I have cloth diapered Claire now for around 6 months now and Will (obviously) for 4 weeks. I just realized that Will has never worn a disposable! That is amazing to me. I think we have some "sposies" for him that someone gave us that are newborn sized... We obviously never used them and he is no longer in that size!
Anyway, I just wanted to make a list of what has worked well for us so far.
LOVE: (aka- must have... ;)
We use these now for both Claire and Will. We found that they work even better than Kissaluvs and Covers on Will once his umbilical cord fell off at around 5 days old! We still use the Kissaluvs and they are really great, but the BGs are just a little bit easier. I'll get more into that later! I absolutely love how easy they are and how they snap down into a tiny size that fits Will just as well as they fit Claire on the larger setting! Absolutely amazing how someone came up with a diaper that is really one size!
These look and feel like dryer sheets. I use them with Claire. They just line the diaper and then if it's a messy diaper, it lifts right out and you simply flush the mess away. No dunking. No swishing. It is seriously the easiest thing ever!
I'm never going back to not using liners! They are inexpensive and when the diaper is just wet, the liner can be washed and reused so we almost never run out! The vast majority of the liners get reused over and over again. I suppose eventually we'll run out, but it is well worth the minuscule expense to use these. Considering how long they last since only the messy ones are flushed, it's a steal really! Especially for how much easier they make cloth diapering. I feel like I get the "best of both worlds" this way (best of disposable and best of cloth).
I will definitely start using these with Will when he starts eating solids. For now (since he is exclusively breastfed) his diapers are no problem. They just get thrown straight into the wash and everything comes out in the wash.
We bought 8 of these a while back to use with Claire. We would fold one in thirds or quarters and lay it inside a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap and that would be her diaper! This was before the discovery of BumGenius diapers. But they worked well for that. However, now we find them essential. We use them as burp cloths, mattress protectors, changing pads and even blankets on occasion! They are so huge, thick, and absorbent, they have become one of our favorite go-to diapers for all-purpose use! We line the carseat with them to save ourselves from spit-up disasters, we place them under, around, and on top of Will wherever he is! haha!
I splurged with my Christmas money and bought myself three of these covers. I got blue, green, and yellow. They work really well, wash up beautifully, dry incredibly fast, and they are hands down the cutest covers ever! Really it's all about the cute! I love using them. I use them with the Kissaluvs of course.
These are what come included with the BG One-Sized diapers, but we bought some extras. We put two inserts in Claire's night time diaper and it holds through the night with no leaks at all! A very valuable feature!
We were given this before Emily was born and I've always loved it, but it works so well for holding cloth wipes I'm especially glad to have it now! The one time I have wiped Will's little bottom with a cold wipe brought some of his loudest screams ever. I'd really like to never do that again!
Also like: (aka- use a lot and we're glad we have...)
We bought these specifically to get Will through that tiny newborn stage. Now honestly, we only really needed them until his umbilical stump fell off which happened really early for him (around 5 days I think). I didn't realize that the BumGenius diapers would work for him so soon! But it was something I couldn't have known. I didn't know how well they would fit a tiny baby and I was worried about containment of those runny breastfed messy diapers. I also didn't know how big he'd be at birth and that he'd be able to fit into them so quickly.
Anyway, the Kissaluvs were the only thing that really worked at first because they are specially designed for newborns. They have a really great umbilical cord snap-down feature and they are so soft and stretchy, they'd fit almost any baby, no matter what shape. They contain even the messiest blow-outs really well and our covers NEVER get dirty! I do wash our covers, but they hardly need it. They never get messy because those Kissaluvs really do keep the entire mess inside the diaper! We are able to air-dry our covers between uses and they stay clean much longer with Kissaluvs than with prefolds.
The big advantage of the Kissaluvs are their fit, containment, comfort, softness, and ease of use.
At this point my only complaint with Kissaluvs isn't really the diaper's fault at all. However, Will is a super-soaker and he soaks through the Kissaluvs in no time at all and once they are completely soaked (as in... you could wring it out. Ew.), the dampness has no where to go but out so he has gotten his sleepers or onesies slightly damp on his legs a few times if we didn't change him quick enough. When he wears his Kissaluvs I just have to remember to change him fairly frequently. We don't have quite enough of the bumGenius diapers to diaper both Claire and Will full-time so the Kissaluvs are still quite essential for Will once the BGs run out!
