Cloth Diapering (Continued): My Stash

There are so many ways to cloth diaper. This post is not really meant to illustrate all the ways cloth diapering can be done (and there are many), but rather just one. This post will show you how we do cloth diapers in the Hepworth home.

We use a hybrid cloth diaper - which means it can house either a disposable or a cloth insert. We opted to out of doing disposable inserts because they make the cost of doing cloth about equal (and sometimes greater) than just doing disposable altogether. While I do care about the environmental benefit that cloth diapering provides, I wanted the economic benefit too.

@ Suzy - I will do a post about the environmental debate over cloth diapers soon. I haven't forgotten your comment, I just want to compose a sufficient answer. I appreciate your patience. :)
 

We use Gdiapers for Lincoln. Here is a really great article on the 'anatomy' of them.

The picture on the left is a gpant or diaper cover. The picture on the right is one with the liner snapped in and ready to stuff.

The picture below shows a gdiaper housing a Joey-Bunz insert, which is (mostly) how we stuff Lincoln's diapers. We also usually have a thin microfleece insert laying on top of the Joey Bunz for added softness and for the benefit of helping Lincoln feel more dry. You can read about different diaper fabrics here.

 

Our (current) diaper stash will work for him until he weighs 28lbs. Since Lincoln is pretty picky about having his diaper changed, even for the smallest tinkle, we like our hefty stash of inserts - even though many people can do with fewer.  In any case, if you wanted to go and buy a cloth diaper stash for your baby's first year today, (and if you want to cloth diaper like we do) then this is what you'd need:

• Small g pants: 10 (each one comes with their own plastic liner)
• Medium g pants: 12 (each one comes with their own plastic liner) - although you could probably do with 8-10 covers and be fine.
• Large g pants: ? We haven't purchased these yet, but they will fit Lincoln from 26-36lbs. and we will be able to use the medium snap in liners and medium inserts for them, so we'll only need to purchase the covers to extend his cloth diaper wearing life by 8 more pounds. I'm guessing we will only need 6-8 of these.

(I purchased most of my diaper covers from diapers.com - every now and then, they have a screaming deal and if you are a first time user to their site, you can usually get a 20% or 15% off code.  If you can get your gdiapers for $10 or under per cover, you are getting a good deal. The best deal I've seen for new gpants around $8.33 a cover in a 6 pack.You just have to keep your eyes pealed.)

• 6 additional small g snap in liners
• 6 additional medium g snap in liners

 I think I just bought mine off of diapers.com or amazon.com. I can't remember which - whichever was cheaper at the time.

• 24 size small BabyKicks Joey-Bunz Hemparoo inserts
• 24 size medium Baby Kicks Joey-Bunz Hemparoo inserts  
• Note: The medium inserts will fit both medium and large g pants.

I bought all my inserts in three packs off of amazon.com. At $14.55 for a three pack, those were the best price I could find for new inserts. From what I've heard and read online, you don't get much added benefit from the premiums (but you do get added drying time), so we just got regular and they have worked great for us!

We store our dirty diapers in the Planetwise wetbag until they are ready to be washed, and when they are, we wash the bag too! It keeps the smell and dampness completely contained. This is the cloth diaper replacement substitute for a diaper pail. 

• One (or two - we're probably going to buy another soon) large Planetwise wetbag(s).
• One small Planetwise wetbag.

The "Planetwise" wet bag for dirty cloth diapers are cheapest at this website: http://www.diaperjunction.com/planet-wise-wet-bag.html I have a large bag (for home use) and a small one (to store in my diaper bag). They are both in the above print - Art Deco.

Also, with cloth diapering, you need a special detergent that will rinse clean and fight ammonia build-up. We use this stuff:

The cloth diaper detergent is "ROCKin GREEN".
You can type in the coupon code: kiwirocks to get a 15% off your order. I think diapers.com does a sale every now  and then on this product too (though we just bought ours from the product website). We have this detergent in the "Motley Clean" scent which we love. We also have a bag of "Smashing Watermelons" scent, but we haven't used it yet, so we're excited to try it out!

We also have these things in our stash - which I received as gifts at one of my baby showers:

•  6 medium g cloth inserts.

I really love these so far. Lincoln has just moved up into the medium sized gdiapers, so we just started using these. I haven't used them enough to know 100% if they always work better than the Joey-Bunz inserts, but they seem just as absorbent, they are very soft, and I don't have to use a microfleece insert on top either because there is already one sewn in as part of the insert. They are even a bit cheaper than the Joey-Bunz too, so it is a very good option to keep in mind when choosing how to build your stash! From my experience with them so far though, I probably would have just gone with all gcloth had I tried them first.

• 1 AppleCheeks envelope diaper (good for baby 7-20lbs. - just needs to be stuffed with an insert)

You can read an excellent review of this diaper here. I like having this one in my stash - it does its job. But, if I was buying up my stash from square one, I think I would still stick with the gdiaper route. They cost $19 for just the shell which only last through one diaper change, so you would have to spend a lot of money on covers in addition to inserts to have a workable stash. I also like having different sizes of diaper covers. I think they will last longer because they won't be washed as many times as a "one size fits all" type diaper. But that being said, it is still nice to have my cute little red AppleCheeks dipe for sure! More diapers and inserts equal fewer loads of cloth diapers in any given week!

• As I alluded to earlier, we also have microfleece fabric to lay on top of the Joey-bunz inserts. My friend gave me some of her fabric, so I didn't have to buy any of this, but I would recommend having as many microfleece cutouts as you do Joey-Bunz inserts for one size (so, have 24 pieces cut out).

I know this seems like a lot to purchase up front, which it is. But personally, I have really loved knowing that my diaper stash is complete and that I'm not losing X amount of cents every time I change Lincoln's diaper. I don't feel like money is wasted when I have to do two or three diaper changes back to back with Lincoln, because his stash is already secured - not to mention the stash being secured for future Hepworth babies too!  . . .unless of course I have a baby girl next, in which case I'd definitely need to buy a couple of these:

I hope this post was helpful to those of you considering doing cloth diapers. I still have a couple more posts up my sleeve where this issue is concerned, so be on the lookout. If you didn't already, you can read my first post on Cloth diapering here.

Those of you who do cloth diapers: What are some of your favorite sites and resources? Would you please share them in the comments section if you have any?