Cloth Diapering

When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted to cloth diaper.  Being a college student, money is very, very tight at times.  I knew cloth diapering would be a great way to save lots of money and help save the environment too.  However, I quickly learned that building up a stash would not be as cheap as I had hoped.  I was looking at spending at least 300 to just get started on a smaller sized stash.  It wasn't long before I discovered Ebay diapers and Craigslist.  On Ebay, I got 12 diapers with 2 inserts each for less than $100.  From Craigslist I got: a decent stash of small Gdiapers for free, 17 Kushies diapers for $60. and then a mixed stash of Kawaii, GoGreen Pocket Diapers, and JustSimplyBaby pocket diapers (31 in total).  I spent less than $300 on my stash which has given me a grand total of 68 diapers!!!  With one baby, I DO NOT need 68 diapers but this was a great way to give me a chance to try a bunch of different diapers to see which ones I liked best. 

The Gdiapers, which were the most popular brand of diapers, were alright in my opinion.  I really liked the fact that I could use the same cover and just use the insert.  I also liked the fact that you could use either cloth or disposable inserts.  What I did not like was that it was a little difficult to get the insert to stay in the liner, it seemed to fall out a lot.  This difficulty is what made Monkey's Daddy HATE the Gdiapers.

I really liked the Kushies.  The nice thing about them was that they were just like a disposable in the fact that there were no pockets to stuff or unstuff and they held a ton of water.  I never had any leaks with them, even when he wore then for 6 hours overnight.  What I did not like about them was that they were HUGE.  These were meant to fit babies from 10-22 lbs but when Monkey was 10 lbs, these still looked giant on him.   They're also all gender neutral.  Gender neutral is great but I'm really a fan of cute diapers...and, face it, gender neutral things are never as cute!  These diapers also take a lifetime to dry since they are so thick.

My favorite diapers were the pocket diapers.  Aside from stuffing the darn pockets, they work exactly like a disposable.  At first, I had trouble with leaks overnight.  I fixed this by double stuffing them and making sure I didn't leave them on for any longer than 6 hours.  Since I've bought them, I've played around with inserts and discovered that a microfiber plus bamboo insert works best for overnight.  I also love that these are one-size so fit him now and will continue to fit him until he's potty trained.  That means I no longer have to worry about building up my stash.


Another way I've discovered to try diapers is through giveaways!  I wish I had found this out BEFORE Monkey was born so that I could have read more in-depth reviews about which diapers people liked and didn't like.  Maybe then I could have been steered in the right direction in the first place. 
If you're interested in trying to win a diaper, head over to Momma Told Me's giveaway of an Oh Katy! one-size pocket diaper.

http://www.mommatoldmeblog.com/2011/09/make-way-for-baby-oh-katy-pocket.html