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What to know about cloth diapers

Hello! It has been a while since I have posted a blog… about 7 months in fact since I had my third son in September, and since then blogging time just has not been as easy to come by. My goal for 2020 was to blog once a month, so I hope to get back on a regular schedule eventually, but I also prefer to write under the guidance of some inspiration, and my need to connect with someone about a particular topic. Lately the topic has been cloth diapers.

I decided to begin using cloth diapers with my third son strictly on a want/need to save money basis. The environmental, waste reduction, and less exposure to chemicals were all added bonuses I can feel happy about, but saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars while using cloth diapers for the duration of this baby’s diaper wearing days was enough motivation for me to make an attempt. I figured why not?

As a first time + working mom cloth diapers seemed so intimidating and quite frankly it seemed like something for crazy moms. But now after 6/7 months of using cloth diapers almost exclusively I can say that I am not sure what I was so put off by. Using cloth diapers is much more manageable and much easier that I ever would have imagined. I honestly wish I would have just gone ahead and cloth diapered my other two sons too.

But this blog isn’t meant to be a sanctimonious advertisement for all the benefits of cloth, or to try to convince anyone to cloth diaper. It is more of a review/ honest reflection on this experience and what I have learned in the last half year of trying something new. When I began researching cloth diapers and how to do it I consulted many blogs, and youtube videos. Finally I joined a FB group that has taught me a lot. I’d recommend doing all of that as a jumping off point.

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED

So, like I said I wanted to try cloth to save money. As a now stay at home mom of three this was a big deal to our family. I joined a few cloth diaper groups on facebook, started watching dozens of youtube videos all about cloth, and I scoured pinterest to accumulate a lot of advice. I learned there are multiple different types of cloth diapers and each have their own benefits and drawbacks. I decided to go with pocket diapers. Pocket diapers have a fleece liner with a pocket behind it where you place an insert. Inserts are the absorbent part of the diaper. The entire diaper is soiled and needs to be washed once baby poops or pees, so you need to change the entire diaper, which means you will need more of these. There are also pre-folds, all in ones, hybrid cloth diapers. All have their own pros and cons. I chose pocket diapers because they are cheaper than all in ones, and you can customize the absorbency. All in ones seem the easiest to use, but they are much more expensive.

Once I figured out I wanted pocket diapers I wanted to pick a brand that was the most cost effective. I figured I would start with 20 diapers (using possibly 10 a day, and washing every other day) and found that Alva baby has bundles of 20 for around 80 bucks. I have yet to find a better deal that that, so I picked a variety of solid colors and made the jump. Alva baby has very long shipping delays, but they are also sold on Amazon, just not as cheaply.

It seems that most blogs I read about cloth diapers always break down the types of diapers, types of inserts, and that seemed to be the majority of the information I was finding, so I want to avoid that here. However, with pocket diapers inserts are kind of a big deal. I started with microfibers (they came with the diapers from Alva) but they feel awful and aren’t supposed to be against baby’s skin. I prefer my bamboo inserts so much more. I also love my hemp inserts by thirsties as a good absorbency combo for night time. Bamboo and hemp are natural materials and hemp is more absorbent, but a bit more pricey too. All in all I spent about a total of $290.00 for all of the supplies I need. According to Google disposable diapers cost about $800.00 per year (and wipes an additional $200- $500.) If I stick with cloth for the entirety of Ruston’s diaper wearing days I will definitely save thousands of dollars.

In addition to the diapers and inserts you’ll need:

THE DEAL WITH POOP

Everyone is grossed out by this part, but here is the deal. Breast milk poop is water soluble. It literally dissolves in the wash, and I have never had an issue with my diapers getting clean. For the first 6 months (until I started solids) I literally just changed a cloth diaper like I would a disposable. No extra work other than washing/ diaper laundry. Once I added in solids it did change the work load a bit. Now I have to spray the poopy diapers off, which is one part I do not like, but the more I do it, the easier it gets. At first, I was really put off by this. It took forever to spray the poop off, and I hated bending over spraying the diaper. Water would get everywhere from my sprayer, and my back hurt and it just was not fun. I ended up moving my sprayer to my other bathroom so I could sit on the edge of the tub, and bought a diaper shield to keep the water from getting on the floor and walls. We are now in the groove of dealing with the poop. Eventually, when Ruston isn’t breastfed anymore, the poop will be “ploppable” and even easier to get off of the diapers.

