This post is not endorsed by Alva Baby diapers I just happen to be such a fan of their diapers! In all honesty, I am writing this post to let inquiring moms know that cloth diapering is doable- once you overcome that scary unknown of a learning curve. It isn't for everyone but if you have a desire to at least give it a good try you may very well find it worth your investment.
When I was pregnant with my first baby I immediately gravitated toward blogs and YouTube videos about cloth diapers. I had my mind set on it from early on. Two months before my due date I placed two orders. One to Sunbaby diapers for six pocket diapers and 12 inserts and the other order was through Alva Baby diapers for 9 pocket diapers that included 18 microfiber inserts.
After I had my baby, I really just put cloth diapering on the back burner. It was overwhelming in and of itself to have a newborn, I didn't need the added stress. By about six months, when the stress had died down (somewhat, never fully!) I pulled out the diapers and started trying them out. I had bought the Sunbaby diapers in size 2 (the bigger size) because I figured that babies do nothing but grow so its better to grow into than out of. They fit my 20 lb boy perfectly. I think that they were even on the second smallest setting, so definitely room to grow. However, by the time he was about 25 lbs, at a year old, he had pretty much grown out of the Sunbaby Size 2 diapers. I knew I had to find something that worked well so I could grow my supply and start cloth diapering full time.
With the Alva's I seemed to keep getting leaks. I later came to learn that the older my child has got, the better the Alvas fit him. So at the the time I put the Alvas away and started researching to bulk up my diaper supply. I followed a local cloth diaper group on Facebook. I learned a lot but honestly, if it wasn't for sheer will, I probably would have quit it altogether. Whenever I posted a question on the Facebook page I felt like I got hit with an information bomb and I couldn't unpiece and organize it into cohesive knowledge. Please understand that I completely appreciate the well of information, but it may have been a little... overwhelming. Everyone had their own unique and very strong opinion. Some girls claimed that flats and covers were THE way to go. I researched that avenue and ended up investing money into Green Mountain Diapers flats. I really love the quality of their products and I loved that they explained the mystery of washing cloth in a very simple and straightforward way.
But in the end, the Alva pockets have been my go-to. By the time I fully committed myself to cloth diapering, my baby was a year old so whatever method needed to be the quickest and simplest. I ended up placing another bulk Alva order so that I ended up with 18 diapers which lasts me about 2-3 days between washings. I also bought 36 Alva bamboo inserts. If you do buy this brand and use this method that I'm explaining then do yourself a favor and relegate any microfiber liners to washing cars or dusting furniture. For one thing, microfiber isn't good directly on baby's skin. But bamboo can be directly on their skin. I seriously love the Alva inserts compared to the Sunbaby inserts. They are definitely wider, have a very silky and soft feel to them and they wash and dry just great. Here is a link to the site I ordered from.
Let me start by saying that I do not stuff my pocket diapers. If I did, I probably would be burned out and over the whole thing by now. I keep the inserts flat directly on the inside part, where the bum goes (on the left side).
Also, once my boy grew big enough to have pretty substantial pees which were leading to pretty continuous leaks, I learned that by lying the first insert flat then folding the second and placing it in the front of the diaper (boys pee in front, girls pee in back), my leak problems almost went away entirely.
So again, I learned that my Alva leaks were coming from one of two reasons: (1) The diapers were either too big and I needed to make adjustments (that and they fit better as he grew into them) and (2) they needed to be double lined in front. The double lining them (and not stuffing them) really helped solve a lot of leaks though.
Once you have the diaper on your little exhibit teddy bear, you line up the buttons so that you are getting a snug-but-not-too-snug fit. There are the hip snaps on the side then the waist hips on top.
Adjustments: I realized that I hadn't mentioned adjusting the lower snaps for smaller babies which is why I have a new exhibit. (;
Because Alva diapers run so big you may need to adjust the smaller snaps for quite a while. It wasn't until my boy was probably about 1.5 years and 29 lbs that I stopped using the lower snaps altogether (and don't quote me on that because I'm writing this when he is almost three!). But here are some pictures to demonstrate.
