Dirty Diaper Laundry Blog Carnival

Welcome to Dirty Diaper Laundry’s first Cloth Diaper Carnival. “What you wish you knew then that you know now.”

I didn't start out cloth diapering Eliza when she was born. It is something I started looking into when she was about 6 months old. I am not sure how or why I started thinking about cloth diapers, but I did and today we use our cloth full time.

So...what do I wish I knew then that I know now? I didn't know much at all so that isn't too tough a question. I decided I wanted to go with One Size diapers so that I could use them as E grew and possible for another baby. However, I made what I consider to be rookie mistakes.

Velcro
It never occurred to me how quickly the Velcro on my diapers would wear out. I only started with 10 diapers and I washed them every day! I thought I was saving money but I really wasn't. I was actually killing my diaper stash. If I had to go back I would certainly add some snap diapers into the mix. I now use Smartipants which have snaps and I LOVE them. I have also replaced the Velcro on my first batch of Bum Genius OS dipes.

Size Does Matter
The size of your stash makes a difference. I don't know what I was thinking with my 10 diapers. A bigger stash means less wear and tear. Less wear and tear means being able to reuse diapers with multiple children and possible even making some money by selling your stash when you are done with diapering. It may seem like a big investment at first but it truly will pay off in the end.

Variety is the Spice of Life
I bought all Bum Genius when I was tarting out. Actually, that is a lie. I did buy a sampler pack but quickly decided I liked Bum Genius the best. It turns out I really didn't get a good sampling of what was available. Since that time I have discovered many other types of dipes that I like. Fortunately, we now have social networking like Twitter and Facebook where companies can get the word out about their products. The downside is that I now have a small cloth diaper addiction.

Those are really my only regrets. I have learned a tremendous amount since I started out on this journey. I am sure I still have a lot left to learn- especially since I will be cloth diapering a newborn pretty soon.

There is no one best way to cloth diaper. Each and every family must find the diapers and the system that works the best for them.