What’s it really like to cloth diaper?
A Typical Cloth Diapering Day for My Family Looks Like This:
Baby wakes up in the morning and needs an immediate change. Figuring out the correct absorbency to keep baby comfortable throughout the night proves our biggest challenge. His cloth diaper will definitely be wet, much like a full morning disposable, so I need to make sure the urine is absorbed away from his skin throughout the night. I put the morning diaper in a hanging wet bag in the laundry room and make plans to wash diapers if the bag is full. Washing is usually more about remembering and planning. I can run them while I do other things, then toss them in the dryer. The most time-consuming part, like most laundry, is folding and storing them.
Kai is an older baby, so he goes through fewer diapers these days, but we still change him every 2 to 3 hours. When he pees only, I change the diaper, remove an insert if necessary, and drop it in my wet bag until wash day. If he poops, I rinse the diaper or dump the flushable liner, in the toilet. It’s gross, but n my mind, diapering is gross. Potty training is often grosser. You have to deal with poop and pee no matter what type of diaper you choose to contain them.
Sure, rinsing off a poopy diaper takes a bit more time (although you are technically supposed to shake poop off of a disposable as well), but you are dealing with poop either way. Some parents choose to use flushable liners as their babies begin to eat solids or if they use formula (breast milk poo is water soluble), others use sprayers, and others dunk. We have done all three and it is now a very efficient process and routine to me. I still don’t want to change poopy diapers, but I hated folding up a poopy disposable and finding a garbage can too.
If we go out, I make sure my diaper bag has a wet bag and I have some way to wet cloth wipes. I admit that I also use disposable wipes sometimes, toss them in the wash with my dirty diapers, then throw them away. I also prefer using flushable diaper liners when I go out (if I remember) to make changing poopy diapers simpler while traveling. I plan ahead with a few diapers if I’ll be out for awhile because I don’t have them tucked in a million places like I used to with disposables. They take a bit more room in my diaper bag, so I also had to adjust what I carry, but I’ve rarely had a no-diaper emergency.
If I did wash the day before, it’s pretty likely that clean diapers are waiting to be stuffed and put away. I don’t mind washing cloth diapers, but I’m lazy about stuffing them. If I had it to do again, I would definitely go with AIOs. Of course, there are many more affordable options All-in-Ones now. I prefer a simple storing and sorting system. The diapers that do not require covers – pockets, AIOs, AI2s – go in the top drawer. Fitteds, flats, and covers go in the second. I put my favorite diapers on top for easy access and always try to keep the diaper bag stocked. If I really planned ahead, I’d tuck one or two in the car and rotate them.
At the end of the day, cloth diapers are just a regular part of my routine. I don’t dedicate a large amount of time to them and I feel like they are a practical choice for my lifestyle as a SAHM and freelance writer. When it comes to cloth diapers, convenience is a toss up and all about perspective. I think there’s an exchange of conveniences with disposables and cloth. What do I mean? Disposables involve figuring out the best brand and size, making trips to the store, trying not to overbuy, finding a way to keep them from stinking up the house, and disposing of them. Cloth diapers involve finding the best brands and size, purchasing them, finding a way to keep them from stinking up the house between cleanings, laundering, and storing.
I love that I don’t have to run to the store, that I can always run a load of diapers if I’m getting low, that I have back ups in less desirable diapers like prefolds. I will admit that I didn’t find cloth diapering as convenient when I had two in diapers and my newborn went through them like crazy. This didn’t last long, though, and proved a huge motivator to help my middle child potty train.
My Worst Cloth Diapering Day Looks Like This:
A really terrible cloth diapering day is like the one where you ran out of disposable diapers in the right size, but have a million of the wrong ones. Maybe your favorite brand suddenly doesn’t work for baby anymore. You try temporarily using the wrong size and baby leaks out the top, sides, legs, or all three. Maybe you’re enduring blowouts and post nap baby is covered head to toe in poo. You just finished washing him in the bath and he poos again. Your diaper pail is full and the garbage man doesn’t come for 3 more days. Maybe you head to the park, forget a diaper, and have to borrow one from a friend.
