Cloth Diapering 101

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Cloth Diapering 101 | Fort Worth Moms Blog

When I was pregnant with my first baby, cloth diapering her never crossed my mind. It also never crossed my mind while pregnant with my second and third babies. At that time I still thought cloth diapers were the same ones my mother used on me, and her mother on her: plain white cloths, stuck on with pins, and covered with an ugly underpants-like cover. Plus, who wants to clean out the poo? I certainly didn’t.

After almost six continuous years of using disposables we had spent thousands of dollars. By the time I learned I was pregnant with baby number four I was quite accustomed to poopy incidents and ready to give the cloth diaper world a go in order to save some money. Plus, nothing beats a baby with a fluff butt!

Cloth Diapering 101 | Fort Worth Moms Blog

Today cloth diapers are super cute, work as a system, and don’t need pins. The initial start up cost scares a lot of people away. I spent about $145 on Sunbaby covers and inserts (24 covers and 48 inserts – this amount allows me to do a diaper wash every other day), and now that my son is almost six months old, I have easily paid for that start up cost by what we’ve saved by not having to buy disposables. So even if you go with a more expensive brand, you’ll still be saving money in the long run.

Poop is no big deal. Babies that are exclusively breastfed do not need the poop rinsed from their diapers. You can just toss them in the wash. However, once your baby starts solids you will want to rinse the diaper out in the toilet before tossing it in your wet bag. These days, you can buy a diaper sprayer that hooks up to your toilet to make that job a little easier. And did you know that in fact you are supposed to dump the waste from soiled disposables into the toilet as well? I’m sure you probably don’t, but in theory that would mean not much more work there.

Pocket diapers seem to be the most popular. They are covers with a pocket that you slip an insert into. When the diaper is dirty, you remove the insert and toss it and the cover into your wet bag until laundry day. Super simple.

Here’s what you need to get started:

  1. Cloth diapers and inserts. The amount depends on how often you want to do diaper laundry.
  2. Wet bag(s). You’ll want at least two for home, and two small ones for travel.
  3. Detergent approved for cloth diapers. I use Charlie’s soaps, it’s about the same cost as a box of Gain, washes more loads of clothes, and is HE friendly.
  4. Diaper Sprayer. Make rinsing those poopy diapers a little bit easier on yourself!
  5. Cloth wipes. You can also make your own by cutting some flannel fabric.

Cloth diapering is not for everyone, but it’s also not as hard as people think it is. Instead of throwing the diapers in the trash you just toss them in the wash. You’ll save some green for other things (like college!) and you’ll help the planet too. Also, I’ve heard cloth diapered babies are easier to potty train. I’ll let you know my take on that in a couple years.

DFW has a local cloth diapering group, and they provide a great list of local stores and web sites selling everything you need to get started.

Do you cloth diaper your baby/babies? Have you ever considered it?

5 COMMENTS

  1. The biggest thing that kept me from trying cloth is the ewww factor of washing dirty diapers in my washing machine where I wash my own clothes/sheets/towels/etc. Do you run a rinse cycle in between? How do you make sure your washer is clean?

    • Hi Lacey!

      When I wash the diapers they first go through a rinse cycle to remove everything, and then they go through full wash cycle with soap. Poop from exclusively breastfed babies is 100% water soluble, so the washing machine should be able to easily remove it like it would anything else. It’s like washing yellow water off the diapers for the most part. I checked the machine after the first couple times I did the diaper loads and there was no residue, stink, etc. I’m not sure if it would work the same with formula fed babies though – their poop is slightly different.

      Once my son starts solids I may change things up a bit, but for the most part, I plan to just rinse the heck out of them and follow the same routine. But there are disposable, biodegradable liners available that you can use with the diapers if washing diapers that once had poop on them freaks you out a bit. The liners would catch all the solid waste, and then you just dump it all in the toilet (some of the liners are even flushable too).

      I hope that helps a bit!

      Lacey

  2. We use bumgenius cloth diapers and LOVE them! My husband says its another effort for me to “save the whales” but even he admits that he loves cloth diapers too bc they don’t have the chemical smell that wet disposable diapers do.

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