He can wear a BumGenius through the night and not get even slightly damp so that is the advantage of the BGs for Will.
We were given a few of these second-hand. (Yay for generous friends!) I actually didn't really love these that much because they seemed a little "cheap" in comparison to our other covers, BUT- they were the only covers that truly fit well in those first few days. And they have a great dip to allow for that umbilical cord stump and that was completely necessary at first as all our other covers irritated the umbilical area. So they were a necessity at first and obviously for that reason- nice to have!
We were given one of these second-hand and I just discovered/found it this week! It has a really good fit and the gussets cover our Kissaluvs perfectly. I'm really pleased with it and I was even more pleased to look them up online and find that they are quite affordable!
We have used these in size medium for Claire and now in the Newborn and Small sizes for Will! We were given a couple newborn sizes second-hand which fit beautifully (once his cord stump was gone) for about.... oh- two days? haha! But the smalls fit great now and work well. We have a few white covers and one cute froggy print cover. I think I prefer the Litewrap and the Super Brites to these just because the gussets make me feel a little bit more secure. However, the SWW really do work well and have a great long-lasting sturdy construction so I know they'll last a long time and continue to do the job well. They are a staple of cloth diapering to me so yes, I'm really glad to have them!
We got a sample pack of these with some diapers once. They are really neat! We don't really need them, but they were fun to use while they lasted. You simply drop one tiny soap cube in some warm water and it dissolves into a wonderful-smelling wipes solution. While we had these we used it for the wipes warmer and also for a on-the-go wipes solution. We put some in a spray bottle which we keep in the diaper bag along with some dry wipes. If we need to change a baby while out, we just spray a wipe with the solution until it is damp and then we have an instant wet-wipe! And it keeps well in the spray bottle since it has antimicrobial properties and natural preservatives. I may splurge on some more of this sometime. I really liked having it!
I got this only because it was on sale, but I like it a lot! It stays in our diaper bag and when a diaper has to be changed while we are out, it goes into the bumGenius wetbag which keeps it very neatly contained until we get home and can put the dirty diaper in the pail. This little bag is truly waterproof (unlike the Bummis Tote) and contains even the messiest diapers without getting anything else in the diaper bag messy. It can hold around 3 diapers! Before we got this wetbag we were using ziplock bags for dirty diapers. Ziplocks work too, but of course, we were having to throw them away after use and we were going through them rather quickly. This wetbag is obviously washable and reusable!
Not loving so much: (aka- would like to find something better...)
We are using this a lot and like it to a certain extent. It is doing the job we need, but I think the job could be done better. We use this tote mainly as a diaper pail liner. The problem is that it is supposed to be waterproof, but it always has moisture on the outside of it. I got it with the thought that it would prevent me from having to wash the diaper pail between uses, but it hasn't held true to that. I still wipe out the pail between uses and I'd love to not have to do that every time. We also use it when we travel and it would be nice to have a tote that could be hung up or placed on the floor with no worries of moisture or odor getting on the surfaces that it might touch (carpet, walls, etc). When we were at home over Christmas we kept it in a cardboard box. Just a little inconvenient. I am open to suggestions for better and more waterproof pail liners/diaper totes!
Would like to try: (aka- everything else! haha!)
Actually, there are about a zillion different diapers and diaper accessories that I would love to try, but this one pulls ahead a little bit, even though we have enough covers (and use the BumGenuises more anyway which require no cover!) and have no practical reason to try a new one...
But, I keep hearing over and over (from moms that use them and love them) that these work even better than the Bummis (which is hard for me to imagine) and not only that, but they are cheaper! So I am very interested. They have really nice looking gussets, good construction, and cute colors! Someday maybe I will get to try them out! (If any of our covers ever wear out or something? ha!)
And I must end this overly-lonng post with some cute diaper pictures! I wish I had more (and more recent) pictures of Will in his various diaper covers and bumGenius diapers, but this is all I've got for now...
Here Will is (on the day he was born!) in a size 0 Kissaluv (no cover just yet). We loved the snap-down for his umbilical cord! These diapers are so soft- they are like cute little round pillows!
Here he is in a Kissaluv with a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap cover.
This is again a Kissaluv, but this time covered with a Bummis Super Brite! So cute!
