I can still remember my first encounter with a cloth diaper. I was babysitting my friend’s baby when I was in college and he brought over all these pieces of thick cloth and showed me how to fold into a perpendicular triangle that somehow created a diaper around his baby’s little bottom. I’m not sure how we made it through diaper changes but I’m sure there was at least one time that I shed some tears as I tried to wrap her up while she skillfully maneuvered out of it and away from me. At that point, I broke up with the notion of ever cloth diapering my kids. I was scarred and unforgiving.
Until now.
So a big part of being “crunchy” is cloth diapering. Given my history of it, I wasn’t so enthusiastic about this aspect but part of growing up is forgiving and thus I’ve ended up where I am now. Ok, so maybe I didn’t forgive but I did get over that prior experience after seeing the huge changes that were made in cloth diapering. Not only were they absolutely adorable, but they were easy to use!!!
Can’t even tell she’s wearing a cloth diaper!
Cloth Diaper Essentials
Wet Bags
Unlike disposable diapers where you just toss the entire diaper and wipes in the trash, you don’t do that with your cloth diapers. Have a wet bag is super important and makes the cloth diaper cleaning process so much easier. Once you’ve pulled out the wet cloth, toss it in one of theseĀ babies to hold until it’s time to wash.
Cloth Wipes
I didn’t think these were so necessary until I was trying to figure out where to put the wipes that I’d just used on her poopy bottom. With the cloth wipes, you can easily roll them up with the cloth diapers to dump into the wet bag for washing. Assuming you go with this option, snag one of these wipe solutions to keep the wipes ready to use.
Laundry Care
I thought that my little tubs from Walmart would work (and we made them work) but special detergent for the poop, having a tub with a splatter shield, and stain remover are all really important.
Deciding On Your Cloth Diapering System
I thought this would be harder than it was. Here are the different types of cloth diapers:
- One Size Diapers – These can be used from birth through potty training.
- Diaper Covers – Waterproof outer layer that is used with flats, prefolds, or fitteds.
- All-in-Two Diapers – Waterproof shell with separate inserts. Inserts need to be changed at changing–shell can stay on.
- Pocket Diapers – Waterproof shell with an opening for inserts or prefolds to be placed inside. Must change cover and insert at each change.
- All-In-One Diapers – One piece that has a waterproof outer shell with an attached cloth interior. Must change entire diaper at each changing.
- Prefold Diapers – Rectangular cloth with 3 panels that can be used with a cover.
- Flat Diapers – Single layer of fabric that is folded into a cover.
- Fitted Diapers – Entire diaper is cloth and is contoured to fit baby. No folding and entire diaper must be changed out with each changing.
This is the Hedgehog design. So.Frickin.Cute.
I went with an All-In-Two diaper system. This was the most convenient to me for a couple reasons. My system has a snap-in system making diaper changing super easy. I also like the way these fit abc. You can’t tell that she’s wearing a cloth diaper because her little bottom isn’t super fluffy. Outside of them being hard to use in the beginning, I hated that clothes didn’t fit because of the size of the cloth diaper! I specifically got the Best Bottom Cloth Diaper SystemĀ with the Stay Dry Inserts.
Popular Questions
Q: How many do you buy?
A: That honestly depends on how often you plan on doing laundry and how old your baby is. With abc being 18 months, we go through between 6-8 diaper changes a day. I have 3 shells and 12 inserts. Because with our system we have you don’t have change the shell with every diaper change we do laundry every other day.Ā
Q: Was it expensive to get started?
A: Nope. It took about $85 to get started with this package here. On average, we spend about $40/month on diapers. Now we spend pretty much nothing–though I still send her to daycare with some disposables.Ā
Q: The poop… How do you deal?
A: I’m not going to lie. It was hard at first. But we keep some black tubs ready and waiting to have the poopy ones dumped into.Ā
How about a giveway!?!?!?
Yep! Nicki’s Diapers wants to giveaway a system to get someone started in their cloth diapering journey:
