Liam is 19 months old and as you can see from his last update, he is still wearing cloth diapers! Here’s a breakdown of how it’s going now that he’s a toddler and not a little baby.

The Supply

We have 34 Bum Genius 4.0 diapers, most with snaps and a few with velcro, one Fuzzibunz one size, and one Charlie Banana one size. We were very lucky to receive several diapers from a friend for free, as she decided to stop cloth diapering. We didn’t need the extras, but I’m glad we have them. We have 4 hemp inserts for overnight and about 48 Gro Via wipes. We have one small wet bag for the diaper bag and one large one for the changing table. We also have biodegradable liners by Gro Via to make poop clean up easier. They’re flushable and pee passes through them, so they just catch the poop.

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The Routine

Liam goes through 6-8 diapers per day. When we change him, we spray a wipe with water to clean him up (we also have California baby diaper area wash if it’s really bad), we dump any solids in the toilet and spray the diaper and insert with Bac Out, then put them in the wet bag. We don’t use a sprayer, but sometimes it’s bad enough that Mr. TTT has to take a hose to it outside. That happens maybe once a month. Every two or three days, we wash diapers, usually when the large wet bag fills up. Every other wash gets a rinse with white vinegar to help keep the stink away. We use a plant based detergent from Trader Joe’s with each wash. We put our diapers in the dryer, which means they’re a little stretched out, but we plan to replace the elastic before baby #2 needs them. Some diapers are also stained because we used diaper cream that wasn’t safe for cloth when Liam had a bad rash. The liners help prevent staining too.

The Cost

We spent about $100 up front on cloth diapers and supplies that weren’t gifted or purchased with gift cards. We spend about $20 every 3 months on bac-out and liners. Our water bill is a little high, but we are cutting out the third rinse to try to get it back down. One day a week we use disposables when my mom babysits, as she isn’t comfortable with the cloth diapers. We also use disposables if we go out of town, so I’d estimate that we spend about $20 per month on disposable diapers and wipes (we use target brand). We plan to use the same diapers when we have a second child, so the per month cost will continue to decrease. It will cost a bit to replace the elastic, but I might ask my mother in law to do it so I don’t have to pay someone. I will, however, send a few of them off to switch from velcro to snaps, as the velcro doesn’t hold up well over time.

The Verdict

I love cloth diapers and have no regrets about choosing to use them. My husband has his ups and downs with them, as there have been times when he has wanted to switch to disposables (we had a leaky time when Liam was still too little to fill them out well and there have been some really nasty poops), but he always comes around when we look at how much money we save. I was really scared to start using them when Liam was born, but it has been way easier than I thought. I think a big part of that is that his nanny folds them 90% of the time, so I’m not spending my evenings doing it and usually Mr. TTT folds one load on the weekend. And I think they’re also just so much cuter than disposables!