The days where I wish I had a back up package of disposables are usually the ones when my favorite diapers are dirty. I need to do wash, but I’m crazy busy. I finally get a load going and realize I forgot to add the wet bag of soiled diapers hanging on the bathroom door. We head to the park, baby poops, and I realize my wet bags are all in the wash. I have to come up with a make shift solution to store the diaper until I get home to rinse it off.
I think the hardest days are when a newborn who goes through a ton of diapers and is difficult to find a good fit. You are washing diapers every day for a short time because you only have so many tiny diapers and/or you have two in cloth. The second worst days happen when your baby suddenly becomes a “heavy wetter” at night and figuring out the right combination to keep baby dry is a challenge. Third worst is when the baby is changing and/or is in between sizes and diapers are leaking until you get the right fit. I’ve been through all of these, though, and I’ve never regretted choosing cloth diapers for my family.
My Best Cloth Diapering Day Looks Like This:
On an ideal day, I cleaned the diapers yesterday, then folded and put them away last night while watching an episode of my favorite show on Netflix. The diaper bag is prepped and I have everything I need ready when I go out. Baby decides to poop at home, when it’s Dad’s turn, or not at all. I especially love days when baby can go with just a t-shirt and diaper, with the diaper doubling as an adorable fashion statement. On my very best days, I won’t be trying to advocate for cloth, but someone will see us using them and want more information. Even better? When my husband is with us and he vouches for cloth because they save money and work with our lifestyle.
Most of all, the best days are ones when diapers are just diapers and I haven’t given them much thought. At the end of the day, I feel like my family has saved money and make a positive environmental impact without added inconvenience or time requirements.
Next Up: Part III: Where Do I Start?
In Case You Missed It: Part I: Is Cloth Diapering Right for Me and My Family?
I must agree on the poop issue. It doesn’t matter what kind of diaper my baby’s in, I still groan (mostly internally) when I realize he’s pooped and I now have to change him. With cloth, I HAVE to rinse the diaper off, but with disposables, I’m risking a blow-out. When he was very young he wouldn’t poop for a week and then it’d all come out in one huge gusset-to-gusset explosion. Every time I heard him start to “blow”, I’d think about what diaper he was in. If he was in cloth, we were safe and it’d hold. But if I’d gotten “lazy” and had him in a disposable for some reason, I’d panic knowing I’d have a whole baby to clean and messy outfit change to deal with. LOL There’s just no winning with poop, I tell ya! 😛
As far as wipes, I normally prefer using cloth, but sometimes I just don’t have enough. Or I want to use them on a messy face/hands and don’t want to carry a “just water” spray bottle for that or pre-wet wipes, or whatever it is that better-prepared cloth-using mommies do when they’re out and about. So, I’ve found unscented biodegradable disposable wipes to be my friend. I use so few that the slightly higher price tag doesn’t bother me, but knowing they’re eco- and baby-friendly make me completely willing to use as many as I want as often as I want. 🙂
Just over two years in, I must say that cloth is totally normal to me. I frequently forget that not all babies are diapered the way mine is and have to stop and think when talking to other mommies about diapering woes because the advice I’m most likely to offer up first is irrelevant to a disposable diapering family!
However, as far as cloth vs. disposables go, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who knew cloth options existed and actually preferred using disposable SWIM diapers. Even disposable diapering families seem to respond with a “why wasn’t I told about this!?” attitude when they see a cloth swim diaper since it’s really no more work than using a swim suit and is way less likely to make your kid the one leaving a trail in the pool. 😛
I am just getting started with cloth. Literally, this week. This post is helpful to me, because it validates why I am getting into this. It saves money, it isn’t very time consuming, and dang it…cloth just looks comfier.