Cloth Diapers are the Poop

It's been a while since I've done a non-fitness post. I've had this post in the works for a while just saved in draft mode and after receiving a comment asking about cloth diapers, I thought it was time to finish and get it live. I've been cloth diapering since Nugget was a month old. We started him in disposables because I was worried about meconium poops and just getting adjusted to a new baby without having to add more laundry. For any future babies, we will just cloth diaper from the get-go.

Cloth diapers are the poop...haha, see what I did there? :)

I decided I was going to use cloth diapers well before Nugget was born. Knowing that I was doing my part for the environment and for my wallet, it wasn't a hard sell for me. Hubs on the other hand only needed to hear about the monetary savings (and that I'd do all of the work) and he was on board.

This pretty much sums it up :) Got this from Attachment Haha's website

Here's my basic rundown on cloth diapers:

1. Don't buy a bunch of one brand before your baby is born. I bought a TON of Fuzzibunz diapers before Nugget was born. I knew I wanted to do pocket diapers and I heard these were great and I got them on sale. I also bought some BumGenius, but not a lot. Nugget got really big, really fast, and the Fuzzibunz just didn't fit him very well for long because of his giant chunker thighs (that are really delicious). Thankfully, I had a friend doing cloth diapers with her son and she bought them off of me since he's a tiny little peanut :)

2. Washing cloth diapers is not that bad. I have a Diaper Dekor pail (that's typically used for disposable diapers) that I have a wet bag (a PUL lined bag that holds cloth diapers) inside of it and I just insert the dirty diapers inside of the pail. When it's laundry time, I remove the bag and pour them into the washer. NBD (No big deal). If it's a poopy diaper, I will put the poop into the toilet, spray some Bac Out on the diaper, and then put it in the diaper pail. I remove the inserts before putting diapers into the pail and just shove them in together. I told Hubs to leave any diapers he changes on top of the diaper pail, and I'd deal with them later.

3. Babies make all kinds of different poop. Nugget was exclusively breastfed so he had a fairly non-smelly (for poop), liquid, breastfed poop until 6 months. When he started solids it was nasty, sticky poop that I tried to fling/shake in the toilet, but didn't always get it off, so it went in the wash. Many people use diaper sprayers at this point, but I was too lazy to spray and I was worried about poo splash back. This was my least favorite point in cloth diapering because I had to put forth some effort to get the poop off. Now when he poops, it's solid and just falls right in the toilet. So much nicer :)

4. I have a fairly simple wash routine. I have an HE front loader and I do them on a quick rinse/spin cycle first. I then add Rockin Green detergent and do a regular wash on hot, extra rinse cycle, and I set it as heavily soiled on my washer because it'll wash a bit more aggressively and with more water. Then I put them in the dryer. Easy peasy. Some people don't like the idea of poo in their washer, but I've never once seen random bits of poop in my washer after washing them. I usually wash diapers every 3 days, but some people do it more or less often. I don't hate doing laundry, so an extra load or two a week doesn't bother me.

5. There are MANY types of cloth diapers - all in ones, pockets, prefolds, fitteds...the list goes on. Do your research and find out what you think will work best for your lifestyle and the amount of time you want to put into your diapers. Also, PLEASE look at many different brands. Yes you can get some common, larger brands at big box retailers, but some of the smaller brands are my favorites. On that note, please look at some mom run cloth diaper stores - Dearest Diapers, Kelly's Closet, and Abby's Lane are some that I've used in the past. Most of the time they offer free shipping and FREE STUFF!

6. One of the major concerns about going to cloth diapers is cost. There's an upfront cost that you don't have with disposable diapers. What the cost will be depends on the type and how many you buy. However, the amount you spend total on cloth diapers is A LOT less than disposable diapers. If I had purchased only exactly what I needed (and not extra diapers because they're cute), I can say I've spent around $400. Upfront that's a large cost, but that's nothing compared to what I would spend on disposable diapers. Nugget has been in size 5 diapers since about 6 months (I know, I know - chunk monster baby!), and as the diapers get larger, so does the price tag. Again, what you spend depends on what you buy. I use one size pocket diapers so they go from 8-30+ pounds. If you buy sized diapers, you're going to spend more money because you're purchasing more diapers.

7. Husbands or partners can also be a big barrier to using cloth diapers. Many like the idea of just throwing away a diaper, grabbing a new one, and slapping it on. I sold Hubs by telling him to just leave the diaper in the bathroom on top of our diaper pail. It's no more work for him than using a disposable since he would also be putting it in the diaper pail. Learning how to use the snaps on the diapers is really not that hard. Just tighten it enough so it fits, but isn't cutting off circulations. Hubs loved using the velcro diapers I bought at first, but now he's a pro at the snaps, too. Also, cost savings can usually win them over :)

8. I know everyone has this image of messy poop cloth diapers, but let's be real. You're dealing with poop no matter what. I don't end up with poop on my hands or all over the place. Poop ends up in the toilet (which is where it should go with disposable diapers as well - read your diaper box if you don't believe me).

9. My final note is that they're just plain cute! You can match them to outfits or get really cute printed ones. Most of the time it's hot enough that Nugget runs around in a t-shirt and a cloth diaper. His baby butt looks adorable in them! It's hard to not buy more than you need because they're so cute - it can become addicting!

Here's my sweet Nugget at 9 weeks sporting some serious chub :)

Wearing his new robot diaper - definitely not so chubby anymore!

Comment if you have a specific question or want more details!