If you don’t know already, this week is “Real Diaper Week.” Real Diaper week focuses on educating the world about cloth diapering, as well as advocating for it. This year’s theme is “Real Simple. Real Diapers.” As you can guess they want everyone to see that cloth diapers are “real” and that they are easy to use. So, I thought it would be fitting to write a post this week on our adventures in cloth diapering.
A few years ago, one of my e-friends told me about her decision to start cloth diapering her daughter. Initially, I raised my eyebrows, and since I had no intentions of having a child any time soon I didn’t really ask a lot of questions. Well fast forward a few years and when I found out I was expecting Baby S, I started considering cloth diapering. Unfortunately, I was no longer in contact with that particular e-friend, but one of the graduate students in my department cloth diapers, so I sent her a message. She gave me a rundown on all the different diapers and told me that she uses pocket diapers. Since I really didn’t have a lot of time to research every type of cloth diaper, I took her word for it and we are a pocket diaper family.
I initially wanted to cloth diaper, because it would save us money in the long run. Disposables are ridiculously expensive and you can use cloth diapers with more than one child, so it’s an investment. If you do not plan on having more children, there are a lot of places that will be buy gently used diapers or you can give them to a friend. Admittedly, I never thought about the environmental risks until I read a few articles on DiaperSwappers. I also liked the fact that he would have fewer diaper rashes, because disposables use chemicals that are not present in cloth diapers.
So, how do WE cloth diaper? At the moment, we cloth diaper about 75% of the time. We use disposables at night time and if we’re going to be out for more than an hour. I would eventually like to limit disposables to vacations, but we’re not there yet.
What about the poop? First Baby S is exclusively breast fed, which means his poop is very soft and easily rinsed off. In addition, we use biodegradeable flushable liners. I place a liner (sometimes two) in the diaper and when it’s time to change him I just shake the liner into the toilet and flush. Super easy right? This also allowed us to use the diapers for more than one change when Baby S could only fit his x-small diapers. The liner caught most of the poop and if it was only a wet diaper we could just throw another liner in before having to change the diaper completely. Sidenote: I wish I had known a little bit more about prefolds and covers, because I think those would have been ideal while we waited for him to fit into his one-size diapers. I also think prefolds and covers might work once it’s time to start potty training. Oh and they’re significantly cheaper than pocket diapers.
Laundry? Right now I wash diapers every other day. Initially, when he could only fit six of his diapers I had to wash them every evening.
What’s in our stash?
6 XS Fuzzibunz (fits 4lbs-12lbs) They have an amazing fit and he looks so cute in them.
6 Small Charlie Banana (fits 7lbs-18lbs) These are still a little big on him lengthwise, but they fit.
4 One Size Fuzzibunz(fits 7lbs-35+lbs) These are recent purchases, so we haven’t used them yet.
1 One Size Bum Genius (fits 7lbs-35+lbs) We haven’t tried it yet. I don’t like how bulky it looks though and I’m not a fan of using snaps to control the rise for one-size diapers.
2 One Size Sun Baby (not sure I bought these gently used to try them) Eh, I’m not a fan the first time he wore one we had leaks, but I paid $8 for two, so I’m not to upset. They use snaps to control the rise as well and I’m not a fan.
1 One Size (Unknown Brand) (not sure this was a gift) We haven’t tried it yet. This brand uses snaps to control the rise and I’m not a fan. Plus it seems really flimsy and I’m sure I’ll have to stuff it with more than one liner to ensure no leaks.
Eventually I would like our stash to consist primarily of One Size Fuzzibunz (24-30 ideally), but since Baby S was smaller it has given us a chance to slowly build our one size Fuzzibunz stash without breaking the bank all at one time. From now on when people ask us what we need for Baby S, I’m going to point them in the direction of our Amazon registry full of One Size Fuzzibunz lol.
Do you cloth diaper? What are people’s reactions to you?
Are you interested in cloth diapering? What’s holding you back from trying it?
If you’re looking for more information on cloth diapering, check out these websites
