This contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, Ann!
(Scroll to the bottom for the giveaway)
I’ve never been very happy about using disposable diapers. Most of you that have come to know me, know I pride myself on being pretty green and using natural, non-toxic products whenever possible. I did give cloth diapers a fair chance when Tristan was born. I stocked up on one brand and started using the pocket all-in-one diapers when he was around three months old. We had major leakage problems AND I just couldn’t deal with all the extra laundry and care as a first time, very overwhelmed mom. I had spent so much money on the one brand that I couldn’t see trying any other brands or styles of cloth diapers. That’s where I went wrong. In retrospect, I should have bought a smaller variety of different brands, figured out which worked best for my child, then sold or traded any diapers, which didn’t work for us. Obviously, not all cloth diapers will fit all babies – the same rings true for disposable even. Instead I regretfully purchased disposables for both my children and for years contributed to the landfills with one of the world’s most non-biodegradable products. I cringe at the thought.
Swim Diaper Functionality: 101
Thankfully, my second (almost two) is just about out of diapers. She’s down to naps and nights only. Yippee! However, we still use a diaper at the pool in fear of an unwanted accident. At the store recently, about to restock on some disposable swim diapers, I had an epiphany. I started to ask myself what swim diapers really do. The disposable variety is so thin that there is no way when immersed in water a child’s urine will absorb into the diaper. Now poo is a whole other matter – at least the swim diaper would hold that in, preventing any unwelcomed floaters (ick!). So, after really thinking about what the swim diaper is good for, I started wondering what the point of a disposable swim diaper really was. Wouldn’t a cloth swim diaper be just as efficient? Only one way to find out…..
Cloth and the Swimming Challenge
I eagerly received a sample cloth diaper from FuzziBunz, their Perfect Size Cloth Diaper, to try out on my little one at the pool. I was just in love with the color, crushed berries, just gorgeous. To use this cloth diaper at the pool I was told not to use an insert, just the cover, so that’s what I did. Wow, my little lady’s butt looked just bootylicious in the diaper. I would have been happy just to let her swim in the diaper and nothing else – why cover up such a beautiful cloth diaper and sweet little tush? But, alas, I wanted to see how the diaper fit under a bathing suit, so on it went. I was really surprised that the diaper was really trim and not at all bulky under her bathing suit. What a pleasant surprise!
What did I tell you? Absolutely baby bootylicious!
You can’t see the diaper at all!
No diaper lines…
Now for the swim test. The diaper didn’t absorb really any water, so no extra bulk. Great! We didn’t get a chance to test for poo containment, but the diaper fit so well that I cannot imagine we’d have any diaper escapees. The diapers come in four sizes and with many buttons to ensure a perfect fit.
I was sold – bye bye disposable swim diapers. Hello FuzziBunz!
For more information about FuzziBunz:
Eczema and Cloth Diapers
Another reason to try cloth – Many moms report that daily use of cloth diapers helped clear up their children’s eczema in the genital area. This is most likely due to allergies to one or more chemicals in the disposable diapers. In fact, FuzziBunz was started because the owner’s child had eczema and she didn’t want to further irritate her child’s skin with the nasty disposable’s chemicals. Definitely give cloth a try if your child suffers from itchy, irritated skin in the diaper region. Just be extra careful of the detergent you use to clean the diapers as many detergents can be too harsh for eczema skin.
**Giveaway Time!!**
I’m giving away one FuzziBunz Perfect-Size Cloth Diaper in the size and color of your choice.
I’ve just started using cloth diapers. I don’t actually have enough to do it full time yet, but I will by the end of next month. After feeling cloth diapers, I hate putting disposables on my little boy. They in no way feel comfortable! I also love the patterns, and the fact that they’re “green” and save money…bonus!
I use cloth for my youngest and I love it.
We love our cloth diapers! They have solved leaking at night issues we were having with disposables. I also like cloth training pants, pull-ups are a huge rip off!
I haven’t tried cloth but I cannot wait to with my next baby!
We’ve cloth diapered since my daughter was about a month old, so four months now. We love it! we’ll cloth diaper from day one when we decide to have baby #2! Thanks for the giveaway! We love fuzzibunz!
