It’s been more than a year since we started using cloth diapers, and I feel like talking about it. I thought I’d just “jot down” everything I’ve tried and my opinions about it all, just in case you were dying to know the good, the bad, and the stinky about my cloth diaper experience (so far). Actually I’m doing this post so I can have a place to refer my friends who ask me what I think about cloth diapers. I don’t know everything about cloth diapers, but this is EVERYTHING that I can think of to say about them. There’s a LOT. Brace yourself.
I do have to inform you upfront that I’m not CRAZY! I actually really love disposable diapers. They’re downright convenient and easy. We keep a box of disposables on hand for travels, rashes, 'n such. But we use cloth diapers most of the time anyways. SO, here’s the outline:
- WHY?
- What kind and where to get them?
- How many?
- Accessories?
- Changing them
- Washing them
- Our current method
- Resources
1. WHY: There are just as many reasons to use cloth diapers as there are not to use them, so here are the reasons why I decided to use them after a year and a half of disposables diapers:
~They save money—really! Even if you get the ritzy giant birth-to-potty training packages of cloth diapers, it’s only about $400 for all the diapers you’ll ever need again. And you don’t have to get the top of the line ones. You can factor in water bills from washing and all that if you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that cloth diapers are still way cheaper than disposables, especially over multiple children.
~You never have to buy diapers again! This is SUCH a big one for me. Just last week we took a break from cloth diapers and it killed me to watch that box of disposables disappear so fast. It makes me feel secure to have a renewable supply of diapers. Every few days, the supply is replenished.
~When the kid grows out of a size, you just undo the snaps to make the diaper bigger. You aren’t left with half a box of too-small diapers.
~It’s easy on the landfills, and I like to recycle.
~Cloth diapers are just so stinkin' cute! [I SO intended that pun]
2. What kind? Ugh, this the million dollar question. OVERWHELMING! It’s really really hard to figure this out because everyone has different preferences annnnd every baby is a different shape. I ended up buying a few different kinds before I settled on one. I like having more than one kind. Variety is the spice of diapers! Eeew. I need to ease up on the diapuns. The kinds of diapers I like are: POCKET diapers and COVERS with an insert laid inside. One style that we tried but didn’t really like is the pre-fold cotton diaper. First, a few other variables factor in besides the pocket vs. the cover:
~One-size diapers with an adjustable rise that claims to fit 8-35 lbs, or specific sized diapers for each age. I have some of both, and I will say that the most cost-effective style is the one size diaper. They’re great!
~One more layer to the confusion is snap vs. velcro closures at the waist. Snaps are a bit more long-wearing, but velcro is way easier and more custom-fitted, and it’s easy to replace if it does wear out. So it’s a trade-off. Once again, I have some of each. One note about the snaps: they never bothered Jay, but recently Rose had a growth spurt and the snaps on the waist of her diapers started digging into her hips—not because the diaper was fastened too tight, but because she was bigger and her shape didn’t fit in the diaper very well. I think snaps are great as long as there are only 2 snaps at the waist and not a third one down low to get in the way and gouge tender skin.
Ok, now on to my analysis and opinions of each of the 3 styles I’ve tried:
Diaper Style #1: The pocket diaper! It is lined with fleece and has an opening in the back where you stuff the rectangular insert. These are my favorites because the fleecy inside wicks moisture from the little bum. You pull the insert out for wash day. Brands I’ve tried:
~Babyland, a cheap eBay option. I found them for about $6 each (one insert with one cover)—lower quality (they feel flimsy) but perfectly functional! They’re a little smaller than American diapers so they don’t fit chubby older (18months and up) kids. They fit Jay till he was potty trained because he was slim, but Rose has hips and she was done with them just before age two. These also do NOT hold up overnight in my experience. Definitely the cheapest option in quality and price. But I love them, and they’re great for daytime use. I wouldn’t buy them again, though, because I found something better.
~Bumgenius, one of the top brands (aka expensive!) They are $18 for one diaper that comes with 2 inserts (on www.diaperjunction.com). They feel super durable and work really well all the time.
~Kawaii pocket diapers are my favorites. They come with 2 inserts and only cost $7 at www.theluvyourbaby.com. PLUS, they’re durable and last over night too. You can choose snaps or velcro closures at the waist. Seriously, the quality-to-price ratio for these is the BEST.
