I have a friend who started cloth diapering and she made it sound so doable- when I first had the boys it sounded so overwhelming- I thought maybe I should give it a try. After all, I don't mind washing out poop. In fact most of my employment has led to some poop washing here and there. It also occurred to me that we didn't have to use cloth exclusively. We still use disposables at night, and sometimes when we go out- though with a wet bag it's not that much harder to use cloth while out for the day.
Anyway. . .I asked my husband what he thought and he was on board so we started buying supplies. We found that there are a lot of new ideas out there that make it surprisingly convenient. And I didn't find the transition hard at all. We had a few overstuffed diapers and one day of leaky disasters, but aside from that we've gotten along pretty well.
Aside from saving us money, don't those little cloth diapered bums look so cute?
Can you see his little muffin top?
Our favorite style of cloth is the pre-folds that have a cover to go over them. We've tried pocket diapers, but I'm not a big fan. They are more expensive and you have to change the whole diaper every time- though I can see how this style would work well for some. With the pre-folds you can leave the liner and just change the pre-fold.
One nice thing is that the diapers can snap down into smaller sizes, so one cover can fit newborn up to 35 lbs.
Along with cloth diapering we bought a clothes line. And I was told by my mother-in-law that clothes lines and cloth diapers go well together because the sun will keep down the stains. So far so good. The clothes line has worked well for us, and I love having extra help with the stains on some of the other articles of clothing we own.
Right now we have:
-14 diaper covers total
-1 washable diaper pale liner
-I don't even know how many pre-folds. I'd guess around 30 or 40 and. . .
-1 wet bag
I'd would like a few more covers and pre-folds, and another diaper pail and liner would be nice. But with what we have we can get through about 4-5 days with using cloth- and disposables only at night. When we are out I just take the now full diaper pail liner and throw everything in the wash, including the wet bag.
I used to rinse out all my diapers before throwing them in the pail, but my mom said she only washed out the poopy ones. This, of course leads, to a smellier diaper pail, but I just throw some baking soda in if it gets real bad.
Now usually I tend to rebel a little, especially against generic parenting advice,- I prefer the advice of friends and family- but I did not start cloth diapering to start up some sort of stink rebellious stand. But it appears there is some opposition out there. People can get defensive when you tell them you use cloth. I honestly am not on a cloth soap box. I have nothing against disposable. And I can perfectly understand why a person would not want to use cloth diapers. It really is just something that I know I can do and handle. If others don't feel they can I'm not going to go on endlessly about it and try to bring them over to the cloth side.
To put some minds at ease:
- The cloth diapers will not keep the wetness away from you child's bum like disposables do. This can lead to more diaper rash, but I've heard people say that they have very little problems with rash when it comes to using cloth and the fact that your baby will feel wet, and maybe uncomfortable, will make it easier to potty train them.
- I've heard some claim it can be unsanitary with all the stains, but bleach can take care of those, or a clothes line like we have. I also keep a can of disinfectant spray around my diaper pail, and I spray it down once every few days and always on wash day.
-Some people worry that the stress of having to wash will be too much. And they will find themselves without a diaper because they are all dirty. This is why I plan to always have disposables on hand, but I have to say it hasn't been hard to anticipate when I need to wash. Even with our small supply.
If anyone is interested I'm more then happy to oblige. Happy diapering to all!
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