourself, Very Baby has several PDF patterns for sale that are very easy to follow.

--

All calculations were done by me, all disposable diaper information was taken from diapers.com, the cloth diaper information was the least expensive that I was able to find online.

Grandma El's Diaper Rash Remedy

Looking for the CJ's BUTTer Giveaway?
Go here! :)
***

Back in January, Audrey's Pediatrician said she didn't know what else to do about Audrey's chronic yeast infections, so she sent us to a Dermatologist.

The Dermatologist told us that not only did Audrey suffer from chronic yeast infections, but she also had severe eczema on the diaper area.

And to top it all off, it was all infected; Audrey also had impetigo.

We were given 3 different prescriptions to help her, but we were warned that the yeast infections and the eczema would flair back up until Audrey was potty trained.

But we were told to use a Vaseline on her bum with every diaper change, as a barrier. Audrey was also lactose-intolerant and her hypoallergenic formula caused her to poo more than she peed, in fact we usually only saw 1 pee diaper a day, the constant poo irritated her bum.

Vaseline was not a good option for many reasons. I know some of you probably dislike Vaseline, I've read that it's not good for your skin. However, our reason for not wanting to use Vaseline was simply because it's not good for cloth diapers.

So we bought some Grandma El's, because it was suppose to be cloth diaper friendly. I've used it with Fuzzibunz, Kawaii's, bumGenius, and Mother-Ease (both Sandy and One-Size.)

NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER use it with Fuzzibunz. It clogged them, and I had to strip them about twice to get it out.

Everything else it has worked great with, absolutely no problem, it's a great barrier. As my daughter's issue is not a diaper rash, I'm not sure how effective it is at alleviating actual rashes, but it certainly doesn't make it worse, which is always a plus. ;) It's my favorite to use at night, as it's nice and thick.

I really like Grandma El's, and it's available through Amazon, and I can use my free 2-day shipping!! It's awesome as a barrier, it comes in a big tub, and a little goes a long way. I like the smell too, I can't really explain it, it doesn't have a definite smell, but I like it all the same.

CJ's BUTTer Giveaway!

**This giveaway is now
CLOSED!**

A new shop called Petite Bottoms sent me some goodies this week! It was truly a pleasure working with Kim to come up with this giveaway and review some fun diaper products! Her shop offers free shipping on orders over $50, and and also offers a FREE prepping service! It's always nice to not have to prep your diapers before you use them! :)

I love CJ's BUTTer, do you remember my review?

Well, they also have a formula meant to help yeast infections!!

I called it yeast formula, and my husband teased me saying that it sounded like I was giving my baby yeast. Silly.

It has great timing, another infection just flared up a few days ago.

So while I play with my new goodies and formulate an opinion, we're going to have a giveaway!

Kim, from Petite Bottoms is giving away 1 4oz CJ's BUTTer For Yeast and a CJ's BUTTer Sample pack of 6 yummy scents.

The scents are:
1. My Pixie Pie
2. Monkey Farts
3. Oatmeal, Milk & Honey
4. Warm Vanilla Cake
5. Lullaby Baby Lotion
6. Cucumber Melon

How to enter:
**MANDITORY ENTRY**
(You have to do this one first before any of the other entries)
Follow A Whole Lot of Fluff, and then comment here.
(go to the right sidebar to follow.)

Other Entries:
1. Like A Whole Lot of Fluff on Facebook, and comment on the wall and comment on the wall about the giveaway, and then leave a comment here.
2. Like Petite Bottoms on Facebook, and comment on the wall about the giveaway, and then comment here.

1 comment per entry. If you already follow or like say so in your entry. You MUST have seperate comments per entry. Total of 3 entries per person for this contest.

ALL entries must have your email address on them.

This contest will end May 7th, 2011 at 11:59 PM.