I use Le Petite Ourse pocket diapers. The new ones with the wicking fabric. I have a relatively new LG HE front loader. I haven't tested our water hardness but the city says it's somewhere between 132-241 mg/L. Here's my wash routine.

1st wash:

Normal wash. Warm water. Medium spin. High soil. 1/2 C borax. Tide Powder line 1. This load is just diapers.

2nd wash:

Heavy duty. Hot water. Medium spin. High soil. 1/2 C borax. Tide powder line 3. This load I bulk with a bunch of old pocket inserts so the machine is over half full.

I use medium spin or else my washing machine jumps around. It seems level, but it still moves a ton on high spin.

After this. There is still chunks of poop in the elastics and the top fabric does not look clean. Would washing machine agitator balls help? I'm very new to cloth and I'm determined to find something that works!

I’m worried we made a newbie mistake! My husband and I will be welcoming in our baby girl any day/week now, and we’re both fully committed to cloth diapering. The plan is to use disposable diapers until the meconium passes, then move on to cloth diapers from there.

We bought two different types of cloth diapers: Esembly size 1 (24 inners and 6 outers) and Lunapaca size Medium (6 flats and 1 outer), plus some additional inserts from both sites for more absorbency overnight.

We’re on a pretty tight budget so I don’t want to have to buy more if we can help it, but I’ve seen that Esembly diapers often don’t fit newborns even though they’re supposed to fit 7 lbs and up! Any recommendations for us?

I keep seeing post of not cloth diapering until weeks even months later. Is this standard? I’m planning a day 1 cloth diapering and using disposables I get for free

My 5 month old is almost 19lbs. She’s got big thighs. We have Charlie Bananas, Lil Helpers and Alva Baby diapers. It seems like the only ones that fit her are the Alva Babies…. But it seems young to have outgrown the others already.
Did anyone have thjs problem? Are we putting them on wrong or not using the snaps properly?

I got a secondhand newborn stash of G diapers, and now I realize I'm not sure how to use them! And the company is defunct so I haven't been able to find a good answer. One side is fleecey so may be stay dry, the other side (with the orange tag) feels like it might be more of a natural material so better absorption.

Can anyone help me here? 😅

I have a bunch of tidy tots inserts I got secondhand for free but no cover to use them with. I placed an order with the company but haven't received the outer and they aren't responding to my messages. Does anyone know of any other brands of outers that are compatible with the tidy tot snap inserts? I really don't want these to go to waste.

Hello everybody, I’ve read a lot of posts and know this has been asked but I can’t troubleshoot the problem myself. My wife and I have been using cloth diapers since about 6 weeks. Our baby is now 14 months. We use the esembly outers and inners. Ever since she started eating solid foods we’ve had problems with the diapers stinking once she pees into them. We have stripped and bleached them twice to reset them which helps for a couple wash cycles and changed our washing machine and wash routine. We bought an older top load washer with lots of agitation and water and still have the issue. Currently we use tide original with the instructions that fluff university recommends, first wash warm regular wash, second heavy duty hot. We have 8 agitator balls from esembly, and load the washer about half to 3/4 full with other items on the second wash. We use a little borax as well, even though I do not believe we have hard water, but we’re trying everything. We store the old diapers in a diaper bag in a bucket, and wash every third day. The diapers smell clean when they are washed but after our baby pees into them they reek of foul urine. After the last strip and bleach they stayed smell free for about 6-8 washes but now the smell is back. Can you think of something to change? Should we change our storage routine? Me and my wife our at our wits end and are close to going to disposable. Thanks!

Hey ya'll im starting to research cd. I am not sure what set up will work best for me so im feeling a little overwhelmed trying to decide what I need to start the journey (and what brands are best). Little one is 3m.

My main questions (right now)-

1. Can pocket diapers be used as covers. Im thinking primarily with inserts just set on top, less likely to do fitted.

2. Do i actually need swim? I know people use covers and pockes (empty) for swim but I have seen some things that this is actually not a good idea.

3. How much should I get to start and experiment? I forsure plan to get pockets, flats and prefolds. The rest idk if I should/ how much

4. Do i get ai2 and covers to try??

I was once a clothdiaps mom and had a flashback today looking out at the back porch and thought I'd share what my wash and drying routine is lately, now that my kids are 11 & 13 and in competitive middle school sports.

Instead of washing, soaking and sunning diapers, it's now volleyball knee and elbow pads 🙃🤣

But good news, same routine basically!! (Just less 💩)

Enjoy your babies!! They don't last!

My diapers never leaked much, but since little guy is spending loads of his time on his tummy, the front of them is always soaked. I would suspect that it's creating too much pressure on the insert. Had anyone the same problem, solutions?

I'm using the totsbots with seperate inserts

Hi all, I'd love some help -- we recently had our second baby and began CDing with Esembly snap inners and GMD workhorses under Esembly covers. We were loving it so much that we just decided to start CDing our 2-year-old, as well, until he potty trains (hopefully soon).

After adding the toddler size 2/large inners to our laundry routine, we've started getting barnyard stink -- really just in his inners from what I can tell. I didn't have issues with any kind of stink when I was just washing the newborn's size 1 diapers before. The diapers smell faintly when clean and dry, but then are noticeably stinky once peed on.