Love cloth diapers…wish it hadn’t taken me a year to realize how great they are!
cute pics
i love cloth diapers~ i have been using them with my son for about 19 months and am so thrilled that they are better for him, our family’s pocketbook and the environment!! i was a bit afraid at first about washing them, but have since gotten into a routine with it all and it is second nature now!
I just last week started to cloth diaper my 17 month old daughter. Oh how I wish I would have done this with my 5 year old and the whole time with my baby. Cloth diapering is not scary, not hard, not gross, not crazy!!! I was so afraid to try and now I have no idea why. I love it, my baby loves it, the earth loves it, and my husbands wallet loves it too!!! -Kristina
We started using cloth diapers when our little one was 12 months old…wish it hadn’t taken so long! So glad to have him out of plastic ‘sposies.
My oldest daugther still has horrible eczema. I bought the most expensive disposable there was for her. Baby #3 is going to be 100% in cloth.
HI Anne – I’m sorry to hear your daughter still has terrible eczema. How old is she? What are her triggers? Have you found anything to help her? Jennifer
I have four kids and it wasn’t till I had my third pregnancy did I look it to cloth diapering. I didn’t really know that it was still done. We found out we were having twins and my husband was on board after we got that news. It has been a year know and I am still happy that we decided to cloth diaper. In fact we wish we had done it with our older kids.
I love cloth and we use it all the time! We started out slow but then realized we liked it so much there was no point in buying disposables anymore!
We didn’t use cloth diapers with our 1st b/c 6 years ago there was not enough information out there as there is today. We have now been using cloth about 8 months with our 2nd. Love them!
I just started using cloth full time, but I have to wash a lot to make it happen. My experience started because I saw the change 3 things promotion. I thought I could do that! Well, I did and now I’m addicted to cloth. Even though this is my last baby and I didn’t start from the beginning I’m still glad I made the switch! I switched over to mostly cloth wipes too, but I just don’t have enough of those to do it everywhrere we go. We really haven’t had any big problems. We didn’t have problems using disposables on either of my babies, but I wanted to make a change that was better for the environment. I wish I had done it sooner!
I have not had children yet, but I am completely committed to using cloth when my little ones come!! I can’t wait
I love cloth diapering. Have been since LO was about 3 months old. Have tried nearly a dozen different brands. I like them all, although some better than others. My favorite thing about Fuzzibunz is that they are my fastest-drying diaper! They fit great over time (now nearly 9 mo and growing!), too!
I haven’t tried cloth diapers, but I did EC with my daughter.
I haven’t used cloth yet, but when baby gets here we will for sure.
When my little one was born I we talked about using cloth but I just assumed it was safety pins and plastic pants still and didn’t want to bother. When she was about 3 months old I started doing some research to save money and learned how wrong I was! We have been *almost* exclusively CDing for 4 months now! (Still haven’t brought cloth to daycare yet)
My 4 month old baby boy has eczema so I’m making the switch from disposables to cloth. Excited to start building my stash and for my little giy’s bum to heal
Hi Laura – I sure hope cloth diapers help’s your son’s eczema! Good luck! Jennifer
I haven’t tried cloth yet, but can’t wait to do so, its so cute!
I’ve been cloth diapering for almost a year and I’d never go back to disposables! We have saved so much money!
We are very new to cloth diapers and just started our stash! So far, our 15 month old son has been the test driver, and I don’t know if I would ever want to go back to disposables after all the reading and testing we have done with cloth! It’s definitely something we need to bring back, with a vengeance
We use cloth almost exclusively and it’s working fabulously
Fuzzibunz is my “go to” brand 
We now have our 2nd in cloth and both have started when they were newborns. We love it and it is really not that much harder than disposables. I mean two or three more loads of laundry isn’t that big of a difference. We also use cloth wipes and love them. I am so thankful we cloth diapered with our first since our second has eczema and his skin would never tolerate dispsoables
Oh, poor little one. Eczema is no fun. I’m glad that the cloth is helping him! Jennifer
I love our fuzzibunz cloth diapers! I’ve been cding for over a year now with our daughter. She doesn’t have sensitive skin, but I do feel it has cut dow on the amount of diaper rashes she has gotten!
