Diapers Galore!

Modeling the FuzziBunz in Grape

I’ve been meaning to do a post on our experience with cloth diapering, but with all the insanity over here, I haven’t gotten around to it. Until now!

Maggie napped off and on this morning until 11, ate, and then…just hung out. This is a baby that for the last two weeks has cried if while awake she’s not being held. I couldn’t put her down for more than ten minutes if she was awake. Today, she hung out in her swing! I turned it up full speed and she just looked all around the kitchen while I got the stew ready for the crock-pot. She hung out while I washed a few dishes and made some bottles. She just hung out for like 35 minutes! It was amazing.

We took a walk around the block, and she fell asleep in her stroller. I brought her in the house, and I discovered a trick. She loves the stove’s exhaust fan. Seriously. I park her in the kitchen in her stroller and turn on the exhaust fan, and she stays asleep. We came in from our walk nearly an hour ago and she’s still sleeping! I think she also likes 80’s pop hits on Pandora. Who doesn’t?

I almost don’t know what to do with myself. So I decided to post on cloth diapering.

We decided to go with the pocket diapers from FuzziBunz. They are expensive, but easy to use and wash. They come with extra elastic for the legs, as well as two inserts, a newborn and a regular one.

We bought 12 to start with, but realized pretty soon after bringing her home that it wouldn’t be enough, so we bought six more. With having 18 diapers, we wash about every day and a half. When we get down to 3 or 4, one of us starts a load to wash.

The FuzziBunz say you can use them with babies as small as 7 pounds, but some of the reviews said to wait until the baby was a bit bigger. So we used disposable diapers for the first month. At her one month checkup, she weighed a little over eight pounds, so we decided to give them a shot. Also, she had been developing a diaper rash, and I was worried about it getting worse, so I wanted to switch over.

We also stopped using disposable wipes at that time too. I think they were too tough on her skin and contributed to the rash. I bought about 20 of the cheap baby washcloths from Target (they’re listed there as 3.99 for six, but they were on sale for 1.50 for six when I bought them!). They are nice and thin, and great to use for cleaning her up. I spray one end with water from a spray bottle, clean her up, then use the other end to dry her off.

Since she still had diaper rash when we switched to the cloth, I wanted to use something on her skin as a protectant, but I knew that some diaper ointments ruin cloth diapers. I found two, and I like both of them.

– The Baby Bee diaper ointment was recommended by a friend with two girls, and it is really good. It is a zinc oxide cream, but it has essential oils in it, and it smells really fresh. I started using this when her rash was worse, and I use it now if she seems to be more red than normal. A little goes a long way with it. We bought ours at Target.

– The other one that I found, and use every time I change her (unless I use the baby bee balm) is the Diaper Lotion Potion by Kissaluvs (maker of cloth diapers). The lotion potion is a spray. After I dry her off, I do two sprays on her butt, then wait a few seconds and close up the diaper. It’s got witch hazel in it, and its meant to soothe any irritation. It also smells really good, and lasts forever. Sometimes I spritz the diaper pail with it between washings.

Things were going pretty good with the cloth diapers until about a week ago. Before that, she had some leaks, but I figured that’s because she’s not ten pounds yet, and they won’t be as frequent when she weighs more. But, last week the poop explosions started.

The formula she had been on was making her constipated, so we switched to a newborn formula. After a few days on the new formula (which is all milk-based, as opposed to the other, which was milk and soy), she started having, rather than constipation, explosive poop. At first it was only every other day or so, so not too bad. But then, last Wednesday, she had three in one day! I was worried that she might be getting sick, so off to the doctor we went. She didn’t have any signs of illness or dehydration, so we figured it is the formula.

This poop, its so hard to clean off the diapers, even with a sprayer. It’s everywhere, and so messy. So, we decided to switch back to the disposables until we get this figured out (we had some on hand because I keep disposables for the diaper bag when we’re out). We’re still using the cloth wipes, but also some disposable wipes for the really messy ones. The poor thing is having all these poop issues. She’s taking it like a trooper. Her mom, not so much.

Anyway, the cloth diapers are great, and I can’t wait to get back to using them all the time, so I hope these poop problems get resolved soon.

If you use cloth diapers, what kind do you use? Have you been happy with them? There are so many varieties out there, I’d love to know what kinds others have used and liked!