The middle set of snaps line up with the top three set of snaps for a middle-size fit. For babies who are not too big but not too small (snap them all the way across, of course!).
The above picture is the lowest set of snaps that have been snapped into the top set of snaps. This is the smallest setting and would be used for smaller babies. My baby was at least 20 lbs before he fit into this setting. And I still had some leaks because he still needed to grow into them.
This is the absolute smallest setting for bottom snaps and hip snaps for Alva diapers.
Washing is so much more simple when explained by Green Mountain Diapers. Basically, you really just need a lot of water to clean cloth. Luckily, I live in a town without water restrictions and I still have an old school washer that uses lots of water. Breastfed baby poop is water soluble so the poop will be cleaned in the washer. Babies that are starting to eat solids and result in solid poop will require scraping or spraying off with a diaper sprayer. I don't own one and the few times that the poo doesn't roll off I scrape with toilet paper. No big deal. I've dealt with much worse.
Next, I set the washer to a rinse cycle, put the washer on the largest setting and usually turn the temperature to warm or hot water (for old stuck on poop). I sprinkle about 1/2 cup of baking soda and a 1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide in with the diapers. After that load I keep all the settings but change it to the longest wash cycle possible and add in a full cup of Persil detergent. I used to use Tide but my seemed to have a slight sensitivity to it and Persil cleans very well for me. There are additional detergents that I need to buy for the cloth diapers that I don't already buy for our own laundry routine. I notice that I go through about 3/4 to 1 full bottle of detergent per month washing three times per week.
Some say to add the detergent and do the longest load on the first wash. I've tried it that way and the diapers never got clean. Others say to do a prewash before and after the main wash. I feel like if I don't have to do any more washing than necessary, I would be happy with that. I cringed when I considered the amount of wear my washer was going to take with cloth diapering but it really seems to do just fine. But... I don't want to push it.
I will outline it again so its more simple to follow.
Washing Instructions:
Get the heavy poop off somehow. Scrape it in the toilet, spray it in the toilet or if the stars have aligned for you that day then it may roll off on its own.
Set your washer to warm or hot, depending on how dried/stuck on the poop is. Set the wash load to a load larger than it is. If I think I have a large load of diapers then I will set it to super. Set the washer to a prewash. Add the baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Add the diapers, making sure to evenly layer them so the washer has an easier time balancing. Let the washer do its thing.
Set the washer to the longest setting, leaving all the other adjustments the same. Add a cup of detergent. I rarely add less than a cup unless I have a very small load then I'll do about a half a cup.
Finally, dry the diapers. You can put them on a clothes line. A lot of people swear by this to get out stains. I just always dry them in the dryer- the diaper and the liners. Some say that it wears them out but I've never experienced any problems.
A word on stripping~
Diaper stripping is a method sometimes used to clean the diaper entirely of chemicals, residual detergent, or residual hard water. I've read suggestions to boiling diapers in a pot of water or washing them with a cup of bleach. I used to do the bleach method because I thought that my diapers constantly needed to be stripped. I finally realized that I just needed to change my wash routine (I was actually do the main wash first and the prewash second and so they never fully got clean). Now I no longer feel the need to strip the diapers because they feel clean and absorb well. However, Green Mountain Diapers suggests using a tablespoon of dish soap during the wash load- no more than that to avoid disaster!!
