When I was pregnant with J, four years ago, I spent a lot of time thinking about our finances and looking into how much money it costs to take care of a baby. I was appalled at the cost and became determined to find ways to reuse and spend less money. I made the decision to breastfeed until 1 year (unless there was no other option), and to not use disposable diapers.
I had heard a bit about cloth, but didn’t know much. After a ton of internet research, I quickly became overwhelmed with all the jargon (snappies, doublers, AIO’s, pockets, stripping, etc.). But, I dove into it and asked a lot of questions and learned a lot
I ended up buying 24 prefolds, 5 covers, and a couple snappies, and my cloth diapering adventure began. Since then I’ve added 24 larger prefolds, 24 doublers, 5 larger covers, 5 pocket diapers, and a couple cute wet bags. *Pictures below are links to the products I use so you can learn more about them*
I’ve been cloth diapering my boys for the past 3 years, and here’s what I’ve learned from my research and experiences.
- My boys don’t have issues with diaper rash.
- Cloth doesn’t smell like disposables do. I really can’t stand the smell of wet disposables…maybe that’s just me.
- We have never had a poopy blowout in cloth. Both my boys have had major blowouts when wearing the occasional disposable when we travel. These cause stains and ruin clothing…and I hate them.
- I don’t have to run to the store for diapers…ever. Sure I have to stay on top of diaper laundry, but if I do run out I have different sized diapers I can use until I can get to the laundry.
- I have spent around $400 on diapers from birth to potty training, for 2 boys! Now, that’s what I call cheap!
- I use prefolds and covers because they are cheap and they are easier to take care of than diapers with a bunch of elastic. Plus, they can be reused as rags when we don’t need diapers any more.
- I have a few pocket diapers that I keep stuffed for babysitters and family who aren’t used to cloth. They are easier to take off and put on than the prefolds.
- It is better for the environment. Sure you use more water and detergent, but I feel good knowing that I’m not contributing to the billions of disposable diapers sitting in our landfills.
A couple downsides:
- Sometimes they leak. But hey, I’d rather have pee leak than poop that stains clothing and and super messy. I have fixed leaks with adding doublers, usually just for naptime.
- Poop dumping. By far the worst part of cloth. Breastfeeding poop can be washed away in the washing machine. However, once they start solids, that poop has to go in the toilet. It’s a quick dump most of the time, and I’ve heard that a diaper sprayer helps.
- Laundry. Honestly, the diaper laundry isn’t near as bad as I thought it was going to be. Because I use prefolds, I just stack up the clean diapers and don’t really have to fold a thing, which is the part of laundry I hate the most. I wash diapers every 2-3 days.
Here’s a pic of my current stash that takes me from newborn to potty training.
When I was pregnant, it was totally overwhelming and confusing, but once I started actually doing it, it was easy!
Do you use cloth?
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I SO agree. We switched to cloth when my LO was 9 1/2 months. We were amazed that she “preferred” them. She danced around wearing them, like she was more comfy, and when I would put a disposable on her for a trip or some longer situation, she would go get and bring me a cloth one! If we have another child, I will definitely start from birth.
Love this! Too funny.
We used cloth for our two back in the early nineties-back in the day when pins were used. My sweet husband could diaper the babies one handed if necessary. Loved it. If I did not have time to fold and stack, I could pull the diapers out of the dryer. We bought 12 dozen prefolds and that lasted for 3 1/2 years of diapering. Now my daughter has already started on her collection and she is not even pregnant yet. 🙂
My mother in law used cloth with her kids and kept some of the prefolds. She passed them down to us. Some of them are pretty worn, but most still work great. Gotta love cloth!
I prepared to use cloth diapers when I was still pregnant with my baby, I already bought everything that was needed but it’s so sad that it did not work out for us. Using disposable diapers are really expensive and now that my baby is 5 months old, I’m going to give cloth diapers another try. Thanks you have inspired me!
I hope it works better the next time you try!
When I was pregnant with my first (5 years ago) I really wanted to cloth diaper but my husband was dead-set against it. Apparently his mother cloth diapered one of his younger siblings and he remembered a horrid stench. I’m guessing she didn’t know how to properly clean them. Anywho, being a timid first time mom I let my husband make the call, even though I really felt like cloth would be better, we used disposables. By the time my second baby was born, I was much more confident as a mother. I trusted my instincts and invested in 20 pocket diapers. Made my own cloth wipes out of some old flannel. At first my husband was skeptical. Within a week of using the cloth he was sold. Apparently he really loved how soft the diapers were and felt it would be more comfortable for the baby. Now over a year later I am so grateful I took the plunge. Just like anonymous above me stated, my daughter prefers the cloth diapers. We put a disposable on her whenever we strip the diapers, and she hates it. She does a little happy dance when we put her cloth diapers back on her.
And ya know….it is a lot, A LOT easier than I thought it would be to cloth diaper a baby.
So glad you gave them a chance the second time around..and that your husband likes them! I agree…it is a lot easier than I thought it would be when I started.
Your post encouraged me to pull out some cloth diapers that I had tucked away because of excessive leakage. Now that my 2 year-old is bigger, they are fitting properly. My added benefit is they seem to be helping him renew his interest in potty training (which he has even though just 2 because of an older brother). This morning, when he got up at about 8, I put a cloth diaper on him. When I went to use the bathroom about 2-2 1/2 hours later, he also wanted to use the bathroom and his diaper was still dry. Yeah! I had forgotten about this benefit of cloth diapering.
I’ve heard that cloth can help with potty training. J was easy to train…maybe the cloth helped! Good luck with the training, glad this post helped you out.
we LOVE our cloth diapers!! although, I wish I had controlled myself, like you, and only used prefolds 🙂 I got a little obsessed and now have waaay more than we really need! I’m considering selling most of my pockets and using prefolds (which we used in the infant stage) for much much longer with our second baby. we’ve had the same experience with disposables–they smell weird and they leak WAY more than our cloth diapers!! thanks for sharing your experience!!
It is so easy to keep buying cloth…they are so cute and it’s great to have a variety. I have to stop myself from buying all the time!