Why Cloth Diapers are AWESOME!

Most people fall into 2 categories when they hear the words "Cloth Diapers."

Category 1:  "Awesome!  Better for the environment, and so much more economical!"

Category 2: "Ain't nobody got time for that! Too much laundry, and I don't have a huge lump sum of money to buy my supply with!"

 My sister-in-law cloth diapers our nephew and they love it.  She also loves her Bum Genius diapers, but at around $20 a diaper, I felt a little uneasy about forking out that kind of money for 20 diapers when I wasn't sure cloth diapering would even work out for our little family.  

But then I started reading, and researching, and facebook page stalking.  I discovered that there are cloth diapers out there that are affordable (and they actually work)! 

After reading tons of reviews, I decided to go with Alva Baby diapers.  They are only $5-$8 PER DIAPER!  Pretty awesome when compared with $20 for Bum Genius or Charlie Banana.  The Alva Baby website is a little confusing, and the diapers do come from China, so to avoid a potential duty fee, I went through Super Stash and ordered 20 Alva Baby cloth diapers.  They ended up coming to a little over $100 since I had a promo code to enter.  

I ordered some minkys (because they are so, so soft and have the cutest patterns, some regular AIOs, and some of the new double gussets with the colored snaps.

The diapers came with a sample pack of cloth diaper safe detergent, and small CJ's butter, and a thank you note!  Super sweet!

I prepped them by washing with the sample of cloth diaper detergent they came with, giving them an extra rinse, and hang drying.

I didn't start using them right away, because I felt like they were just going to be too big on our Baby Boy (who was born 7lbs15oz), and I didn't know if I'd have the energy to be doing all that laundry when I was exhausted from breastfeeding.  

We started out with Huggies (which were my favorite with Little Guy), but kept having blow outs.  

My Aunt came over to visit the first weekend and brought us a pack of Luvs, which seemed to be better in the blow out department while he was in newborn size, but Baby Boy is such a big eater, he got to almost 9 pounds before 2 weeks was up, and the newborn size started digging into his thighs and making them red.  

We switched to size 1 in the Luvs and went right back to blow outs.  

I mean, have to change his onesie every time, blow outs.  

I figured that if I was going to be washing 10 onesies a day, I might as well be washing the cloth diapers and saving some money.  So, I snapped down all the diapers to the smallest setting, tried one on him, and snapped it closed all the way to the middle snaps, and you know what?  They fit perfectly!  

And we haven't had one blowout!  Score! 

When I change Baby Boy's diaper, I just unsnap it, lay it flat, slide out the insert and lay it back on the top, fold the diaper in half and put it in our Planet Wise Hanging Wet/Dry Bag - Owl  

Then I just dump the contents and the bag itself into the washing machine in the evening, so that the diapers will be ready to stuff again in the morning.

It's so awesome, I'm really glad we decided to do cloth diapering - and I'm really glad that the Alva Baby diapers were so economical and working perfectly for us.

*Do you use cloth diapers or disposables?