Diaper Style #2: The cover with an insert laid inside. So quick and easy! If no er, waste gets on the cover, you can reuse the cover 2 or 3 times with a new insert each time. This is a good value because you need less covers total. The two brands of this style that I like best are:
~Real Nappies—picture above (on amazon.com, a set of 6 for $36). These do not come with the inserts, and they only come in plain white. They come in separate sizes, so you do have to buy the next size up when your baby grows out of them. Rose has fit the same size for the past year though.
~Flip (on www.diaperjunction.com, a package with 2 covers and 6 inserts is $49, or 1 cover and 1 insert is $17). These come in lots of happy, cute colors, and they are one-size so you can adjust the rise to fit any baby. Flips are one of the fancier brands of this style, but they are definitely quality diapers.
~I have to mention Kawaii diaper covers—they have the plain cover in that brand too, just like Flip diapers, and the Kawaii ones only cost $5 per cover (no insert included). We don’t have any, but I’d choose them over Flips just because of the price.
Diaper Style #3: Pre-fold cotton diaper and a cover. I never got these ones to work for me. We had too many issues with rashes, and they are bulky. But when we run out of other diapers, these work in a pinch. There are 3 ways to use the so-called pre-fold diapers:
~The traditional way, with diaper pins. I have tried it, and it’s my least favorite.
~With a Snappi. These things are pretty awesome and easy to use, but with older babies the claws kind of dig into their hips through the diaper. I snipped the bottom claw on the crotch area off of one of our Snappis because it was poking in a very tender place. So these are easier than diaper pins, but they can be pokey.
~Fold it in thirds and lay it in a cover. This way is the easiest and the most absorbent, but it gives the baby a giant bubble butt. Rose always walks funny if I ever put this kind of diaper on her, because it’s a lot to cram between two little legs!
(folded in thirds like this)
3. How many? Rose started wearing cloth diapers when she was 8 months old, so I have no experience with younger babies. How many though…it all depends on how often you want to do laundry. I got enough cloth diapers for Jay and Rose back at the beginning. Once Jay was potty trained, we had a surplus and I only had to wash the diapers once a week. It was sweet.
If I were buying all new diapers for one child, though, I’d only get enough for 2 or 3 days at a time. For ages 8 months and up I bank on at least 5 diapers per day, possibly 1 or 2 per day more, depending on the baby. SO, to have enough to do the laundry every 3rd day (twice a week), you need about 15 diapers. That’s our current cycle right now.
For newborns, I do not know from experience, but before my miscarriage last year I bought 24 small Kawaii pocket diapers and planned on doing laundry every other day. I’m saving those diapers for next time.
4. Accessories. I have a top 7 list:
~Kissaluvs Diaper Lotion Potion. It’s just an all-natural spray that’s awesome for soothing and moisturizing baby booties.
~Grandma El’s diaper rash remedy and prevention. It’s a Vaseline-textured cream that’s all-natural and washes out of cloth diapers much easier than any other cream I’ve tried.
~Diaper Rite Flannel Wipes! Then you don’t have to separate the disposable wipes from the cloth diaper—just throw them all into the diaper pail. All you have to do is get the wipe wet with water and it works great—and they never tear. You can get a pack of 15 for $7.50 at diaperjunction.com. For one child, washing diapers every 3rd or 4th day, 30 wipes is plenty.
~Any ole plastic trash can with a lid will work. The smell is actually LESS for cloth diapers than for disposables because you flush the poo down the toilet instead of wrapping it up and tossing it in the trash. I have a Rubbermaid trash can. Every other week, I wipe it out with a Clorox wipe and it smells fresh `n clean again.
~RUBBER GLOVES really help when you don’t want to get too close. You can buy a sweet spray hose that hooks up to your toilet, but they are like $45 and I feel much safer in the rubber gloves anyways.
~The best diaper detergent that I’ve tried is Rockin' Green. But I just switched to homemade detergent that works great too: grate up one bar of ivory soap and mix it with 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of washing soda, and use one or two tablespoons per load. Way cheaper than the Rockin' Green (which costs at least $15 per bag as opposed to…like $2 for the homemade version.
~Microfleece diaper liners. They are thin rectangles of soft, moisture-wicking fleece. They are really only necessary when we use the microfiber inserts directly against the skin, because microfiber has a drying effect that can irritate tender skin. So we got a package of 5 of those from amazon.com for $5.
