Hellobee

Whenever I find a new interest, I dive in immediately. I need to know all there is to know about the subject, and I often get sucked down a rabbit hole of Google searches and Pinterest boards. Cloth diapering, like babywearing, adult colouring, and baking before it, has become my newest ‘hobby’. Its a little embarrassing to admit, because I definitely have an addictive personality…and I might be a member of about 10 different cloth diapering Facebook groups.

As with any hobby (I use this term lightly, because really….diapers are diapers), there are an endless number of accessories, gadgets, and ‘must-haves’ to explore. Truthfully, very few of these are real ‘must-haves’…but I’m going to show them to you anyhow (with my very limited opinion on whether you need it or not).

1) Diaper liners: Whether disposable or washable, diaper liners can be a really handy addition to your cloth diaper arsenal. If you use all-in-twos or covers with prefolds, you might need a fleece or Stay Dry liner to wick away some of the wetness from your little one. If you don’t have a diaper sprayer, don’t want to dunk your dirty diapers, or are really looking for some convenience, disposable liners are amazing. They’re like a piece of toilet paper that you lay in the diaper, and when baby poops, you can just remove the liner! It makes tidying up super easy.

2) Patterned diapers: There is an entire market for highly sought after and hard to find diaper prints. I’ve seen some go for up to $100, depending on the print, and I’m sure (like with any ‘collectible’) there are many that can go for even higher. A sought-after BumGenius print, like any in the Genius series (check out this post from Cloth Diaper Addicts for details), seem to retail for upwards of $35, depending on the print. The Glowbugs that we use also have a Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade group, with people paying premiums for prints to complete their collections. Say what you want about the fact that they’re still just poop-catchers….some of these prints are seriously cute.

3) Diaper sprayers and spray shields: For us, a diaper sprayer wasn’t optional. We decided not to use disposable liners, and several of the other options for dealing with poop weren’t really working for us. Scraping, swishing or dunking just grossed Mr. O out too much, so we bought a diaper sprayer that hooks on to our toilet. There are tons of options, depending on how fancy you want to get. We picked this Bumkins one because it was affordable but still got great reviews. Another accessory (that we don’t have, but that looks pretty cool!) is the 4) SprayPal. Its a shield that you put a diaper into before you spray it off, so that water and other….particles…don’t splash all over the place. Nice to have, if your diaper sprayer is really high powered, but not essential (especially if you’re careful).

5) Inserts: Diaper inserts and boosters aren’t exactly fun to collect, but they’re necessary. Many styles of diapers allow you to customize the absorbency, fit, and bulk depending on the types of inserts you use. Hemp, cotton, bamboo, microfiber, and charcoal bamboo are a few of the types we’ve tried, though I’m sure there are more that I just haven’t heard of. Currently, we love the Lil Helpers charcoal bamboo inserts (in our Lil Helpers diapers), or one bamboo and one microfiber in our Glowbugs. If you don’t use all-in-one diapers, you need inserts. You’ll have to play around to see which solution works best for you.

6) A diaper pail: There are dozens of fancy diaper pails on the market, ranging from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, depending on size and function. Friends of mine swear by this Dekor pail, while others love the steel of the Ubbi pail. We use a wicker laundry basket with a Thirsties liner because its what we had. You need SOMETHING to store dirty diapers in until laundry day, but it doesn’t have to be fancy.

7) Wet bags: Yes, yes, yes. You need wet bags. You need a place to store those wet and dirty diapers until you do the laundry, even if you do a load every night. Wet bags come in a wide variety of sizes, patterns, and styles; get as fancy or as minimalistic as you want. I’d recommend getting two or three small wet bags for outings, and another two large wet bags for around the house (lining your diaper pail, or hanging in the bathroom). There are also mini wet bags and medium-sized wet bags. Again, as long as you have SOMETHING to keep the diapers in, you’re probably good…but if you have money to spend, cute helps!

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What are your favourite diapering accessories? What do I need to research that I haven’t?