HOW DO YOU WASH THEM

Once I made the decision to cloth diaper, this was the most intimmidating part. There seemed to be all this stress surrounding a “great wash routine,” hard or soft water, good or bad detergents, detergent build up and diaper stripping. I was like surely I am going to get this part wrong and then constantly be trouble shooting leaks or some problems, but I have been pleasantly surprised. This is what I do and it has worked great for us thus far:

  • Rinse in cold, no detergent (this gets all the poop and pee off and out of the diaper)
  • Wash hot, with powdered Tide (this actually cleans the diaper)
  • Dry my inserts, wipes and any small pieces of laundry in a full cycle
  • Hang dry my diapers as to avoid extra heat in order to preserve the elastic gussets

It is maybe 10/15 mins. of extra work a week. As simple as taking out the trash, which you would do with disposables anyway, and a very simple “sort and stuff” if you will, to have the diapers ready to go for the next use.

THE DEAL WITH CLOTH WIPES

So, at first I was like “why make things harder, I’ll just use disposable wipes.” But the truth is cloth wipes are so easy and actually work better than disposable wipes, and now save me a TON of money on wipes. When you have a dirty diaper you’ll dump it is a diaper pail or trash can with the washable wet bag liner. It is actually harder to add in disposables because they you need to throw those away, but with the cloth wipes you just toss them in with the dirty diapers and wash them too. I honestly prefer them and can usually get away with using only one. I have a stack where I change diapers, wet them with water in a squirt bottle and ta-dahh.

THE DEAL WITH TRASH CANS/ DIAPER PAILS

Some people love diaper pails. I personally hated mine while using disposables with Holden. It fills up so fast, is incredibly heavy, and annoying to change. The refill bags are expensive, and pulling out a log full of literal crap was nothing to look forward to, so I sold ours and got a regular trash can. Now I simply put a big wet bag trash can liner in the trash can, carry it all to the washing machine, dump everything in, flip the bag inside out and wash that too. I have two bags that I change in and out, and the trash can allows more air flow, which actually minimizes the smell in addition to preventing mold and mildew from growing, which I have had issues with if I let my diapers sit too long, but you do bleach soak and you’re good to go.

THE CONS OF CLOTH DIAPERS

I mentioned the pros: saves money, good for the environment, no added chemicals (ie. bleach that can be found in some disposable diapers), less diaper rash, cute prints.

Cons: The first (and for a while my only) complaint about cloth diapers were that they were very bulky. They didn’t fit under many outfits and that really annoyed me at first. But the diapers are cute on their own, so I usually just dressed my baby in a t-shirt and cloth diaper. I have found that the bulkiness has gone away overtime as he grows. They fit him better and therefore fit under clothes better too.

There is more work involved. The laundry I feel is pretty minimal. Every 2/3 days I wash them, sort the inserts and wipes, and stuff the diapers. It is an extra 20 minuets out of my week. But now that I need to spray the poop diapers I do find that takes a bit more time, and I don’t love it, but it is only the poop diapers, not every single diaper.

I now feel guilty every time I use disposables. I mostly use disposable diapers on Sundays when I want to dress Ruston in a cute outfit for church, or when I’m especially busy and don’t want to worry about spraying a diaper off, like when we had a birthday party for Waylon at our house. I actually hadn’t bought him any (not one box) of diapers for his entire life until he was 7 months old. I got sick, so for a week I just said whatever, and gave myself a break. I didn’t use the cloth diapers until he was 6 weeks old. Cloth diapers are size adjustable, but only fit babies at a certain weight (about 12-15 lbs). There are also newborn cloth diapers, but I didn’t want to make an investment in those for a short period of time, so I just used left over and gifted disposable diapers until he could fit in the cloth, and I haven’t looked back.

So that is my honest experience with cloth diapering. I think it is something most people could manage or deal with if they decided they wanted to take it on. I spent a lot of time learning about cloth diapers prior to jumping all in, which I think helped me tremendously. I went in with a plan and a pretty good idea of what to expect. In hind sight I think I could have pulled it off with my first and second babies too, but my assumptions kept me from going for it. Like I said previously, I am not trying to convert anyone over to the cloth side, there is no morally superior way to diaper a baby, but I would like to encourage those who are interested in trying cloth diapers to go for it. And cloth doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Any time a cloth diaper is used, that is a disposable that you didn’t buy and throw away into a landfill forever. The thought of the hundreds or maybe thousands of diapers I’ve sent to landfills over the past 5 years is quite disturbing.

So if you have any questions please send them my way! I’d love to talk more about cloth diapers, and encourage anyone looking for that support. It is funny how something like cloth could be so polarizing, but some families are not supportive of it. All the grandmas in my life gave me some very strong opinions about me switching to cloth. They all had to use cloth, but it is so much user friendly today. One even said “now why on earth would you wanna do that?” And thinks it is completely crazy and gross. The bottom line is making the right choice for your family wether that be cloth or disposables, or both!