Showing posts with label Cloth Diapering 101. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cloth Diapering 101. Show all posts

Everything Eco-novice Knows About Cloth Diapers

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{This post is continually updated.}

I switched from disposables to cloth diapers when my first child was one and have never looked back. I've had at least one kid in cloth diapers for over five years straight now. Here are all the posts I've ever written about cloth diapering in one handy place, including:

Note that certain posts appear more than once below under different headings.

Thinking About Using Cloth?


Quiz: Are Cloth Diapers Right for You?
Some people are absolutely sure they want to use cloth diapers and some are just as sure that they will never ever ever use cloth diapers. I never had any intention of using cloth diapers but ended up switching from disposables to cloth when my first child was one. If you answer YES to five or more of the questions in this "quiz," maybe cloth diapers really are for you.

I wrote this post for a friend of mine who wanted to try cloth diapers but was overwhelmed by the cloth diapering jargon. Here I discuss the three main categories of cloth diapers in comparison to something most parents are familiar with: the disposable diaper.

Green Phone Booth: The Best Time to Try Cloth Diapers
Many expectant parents shy away from trying cloth diapers with a newborn. They figure they will already be too overwhelmed dealing with a newborn baby and will maybe try switching to cloth later on. In this post I argue that the first six months are in many ways the easiest and most economical time to cloth diaper, not to mention that cloth diapering limits your newborn's exposure to potentially toxic chemicals during a particularly susceptible period. 

The Joys of Cloth Diapering


Why I love cloth diapers
I switched to cloth diapers because I was uncomfortable with putting impermeable plastic composed of numerous undisclosed chemicals around my son's private parts 24-7. Once I began using cloth diapers, I discovered that I liked them far more than disposable diapers for all kinds of reasons.

Wiping my Baby's Bottom
Cloth wipes are one of the best things about using cloth diapers. They helped sell my husband on cloth diapers.

How Often Does Your Baby Poop Up Her Back?
For me, one of the wonderful surprises of cloth diapers was that they eliminated pooplosions completely. Tired of stashing extra outfits for your baby in every purse, bag, and car? Consider cloth.

Thoughts on Diapering and Pottying During Travel
In this post, I talk about using disposable diapers during a family trip, and why I was so happy to return to using cloth when we returned home.

Eco-novice's Favorite Cloth Diapers

Quickly browse all my favorite cloth diapers in the Diaper Department of Eco-novice's Amazon store.

Newborn Diaper Stash
This post explains my favorite daytime and night time diapers for newborns and how many of each I need to be able to wash every 3 to 4 days.

Favorite Daytime Cloth Diapers
My favorite daytime cloth diapers for newborns on up to preschoolers.

Favorite Nighttime Cloth Diapers
My first child's night time diaper was never consistently leak-free until I switched to cloth.

Comparing Brands of Reusable Cloth Training Pants
A comparison of four different brands of cloth training pants test driven extensively on kids from 9 months to 3 years. I discuss materials, absorption, how waterproof they are, ease of pulling up and down, fit, bulk, comfort, when we prefer each variety, and price.

Washing Cloth Diapers


Washing Cloth Diapers
Eco-novice walks you step-by-step through her extremely simple washing routine.

What Do You Do with the POOP???
I'd say the number one reason people steer clear of cloth diapers is the thought of dealing with poop. In this post, I lay out your many options for dealing with poop on diapers (without ever touching it).

I Love Line Drying
Line drying and cloth diapers are a match made in heaven. Reduce your carbon footprint while effortlessly eliminating any lingering odors. 


Cloth Diapering a Newborn


Green Phone Booth: The Best Time to Try Cloth Diapers
By cloth diapering your newborn, you limit her exposure to potentially toxic chemicals during a particularly susceptible period. Luckily for you, the first six months are also in many ways the easiest and most economical time to cloth diaper.

Newborn Diaper Stash
This post explains my favorite daytime and night time diapers for newborns and how many of each I need to be able to wash every 3 to 4 days.

How Often Does Your Baby Poop Up Her Back?
Tired of stashing extra outfits for your baby in every purse, bag, and car? Consider cloth. I've never had a child poop up their back while wearing a cloth diaper.

Nuts & Bolts


Cloth Diaper Tutorial - The EASIEST Way to Use a Prefold
After all these years, prefold plus cover is still my favorite way to cloth diaper everyone but a newborn. I wanted folks to see exactly how simple it is to cloth diaper using a prefold, so I made a step-by-step tutorial with lots of photos.

