Why I Wish I Tried Cloth Diapers Sooner

The idea of cloth diapers always intrigued me. I always try to be Green as often as possible. I felt guilty even before my baby was born thinking about how much more garbage we would generate from diapering. Not to mention how expensive cloth diapering would be. 

I was scrolling through Pinterest and I noticed an infographic showing that most parents spend anywhere from $1500-$4000 PER YEAR on diapers (depending on the diaper brand). That is a lot of money to be spending just on diapers. 

I bought $60 worth of cloth diapers before my son was born. I procrastinated for 4 months and came up with excuse after excuse for why I wasn't ready. It is gross; it will be too much work; I don't have time... I could write an entire blog on the reasons I avoided it. I started to feel guilty about wasting money on diapers and liners sitting upstairs that were not being used.

Finally, over Christmas break, I decided I'm going to do this, and if it isn't for me, then it isn't for me. At least I could say I tried and stop feeling so guilty about wasting money. 

The first day we did it, I realized that it wasn't so bad. This realization pushed me to try again the next day; and the next and the day after that. At the end of that first week, I realized it wasn't nearly as gross, time-consuming, or inconvenient as I had thought. I posted some pictures of a dirty diaper later in the blog, not to be gross, but to show you, it really isn't bad at all.

Now I will put it out there that we are not a full-time cloth diapering mommy. We are a hybrid home, where we use disposable diapers at daycare and night currently. At first, I didn't want to inconvenience the daycare. However, we might be switch to cloth diapers full time, so stay tuned!

Okay, let's get back on track...

If you are considering it, I highly recommend just trying it yourself. You do not have to go all out on expensive diapers and gear. You will be spending the money on disposable diapers anyway, so what is the hurt in spending $60 to try it out. You will be spending that money on disposable diapers anyway, right?

If all that wasn't enough to convince you to give it a try, technically our society has been using disposable diapers all wrong. According to the box, the diapers are not intended to be disposed of with the poop wrapped up inside. Instead, you are supposed to dispose of the waste in the toilet and then throw away the soiled diaper. In a sense, you are required to do almost the same amount of work as a cloth diaper at this point.  

Here were some of the questions I wish I had known before starting:

Where do you clean the diapers?
At first, I used the toilet and would dunk my hands in and give it a quick scrub to get the poop off. 

You can also get a sprayer that hooks up to the toilet water line to spray down the pads. In doing so, you don't have to put your hands in the toilet. 

But if I am going, to be honest, and real, now I just use the upstairs bathroom sink and clean it with bleach at the end of the day. Most of the time I am just rinsing out pee anyways, and the diaper liners catch the majority of the poop.

What do you do with the pad insert?
There are different ways to go about inserting the pad. The diaper shells that I use have a pocket you place the pad inside. The only downfall with this is that you then have to replace the shell after every use. Instead, I just lay the pad in the shell like a maxi pad liner. In doing so, I am just replacing the pad and the disposable liner, which allows me to reuse the shell. Who needs more laundry?

Side note: Because my son isn't mobile yet, we haven't had any issues with it moving or leaks. This might change when he starts crawling and running around, but for now, it has worked great. 

How many diaper shells do you go through a day?
Anywhere from 1-3 diaper shells, depending on his bowel movements. Most of the time, I am changing pee diapers, and I am swapping out the pads. The only time I swap the shell is if poop gets on it.

How many pads do you use in a day? Right now (at 6 months), my son goes through about 8 or 9 diaper pads per day.

How do you launder the linen?
I typically do the laundry after 2-3 days. I haven't any issues with smell yet. When I do the load of laundry, I set it on the hot cycle, add in the detergent and a scoop of Oxy-clean. The Oxy-clean is key to getting out those poop stains. Afterward, I hang them to dry on my drying rack. I love this rack because it has clips and it takes up barely any space.

What do you do at night? 
At night we put Jack in disposable diapers. The one downfall is that the cloth diapers are super absorbent, but the wetness will still sit against their skin. Because I am not going to be getting up as much throughout the night, we put him in disposable diapers at night to keep his skin dry.

What do you do with the poop? 
Since our son still has more liquid poops, we just ball up the liner and throw it away. When he gets older and his poop is more solid, you dump the waste into the toilet and throw away the soiled liner.

WARNING: Here are the diaper photos I warned you about below!!! I think the last photo is worth noting, this is all that is thrown away, a small tissue size wad of liner. I also think its important to show how absorbent the diaper liners are, even more liquid poop doesn't get through these bad boys.

If you are interested in giving it a try and I really hope you do here is what I recommend:


Alva Baby Cloth Diapers: 
There are other brands out there that can cost $20 per diaper shell. That is crazy to me! These cost less than $35 and they come with 2 pad inserts in each diaper too. I still recommend buying the charcoal pad inserts, these inserts are far better than the inserts that come inside the diapers.

Black Diaper Pads: 
It just makes sense. Poop stains and why make more work for yourself. There are no stains with this dark color. Plus these suckers are SUPER absorbent.

Diaper Liner: 
We use these diaper liners and I can't believe how effective they are. We wad it up and throw it away. Even though some liners are "flushable", no one wants an unwanted plumbing bill. Think of these as your poop catchers.

Drying Rack: 
I love this hanging drying rack. It has come in handy not only for letting the diapers air dry, but we use it for other articles of clothing I don't want to throw in the dryer.

Waterproof Bag:
We hang this dirty diaper bag on the back of our bathroom door. That way we can just throw the used pads and shells in after.

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