How I contain my dirty cloth diapers:
Too easy right? I literally do nothing with them. Okay, that's sort of a lie. If there is a big poo in the diaper then I get that off immediately but then I just roll the diaper up and throw it in this wonderfully-basic and utilitarian plastic milk crate until I am ready to wash. I have tried the wet bag method. Trapping the bacteria actually makes it stink worse. I've never tried the wet garbage pail method but, seriously, if this works and I don't have to clean anything in addition to do the diapers then why in the world would I? I have a special place for this crate in my boy's room in the corner, sitting on a bar stool. It only really starts to stink by about the third day. I don't do anything special to this milk crate in between washings. It just sits there and does its job of containing. Very effectively I might add ;)
Finally, I would like to add just one more thing. I don't use cloth wipes. In the midst of getting overwhelmed by cloth diaper research in general, I just put cloth wipes on the back burner. There were so many recipes for the cloth wipe "bath" that I just got overwhelmed. But, with any future children, it may be something that I will just need to add to my routine. There have been numerous times while wiping a poopy diaper that I wish I had gone that route. It would be so much easier to throw the cloth in with diapers into the washer rather than separate it so it can go in the garbage. Definitely on my radar for next time.
Pros of cloth diapering:
Landfill. I really do feel good about not contributing to that. Especially if I slack off of diapers for a week and notice that I'm taking the trash out literally twice as much.
Saving money! (Sure enough!)
Kids look freaking cute in cloth diapers. Also, I can slap a diaper on my boy and let him play in the sandbox or with the water hose and I he doesn't have a nasty soggy diaper hanging off his butt.
Cloth diapers pretty much double as my kid's shorts when playing around the house and yard in the summer. Yes, I am the lazy-mom variety.
I am unaffected by symptoms of ADD. Meaning that if I go on my weekly mad excursion to the grocery store and forget to buy half of the stuff on my list, diapers aren't going to be one of them.
Cons of cloth diapering:
Finding pants that fit my little boy's fluff bum. Yes this is a real struggle and one that almost completely turned me off of cloth diapering. I was always on the lookout for toddler stretchy pants but I learned that if I bought most of my boy's pants a size larger (which I probably would do anyway since I would rather my kid grow into rather than out of something I just bought) and then cuff his pants, it works just fine.
Travelling. No, absolutely not. Pull out those convenient disposables and appreciate them to pieces for these instances.
Night time: Disposables just generally work better. However, I actually do still end up using cloth more frequently for night time even though I sometimes get weird and unexplainable leaks (like when his diaper is dry but the bed is wet- what?). I've found that using an additional diaper cover such as Thirsties or Flips diaper covers works really well. I have one of each (pictures below) and absolutely recommend either of these two. Thirsties have the awesome velcro closure which helps a lot to get a very snug fit. But they're pricey so just having one of each has been enough. Also, "diaper covers" are basically like pocket diapers with the PUL or the waterproof material but without any liner or anything. You can rinse them off between uses (if its just pee) and are usually used with flats.
Again, I was not endorsed to write this review/how-to. I am actually just so genuinely impressed with a diaper brand that is touted as a "China Cheapie". I sometimes hear the Alva brand in a negative light but for someone who is looking for a simple and cheap method, meaning they don't have a budget to drop $10-20 on a pocket or diaper, this is a great alternative. I would guess that after buying about 36 bamboo diaper liners and 18 pocket diapers, I have probably spent altogether about $125-150. Which is crazy cheap in my book. After the countless washes and wear that my diapers have received, the PUL hasn't pilled, the buttons are still very snappy, and the liners are very minimally stained and still very soft and pliant.
I don't want to paint cloth diapering out to be the end-all easiest and fool-proof method. I do need to throw a disclaimer out there that some days I get weird leaks for no reason, I fumble with the snaps at 3 a.m. and I have been disgusted with scraping poo off. However, the easy times far outweigh the crappy times (no pun intended). And when I get those freaky blowouts? I pray to the diaper Gods that it was a cloth and not a disposable. There are certainly trade offs to both. But if I were to do it all over again, I just would have started cloth sooner!!
Phew!! I hope I covered mostly everything in this post! I also hope I haven't scared anyone off and maybe inspired or encouraged a few instead?
Comment below on your experiences or comments below!!