11 Baby Care Favorites for the Cloth Diapering Momma
Lockers in a baby’s room? We raised a few eyebrows with this decorating decision, and on the other end of the spectrum, also got a lot of oohs and aahs. So what do we keep inside of Lucy’s lockers anyway? In addition to the storage bins, stacks of receiving blankets, burp cloths, linens, baby puzzels, and wooden toddler toys we keep in locker two and three, we’ve turned the first locker into a diaper haven. When I found out I was pregnant, my cousin asked me if I was interested in buying her cloth diaper collection she used for her only child. Cloth diapers for a fraction of the cost? I would be crazy to say no, especially since we had just moved into a house with a washer and dryer (shazam!). But I was a little intimidated at the thought of all the care that goes into cloth diapering a baby. (And as you can see, started out with regular diapers that we were gifted at Lucy’s baby shower.)
Granted, I’ve only been a mom to a real, live, pooping baby for three weeks now. But I think I’m starting to get the hang of this cloth diapering gig, and it’s not as complicated as I thought! We do have to use special creams to maintain the diaper’s absorbancy, and I’m exploring organic cleaning options as well. I’m still new to this game, so if you have any tips, I’d love to hear them!
Here is a list of the care items that we use for Lucy.
- Earth’s Best Chlorine Free baby wipes
- The First Years Gumdrop baby pacifiers
- Bobby changing pad liners
- Chan Pie Gnon Pie soft teething toy (squeaks and distracts a fussy baby)
- Johnson’s Baby wipes container
- California Baby diaper rash cream (safe to use on cloth diapers)
- California Baby calendula cream (we use for rashes on belly)
- Bum Genius newborn diapers
- Eco Nuts laundry nuts (for washing diapers)
- Fuzzibunz one size diapers (for when she outgrows the newborns)
- A happy baby, of course!
I cloth diapered for the first few months of my firstborn’s life because we had a diaper service (which soon shut down) and a locker would have been an extremely smart idea! I love it!!! Great job.
Thank you so much for posting this! I’m getting ready for baby (10 weeks left) and this list is great! SO many choices it’s nice to hear what people have chosen that’s working for them! XOXO
i absolutely LOVED the lockers in your nursery and couldn’t believe you found them on Craigslist. What a great find!
and lucy? i love her hair! such a sweet baby <3 congrats Mama!!!
The lockers definitely get ooohs and aaaahs from me, they are adorable!
Love the lockers!!! Lucy Jo is sooo cute. Love all that hair!!!
I think having a locker in a baby’s room is a fantastic idea! And they’re so cute!
Lockers! What a fab idea! I love that they’re pink on the inside too!
I love the lockers so much!
A good way to keep the diapers clean is to set them outside to dry in the sun, it helps a lot! Best of luck. And my goodness, she is a cutie! Congrats!
Yes! I’ve heard that you can even sun diapers in rain and snow! I haven’t tried it yet, because we aren’t dealing with bad stains yet. But I wanted too, and was concerned about the number of grey days we have here this time of year. I guess it’s okay!
Lucy is one lucky baby! xo. Deanna
another cloth diapering momma here — one child until she was potty trained, and the second child is now 5 months old.
1) make your own wipes. If you are already doing laundry, why not also wash the wipes? Get some thin cloths; then wet with a mix of water, essential oils, witch hazel, etc. They smell yummy and feel awesome. I keep mine in a wipe warmer, but you could put the pre-moistened cloths in any air-tight container.
2) Do not put your covers in the dryer. Driers compromise the velcro tabs and waterproofing more quickly than they should.
3) a littlle sunlight does wonders on stains.
4) install a handheld sprayer on your toilet. Not yet, but when the babe starts eating something other than breast milk. It makes the rinsing so much easier. Tip: buy a cheap sprayer and hose (you know, those black nozzles that you see on sinks) from the hardware store for a few dollars, rather than buying the kind that cloth diaper companies sell for about $60.
5) you did not mention laundry detergent — use a “free and clear” for sure. I like Charlies powder for diapers, but use various detergents (both powder and liquid). Use a VERY small amount of detergent. Make sure you do a prewash and an extra rinse, in addition to your hottest sanitize cycle.
