Cloth Diapering Update

My experience using cloth diapers on the l'il chicken hawk has been great so far.  He's almost 8 months old and I've only had to buy a few boxes of disposable diapers as well as wipes.

To be fair, I received a few boxes of diapers and wipes as gifts, but other than that, I've hardly spent any money on them myself. He has had no more diaper rashes since I switched over, which is a relief.

I'm loving my homemade wipes and solution too. I bought a set of Thirsties wipes on Amazon.com and I also made my own by cutting up a few receiving blankets.  I put the squares in an empty tissue box and keep it on the changing table.  The wipe solution is made of 2 cups of water, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons of Aveeno baby soap.  This solution is stored in an empty wipes container.  Every time I need a wipe, I just take a fabric square out of the tissue box, dip it in the solution, wipe and then throw it in my diaper pail where the cloth diapers go - a plastic garbage pail (no cover) with a plastic grocery bag as an insert.

Even though his poo has been more of a challenge now that he's eating solids, I've gotten good at cleaning them.  I just dump it in the toilet and flush it down.  The remaining smears get washed away in the laundry.  

I have a good washing system now and it's very simple.  

1. Change cloth diaper - I'm using BumGenius and Bummis and gDiapers with BumGenius inserts instead of their flushable inserts.
2. Put dirty diaper in plastic garbage pail with a plastic grocery bag as a liner
3. Any poo gets flushed down toilet when time permits
4. When the bag is full, I pull apart all the inserts, check for any forgotten poo, and throw it all in the wash
5. Wash first in cold with a little bit of All Free and Clear HE detergent. Program machine that it is heavily soiled and needs extra rinse.
6. Wash again in hot with a little bit of same detergent. Program machine the same as last time.
7. Hang dry the covers on an old baseball hat hanger with clips.
8. Dry all the inserts and cloth wipes in the dryer.
9. Put them all away in a basket on the changing table and DONE!

Check to see how much money you save each month as well as time at the store. (Unless you use Amazon.com Mom - Subscribe and Save). I've been using the Subscribe and Save program on Amazon Mom for disposable diapers that I use at night and when gone from home for a long time - I'm saving a lot of money doing that too!

If I use the cloth diapers and wipes for the l'il chicken hawks first 3 years, I think the savings will be huge. Hopefully he'll potty train faster than the chickadees too.  Highly unlikely though.  I'm still having to clean up their potty accidents almost daily.  That's a different topic for a different day.