The Great Cloth Diaper Change and Helpful Cloth Diapering Tips

I know, I'm totally obsessed with diapers. I think I'll have to go to weekly meetings once my kids are both potty trained to get over the pain of not diapering them in total cuteness. The recent discovery of an amazing cloth diaper store is just fanning the flames. It's crazy to really love the things my children poop in but I do, I love cloth diapers!



The other day I walked into Eco-POLITAN. It's a green baby store in Lakewood, CO but if you aren't local, they have an amazing website. Yay! Robin (Owner and mommy.) was in the store and she totally SCHOOLED me on diapers... and I loved every second of it! Eco-POLITAN is one of the locations for The Great Cloth Diaper Change and you can sign up through their site or a location closer to you. There are 400 locations around the world and they are going for a Guiness World Record in celebration of Earth Day. Join me!!!



I'm really excited to show you the new diapers in the Strebel household. I never really understood why anyone would not want a super easy all in one diaper but now I get it. I GET IT!! I see the light! I'm going to show you the diapers in later posts so look out for those. I'm a happy mommy right now!

First, a few things I learned that might help you if you cloth diaper:

Diaper pails: With disposables, these are a must. We went without a diaper pail for the first year of Sawyer's life but the smell was terrible. Diapers smell... bad. I had NO IDEA that I was suppose to flush all poop down the toilet when using disposables. The smell drove me to actually purchase a diaper pail. Now that we are on cloth, a reusable bag for the diaper pail just made more sense. The cloth bag IN the pail prevents the lid from closing and sealing. It's amazing to me that most of the time our diaper pail is not sealed and it's NOT smelly because we dump all poop down the toilet. Long story longer, as my friends would say, I wasn't sure if I was using my diaper pail wrong or bought the wrong type of wet bag. The answer? I'm not an idiot and I wasn't using it wrong. Phew! Obviously cloth wet bags are thicker than trash bags and the diaper pails really aren't built for the thicker material. If you are going to cloth diaper, get a wet bag and use the type of trash can you would have in your kitchen. They also have wet/dry bags that seal. Hang those from the back of your door. Clean diapers in front, dirty diapers in back. Brilliant!

Image here.


Inserts: Yeah, yeah, we all know that you throw an insert into a pocket diaper but for some reason it never occurred to me that I can stuff an insert into my all in one diapers for night time diapering. The next problem would be choosing an insert, there are MANY to choose from! My next lesson, materials! Microfiber absorbs FAST and pulls moisture away from the skin. Hemp doesn't absorb as fast but absorbs MORE so what you want is microfiber near that tushy and hemp behind the microfiber. I had NO idea WHERE you put the insert mattered. Hi lightbulb in head!

Image here.
Knickernappies are a popular insert and they are sewn in a loop so they dry quicker. LOVE the fast drying time!


Bleach and Detergent: I've heard bleach was a major no-no with cloth but the last shipment of Bum Genius diapers specified washing diapers with bleach once a month... and I was sooo confused. Robin informed me that most diapers will say NOT to wash with bleach and some diaper companies warn bleach will completely void your warranty but Bum Genius may have made their lining in such a way that it holds up to bleach. Unless I'm only washing my bum genius in a load, I'm going to guess it's wise to avoid bleach all together. And speaking of washing, I learned that everyone is pushing less detergent but sometimes that really isn't the case. You can't get a really dirty load clean on a tabespoon of detergent so use more if needed. If the diapers smell dirty, you need more detergent, if they smell like soap, you need another rinse. If they smell like NOTHING you did good job... unless your detergent is scented. Really it's about figuring our your machine, your detergent and just a little trial and error! I promise, it's not any more difficult than figuring out how you need to rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher to get the best results from your machine.

Charlie's Soap has the strictest instructions: Wash out your machine first with Charlie's Soap and old rags. After that, use Charlie's Soap on EVERYTHING to prevent any buildup on your machine that will get on your diapers. I had a friend tell me the same thing once and thought it might be overkill. From OUR experience she was right, Charlie's Soap instructions are dead on. Whatever soap works for your cloth diapers should be used for EVERYTHING. If you change up your soap, go back and wash out your machine with the cloth detergent and rags. I found washing all of our clothes in the same detergent as the cloth was huge in preventing rashes and keeping our diapers pee thirsty! Mmmmm.


And if you are on disposables... just dump that poop in the toilet! Easy peasy!



Love you guys and a huge thanks to Eco-POLITAN. Join us April 23, 2011 for The Great Cloth Diaper Change!