Cloth Diapering Moms (and Wanna-be's) Take Note:

There is a new blog in town with the scoop on cloth diapering: The Cloth Diaper Whisperer!

Blogger/editor-at-large Kelly also runs Kelly's Closet, a shop with fantastic cloth diapering supplies, including my favorite, bumGenius one-size diapers!

Infant Potty Training

Cloth diapering is good for the environment, of course, but how about going for broke and using NO diapers?

The year before I got pregnant, we lived in China. In China, many babies don't wear diapers. They wear special pants with no butt or crotch.

"But, don't they pee and poo everywhere?" you might say. That is what I thought too, until I saw the magic of "ba"-ing.
"Ba" is the Chinese word that is used to describe an amazing potty training technique that begins soon after birth. The baby his held in a certain position and the caretaker makes a sound, such as "pss pss pss" to get the baby to pee on command. Actually usually in China the signal is a low whistling sound. The child begins to associate the sound and the position with voiding, so they get trained to try to "go" whenever the caretaker holds them like that.
I was pretty impressed by this, so I started researching for literature in English to explain this technique to me better. I found a book called "Infant Potty Training" and ordered it off Amazon.com. I tried to look on line using search terms I discovered such as "elimination communication" or "EC", but I didn't find much free information other than personal testimonials.
Well, when Jonas got to be about 4 months old, I started holding him over a little baby bjorn potty (recommended for infants because of it's small size) every time he nursed (because he pretty much always pooped while nursing at that age).
A lot of times at home during the day I would just lay him on a pile of cloth diapers on the floor (we had wood floors) and just let him pee without wearing a diaper. The potty became part of our morning routine, when he would wakeup for the day I would always nurse him on the potty, or when he could sit up I would let him play sitting on the potty until he pooped. I never forced him to sit there if he stiffened his legs to resist. If he was ready to get up, that was fine, even if he hadn't "gone" yet.
I don't know when it started but I have a memory of him being about 15 months old and walking on his own to get a little potty seat to place on top of the big potty in a hotel we were staying in so he could go poo. Eventually looking at board books was part of his potty routine as well.
Meanwhile we were also getting him to pee every now and then using the signal sound and position, but I'll admit we are kind of lazy with it and he did wear diapers most of the day.
Before long he was pooping in the toilet 9 times out of 10.
I would say once he started walking, he pretty much always pooped in the potty, with me reminding him.
and every time we did the pee signal thing with him, he would actually go. It was just a matter of being extremely vigilant and making sure not to allow too much time to pass to where he would wet himself (it is easy to forget to stop playing and go potty when you are a busy little guy). Most days, I was not up to the challenge to go diaper-less for more than a few hours, but it was a fun party trick. He is a boy so he enjoyed peeing outside and I would say he was completely day trained by 24 months. I never pushed him, he just suddenly "got it". We did use diapers regularly and I didn't spend a lot of time trying to "catch" the pee. Just a few times a day. He peed like every 20 minutes so it didn't seem worth it to try to get them all.
I think EC is a great thing. A lot of my friends have 3 year olds and older who refuse to poop in the potty. For some reason non-EC kids have difficulty wanting to poo in the potty, which always came naturally with my son and EC. It also saved a lot of gross scrubbing poo out of cloth diapers. I am proud of him. Now he is 3 1/2 and has even stopped wetting at night.
I have started infant potty training with my new baby now, and he is responding positively as well.
So, that is my story with the infant potty training. I don't tell many people because I figure some people will have a critical opinion and think I am weird. But all I can say is, it works.
I think my approach was rather lax, and there was even a period of a few months when we were using disposables quite a lot. I don't regret doing EC, and I don't know if being more consistent would have led to an earlier "graduation" or not. I'm happy with the results I got. Especially when I see other toddlers hiding in the corner to poop in their pants. Eww!

other Infant Potty Training sites:
Diaper Free Baby
Kelly Mom
Laurie Boucke

Green Baby Wipes

Anyone who has been around babies can testify to their constant need of wiping. Various parts of baby anatomy need wiping multiple times a day. Not only tushies, but also noses, mouths, and hands.
When my first child was born, we lived in a faraway country where baby wipes were imported and therefore very expensive. We were already cloth diapering, but I didn't know anything about cloth wipes.
My strategy at the time was to mix my own wipes solution.
My recipe was:
2 TBSP baby wash
2 TBSP baby oil
an unmeasured amount of water; probably about 3 cups.

I would put the baby wash and baby oil into a spray bottle and then fill it up with water. When I changed my son's diaper, I would spray his bottom with the solution (it was kind of fun, and I think he liked it!) and then wipe it off with tissues or toilet paper. The tissue or T.P. would be flushed down the potty along with the solid waste from the cloth diaper. I had heard of people using paper towels to make homemade wipes, but paper towels were not readily available to me. They would definitely be more expensive than tissues!

This method was very easy and inexpensive. Luckily my son didn't have skin sensitivities and we never had problems with my homemade wipe-spray.

