Washing Cloth Diapers

We have been cloth diapering for 3 months now and one of my biggest challenges has been trying to find a wash routine that works for us. My main issue was that the diapers were not getting clean enough. I found that the diapers would smell really bad when baby went pee, the kind of smell that reminded me of dirty wet towels. I played around with different wash routines, I even stripped the diapers more then a few times thinking the issue may be a build up of some sort. I contacted Rock n Green to see if maybe they could help. I tried using more detergent, I tried using less detergent but nothing seemed to work. Finally, one day I took the time to watch the wash cycle and noticed that the hot water would run out when the water level hit medium (I was using large) and by the time the water made it to a large load the water was cold. So with that being said, this is how I wash our cloth diapers:

1. Cold rinse & spin
2. Hot soak/wash (2-3tbs RnG, our washing machine offers a soak feature before it washes using the same water)
3. Cold rinse & spin
4. Extra cold rinse & spin
5. Tumble dry the inserts for 30 minutes (just to that they are not soaking wet)
6. Hang dry everything on a drying rack

I should also add that we use Rockin' Green detergent and use a medium water level.

After using this method for a few weeks now, I noticed that our diapers have become SO much cleaner but still not 100% clean. The reason I think is due to the fact that we have a very cheap washing machine that doesn't agitate strong enough. If only I could just go out and buy a new one :)

How we came to Cloth Diaper

Not a lot of people know this about our family but we are cloth diapering our daughter Chelsea. I first started thinking about the idea of cloth diapering when I was pregnant but when I brought this up to Lee he said no way and I left it at that. I decided to revisit the idea when Chelsea was about 3 month old after watching a large number of videos on YouTube, they made it look so fun and easy. So.. for the second time I brought the idea up to Lee and again without thinking he said no way! After LOTS of convincing he agreed to let me buy one cloth diaper and give that a try.

I put this one cloth diaper on her and quickly realized that I liked it but I was going to need more then one to really get a feel for what it's like. I then looked online and found a private seller of brand new Bum Genius diapers for a great price, I bought 6, now I was ready to give cloth a try! I loved it right away and immediately wanted to buy more. People warned me that cloth diapering was addictive and this was the moment I knew why. Next I ordered a brand new FuzziBunz diaper and a pail liner and only 2 days later (thanks to black Friday sales) I ordered 6 more FuzziBunz diapers. I was very determined not to pay full price for cloth diapers as they are VERY expensive and I was already on the fence about it really saving us money so out of a stash of 21 diapers; 16 were sale prices, 3 were full price, and 2 were free.

To sum things up, It has now been almost 3 months since we started cloth diapering and we love it. Even Lee, who was one hundred percent against it, has since said to me "you were right".

Here are a few of the reasons why we love it:

1. We will save tons of money
2. Cloth diapers are as easy to use as disposables
3. Less waste to landfills
4. No diaper rash
5. They come in cute colours/patterns
6. No leaks!

Feel free to ask me questions!!! More cloth diaper blogs to come!