5. Changing cloth diapers: I’m not going to lie, it takes some getting used to. The thing that helped me “get over it” was our first attempt at potty training Jay. Poopy undies are WAY grosser than a poopy cloth diaper. There are some educational youtube videos on how to change cloth diapers. A few things I’ve found helpful are:
~Flushable diaper liners! They come in a roll and you tear one off and lay it in the diaper. It usually catches the worst of the waste so you just dump it all in the potty and flush it away.
~A good changing set-up does wonders! We’re lucky to have space in our basement laundry room-bathroom combo to have it all in one place. It helps to be able to dispose of the diaper as quickly as possible.
~Embrace the fact that poo is GROSS. Don’t expect yourself never to be completely grossed out by a disgusting diaper—it is nasty! If you can just manage to slosh it in the toilet before tossing it in the pail, it’s over. Once you get your system down, changing a dirty cloth diaper only takes a teeny bit longer than changing an equally dirty disposable diaper.
~Sometimes the only answer is to hold your breath.
~Oh yeah, and when you’re out and about, changing cloth diapers isn’t any harder than changing a disposable. As long as you have a mini waterproof bag to put the used cloth diaper in, you’re good to go. I got our on-the-go “wet bag” (as it’s called) from amazon.com for $8. It has a zipper and seals EVERYTHING off from the rest of the diaper bag. Very safe and sanitary. The hard part is remembering that there’s a soiled cloth diaper hiding in the bag when you get home! (Shudder—I have forgotten that more than once).
6. Washing Cloth Diapers. They do need to be well-washed or else they start to smell. There are 3 steps:
~Pre-wash without soap: some washers have a pre-wash setting. Ours doesn’t, so my solution is to quickly rinse the diaper in the sink right before I toss it in the pail. Sometimes I just stack them up throughout the day and give them all a quick rinse at once at the end of the day. Other times I rinse the diapers off after each change. You’re going to wash your hands after you change the diaper anyways, so why not quickly rinse and squeeze out the diaper? I had issues with smelly diapers at first, but once I started rinsing the diapers before tossing them in the pail, the stench disappeared, and I could go a whole week between washes.
~Regular wash cycle in HOT water with mild soap and an extra rinse. That’s the big one: mild soap and hot water. The extra rinse helps make sure that no soap residue sticks in the diapers to irritate the babybum.
~In the summer, I hang all of the diapers out to dry in the sun because here the sun dries them faster than our dryer can. AND, the sunlight actually bleaches out any poo stains. It’s amazing! In the winter, I put the wipes and inserts into the dryer and hang the covers in the bathroom to dry. I’ve found that the waterproof fabric used for diapers is best when left to air dry. They usually recommend that, even though it’s ok to machine dry them in a pinch. They air dry quickly anyways, so it’s no big deal.
~We have hard water, so once a month or every 6 weeks, I run an extra cycle on hot water without soap to “strip” them of any mineral build up that can cause the diaper to smell or lose absorbency. If I’ve been using a lot of diaper cream, I put a squeeze of dish soap in the load to get the waterproof barrier off of the diapers.
~Rose got a yeast infection once, and when that happened, I washed all of the diapers with bleach to kill that bacteria.
7. Our current method: I just changed it. For the past year, we’ve been using pocket diapers with snaps around the clock and doing laundry once a week. Rose got a little too big for most of our pocket diapers recently, so now we use diaper covers with a microfiber insert laid inside it. Rose wears a disposable diaper to bed now. She’s old enough that she has a lot of pee that sits against her skin when she wears a cloth diaper all night. All that exposure to the ammonia causes her skin to flare up in an intense red rash at the drop of a hat. So I stopped fighting it and now she wears a convenient disposable to bed every night.
We have 10 diaper covers and 12 inserts, plus 5 pocket diapers that still fit her. That allows us a comfy margin of 3.5-4 days between washings.
If I could go back and start a fresh diaper wardrobe with my current knowledge, here’s what I would buy:
20 Kawaii Pure and Natural 0-15 months pocket diapers ($120)
one 12-pack of Kawaii one size pocket diapers with velcro ($73)
one 12 pack Kawaii one size diaper covers with velcro ($44)
2 packs (10 total) of microfleece liners ($10)
3 packs (45 total) of flannel wipes ($23)
Total: $270.
8. Resources: for cloth diaper products and info, these are my favorite sites:
~ http://www.diaperjunction.com/
~ http://www.theluvyourbaby.com/
~http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/
~http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/
~http://www.clothdiaper.com/
WHEW. It’s all out there now.