The Great Debate: Velcro vs. Snaps
Velcro and snaps have their pros and cons. I mostly come down in favor of snaps, but always like to have a few Velcro covers as well. Read this post to help you decide which type of closure is ideal for you.

You have to be careful what diaper cream you use with cloth diapers (petroleum based ones are a no-no). This post describes my journey from conventional diaper creams to more natural and cloth-diaper-friendly bottom balms.

Cloth Diapering in the Real World


Meet Nisha: She Switched to Cloth Diapers
My friend Nisha openly describes the benefits as well as the challenges of switching from disposable diapers to cloth, a change inspired by the loss of her husband's job.

Eco-novice Interviewed on the Green Divas Radio Show
The Green Divas ask Eco-novice: do you use cloth diapers and do you wash them yourself and do you use one of those plastic covers that looks like a shower cap? Listen to the podcast for a lively discussion about Eco-novice's and the Green Divas' experiences with cloth diapers.

The Gory Details of Cloth Diapering (and early potty training) My Third Child:

Related Posts




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Quiz: Are Cloth Diapers Right for You?

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Some people are absolutely sure they want to use cloth diapers and some are just as sure that they will never ever ever use cloth diapers.  I never had any intention of using cloth diapers but ended up switching from disposables to cloth when my first child was one.

If you answer YES to even 5 of the following questions, maybe cloth diapers really are for you.

Quiz: Are Cloth Diapers Right for You?

1. Do you have a baby or are you expecting a baby? 
Cloth diapers are one of your options!

2. Do you feel like you are flushing money down the toilet every time you change a diaper?
Cloth diapers are cheaper than disposables and can be significantly cheaper depending on what kind of cloth diapering system you use and how many children you diaper.  Financial considerations were not enough to get me to switch to cloth, but I can remember days that I had to change my baby's diaper so many times that I was calculating the money lost in my head as I changed his diaper.

3. Are you able to change a dirty diaper without feeling ill?
When I was pregnant, I had to use a swimmer's nose plug to change my kid's diaper because the smell grossed me out so much.  But usually, poop is just poop. That being said I never and I mean never volunteer to change another child's diaper, because I really do not enjoy changing diapers.  And yet I can handle washing cloth diapers. If you have changed over 100 diapers, then you are familiar enough with poop that removing the poop from a cloth diaper (and you have several options for doing so) and putting your cloth diapers in the washer shouldn't be too traumatic.   My mother-in-law washed cloth diapers by hand, and that makes me believe that most people can definitely handle putting cloth diapers in the washing machine.

4. Do you want grandchildren?
One study found that the scrotal temperature of baby boys was higher in a disposable than in cloth.  Some researchers think disposables might partially explain the increase in male infertility in the last several decades.  One hot day (no A/C) I opened my son's diaper and literally felt a wave of heat come out of it.  That's when I really started thinking about using cloth diapers.  How comfortable can it be to have impermeable plastic wrapped around your bottom on a hot day?



5. Do you have misgivings about the ingredients of disposable diapers?  Or, have you ever found little gel beads on your child's bottom and wondered "What the heck are those?"
If you are a bit concerned about all the toxic chemicals in your child's world, then both the known ingredients (such as the Super Absorbent Polymers pictured above) and the undisclosed ingredients (such as the components of the fragrance) of disposable diapers will give you pause.  If you are going to pay attention to the ingredients in any product, it might as well be one of the products that comes in contact with your baby's private parts all day or several times a day (for example, diaper cream, wipes, and diapers).  These considerations were the #1 reason I switched to cloth diapers.


6. Do you feel a little guilty about dumping gallons and gallons of non-degradable plastic as well as human poop that could seep into ground water into landfills?
A little known fact is that all disposable diapers packages have instructions that tell you that you really are supposed to remove the poop from your disposable diapers and flush it down the toilet before throwing your diaper away (rather than putting the poop with the diaper in the garbage, as 99.99% of all disposable diapers do).  Poop belongs in the sewage system, not the garbage dump, where human waste can create public health issues.  Also, you know those disposable diapers aren't going anywhere for millions and gazillions of years, maybe forever.  Some folks think the environmental impact of disposables versus cloth is a wash.  If you take a few simple steps (for example: don't use several extra rinses, use cold/warm water instead of hot, occasionally line-dry, purchase some used diapers, use diapers for multiple children, resell your diapers), I think you can be pretty sure you are leaving a smaller footprint by using cloth diapers.

