How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #4 Reasons

So here's my list of why we cloth diaper:

1.  Cloth Diapers are cheap


Cloth diapers are way cheaper than disposable diapers. We have bought a supply of 10 covers and about 30 inserts.  I probably spent $300 for all of them.  That seemed like a lot of money to spend on diapers but when I figured out that I could use the same diapers for how ever long Little is in diapers, the price looks a lot more reasonable.

I try to air dry my diapers most of the time. I did some research and dryer cycles cost about $1 per load.  If you are washing diapers twice a week, that can add up.  That would be over $100 per year.


2.  You can use the same diapers on every child you have

I plan on using the diapers we have now for 4 more children.  That means a couple thousand more diapers that I won't be buying.

3.  Cloth Diapers keep thousands of diapers out of the landfill every year

Babies use anywhere from 1000-3000 diapers every year.  Most diapers are made of plastics and take hundreds of years to decompose.  Our diapers won't go to the landfill.  They are diapers now, they will be cleaning rags when our kids are out of diapers.

4.  Kids who are in cloth diapers potty train an average of 12 months earlier

That's a couple thousand diapers I won't be changing.  Need I say more?

5.  There are no chemicals touching your baby's skin

I have super sensitive skin.  Little does too.  Disposable diapers are full of all sorts of chemicals.  I don't want those chemicals touching my baby's sensitive skin.

6.  Cotton is way softer than plastic

Cotton against the skin feels better than plastic right?  I love that cotton is what is touching Little.

7.  Cloth diapers are super cute

Little has solid colored cloth diapers.  There are a ton of options of colors and prints available.  That means that her diapers can match her outfits and when she is in dresses, I am never fussing with diaper covers.

8.  Cloth diapers are convenient

I never run out of diapers.  If Little is having a bad day and we are low on diapers, that's fine.  We don't have to go to the store.  I don't have to take her into the rain or the hot hot summer.  We can get some fresh diapers at home and quickly!

9.  Disposable diapers contain Dioxin

Dioxin is a known carcinogen (causes cancer).  I don't want even trace amounts of that against my baby's skin!

I love cloth diapers.  They are wonderful.  I love to talk about them.  I love to tell people about them.  I don't even mind changing them and washing them.  Want to hear more about them?  Have any questions?  Do you cloth diaper your kiddo?  I would love to hear about what you are doing.  Please comment and follow me!  Thanks!

Check these out for more information on cloth diapers:

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #1 Options

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #2 Diapering

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #3 Laundry

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How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #3 Laundry

Washing cloth diapers was probably the scariest thing for me before I started doing it.  Washing poop out of diapers just seems gross and potentially dangerous.  I wasn't sure how safe it was: would my baby be exposed to harmful bacteria?  Would I get poop on me?

We looked into getting a diaper service so that I would not have to wash the diapers but it was so expensive that we decided that I would try washing the diapers myself.

Laundry has turned out to be incredibly easy.

When babies exclusively breastfeed, their poop is water soluble.  That means that all dirty diapers just go straight into the bin.  We just use a large rubbermaid plastic storage bin as our cloth diaper pail.  When things get stinky, I pour some baking soda into the bottom of it.  Every time we wash diapers, I spray out the bin and let it bake in the sun.

Now that Little is eating solid foods, her diapers are slightly more complicated.  If there is a poop, you must do your best to get that off the diaper and into the toilet before you wash your diapers.  I just use a spatula and scrape the poop off the diaper.  Its not the most glamorous way to do it but its cheap and it works for us.  Another option is a diaper sprayer.  These little contraptions attach to the plumbing on your toilet and make a nice little jet of water to spray poop off the diaper and into the toilet.  Sounds more glamorous right?  Diapers with the poop removed go into the bin same as usual.

We wash diapers around every four days.  You can do it more often or wait as long as a week.  It really depends on your diaper supply and how big your washing machine is.  Remember that you do not want to have your load too full because you want extra water when you are washing diapers.

Washing diapers is really easy.  We wash the covers and the inserts all together.  Start with a cold prewash.  Wash on hot with half the normal amount of detergent (make sure the detergent is free from perfumes and enzymes).  We use All free and clear detergent but there are also detergents made specially for diapers.  Do an extra rinse and your diapers all all done!

