“You mean, like…rubber pants?”

This question, along with a wrinkled nose and a skeptical eye, was the general response from the majority of my friends when I told them of my plans to cloth diaper our third child.  Assuming that I had lost my mind in the hormone-induced haze of my third trimester, most would go on to remind me that I detest laundry, that I would soon be the tired and overworked mother of three small children, and that dirty diapers were…well, gross.  I couldn’t begrudge them their skepticism, though, in light of the fact that the decision had come to me rather abruptly and surprised even my own husband.

At six months pregnant, I had wandered past the reusable diaper display at Bellani and was intrigued.  It made good sense from a financial, environmental, and health standpoint.  I asked Shannon for a quick pep talk in order to assure myself that I could do this.  Bob and I returned that weekend to make our first of many cloth diaper purchases:  24 assorted colored Bum Genius diapers.  We were both convinced that with a user-friendly design and several helpful accessories available, the diapers we chose would be easy for our active family to maintain.  To their credit, I will say that the ladies at Bellani were right.  The transition that lessened our financial strain, carbon footprint, and concern about chemicals was super easy to make.  A year and a half and about a gaggle of diaper changes later, I’m kicking myself for not making the switch sooner.  I guess the cloth diapers I had always pictured included rubber pants and not the cute, colorful fashion accessories that my little one has been sporting.

Since we spend a lot of time out and about, I got myself set up early on with a system for quick changes on the go.  My bag is always packed with a few diapers, liners, a case of cloth wipes, a spray bottle of bum spray, and a wet bag.  A fresh bottom is as easy as removing the diaper, giving her bum a quick spray and a wipe, tossing them both in the wet bag, and putting on a new diaper.  Anything requiring more attention can be dealt with at home, where our bathroom is now well equipped with the fabulously powerful Bum Genius diaper sprayer.

We started planning our summer several months ago, making preparations for a few much-deserved vacations.  Instead of sticking with our tradition of purchasing disposables for the trip, I decided to deviate from the norm and investigate a travel-friendly cloth option.  I knew that I wouldn’t want to be lugging around my entire stash or trying to fit diaper washing into my jam-packed schedule, but still didn’t want my girl in disposables all week.  I checked Bellani for a cloth/disposable hybrid and was pleased to find that Flips fit the bill quite nicely.  I am currently sitting on a lounge chair at the beach, writing with my little nursling on my lap.  We are midway through our first week-long vacation with cloth on board and happy to report that it is going great!

We hit the road on Friday toting an arsenal of flip inserts, covers, and a wet bag.  To cut back on the work load, we chose to bring disposable inserts and wipes and have found the flip covers to be fabulously easy to wipe out or quickly rinse and hang dry when necessary.  The flip inserts are working out great, and we have not fallen victim to a single leak, even during our overnight stays.  Again, I am kicking myself for not figuring this out sooner and wondering how other cloth families are diapering on their summer vacations.  Do you vacation with your diapers, or from them?

~Colleen~

I am almost embarrassed to admit I am only just now getting around to cloth diapering.  I work at Rhode Island’s cloth diapering central; I should educate by example, right?  I did buy an all-in-one Blueberry diaper eons ago that’s only seen the bum of a stuffed animal.  Does that count?  I procrastinated on the cloth diapering front for one major reason – I didn’t think our household could handle another load of laundry.  Well and I just didn’t get how the whole poop thing worked.

A month ago, after running out of disposable diapers for the gazillionth time, and asking Kelly a thousand and one questions, I finally took the big leap into cloth diapering with the Flip One Size Diaper.  I’m going to be brutally honest here and tell you the reason I picked the Flip One Size Diaper System: everything I needed to get started was neatly packaged into one little box – two covers, six inserts.  I brought the box home and vowed never again to make a late night dig through the backseat of the car run for diapers.

I’ve been cloth diapering now for about a month and the first thing that comes to mind is – what the heck took me so long?!?!?!?!?  It’s so incredibly easy; I can’t believe the entire world doesn’t cloth diaper.  The Flip One Size Diaper System has been fantastical.   I opted for the Stay Dry Inserts and when I pulled the inserts out of the box, I did not understand how this giant maxi pad of cloth was going to soak up enough pee to keep me and baby happy through a trip to the zoo.  After an hour and a half at the zoo and a one hour nap in the car, I did the mom test and stuck a finger in the diaper to check things out.  I felt the bottom of the insert (which touches the cover) and it was soaked.  However, when I went to change the diaper, the side of the insert in contact with my daughter’s skin was completely dry!  Yes, completely dry.

As Tony the Tiger would say, things are going grrrrrreat.  Laundry, which I was most concerned about, has been a cinch.  I’m no Kelly Martha Stewart so laundry is never nice, tidy and done.  However, it’s a different story for the kids’ laundry.  For some reason I find tremendous joy in doing their laundry.  And the cloth diapers have fallen into this category.  No matter how many times folks told me laundering cloth diapers was easy, I just didn’t believe it- cold rinse, hot wash, 2nd cold rinse – it really is that easy.

The covers have proven to  be just as awesome as the inserts.  We haven’t had any leaks or explosions.  I will say this, though, poop is no fun.  We have the Bio  Liners and still poop is no fun.  I can totally see how the Bio Liners make it a lot easier to manage but poop is poop.  What are you going to do?  We do get some poop on the cover but I attribute that to our daughter still being on a diet of equal parts solids and breastmilk.  If things were a bit more on the solid side, I’d be over the moon about poop (not really but you know what I mean).  As for the covers, I give them a quick wash by hand, was them on laundry day and stains haven’t been an issue so far.

Cloth diapering with the Flip One Size Cloth Diapers has been a dream – great absorbency, perfect fit, not too bulky.  We’re super happy with the Stay Dry Inserts but in the next few weeks we’ll give the Organic Inserts a try.  I’ve also got my eye on the Thirsties covers since they come in cute patterns.  I’ve got to say, this cloth diapering thing is quite addictive.  In the spirit of wanting to have enough inserts and covers on hand, I keep wanting to buy more and more even though I’ve already got plenty with my two Day Packs.  And don’t get me started on my new obsession with Planetwise Wet Bags, that’s a whole different post.  So yes, I’m a convert to the cloth diapering cult.  And this coming from the lady who avoided the cloth with our first (now 3 years old) but I’m super glad we decided to give it a whirl now.  Only thing is I’m sad it won’t be very long lived since  our baby is already 14 months with her eye on the potty.  We’ll enjoy it as long as we can!

~Carla~