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Monday, September 5, 2011

Adventures in Cloth Diapering: 2 years later...

We have been cloth diapering for over two years now. If you've been around our blog that long, you'll know that we settled on Fuzzi Bunz. They are "One-Sized" meaning they are designed to last from birth to potty training.

Here is the series I posted when we were making all the decisions and getting into cloth diapering:
  1. The beginning (We started with Bun Genius)
  2. The sun is amazing (stain removal via sunlight) 
  3. Reviews and new diapers 
  4. And the winner is... (decision to use Fuzzi Bunz) 
  5. Cloth wipes 
  6. How I wash those smelly dipes
My review of Fuzzi Bunz and cloth diapering in general - 2 years later...
  • Smell - After the diapers are cleaned, they smell pretty neutral. I have noticed that once John goes pee the diapers smell like ammonia sometimes. After looking into this problem, I discovered that it is probably caused by soap build-up. This can be solved by "stripping" the diapers. I don't do this on a regular enough basis to know if it would really work. I have stripped the diapers and it does seem to help, but I generally just try to keep him in a dry diaper and deal with the stinking factor.
  • Repelling - Sometimes the diapers have repelled pee. For example, more than once the diapers have leaked and they weren't even wet! Again, this problem was solved with a good stripping.
  • Rash - About a year ago, John had a terrible rash. His skin was raw and welted to the point that cream would not stick to it. He had it for weeks and I was trying everything to get rid of it. We had to switch to disposables during this time because I didn't want to damage the cloth by using various creams that we were trying (you must use special creams on cloth diapering that won't build up on the fabric, which can cause more repelling). I believe the rash was caused by his "all night diaper" as we called it, which was a Fuzzi Bunz diaper with two absorbing inserts inside... let's just say he had a fluffy bum at night! His bottom just couldn't handle being exposed to all that moisture during the night and the diaper wasn't good at pulling the moisture away from his skin. I sought advice from many friends. One told me I should try athletes foot cream because it has an anti-fungal properties. She told me the key ingredient was Clotrimazole. I was willing to try anything, so we went and bought a tube of athlete's foot cream. It worked!! Within three days, the rash was pretty much gone. Two results came from that experience: 1. We keep athlete's foot cream in our diaper supplies, and 2. We put John in a disposable diaper at night. Thankfully, we have not had the problem again since the disposable keeps his skin dry at night.
  • Fitting - The one-sized Fuzzi Bunz diapers grows by adjusting the elastic in the legs and back. This system has worked well and the diapers have really grown with John. He is 2 years and 4 months old now and the diapers still fit!
  • Quality? - I still think the Fuzzi Bunz diapers are high quality. No, they are not white anymore and they've seen better days. But, since I've only had 8 diapers, these diapers have been through a lot of washing and wear. I use to have 9 diapers, but the PUL on one of the diapers started to separate, so I had to take it out of the rotation. I think this happened because I started drying the diapers in the dryer instead of air drying them - to speed up the process. Now I make sure to air dry them to prolong the life of the diapers.
  • The Verdict - I am very happy with Fuzzi Bunz and we just got more for Baby #2! My friends threw a shower for me a couple of weeks ago and they gave me a set of diapers! I requested a set of 12 so that I could have more in my rotation. It will be especially nice when John is potty trained and I can use all the diapers for Brother. So when John is out of diapers I will have 20 diapers to use for one child (a dream come true!).
Here are some pictures comparing old and new diapers:

New diapers!!

L-Old, R-New (Notice the old is pretty brown!)

Lining of the old diapers, the fabric is pilled and not as soft

New diaper lining - it's like a cloud!

Diaper inserts: L-Old, R-New (notice the old is brown and isn't as soft)

That wraps up my 2 year review! Let me know if you have any questions

3 comments:

  1. Okay, Lindsey, that's it. I am now determined to call you one of these days - I feel sometimes like we are living parallel lives a state apart! Well, maybe not quite, but pretty close.
    I was quite sad to have to give up huckleberry picking this year and one of the reasons is that I was looking forward to comparing notes with you.
    I had a few similar experiences with our Mother-ease diapers (which we still love and are lasting wonderfully through #2). I found putting a bit of vinegar in our diaper pail and a bit in the wash cycle completely changed the smelly pee problem. (I didn't know about stripping). I also found that using a disposable at night worked best when an unstoppable rash hit.

    Peggy (St. Hilaire)

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  2. You're funny, Peggy! I'd love to chat with you sometime! =) I was sad you couldn't go berry picking too - we missed you! Thanks for the tip on the vinegar. I have tried using that off and on, but was never really sure if it was doing anything... Maybe I should try it again. Talk to you soon!

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  3. So neat to read this. I am on a cloth diaper high since starting a few weeks ago. So neat to see it going on 2 years later!

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