You know what’s tough? Finding time to write with a newborn. I gave myself a goal to write twice a week, but ta-da! It’s been two weeks. Last week was basically sleepless (at one point, my husband took off work just to get the baby out so I could sleep a couple of hours in the afternoon), and now, both me and Charlie are sick. (The NoseFrida is our new best friend.)

So, in honor of the little time thief, I thought I’d talk about cloth diapering.

While he was in utero, we decided cloth diapering was a good choice for us. Less waste, cheaper, pretty cute and reusable for future children.

At our first baby shower, people were like —> :-O Whaaat. Cloth? How does that work? (Except my grandma, who was all, NBD guys this is way better than what it used to be.)

There are so many kinds of cloth diapers. Fitteds, flats and prefolds, all-in-ones, all-in-twos, pockets. A local baby boutique has a nice blog explaining the different types. After research, we decided bumGenius 4.0 pocket snap diapers were right for us.

While these dipes are one size fits all, Charlie was too skinny to fit in them at first. So for the first month, we used disposables. Now we’re in cloth diapers 90% of the time. And so far, so good.

These have vertical and horizontal snaps for adjusting the fit. As he grows, we can let out the snaps. (There’s also a velcro option, but we read the velcro ages poorly.)

The cover is waterproof. Inside, there’s a fabric pocket for a cloth insert. The diapers come with a newborn and regular insert (the regular is thicker and absorbs more). The fabric pocket is made from a material that wicks the wetness away from the baby’s body.

Gratuitous naked baby shot. He’s totally horrified.

It all sounds fine and dandy…but what about dirty diapers?

Enter, this guy. It’s a Bumkins cloth diaper sprayer, and it’s connected to the toilet’s water line. So when we have a poopy diaper…

…we just spray off the solids and flush it down. (We also have a Spray Pal splatter shield, but it’s cumbersome and more work than it’s worth, in my opinion.)

From there, I separate the insert from the diaper and both go in a wet bag, which has a waterproof liner.

I know what you’re thinking. That diaper still had some serious yellow stains on it. Not to worry though! Breast milk is water soluble, and it comes right out in the wash.

The cotton inserts usually come out of the washing machine with a little yellow on them. The power of the sun takes care of that right away.

We have enough diapers in our stash that we can do laundry every other day. We’re not using any special detergent, just homemade stuff (Borax, Fels Naptha and washing soda). The wet bag gets washed too. We have two of them, so when one is being washed, we have a bag to use. Plus we have a small travel wet bag for when we’re on the go.

We’ve had a couple of leaks, but heck, we have leaks with disposable diapers. Disposable diapers have a handy wet indicator that I kind of miss. The cloth leaks happen when he saturates the pad. No blow outs yet! Overall? We’re super happy with the cloth diapers and can’t imagine using disposable diapers all the time. And Charlie? He’s pleased!

We still have a stash of Pampers though, for night time. I avoid changing his diaper in the middle of the night, but if he has a giant poop during a 2 am feeding, I change it. And tossing a disposable into the trashcan next to our bed is much easier than getting up and putting the diaper in the wet bag.

Conclusion: cloth diapering is not scary. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes when we introduce solids and he starts going to daycare!

Anyone else cloth diaper? What’s your experience? Favorite covers?

2 Responses to Cloth Diapering: Not Scary!

  1. wilma says:

    hey, we cloth diapered. we ended up using prefolds mostly, and disposable at night once the baby was sleeping through the night. it was pretty easy for the most part.

    just wanted to let you know (in case you don’t already) that the cloth wipes are awesome, too. we never did anything special with them–i just had a metal dog bowl (one with a rim, so it can be easily carried w/ one hand), and i would put some warm water in it before changing the diapers–only rule was no double dipping, haha. wipes were washed with the diapers. your baby is super cute and so are the diapers!

    • Paige says:

      nice! that’s a great idea. we have a few flannel wipes, but the problem has been getting them wet. i’m not a fan of pre-wetting because i’m afraid they’ll mold, but a bowl of water would work. i’ve also contemplated making my own bum spray — the store-bought stuff is $$$!

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