I have a friend at church that uses fuzzy bunz and she loves them. It does save lots of money... the upfront cost is more but overtime you really save.
She said that you just flush stools and wash the diapers together with nothing else. She did say that if you have a front loading washer that they can be a problem. I don't know why.
She gave me some to try and I just didn't like them.
For dumb reasons, I'll admit.
They make my daughters bum look huge and her pants and dresses don't fit as well.
and I like the being able to throw diapers away when they are wet or stinky and not have to carry them around with me when I'm out. I'd just rather do disposables. But I do think it's great that others are using cloth diapers.

We use a combo of cloth and disposables. I don't like to carry around messy diapers, so when we go out to playgroup, kindergym etc, I put ds in a disposable. We also have been using a disposable at night, less leaky and ds has sensitive skin and is prone to diaper rash.

We couldn't afford a large initial investment, so I use the gerber gauze prefolds and snappis (hooked elastic bands instead of pins). We bought diaper covers ($10 each) and plastic pants.

As for cleaning the messy stuff, we keep a bucket filled with a slight bleach solution in the sink in the garage. We rinse and then leave the messy diaper to soak until I wash them. Just wet diapers go into a diaper champ, it's airtight and always makes it to the next wash day. I only wash diapers once a week. (now that ds and I are gone every morning for activities, it can be every other week)

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Doing my best to raise a GEEK- Genuine Enthusiastic Empowered Kid!

I just can't believe how much people pay for fancy cloth diapers these days!! We used cloth for my 2nd child 17 years ago. All we bought was a couple dozen flat cloth diapers and a few pks of plastic pants and 2 sets of diaper pins. It was easy and probably less than $50. We used them until he was about 2.5 years old. I think all these fancy diapers are just a racket.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Mommy2Ryan - what kind of insert are you using with your Fuzzi Bunz? I've never had a FB leak at night with any of my kids, you can check out options at cottonbabies.com they rated different inserts for absorbancy. How do you wash your diapers? Any chance you have detergent build up and are repelling water?

Jellylou - When my diapers are dirty I spray them off with a hose that attaches to my toilet, it's $20 or so and comes in handy for other messes. Then I throw them in a diaper pail, under my bathroom sink, until it's wash time. I don't wet soak, YUCK, because it's not good for the diapers and the thought of poo water grosses me out. To wash I throw them in our front load washer add about a tablespoon of detergent 1/2 c. of baking soda and 1 c. of vinegar. Since I have an HE washer I do a pre wash and extra rinse cycle.

Happymom - I think the diapers now have evolved because people wanted the convenience of disposables. With my oldest I used prefolds with a cover, not plastic pants, because I wanted the skin to be able to breath, but now I use All In One (AIO) diapers or Fuzzi Bunx because when out and about I don't want to deal with a cover and prefold. Yeah, the initial diapers are expensive but when you're done with them there are dedicated sites where people buy/sell/trade used diapers and you can usually get about 50% of what you paid for them back.

I guess the idea of buying used diapers is kinda gross to me, and I had a baby with very delicate skin, he could not use disposables, but he never had a problem with the plain old diapers. I did not think that using them was any more difficult than using a disposable one, I actually tried some of the velcro closure diapers that were avaliable at the time and did not care for them. To each his own I guess!! Just seems like alot of money to spend to save money, when there are cheaper alternatives that work well.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I have been told just to rinse them as Modern Cloth Nappies don't need soaking.

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Melanie.
Mum to Lillianlee- 1st September 2006.

Monkey Mia's Savings... (my blog)

I don't think I like the idea of buying/trading used nappies. I will use them with each of my kids but thats different. Lol

MCN appeal to me more then terry toweling nappies as they are so easy to use and are like disposables to put on. You can add more folds to them for more absorption (sp) so even for heavty wetters they work wonders.

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Melanie.
Mum to Lillianlee- 1st September 2006.

Monkey Mia's Savings... (my blog)

I guess it depends on your idea if it is "worth it". Also depends on what type you buy. You can buy the prefolds, pins, & plastic pants real cheap....then you'll FOR SURE save money. I knew that I would give up quick if I had those....I bought the Fuzzi Bunz. I LOVE them!! They are SO easy & cute. Buying in packages makes them cheaper. PLUS I emailed the online stores to see if they would match another store's deals...they did! Just for my ds, they have already paid for themselves. I have only bought 12 small & 12 medium. He is 15 mos & the mediums will probably fit him until he is potty trained! So now that they have paid for themselves...I'm just saving money from here on!! PLUS I am not putting a million diapers in the landfill. And another savings occurs because you now will use cloth wipes. I made mine out of $1/yd flannel & serged the edges. The absolute easiest cloth wipe is buying a pack of cheap washcloths. You can make as fancy of solution as you want or you can just use water w/baby bath. I like to add lavendar & tea tree oil in mine. Sometimes I add Aloe Vera too. One beneifit of cloth diapering is fewer diaper rashes, which means less money spent on creams.

As for washing---I have a sprayer on my toilet. They sell the sprayers on the Fuzzi Bunz website for $30 or so. I just went to Home Depot & bought a kitchen sink sprayer & hooked it up. The SAME thing the site sells for around $10. This makes rinsing the poop off EZ! Now that he is older, his poop is hard. All I do is plop it in the toilet. Now I only use the sprayer when he's had a little too much juice & it's softer. There are SO many websites devoted to cloth diapering. Check them out. I love the fact my ds does not have chemicals on his hiney (except for night time, as I stated above).

You are welcome to PM me if you have any other questions. i have made a long enough post already One more thing I might add---The sun gets out any poop stains on the diapers. so after you rinse, then wash in hot, and line dry---they look BRAND NEW!

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Mom to Ryan ('06)

armywife--I use the insert that came with the Fuzzi Bunz. DS still nurses right before he goes to sleep & he sleeps almost 12 hrs at night. I don't have any build up. I use Purex Free detergent. I learned my mistake a few months ago. I made a homemade detergent to use & ended up getting build up. It took me FOREVER to strip them! We had to use disposables during that time.

I've thought about buying a hemp insert, because I have heard they are more absorbent...but just don't want to spend the money & it not work. I've also thought about making a doubler out of flannel to put in with the insert.

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Mom to Ryan ('06)