I can’t wait to start cloth diapering my little one when she gets here!!! They are WAY too cute!!
my baby is due in aug. i will try cloth diapers then!!!
We use cloth exclusively and love it! Most of our stash is also Fuzzi Bunz One Size. BTW that diaper may be too small for your daughter; it looks like you haven’t fastened the hip snap?
Ha! It’s definitely possible. I’m a newbie, as you read – so more than likely I did it wrong. Whoops! I’ll look at that. Thanks for the heads up! Jennifer
We cloth but we don’t use it in the water. I love cloth but I am not perfect….
We love using cloth but don’t have anything nearly as fancy as these…my mom-in-law volunteered to buy cloth diapers for us & we ended up with the same kind that she used back in the early 80s – yup, old school muslin squares!! We have to fold, add a liner, close with a Snappi & cover with a diaper cover but we still prefer them to disposables. Would LOVE to get our hands on some more modern ones but feel bad putting out the money when we already have a stash that works perfectly well for us.
Reblogged this on Itchy little Ladybug!.
I haven’t had a chance to cd yet, since baby hasn’t arrived yet. I do plan to cloth diaper though. I have two sisters that have clothed diapered their children with good results. And, it’s not as hard as it looks!
I can’t wait to start cloth diaper Baby Girl in November when she arrives!
Yes, I use cloth diapers and cloth swim diapers. Besides the health benefits for my kids, I also appreciate the cost savings and the reduced environmental impact. I use cloth swim diapers too, and I often send my daughter out just in that because they are so cute!
Thanks Olivia! Yes, I do love the look of just cloth – so adorable!
Love our Best Bottom Diapers from Nickisdiapers.com I have 8 covers and 17 inserts plus night time inserts and really enjoy using them. I’ve even gotten a few friends on board with cloth. People always ask about poo but I tell them you have to deal with it either way. Plus in my experience babies have more messy blow outs with sposies.
I love cloth. No diaper rashes for us!!
Yay! No diaper rashes are a definite benefit.
My daughter has been in cloth since she was about three weeks old. The number of diaper rashes and overall skin sensitivity issues have decreased dramatically…actually they are almost totally nonexistent.
Alesha – That is wonderful to hear! I’m so glad cloth has helped your child’s skin!
I love my cloth diapers and wish I had used them on my older daughter too.
Expecting our first in November, really looking forward to trying cloth & fuzzibunz!
I just had my 3rd & finally got into cloth – wish I started a long time ago. It took me a couple of weeks to finally realize wait a min – I still have a toddler in disposables so I switched him too! Also, as a former Aquatics Director I’ve found that cloth swim diapers truly hold to stuff in much much better than disposable swimmers! I’ve started recommending them to my old co-workers!
Liz – Ha! Yes, they do hold stuff in great! Thanks for your comment! Jennifer
Reblogged this on Stop Scratching Now! and commented:
These are a great solution for children with eczema and for busy Mums!
There are more socially conscious brands than Fuzzi Bunz, which are made in China, probably in a sweat shop by 10 year olds. I would only use brands made in the US or Canada, preferably by WSHMs.
I wonder if there is a correlation between the huge increase in allergies and the fact that most children spend the first 2 or 3 years of their life in direct contact with toxic plastic substances contained in disposable diapers.
Hi Juliette –
As you read, I’m new on the whole cloth diaper scene, so I appreciate your feedback. Jennifer
If you research more deeply into the allergy scene too you will find that allergies and eczema are caused from internal things going on like food allergies which are caused by generations of things breaking down our genetic code. My brother who is a Dr. of multiple degrees explained it simply your skin is a reflection of your colon and inside, so if you have bad skin or eczema / diaper rashes/ sensitive skin is allotted to what you are putting in.
Hi Anne – Eczema can be from external and/or internal sources. Contact dermatitis is a type of eczema and can be triggered by detergents, harsh chemicals, etc. But a lot of eczema is from food and a leaky gut (as with my son), but not every case. Thank you for your comment. Jennifer