I just did a bleach soak of all of the toddler's diapers followed by a heavy duty, hot cycle with two scoops of Esembly washing powder and then an additional rinse and spin to get all of the bleach out. I'm hoping this will reset the diapers, but want to adjust our wash routine going forward so that the issue doesn't crop up again. Here is what we have been doing:

• both kids are in cloths during the day only, so no nighttime diapers
• we change the toddler every 3-4 hours and the newborn every 1.5-3 hours depending on naps
• the toddler often poos in the potty and also uses Esembly tosser liners to catch most of any poos done in a diaper
• We wash every two days (about 15 combined inners, 4-5 outers, a bunch of cloth wipes, pail pouch and ditty bags, Esembly agitator balls). The drum is about 1/3-1/2 full. Before, when it was just the newborn CDing, we washed every three days to get the same load size.
• We have been following the suggested Esembly routine: every two days -- prewash (warm, normal cycle, one scoop of Esembly powder) immediately followed by a hot, heavy duty cycle with two scoops of Esembly powder
• we have a whirlpool HE machine (top loading, no central agitator pole).

Since there's a clear before and after comparison here, I'm guessing the issue is the higher volume and concentration of the toddler's pee being added? Would adding more detergent help with this? Thanks in advance!

I've been invited to a baby shower where the parents are going to be cloth diapering. The couple go to my wife's church. My wife is knitting a blanket while my wife tells me to just get cloth diapers. I've asked my wife several times for the registry information but she just tells me "just get cloth diapers. You can never have too many" (her and her siblings were CD). What would you suggest on where to look for CD that will be for a gift?

I decided to take a break from cloth diapers for a few weeks. I've been working on upping my milk supply and I find it easier to know how wet his diapers are with disposable ones. Prior to this, I never noticed that disposable diapers stink! They have a smelly smell that I don't like lol. I never would've known this had I not switched to cloth diapers! As an adhd girlie I am looking forward to a bit less laundry during our hiatus 😅

My baby is four months old and we got a bunch of cloth diapers for free off FB. We started using them when he was born but they were leaking every time he went pee just once. I think it’s because the inserts were microfiber and maybe we didn’t wash them with all the steps. So we gave up pretty quickly but I do want to start again. We have a bunch of outer cover we can still use but I want to change the liners to make it not leak. However, I’m SO OVERWHELMED with all the types and the process to clean them seems like a full time job. Am I getting too in the weeds? I also am afraid to drop $500 on inserts just to quit again because of leaking and adding multi step washing to our already full schedule.

HELP

I know these stains are merely cosmetic and I don’t care that much but just not understanding why the sun isn’t really bleaching them. They don’t look any different than they did when I pulled them out of the washer. They were wet when I hung them out in the sun and they’ve been out for 3 hours. These are Esembly inners size 2 from my 18 month old. They’re only like 7 months old. I’m just trying to take the best care of them that I can so we can use them for the rest of my kids.

EDT: at the recommendation of someone below, I have posted about this in the uncensored cloth diapers page on Facebook. You can view that here

Calling on all unsolicited advice! What’s working for you right now?

This week I used a seam Ripper to release the middle 3 seams of the soakers of our Esembly and Judes fitteds and it's made a huge difference in drying time.

We're also test driving some AiOs for daycare and I LOVE both the Thirsties NAIO and the MamaEase Wizard Uno.

We even successfully used the MamaEase Wizard Uno overnight with a NB size pre fold inserted under the absorbency.

I've ordered 4 more Thirsties to send to daycare and 2 MamaEase Wizard Duo covers with 2 cotton inserts, 2 synthetic inserts, and 2 overnight inserts.

I'll keep using the size 1 fitteds we have until baby outgrows them. But won't get more.

What do y'all send to daycare? Any experience using Thirsties NAIO full time? Or motherease Wizard Duo?

This coming week I'll be sending AmazingBaby outers stuffed with Clotheeze small prefolds, but if the Thirsties NAIO keeps doing well I'll likely send 6 of those each day instead.

Anyone use Oxiclean to help remove feces stains from diapers? Does it help? I use borax and tide. If i add this too, how much do people recommend?
Thanks!

I've been using prefolds and esembly fitteds on my 1 month old since her stump fell off. She's a huge baby, already 12 lbs. and growing fast, so we have almost sized out of esembly size one and Kanga Care Rumparoo newborn covers. I plan to continue using prefolds and covers for the most part but my mom will be watching her once I go back to work and I think pockets will be easier for her to manage the majority of the time.

I was given a 6 pack of mystery brand pockets at my shower (super cute print, probably from Amazon, no clue the brand or quality), I also bought a few la la booty pockets after seeing someone sing their praises here.

So my question is, for part time pocket diaper use how many diapers should I have, what brands do you love and why, and what brands should be avoided? I will probably use the smaller prefolds to stuff the pockets for the most part but if there are particular inners that you love please share that as well.

Thanks!

Thinking of getting some to supplement my stash but I can’t find a Canadian brand. Any suggestions?

My black new bed spread dyed my insert in the washer. Im assuming its still fine to use? LOL never again….

We don't have a utility sink so I've been using the smaller bathroom sink but it's never worked well. I'm hoping to hear alternatives I can use for cleaning. I try to use his potty when I can but I can't always get him there in time.​

I tried posting this in an Italy group and got a lot of “why are americans making laundry so complicated” like ok sorry I didn’t ask to be born there lmfao but fewer people cloth where I grew up. I just moved to Italy and I’m having trouble finding the right detergent for cloth diapers, does anyone here have any recommendations that can be found here/anything specific in your wash routines? I’m pretty sure cloth is used more here so I’m not sure what I’m missing! Thank you for anyone kind enough to respond!