I am on this journey, too. It’s been about 6 months now, and I feel like a veteran…not ’cause I’m so smart about it (didn’t know about the rice paper!), but because we have routines now and it’s not a big deal anymore. HOWEVER…

When I first started I was smelling urine ALL THE TIME. I don’t know if that meant that I smelled like it, or my son, or just that some of those little urine particles were up in my nose torturing me. I was going to blog about it (that and all the phantom baby crying that I would hear constantly, often waking in the middle of the night, that was not my son). Fortunately, that insanity has regressed before requiring therapy.

Anyway. I use a combination of the BumGenius pocket diapers (which I add a Hemp Babies liner to for overnight) and regular ol’ prefolds with a cover. I like them both equally - it depends on which mood I’m in. I try to reuse the covers, and may do it once, but usually the soft fabric part around the leg openings (the not-waterproof part) gets soaked…smelly, and not comfortable, I can imagine. I will push the limits of yuckiness when I am home all day (which is most of the time, actually).

Here are the entries from my own blog that relate to diapering:
http://thep-pod.blogspot.com/search/label/diapers

I have fought the poopies. They do take the occasional battle, but I am winning the war. Things got so much easier when my son started on solid food. (I have yet to blog on this). His poop got solid, too, and would just fall right off into the toilet! Amazingly simple! Whew!

BTW, my son used to only poop once a day, but when he started solids, it became 3-4 times. The only way I have endured is that I no longer have to stick my hands into the toilet water.

The new problem, with solids, is that overnight (this is my theory), I think the diapers did such a good job absorbing and wicking that his poopies would ball up into little marbles, which then rolled out of the edges of the leg holes and into the crib. I was changing the crib sheet (a horrendous task with the crib I have) every day for a week. This problem hasn’t occurred for a little while now - not sure…was he dehydrated or was it the diaper? Don’t know. Just gross. (I will not describe what he smelled like after rolling around on that all night.)

Good job! It will get easier, I promise! It takes finding what you like using best, and then sticking to it for a month and establishing some routines.

I use the flushable inserts with gDiapers (an eco-friendly cross between cloth and disposable diapers).

A lot of moms use cloth inserts with their gDiaper covers, and there is a Yahoo! Group of moms that share advice about using gDiapers or cloth diapers. They often talk about a diaper sprayer that can be used to rinse cloth diapers in the toilet.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gdiapers/

If you join the group, you can find helpful info from the archives or you can post questions and these women are so helpful.

If you sign up to get the Yahoo! Group emails, go with the digest version. (You get one email with a summary of the discussions instead of getting 25 to 50 emails a day!) There are a lot of off-topic discussions, too. This group is great for all kinds of mothering concerns and I’ve learned so much about green cleaning and green personal care products from these women. For example, I’m currently reading Green This! by Deidre Imus b/c I saw it recommended on the group discussion.

With Amira we used FuzziBunz at night and with Nico we use a combo of BumGenius and Wonderoos. We still fill the BumGenius and Wonderoos with a double insert for Nico at night and have no problems of leaking at night. With the FuzziBunz, we inserted a prefold and i can’t recall having a problem either. I found the diapers that you fill with an insert were nicer for night time sleeping because the pee was kept off their little bums during the night. With Amira we used pro-wraps and prefolds during the day, held together by a Snappi and didn’t have too many leaks. With Nico we have used the BumGenius during the day and never have leaks. A more expensive investment but we only needed one size so it ended up probably the same in the long run. I went through about 6 diapers a day with him until he potty trained recently. He is a pooper unfortunately…and really unfortunately, I ran out of rice liners a long time ago! : ) My trick when we ran out was having a roll of toilet paper handy. I found it less disgusting to try either shake the poo out of it was nice and formed or “scooping” it out with toilet paper. I just could not get myself to be fishing around in a toilet! We have a “laundry sink” that I often rinsed the diapers in after…that always got cleaned out very well. I know you’ll use liners mostly…but just in case you run into an instance where Selah gives you a non-lined surprise, wanted to share what I did. The thing I liked about the Bum Genius diapers…they grew with Nico’s size (we used them from 4 months when we got them to current day when he sleeps) and the liners are supposedly the “thirstiest” liners out there.

Just for future tips. We use a nighttime diaper for Amira called the “Nikky Nighttime” something. Not sure if it’s called a pull up or diaper. It is like a pull up though. She just cannot stay dry and has saved us SO much money on disposable nighttime diapers. I fully plan on using them for Nico once he gets a little bigger. They are expensive at $25 a diaper. We bought 2 and have fully gotten our money back compared to what we could have spent on years of pull ups.

A few other resources I should have emailed you weeks ago…I got most of my diapers and natural products from http://www.naturalbabies.com. I think the woman now lives in Michigan. She has SO many resources! And is helpful. When I asked her with initial questions, she was very honest what I needed and what was best. Didn’t try to sell for the sake of selling. Diaperpin.com has loads of reviews on different products. I can’t find the place I bought the Nikky nighttime diaper but I will pass it on once I find it online.

hang in there! it will get easier! Email me with questions if you have them…would love to share our experience with you.

For us, prefolds and wraps worked really well. The major factor in the success was the rice paper liners. I ordered them from http://www.kellyscloset.com. There have been times when C has had a really really messy diaper and I had realized that I forgot a liner. In TWO of these situations, I got so frustrated and disgusted with washing the diaper out that I actually THREW the cloth prefold OUT! Isn’t that awful?! Not accomplishing the purpose of the cloth decision, but I really couldn’t handle it. And now I’m admitting this in public! But, overall, I found that once I had my system, it worked so well for us.

For bedtime, we either doubled up the prefold or stuck in a special thick insert that is made super absorbant especially for bedtime. The only time I experienced leaks was when C would sleep in her tummy all night. Then at times she would be wet up to her neck. I don’t think that was a diaper issue as much as 14 hours of sleep situation!

My brother and sister in law love their system and never ever use disposables (their daughter is 16 months). Let me know if you want her email address. She researched extensively and they order everything on the web. And the diapers are really cute too! They also use all natural laundry detergent especially for the diapers and covers, which cuts down on wear and tear and is gentle on the baby’s bum.

I’ll be eager to hear all about your process…thinking of you!

It makes it so much more fun when you put cute diapers on their bum. I just made these for my almost 2 year old–
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/2764449502_f3112c6c23.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2763597311_9d5cecba6c.jpg

I completely admit though, she wears a disposable diaper at night! I even try leave it on her in the morning until she has her first poo