We’ve been cloth diapering for several months now and I thought I’d share what we’ve learned so far!
Now that I have some experience in this area, I’ll start by saying that I have no idea why so many people have such intense fear in them over cloth diapering. It’s baffling to me the amount of times I was told that I would hate it, it was so much extra work, it would never last, and so on and so forth. Well, in truth, all it really seems to be is an extra load of laundry every day or two. And when you have a baby, extra laundry kind of comes with the territory, am I right?
We started using Leo’s cloth diapers when he was about a month old and had hit the 8 pound mark. They fit him well then, although they were a bit bulky but that was to be expected. We’ve continued to adjust the snaps as he has grown and they still fit him very well.
We LOVE the Planet Baby diapers we chose. After months of daily use they still look and feel brand new, aside from some minor stains. We use them as pockets only, rather than just laying the liners inside the covers and we will probably continue to do things that way. Something about mindlessly stuffing pocket diapers at the end of a long day is therapeutic for me. These diapers hold in a ton. The Planet Baby diapers have a double gusset and it does not disappoint. Disposable diapers equal way more blow outs for us.
Now for the accessories. In terms of the wet bags, we have found them very useful for travel but we now use a small pail for daily use. I found unzipping and rezipping the large wet bag with my hands full all the time annoying. The pail works much better. I just use a small plastic garbage pail that is easy to wash in the bath tub.
We are still using Country Save detergent and dryer balls instead of dryer sheets. I am looking at wool dryer balls for future because I hate my plastic ones. The Country Save seems to work fine as my diapers are still in great shape and always come out clean. I’ve tried both the liquid and powder and I can’t say I’ve noticed a huge difference either way. My routine is to wash every day or every other day with a preliminary quick wash on hot and then on a normal cycle, hot water, with an extra rinse and then a machine dry on low. If after a while I notice lingering smells or stains, I bleach my whole lot of covers and inserts and then do another couple of washes with just detergent and an extra rinse to make sure all the bleach is removed. So far, so good. There seems to be mixed opinions on bleaching but we are dealing with human waste and I want to make sure things are cleaned properly.
If Leo has a diaper rash we either use coconut oil or Sudocrem with a disposable liner to keep it off of the cloth diapers. We do use disposables for overnight and long car rides, just for Leo’s comfort. They just wick moisture away from his sensitive skin so much better and I’ve been sleep deprived enough without waking up every few hours to change wet diapers. I do also find that he doesn’t seem as comfortable in his car seat in cloth for long periods of time, so for now that is the approach we’ve taken.
I had originally planned to use cloth wipes but I just haven’t gotten around to it. I kept finding wipes on sale so I would stock up and here we are months later. If I do get into cloth wipes I will let you know!
All in all, cloth diapering has been a positive experience so far and even Tom would tell you that he is amazed at the ease of things. It is a big money saver for us and I am always relieved that I’m not buying diapers on the regular.
I also think it’s important to not put pressure on yourself to be all in. I am amazed when I hear of people that do it 100% of the time because the planning it requires to go on a long trip especially is no small thing. There are some situations where a disposable diaper is still what we reach for and that’s ok with me. Even if you cloth diapered half the time, the savings is still worth the effort in my opinion!
Do you cloth diaper? I’d love to hear your take.
