10/13/09

Britches

Little berry wears cloth diapers. This is great, convenient for us, and cheaper than I expected. We use the highly acclaimed Bum Genius diapers and they are everything they claim to be, if not more. With them we've never had a single 'blow out,' and for overnight we just add a newborn insert on top of a regular and she's set. They're easy to wash, quick to dry, and they even have an excellent 'warranty' just in case something goes wrong.
You do have to use a good detergent: we use Charlie's soap. It seems to matter if you use regular detergent for other loads- so we use Charlie's for everything except once in a while. I find I can always toss a dryer sheet into other loads as they dry to make them smell good- which is important to Pappa Starbucks. He likes to smell good. When we went to Europe, we took the BumGenius diapers with us- they took up a lot of space but ended up being worth it. Because diapers in Europe, even Pampers- were so much thinner and different from their counterparts stateside. So for us, traveling with cloth diapers was an easy choice- I took those little spray bottles they sell at Target that are "Airline Approved" and filled them with the liquid Charlie's and put them in our carry on- it was actually very convenient because our rooms in Paris, London, and Dublin had front-loading washers and so we just sprayed each diaper down individually and they came perfectly clean every time. In Dublin, we line-dried them but they dry slower that way.
My issue with them is only that Little Berry requires a much larger seat in her pants. Which is complicated in that her legs aren't particularly long, and while it was fine in the summer- she either wore 3T shorts or just a diaper with a shirt/dress, winter is nearing and I don't know what she's going to wear for pants! I've tried larger pants but they are usually too long. I've tried making her some but can't find a good pattern.
Any suggestions? What do you do for your cloth-diapering baby's pants?