Diapers can be dried in the dryer.  Make sure that your covers are only dried on low heat (this extends their life).  I have almost always dried our diapers on a drying rack.  In the winter, we dried them in Little's room (it works great to add humidity to the air) and now that it is summer, we dry them outside in the sun.  Drying diapers in the sun has the added bonus that the UV kills anything that might have survived the wash and it bleaches the diapers so that even the worst stains come out perfectly white.

That's it!  Your diapers are clean and dry and ready to go.  Not so bad right?  I do this several times a week and I know that I would definitely cloth diaper my next kid!

Want to know more?

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #1 Options

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #2 Diapering

Linked at http://frugallysustainable.com/

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #2 Diapering

Before I started using cloth diapers on Little, I thought that they must be super hard to use.  Everything you hear about diaper pins and leaking.  I was very nervous.  Good News: the cloth diapers you can get now are totally not like that!

I use Flip diapers.  They adjust to 3 different rises and a ton of different waist sizes using easy to access snaps.  Then you just stick in an insert and put it on your baby.  I have some of their inserts and I also use cotton cloth diapers.  The inserts that come as part of the flip system are awesome- they are cotton on one side and microfiber on the other so they are super absorbent but they keep your little one dry.  They also have fold lines stitched on them so you know exactly what size to make them.  The down side is that they are much more expensive than basic cloth diapers.  I use cotton prefolds now.  When Little was smaller, I used birds eye cotton flat folds.  Both of those are really easy to fold.  I just match their size to the size of the flip inserts.

These diapers are super simple to use.  If you have never used them before, start with a happy baby!

Take out the soiled insert and toss that in your diaper pail.  Stuff a clean insert under the flaps in front and back.

Lay the diaper under your baby, just like with a disposable diaper.

Snap each side to the perfect fit for your baby!

Don't cloth diapers look cute?

If you want to know more about cloth diapers, check out some of your options here.

Come back tomorrow to see how I wash our diapers!

Did you miss yesterday?  Check out How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #1 Options

Linked at http://frugallysustainable.com/

How to Cloth Diaper Your Baby #1 Options

Husband and I talked a lot before Little was born about cloth diapering.  There were a lot of benefits we could see to cloth diapers.  They were cheaper, they were more environmentally friendly, babies who are cloth diapered potty train an average of 12 MONTHS earlier.  After much discussion, we decided that we would try it.  I wasn't committed to full time cloth diapering but I figured I would give it a go.

If you have ever researched cloth diapers, you will know that there are a TON of options out there.  All in ones, All in twos, pocket diapers, one size, diaper covers....  What does that all mean?

I asked a few friends who had cloth diapered their babies and I decided to try a couple different kinds of diapers.  The biggest concerns I had when choosing what I would use was how well they worked, how long they would take to dry, and how much they cost.  Husband makes good money but it seemed insane to me to spend $500 or more to get a set of cloth diapers.

Since cost was one of my main considerations, I really like the idea of one-size diapers.  One size diapers have some way to adjust their size to fit a variety of babies from birth to potty training.  One issue that people seem to have with them is that they are too large for many newborns.  I planned on just using disposable diapers until Little was big enough.  Since she was born at 9lbs 14oz, she was actually able to fit one size diapers from birth.


The diapers I bought were Fuzzibunz, Bum Genius 4.0 one size snap, and Flip one size snap.  Fuzzibunz and Bum Genius are both pocket diapers meaning that they are a waterproof layer with a microfiber layer against baby's skin.  There is a pocket between the layers that you put some sort of absorbent liner.  Flip are simple diaper covers.  That means that they are a waterproof layer and you tuck an absorbent liner into flaps in front and behind and that liner is touching baby's skin.

The benefit of diaper covers like Flip is that they can be used more than once. For a pee diaper or a poop diaper that stays on the liner, you can use the same cover and a new liner for a diaper change. I also discovered that it is easy to use old fashioned prefold diapers as a liner with Flip covers.

In the end, I got rid of the Fuzzibunz and Bum Genius diapers and I have just been using Flip.

Come back tomorrow to see how I cloth diaper Little!

Linked at http://frugallysustainable.com/