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Everyone does it differently, but there are so many bad stigmas that deal with cloth diapering that I thought I would address them, and show you what my day consists of.
First of all, lets address the following issues:
Pins? No! Bleach buckets? Absolutely not.
Cloth diapers now have snaps or Velcro. If you wanted to buy the type that don’t have these options then you could buy what’s called a Snappi.
Bleach is bad for the fabrics and can break them down quickly. It’s also not good for your baby’s skin.
When it’s time to change my daughter’s diapers, it’s basically like every disposable diaper that I’ve changed. Except that it’s snaps instead of tabs. Instead of commercial wipes, I use cloth wipes. My wipes are just cut up fleece. I use fleece instead of flannel, because I feel like they keep their softness, which is important to me.
Anyway, spray the wipe with wipe solution, Zany Zebra has some great recipes for making your own from home! I find that it’s helpful to spray the bum and the wipe, so that both are wet. 🙂
After you put your baby in a new diaper, what do you do with the old one??
You buy or make what is called a Wet Bag. It’s a bag with a layer of PUL in it (waterproof material.) I add a few Arm & Hammer Deodorant Disks to the bottom to keep it from stinking. Most people also have a travel wet bag, so that when they are out and about they have somewhere to put the dirty diapers. I have personally made a travel wet bag, it was pretty easy as well.
Laundry day! What do you do?
Alright, I’ll be honest with you all. I don’t like cleaning up poop. Shocking, right? Isn’t that why people cloth diaper, the love of poop? I have a whole station for my cloth diapering washing.
It includes:
A pair of rubber gloves.
An empty gallon ice cream bucket
A stool
A diaper sprayer.
A diaper sprayer?
My husband took a kitchen sink sprayer and hooked it up to our toilet so that I don’t have to scrub out the yucky diapers. The total was about $15. You can buy one as well, but they are much more expensive, although prices have come down lately (to around $25-30).
Once all the poopy diapers are clean I just throw them in the washing machine, and I wash them in the following way:
- Cold Prewash with Borax (helps with smells and stains) and with 1 Tablespoon of Vinegar (helps keep diapers soft.)
- Hot Wash cycle with Charlie’s Soap and BioKleen
- Cold Rinse cycle
No fabric softener. Sounds like a lot of detergent, right? Nope! Charlie’s Soap and BioKleen only require you to put in 1 tablespoon of detergent! And yes, it gets them clean! Most cloth diaper companies tell you to only use 1/4 of amount of soap that most detergents tell you to use!
I then hang the diapers up to dry and dry all the inserts in the dryer. I had a large enough stash to only have to do laundry every 3 days.
What about the cost? Find out next time! 🙂
Samantha is lucky enough to be a stay-at-home-mom to two little girls. Her youngest daughter suffers from chronic yeast infections and severe eczema in the diaper area, because of this she started a blog devoted to cloth diapering, hoping to educate others on cloth diapers, remedies for eczema and yeast infections. For more information visit her blog or find her on facebook.
Oh diapers! I remember the days well. My second son had super sensitive skin, so I had to do cloth diapers with him, but I wasn’t lucky enough to have all these options. We did good old fashioned pins and plastic pants! I’d probably do better with it today, but that depends on grandkids. Someday.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget diaper days! I love the idea of a diaper sprayer! That would have been a blessing! Your tutorial on getting diapers clean is great info!
I remember my mother used cloth diapers. Those pins used to scare me. Times definitely have changed. This tutorial is very handy, thanks for sharing!
My sister used cloth diapers for my niece at first but she gave up after a few months. I should share this with her!
This is great for parents looking to transition to cloth diapers. I thought about it when my daughter was little but ended up not doing it, not sure why, maybe just didn’t know enough about it. I love the idea.
I wish I would have used cloth diapers for my daughters. I wish I would have done more research back then. I want to give them a try if I have any more kids. I think they’d be great.
My niece uses cloth diapers for her baby girl and swears by it. Wish we had this back when my son was a baby.
I am glad to be well past the diaper days, but your tutorial makes cloth diapering sound far less intimidating than I thought it was!
I used cloth diapers some of the time with my kids. They can’t be beat for newborn poops.
My boys are both grown now but if I had to do it over again I would totally do the the cloth diaper thing
I knew what cloth diapers were, but I never used them. This is some great information.
Cloth diapering was something that I totally would have done if it were more available when my kids were smaller. This is such a great resource!