Cloth Diapers

I choose to use cloth diapers for a few reasons, first of all it’s better for the environment and I find disposable so wasteful. We also live in the country without garbage pick-up. We have to haul our garbage to the local landfill for disposal and being as it inconvenient we usually store our garbage until we have a truck load. So the other reason I choose cloth diapers was the smell factor of storing our garbage until we make a trip to the land fill.

Cloth diapering really isn’t all that different from disposables. There is a little bit more work when it comes to washing diapers. But really, you have to do laundry anyway so an extra load or two a week isn’t really a big deal. For those who live in an urban area have access to a diaper service, which in that case, cloth diapering is just like disposables because someone else cleans the diapers for you.

If you’re thinking, ‘What about the smell of cloth diapers?’, well there is a solution for that as well. I use a ceramic rock thing called “deodarock” that I bought at Home Depot. It absorbs all of the smell and once a month I set the rock outside for a day to “clean” the smell out. It works great, I very rarely smell the diapers. When I do use disposables, I find that they are quite a bit more smelly than cloth anyway.

Before my first child was born I was advised to buy cloth diapers and covers and to not use the all-in-one diapers because the all-in-one diapers don’t wash as well as having separate cloth diapers and covers. So I went ahead and bought diapers & covers.

Before my second child was born I ordered a couple of all-in-one diapers and I love them. I didn’t buy any more, simply because I have all of these diapers & covers that are still in good shape.

There are many different types of cloth diapers such as prefolds, all-in-ones, diapers & covers. And there are many different companies that sell cloth diapers and everything that you may need for cloth diapering. I just did a google search on cloth diapers and found everything that I needed.

For a diaper pail use a large kitchen garbage can that has a lid. It’s larger and cheaper than most traditional diaper pails and it works just as good. I use a dry diaper pail method, which means that I just throw the diapers in the pail. A wet diaper pail is filled with a solution to soak the diapers prior to washing. I’ve never tried a wet diaper pail so I don’t know if it’s better or not, but I know that a dry pail works just fine.

When it comes to poop in the diaper, I clean the diaper before putting it in the pail. Basically all I do to clean the poop out of a diaper is I scrape the poop off of the diaper into the toilet, then I give it a quick scrub in the bathroom sink with a cleaning brush. I use a small paint scraper to scrape the poop into the toilet and just a regular cleaning brush. Then I just throw the diaper in the pail until wash day.

When I wash the diapers I use a regular laundry detergent and I put in about ¼ cup of vinegar in where the fabric softener would normally go. The vinegar acts as a disinfectant in the wash. I also have an extra rinse cycle on my washing machine to make extra sure that the diapers are clean.

During the spring, summer & fall I hang the diapers & covers on the clothes line outside. The sun also helps to disinfect and clean as they dry. In the winter you could hang them on the line as well but I find that my fingers get too cold hanging them on the line so I don’t bother with it.

I do use disposable diapers when we are away from home, as it’s easier than carrying dirty cloth diapers around, and disposables do take up less room in the diaper bag. I also use disposable diapers when the baby has a diaper rash – which with cloth diapers is rare. Disposables do a better job of keeping urine away from the affected area.

Cloth diapering really isn’t that much more difficult than disposable diapering. If you think you would like to try cloth diapering, I would advise trying a few different kinds, the pre folds, all-in-ones, and the cloth diapers & covers. There are some companies that offer starter packages with a variety of different kinds of cloth diapers.  It’s an easy way to can determine which is going to work best for you.

Lastly, instead of traditional store bought baby wipes, I use the inserts that I had bought with my first set of cloth diapers (Inserts are supposed to be used inside the diaper for better absorption – I’ve never needed them) as well as some reusable wipes that I had purchased as well.  The reusable wipes are just like a regular terry face cloth.  When I first purchased the reusable wipes was told that I would have to get a wipe warmer and every morning wet down all the wipes that I thought I would need throughout the day.  Well, I just thought that would be too much of a hassle so for the first year I used traditional store bought wipes.

Then I decided that I would just moisten the wipes as I need them.  As I walk past the bathroom to change a diaper, I just run some wipes under hot water and go and change the diaper.  This way the wipes are nice and warm, where as with traditional store bought wipes, which stay cool unless you have them in a wipe warmer.  And being as I’m already washing dirty diapers, I just throw the dirty wipes in with the dirty diapers and wash everything all at once.  Saves the environment, saves money and is easier on baby’s bottom.