January 3

I have been a (inconsistent) cloth diaperer for about 2 and a half years now. When H was 6 months old, I got infected with the cloth diapering obsession. I spent much internet time here. I tried many, many diapers and then finally settled (for a short while) on the Bumgenius All-In-Ones. They were relatively easy, poops literally would fall right off of them into the toilet and they were pretty darn cute as well.
The plot thickens here... Every time H peed, the diapers stank. Not like pee though. Or #2. Like ammonia and body fluid. And I could not make it go away. I tried different detergents, I tried stripping the diapers, I tried hot water, I tried cold water. Still. stinky. So I moved on to gdiapers. These were also cute, but very expensive and quite cumbersome. I might have stuck with these had it not been for my husband's very VERY loud protests each time he changed one child or another. We moved on to Seventh Generation and stuck with those until the birth of C.

I knew I wanted to give cloth another chance with him. I also knew that in order for these diapers to work for us, they had to be easy to use. For us this meant good, old fashioned Chinese prefolds (like the kinds our mothers used) and a plastic wrap (or wool diaper cover) around them. No pins, no snaps, no other inserts. I love them. I love having organic cotton so close to C's body, I love the cost, I love the sustainability. And there's no stink! I am not sure if this is because we are using a front loading washing machine now or if it is because the prefolds are all-natural fibers (Bumgenius are made of synthetics). Funny how the system that actually worked for us was the simplest and least expensive.
I knit the diaper cover on C here with Malabrigo out of this pattern.

Back In The Saddle

I no longer have the excuse that Norah and Harvey are sick so I can not cloth diaper. Yes, we are back on the cloth diaper train as of today. In fact, I have decided to try gdiapers for going out as it is really hard for me to use cloth when we are outside of the house. gdiapers biodegrade and are flushable. The wet diapers can even go into your compost pile. As we will likely be leaving the house soon and it takes 50 days for them to break-down, I will probably not compost them but I will look forward to doing that in our new abode. I have tried all kinds of cloth diaper combinations-prefolds, fitteds, and all-in-ones. I have come to terms with the fact that I am a lazy cloth diaperer, therefor the all-in-ones are for me. I just ordered three more Bum Genius All-in-Ones from 1800diapers today. So here we go again. I am hitting my second stride.