7. Does your baby leak through her nighttime disposable diaper practically every night?  
Dealing with leaky diapers at night can drive you crazy, especially when you are already sleep-deprived.  I co-sleep with my babies, so they nurse (and pee) A LOT at night.  I tried nighttime disposables (so expensive!), 2 disposable diapers (one on top of the other), changing diapers during the night -- nothing worked consistently until. . . cloth diapers!  You have so many more options with cloth.  I found a solution that worked for me, and now we enjoy dry nights every night.


8. Do you own a washing machine?
Some folks are so dedicated to using cloth that they do so even though they have to lug their cloth diapers to the laundromat or the apartment building's laundry room.  But if you do have your own washing machine, than using cloth diapers can be even more convenient than disposables.  Oh no!  Are you out of diapers?  Just throw a load in the washer instead of packing the kids into the car and driving to the store.

9. Are you daunted and confused by the choices out there for cloth diapers?  
In many ways, the bewildering number of cloth diapering options is the biggest obstacle to using cloth diapers.  Once I found a system that worked for me, I found that using cloth diapers was no more difficult or time-consuming than using disposable diapers.  I also found there were many advantages to using cloth, so much so that when we travel (and use disposables for a week or so), my husband and I are both anxious to get back to using cloth.  If you are thinking of switching to cloth diapers, I recommend asking a cloth-diapering friend or a local baby store to show you in person a few of your cloth diapering options, or you can use one of the many cloth diapering trials offered by online diapering stores to help you decide which styles fit your baby and your lifestyle. For a brief introduction to your cloth diapering choices described in terms any disposable-diaper-using parent can understand, read this post.
 
10. Do you think it is so darn fun to dress your kids in those tiny little clothes and hats and hair ribbons?
Some moms go nuts over all the cute prints and colors of cloth diapers.  Some moms (not me) actually have to control themselves from spending too much money on diapers.  If you love dressing and accessorizing your child, you might love this aspect of cloth diapers.  They are way cuter than disposables.

What do you think?  Are cloth diapers maybe for you?

Eco-novice's Cloth Diapering 101
Cloth Diapers Explained in Disposable-eese
What Do You Do with the POOP???
Cloth Diaper Tutorial - The EASIEST Way to Use a Prefold
Washing Cloth Diapers
Wiping my Baby's Bottom
Why I Love Cloth Diapers
My Favorite Nighttime Cloth Diapers
My Favorite Daytime Cloth Diapers

Other Useful Diapering Resources
Diapers: Cloth, Disposable, Stinky Pails & More (Healthy Child Healthy World)
Quick Tips: Cloth Diapering System (Healthy Child Healthy World)
First Steps: The Diaper Debate (Healthy Child Healthy World)
New to Cloth Diapers? (Jillian's Drawers)


Note: this is an updated version of a post first published July 2010.
Photo credit (top of post): Liz (perspicacious.org)

This post is part of

Washing Cloth Diapers

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Most of the time my washing routine looks like this:
  1. Toss dirty diaper in the diaper pail. I use a dry pail, no soaking diapers.  Covers only get washed if they smell horrendous or have poop on them.
  2. After 3-4 days, or when I notice we are down to one or two prefolds, dump diapers into washing machine.  This is the most unpleasant part of the entire routine.  Since I have a front loader, I can't just "dump" the diapers in really, so I use a latex glove to help them along into the washer.
  3. Usually, no rinse, because I usually have little to no poop on my diapers thanks to infant potty training.  If there is a lot of poop in a particular load, I might do a cold rinse first.  For more on how to handle poop with cloth diapers, read this post.
  4. Wash on normal cycle: wash warm, rinse cold.  I use Charlie's Soap Powder.  I used to wash in hot, but Green Baby Guide inspired me to switch to warm (they wash in cold, but I haven't made it there yet, for psychological reasons).
  5. Usually, no extra rinse either.  No pre-rinse, no post-rinse, just a normal wash cycle.
  6. Dry in the dryer or line dry.  I always line dry covers and synthetic inserts.


Notes:
  • I make zero attempt to remove stains.
  • When the diapers seem really stinky, sometimes I add baking soda to the wash (with detergent) and vinegar to the rinse (put it in the "fabric softener" dispenser), and then do an extra rinse afterwards.  I also occasionally wash with no detergent on super hot to try to get out any residue.  When I say occasionally, I mean every 2 to 6 months. 

Additional Resources

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Photo credit: Kurt Thomas Hunt

Cloth Diaper Tutorial - The EASIEST Way to Use a Prefold

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My friend Nisha asked me how I use prefolds.  So here you go:


1.  Lay out your prefold cloth diaper flat.  Pictured above is an unbleached regular size prefold, which works well from a few months old until potty training.  Also pictured, the inside of my Thirsties cover, which is what I'm going to put the prefold into.  This is a medium-sized Thirsties that I had converted from velcro to snaps by Convert My Diapers (more on that in another post).  In addition to switching the velcro enclosure to a snap enclosure, she also added snaps on the front so that I could adjust the size.  Thirsties now makes a cover like this themselves -- take a look.