As someone who has been cloth diapering two kids for three years–and another on the way–I completely agree with the idea of homemade wipes. I’m too lazy though, so we keep a spray bottle of water with a little Dr. Bronners on the changing table and use baby washcloths as dedicated wipes. Spray the baby, wipe, and launder with the diapers.
And I like both Rockin’ Green and Nellie’s for natural, cloth diaper safe cleaning products.
My cousin also has some cloth wipes she is promising me. I’m just waiting for her to bring them by. I am SHOCKED at how quickly the disposable wipes are going by! I feel like I should be monitoring Phil when he changes her, because I think he uses more than he needs. haha
I love your idea of just buying a generic sprayer! We were going to eventually buy a sprayer (when she starts eating solids), and I’m glad I didn’t buy one yet. As far as laundry detergent goes, if you look above you will see the “Eco Nuts” that kind of look like little poopies in the basket of diapers! (ha!) Those are what I am using for washing the diapers. They were recommended to my by my lactation consultant, but as I haven’t used any other products, I have nothing to compare them to. Are you familiar with them?
Oh — and one more thing. Always have a stash of disposables. If you get a severe case of diaper rash, switch to disposables for a day or so and slather the baby’s bottom with Desitin. In my opinion, it works so much better than the “organic” diaper creams that say they are OK for cloth diapers.
These tips are fantastic–definitely going in my “bun in the oven” bookmarks folder! ;) I think we’re planning on disposables at first and then switching to cloth once the baby gets a bit bigger. At times I get really overwhelmed by all the extra stuff and work cloth requires, but it just seems to make a lot more sense for us economically in the long run (since hopefully this will be the first of a few babies I have! ;) ). It’s good to know that a new, first-time mama is handling it well–gives me confidence I’ll be up to it!
Make sure you keep abreast of the comments! haha Because I don’t really know what I’m doing, and these ladies have great advice! :)
Happy to see you are a CD momma! I think it’s very hard to keep up with the laundry when you could be sleeping/eating/showering/working/etc. but the payoff is so great! Cute baby bums in cloth diapers just kill me. Not to mention reducing landfill waste and saving money!
I CD’d for the first 6 months, and we are currently on a break from it while he is transitioning to solids and the poop is too messy to deal with. It’s so great when they are exclusively breastfed that you can just throw everything in the wash without rinsing first! Water soluble poop is a godsend.
oh ps – I wanted to mention Grandma El’s diaper cream is CD safe and smells like heaven. We’ve loved that for our baby.
pps – your little one is just beautiful! congrats!
Good to know! I’ve been warned that California Baby products aren’t really CD safe after all.
i just wanted to let you know that the california baby diaper cream is NOT safe for cloth diapers! i’ve been cloth diapering for two years now and found that out the hard way. ANYTHING that is either petroleum or zinc-based will ruin your diapers after repeated exposure. CJ’s BUTTer is my favorite, and it helps rashes clear up in no time at all! i just wanted to save you the frustration of finding that your diapers won’t absorb after long.
Good to know! My cousin warned me not to use it. She gave me a piece of fleece to put along the areas where I use the diaper rash cream, to save the fleece of the diaper. But I haven’t been using it. We’ve only used the calendula cream, and only a couple of times. Hope they’re okay!
I don’t know if you can get these in the States, but we have something here in the UK called Cheeky Wipes (http://www.cheekywipes.com). They are reusable wipes that are absolutely brilliant and much more effective than regular disposable wipes. They were designed by a mum and she’s thought of everything, from having different boxes for dirty and clean wipes, to how to get them in the washing machine, to taking them out and about. They also have a discount code for this weekend (20th-21st October) and the code is ‘2000likers’.
I’m expecting my own wee one in a week or two, so stocking up on all the essentials! I’m probably going to use Beaming Babies biodegradable nappies (http://www.beamingbaby.com), as living in a flat makes reusables a lot less practical! Good luck with everything and your family are gorgeous =)