Three years later, my second child was born and I was educated about cloth wipes. Baby #2 DOES have very sensitive skin and can't be experimented upon very easily. I did have to get over a mental hurdle to begin using the cloth wipes. For some reason in my mind, cloth wipes are yuckier than cloth diapers. But in reality they aren't bad at all. The diaper can get tons of poo in it, but the wipe just gets a small amount. It is easy to wash the cloth wipes along with your load of cloth diapers.
He uses Cotton Babies Flannel Baby Wipes (100% Unbleached Cotton Designed by a mom and made in the U.S.A.) along with Kissaluvs Diaper Lotion Potion in a spray bottle. The flannel wipes are so soft; I also use them to wipe little noses. And some times even my big nose.

For other possible cloth wipe tips, check out Frugal Baby Tips!

My Cloth Diapering Journey

I started cloth diapering when my first child was seven weeks old. I did it out of necessity, because we were living in another country where disposable diapers were difficult to find and exorbitantly expensive.
I had no diapering experience of any kind. My only tools were internet research and my own mother. I coveted the nice "all-in-one" cloth diapers, but eventually settled on prefolds, because cost was a factor.
Pre-folds are the cheapest cloth diapering option (aside from making cloth diapers yourself out of old t-shirts and towels). I was confused for a while as to what to call these diapers, because I thought a "pre-fold" must be something else. These aren't folded. They are flat rectangles. But I guess "pre-fold" means that YOU fold them yourself before you put them on the baby. Shouldn't they be called "self-fold"?
We bought a bunch of pre-folds (maybe around 20 to 25), along with five Bummis Whisper wraps in size Medium. I was also afraid to use pins so we got three special diaper fasteners made by Snappi. I also tried to be domestic and sew a huge velcro belt for fastening the diapers, but I don't actually know how to sew, even though I wish I did. So a Snappi was definitely my best bet. I found the pre-folds easy to use and take care of. I used the "wet pail method". I washed one load of diapers every two days and dried them on a clothes line. I had to experiment with ways to get stains out of the diapers without using bleach, which causes the fibers to become thinner and less absorbent. I used Oxyclean and white bar soap for the stains, and baking soda and vinegar for the smell.
My husband had no problem diapering our son with the pre-folds as well. I did feel that they weren't very practical for days when we were running a lot of errands, or when we went on trips. On those occasions we used disposable diapers.
Another downside was that the pre-folds were very bulky and made my baby look like he had a HUGE booty! I didn't really mind the look of a big booty, but it did make it hard to wear certain cute baby outfits. Usually he had to wear larger sized clothing instead of his "true" size, because of the extra diaper bulk.
Those pre folds and five diaper covers got us all the way through to when my son self potty trained on his second birthday. He continued to sleep in a cloth diaper at night (just in case) for another year.
When our second baby came along, a wonderful friend gave us a big supply of used Fuzzi Bunz. Fuzzi Bunz are pocket diapers, which means you have a small absorbent piece of material that fits inside of a diaper-shaped "envelope". I was excited about using these, thinking they were a step up from pre-folds. They were less bulky than the pre-folds, and easier to take in a diaper bag, but the care and maintenance was about the same. Fuzzi Bunz have snap fasteners which, in my experience, are complicated for caregivers who aren't the primary diaper changer in the relationship. I read lots of testimonials about how Fuzzi Bunz never leak, but personally I had a big problem with leakage (even with a diaper doubler). Another downside is that Fuzzi Bunz come in specific sizes, so that theoretically you might have to buy an entire supply of diapers in more than one size. Instead of buying 15 diapers and being done with it, you would have to buy 15 size small + 15 size medium +15 size large = three times the money!
I do have a friend who swears by Fuzzi Bunz, but they didn't work for my child.
Eventually I was able to get a great supply of BumGenius diapers. I bought several of them on clearance at Cotton Babies. I wanted to try them initially because they are One Size! One diaper can fit babies from 7 pounds to 35 pounds. Note: my 3 1/2 year old weighs 32 pounds. You could potentially get A LOT of mileage out of these diapers. I have 15 of these and use about 7 per day on my 7-month-old.
I like BumGenius diapers because they are used in the same way as disposables, thereby making me confident to let babysitters and relatives handle them when they care for my baby. They have velcro tabs which fasten in the same way as disposables. BumGenius are pocket diapers, and I "put them together" and stack them in our diaper stacker. For outings, I carry along a Bummis Diaper tote, size small. This gives me a place to put the wet or dirty diaper while we are out and about. The Diaper totes are good about controlling odor, so I have no worries!
So far, BumGenius have served well as an overnight diaper as well. I use two diaper inserts at night and have had very few leaks. In fact, I have had more night time leaks with disposable diapers.
To launder my BumGenius diapers, I use the dry pail method. I wash them using Charlie's Soap and add vinegar to the rinse cycle to neutralize urine odors. I hang the covers to dry. I put the inserts in the dryer with some Dryer Balls instead of fabric softener. Try Nellie's Dryer Balls. Fabric softener is a no-no for cloth diapers, because it creates a waxy build-up on the fabric that impedes absorbency. Now I use Dryer Balls on all of my laundry that goes in the Dryer. They are great if you have a family member who is sensitive to perfumes (like my eczema child!).
I love my cloth diapers, and I look forward to using them on my future children, as well as passing them on to friends when my diapering days are over!

Cloth Diapering Resources:
Journey WIF Nappy
Cotton Babies
Diapers Etc.
Diaper Pin
Green Mountain Diapers
Jardine Diapers
The Diaper Jungle
The Cloth Diaper Whisperer