What Do You Do with the POOP???

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A big barrier in switching from disposables to cloth diapers is poop. I mean, as parents, we’ve all washed our share of pee, right? Pee on clothes, pee on sheets, pee on the floor because the diaper shifted a little too far to the side. But poo is another matter. We’ve all washed poo too, mostly out of clothes after a pooplosion. Most people do not relish the idea of dealing with poop anymore than they have to. Although all disposable diapers include instructions telling you to remove the poop from the diaper before throwing it in the trash (because that stuff belongs in the sewage system, not in the landfill where it may contaminate ground water), nobody does. At least no one I’ve ever met. So, just in case you are thinking about using cloth diapers, let’s discuss some of your options when it comes to poop.  (These methods all assume a dry pail, which is what I use.)

Cloth Diapers Explained in Disposable-eese

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This one's for you, Nisha-dog. 

 Thank you, Microsoft clip art, for this awesome photo.

The Parts of a Disposable Diaper

The outside of a disposable diaper is plastic and holds all the wet in.  We’ll call it the waterproof shell.  The inside layer that touches your baby’s skin is a stay-dry plastic material, we’ll call it the stay-dry layer. The inner workings of the disposable are cellulose pulp and SAP (super absorbent polymer).  That’s what holds all the pee.  We’ll call it the absorption.  [For more on the anatomy of a disposable, click here.]

Disposable Diaper
Photo from madehow.com

Types of Cloth Diapers

Now let’s discuss the different types of cloth diapers in terms of the parts of a disposable diaper, with the plusses and minuses of each.

Wiping my Baby's Bottom

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I love wiping my baby's bottom with cloth wipes!  When your child has a poopy blowout (or pooplosion), how many of those disposable baby wipes does it take you to clean off that bottom?  When I used disposables, it took me 3 or more to clean my infant's bottom, depending on the extent of the damage.  And I inevitably wound up with some yellow poop on my hands.  By the time my first child was a toddler and a major fruit lover, it took me as many as 5 wipes to get the pasty poop off every nook of his little bum. 

Why I love cloth diapers

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I used disposables for a year with my first child (and still do use disposables on long vacations), so I am in a good position to compare cloth and disposables.

Why I love cloth diapers in order of importance to me:
  • More natural against my baby's skin
  • Almost no blowouts -- with my first child in disposables, his poop went up his back into his onesie about 90% of the time. I've found that I need a lot less clothing for my second child because of fewer blowouts. Even prefolds simply folded in thirds inside a cover contains poop FAR better than the luge-like interior of a disposable
  • Cloth wipes are FAR superior to disposable baby wipes
  • Less leaking at night
  • Better for the environment (not everyone believes this, but I do)
  • Cheaper
  • Easier to potty train: my little boy has been dry at night for months and was completely potty trained on #1 in a couple of days (still working on #2, darn it) -- not a representative sample, I know!
  • Cuter: they are cuter, but I honestly don't care that much about that

Why do you love cloth diapers?

Why would you NEVER EVER EVER use cloth diapers?
 This post is part of Homemaker Monday.

Favorite Nighttime Cloth Diapers

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Nighttime diapering can be a challenge for everyone.  My first child nursed and peed a TON at night, and I tried various tricks with disposables (next size up, night time diapers, one diaper on top of another with the bottom of the first cut open) and still had leaking at night on a regular basis.

Favorite Daytime Cloth Diapers

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Factory Seconds Prefold diapers, Infant 4x8x4, UnbleachedBumGenius 3.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper- Zinna

Many moons later, I am still using cloth diapers. My almost 3 year old is currently potty training (I used cloth diapers with him from 1 year on up), and I have been using cloth since birth with my 8-month old.

To get started, I did a cloth diaper trial with Jillian's Drawers for $10 to familiarize myself with what was out there. Here's what I ended up using for my first child (ages 1 - 2.75 years):

  • Some free homemade-ish fitted diapers with velcro (not awesome, but free, and better at containing poop than a prefold folded in thirds) and prefolds folded in thirds (the wrong way) inside Thirsties/ Imse vimse covers.
  • I also used BumGenius (a pocket diaper) in the diaper bag for quicker and easier diaper changes on the toddler while out and about.
  • I also used Imse Vimse flushable liners on top of the diaper to make poop removal easier.

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