Cloth Diaper Buzz

I thought I would give a little update on the cloth diapers and some other relevant information.

Update on Cloth Diapers:
I finally (after almost 3 weeks and a second call to customer service) received my replacement GroBaby cover for the one that had the leg elastic go out after the second wash. This new one has been washed 3 times now and is still holding together. It's not a bad little diaper. For the most part it is trim and the liner is very absorbent. The mesh does get a little wet behind the insert, but dries quickly. The first time the diaper was on after receiving it, we had a big ol' poop. The diaper held the mess, though a little did get on the cover - both washed clean with no visible staining. Those of you who are squeamish about touching pee soaked items would not be up for this diaper. The snap at the front is right behind the wettest part of the liner and it does wet right up to the top with my boy. You cannot unsnap the front without at least holding the top of the liner, the closer to the snap the easier it is due to the give of the mesh the snap is attached to. The liner gets bunched up a little bit and can be hard to position perfectly on a squirming baby (though there are a lot of diaper that have this issue.) I believe that this diaper would be quiet bulky on a newborn (haven't personally witness this though!) To have the liner fit on the newborn setting you need to fold down the top edge of the liner to make it fit under the cover. In the newborn setting the leg openings are small and the tabs can overlap so you should be able to get a good fit. On the opposite end of the spectrum, on its largest setting the rise looks like it could be an issue. I have it on the medium setting for my 8 month old, but will need to move to the largest setting soon. The largest setting only adds 1" to the rise, which I cannot imagine will last until 2 years of age. Anyway, I don't think this is going to be my favorite diaper in my stash, but I will continue to use it.

I have also used the Knicker Nappies a few times now, and have had leak issues most of the times it has been on. The leak is occurring where the rise is adjusted in the front, as a gap is created by the folding of material at the leg opening. Being aware of this I have been very careful when putting it in and have cut down on the leaks. The other location of leaks has been wicking of moisture on the cover. With boys, the wings are inside with no insert very close to the wetting zone. This wings to tend to move and pop up above the upper edge of the diaper with active boys like mine, exposing a wet area at the waist. Due to its drawbacks, I mostly use this diaper around the house when leaks won't be a major issue.

I have looked into the cloth inserts for the gDiaper, but they are back ordered for some time. I have tried with pre-folds several times and always end up with some moisture wicking at the leg opening. This is a good diaper with the compostable liner - no leaks with that. You do have to be aware of possible rubbing of the snaps that hold the nylon liner and the liner being in contact with the skin. The diaper is very trim though, and fits under all his clothes with no issues.

Update on Cloth Wipes and Wipe Solution:
The cloth wipes (after turning all the edges) are holding up very well in the wash. I have cut out the tea tree oil from the wipe solution as Logan was getting a slightly red bum. Now, I have a very dilute baby wash solution in one of the cleansing bottles (squeeze bottle) I have from my delivery to moisten the wipe and sometimes I just wet the wipe in the sink with no soap. Another thought I had about the oils in the solution - the oil might adhere to the diaper and could cause absorbency issues, requiring you to strip your diapers more frequently.

Other News:
If you are a cloth diapering mommy blogger or just interested in finding more blogs focused on cloth diapering, you might be interested in a social network I just found: Cloth Diapering Bloggers. It is geared as a place for bloggers to network but there is a message thread filled with blogs with at least a partial focus (if not full focus) on cloth diapering.