Cloth Diapering 101 - His Version

When our first child was born back in 2002, I wanted to use cloth diapers to help lessen the load on the environment. My wife at the time was not so thrilled with the idea, but I was adamant that it was something we had to do, and as it turned out it only took a few days of using them to completely win her over as well. Nowadays, she calls herself a "cloth diapering evangelist", and actually went on to work at a local cloth diapering store, and absolutely loves her job. My work here is done :-)

Back in 2002 the cloth-diapering revolution was just beginning, but even back then it was true that "these aren't the cloth diapers your grandmother used". When people hear the words "cloth diapers" they generally think back to what their granny may have used - the old square pieces of cloth, with diaper pins, pails, and so forth. While those old sqaure (or in the vernacular, "prefold") diapers can still be a useful part of a modern diapering system, the world has changed a lot since back then, and there is an incredible variety of cloth diapers available to today's eco-conscious parent. When we first started there was no local cloth diaper shop except for a local green-products shop that carried a single brand of diapers, and in fact at that time the woman at whose shop my wife now works started the shop out of her home for exactly this reason. We literally combed the internet looking for different diapers, and ended up trying over a dozen different brands from large national brands, to various work-at-home mom-entrepreneur brands, and everything in between. The variety available even back then was pretty impressive, and today it is even greater. As we found out back then, though, the quality and efficacy of the various products varied greatly.

I'll start with a quick overview of what is involved in cloth diapering, and how easy it really is, then move on to what my favorite diapers were with our last kids, and which ones did not work so well for us. And finally, we'll look at some of the options that are available today, what we've decided upon with our latest addition to the family, and what to look for in a good diaper shop given that there are actually a lot of them out there these days.

The Basics

In general the way modern diapering systems work is that you have an inner, middle, and outer piece - the liner, diaper and cover respectively. The liner is typically a very thin piece of material that goes right next to the baby's skin, and its main purpose is keep the poo off the cloth, making it easier to shake the poo into the toilet so you have less poo going into your washing machine. Yeah, that's a lot of "poo" in that sentence. But babies make a lot of poo, so get used to it! Even when using cloth diapers, a lot of people use liners that are made from disposable paper which basically is sold in a roll like toilet paper. It is basically toilet paper except that it is thicker and more durable. We tried those a bit on our previous kids, but what we actually went with was solar fleece liners, because solar fleece has the additional benefit that it works extremely well at wicking moisture away from the body, so it does a fantastic job of keeping baby's bum dry. It also seems to have a natural properly that keeps poo from sticking to it very well, so it is often pretty easy to shake the poo off into the toilet. Our first fleece liners were name-brand, oval-shaped ones that we bought from one of the cloth diapering companies, but we quickly learned that it was way cheaper to buy a large piece of thin solar fleece at a fabric store, and cut our own rectangles out with scissors. Solar fleece does not fray, so it is really trivial to do, and works every bit as well. You can even cut the corners off to make ovals if you like, but we never do.

All that having been said, with our 3rd baby right now, we are generally leaving out the fleece liner, because we want him to feel wet and uncomfortable when he has a dirty diaper. We are hoping this will lead to earlier potty training. We are doing this in combination with Elimination Communication, with hopes he'll be potty trained by 12 to 18 months. Early signs are very promising now at 12 weeks.

The inner piece of the diaper is typically made from some sort of absorbent material like cotton, hemp, or a popular one since the last time we did this - bamboo. Many modern diapers are what we call "fitted", which means they look a lot like a modern disposable diaper, with elastics around the legs, special waist band closures, and so forth. There is a huge variety of fitted diapers available for every shape and size, and given that no two babies are alike, some may work well for one baby, and not so well for another. This is one of the reasons why we recommend you include a variety of different brands in your diaper stash - because even a single baby may change shape and size in as little as a few months. As fancy as these new fitted diapers are, however, the old fashioned square "prefolds" are still extremely popular in part because of how inexpensive they are, and with this in mind, a number of companies have come out with some pretty nifty diaper covers which are made to work with these cheap prefolds. In fact, even though we have many of the fancy fitted diapers in our stash, both my wife and I prefer prefolds.

Which brings us to the the 3rd piece of the modern diaper - the outer piece - the cover. It is typically made from some sort of water-resistant material designed to keep the messy contents inside where they belong. As already mentioned, some companies make fitted diapers to go inside, and often their covers will be made with their own brand of fitted diaper in mind, and may be optimally designed for use with their own brand of fitted diaper. But in fact this is rare, and most covers work well with most inners - fitted or prefold. Another popular type of cover is made from wool. When my wife first started talking about these with our previous kids, I have to admit I was pretty skeptical because all I could imagine was that once the baby pees, the outside of the wool will become noticably wet. Wow, was I wrong! There is a reason why firemen still use wool extensively, even with all the modern man-made fibres out there! It has an amazing ability to wick moisture away from the body, and remain dry while doing so. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that our boys were not wet on the outside of their wool covers. Not the least bit. Even when they were soaking wet inside.

My Favorites

With our first two kids I was actually surprised that I eventually honed in on two favorites which both involved prefolds. Cost is a major issue for us - simply because I am a natural cheapskate. But I am also known for being eager to pay more for quality and in some cases simplicity. As it turned out, however, using prefolds was surprisingly easy with some of the modern pocket diapers, and covers. While we still regularly used 4 or 5 different types of diapers with our first two boys, I came to prefer the Fuzzibuns pocket system, and the Bummis "Whisper Wrap" which was designed with a nifty way to insert a prefold into it which really worked extremely well with our boys, and was very easy to do. Nowadays there are a number of "pocket diapers", which basically combine the (solar fleece) liner and the cover in a single item that is open on one end like a pocket, and you simply fold a prefold a certain way and insert it into the pocket.

Pails and Washing

When we started with our firstborn, the big decision I recall us trying to make was "wet pail or dry pail". Nowadays, the notion of a "diaper pail" is nothing more of an anachronism to us. Shortly after we started diapering our first born we discovered the diaper bag, which is made from waterproof nylon and makes it incredibly easy to store the dirty diapers, and get them into the washing machine. When you change a diaper you shake whatever poo you can into the toilet, and just stuff it into the bag. Note that the "poo shake" is not required until your baby starts taking in other foods other than breast milk. 100% breast fed poo can just go right into the bag. In any case, you pull the draw string tightly, and you'll never smell it. I promise! In fact, it is embarrassing to admit, but I recall that after we'd finally gotten our second born potty trained, we'd put the diapers away and were done with that stage of our lives. Somehow, though, we'd managed to miss a small bag of dirty diapers which had managed to get hidden in the boys' room when we were putting all of that stuff away. It was about a month or so later when we'd discovered it purely by chance. There was no smell at coming from it, so that is not what had given away its hiding place. We'd discovered it just from general decluttering of their room.

When you are putting the diapers into the bag, you should remove the prefolds from the pocket or liner as you do so. Also, if the cover has velcro closures, you should fasten them down into their "washing position" - basically just fold them back onto themself so that they do not catch on the velcro of another diaper when they are being washed. Wash your diapers every second day, and you are in business. Note that some washing machines have the super-hot cycle which can heat the contents to near the boiling point. While this may seem an obvious choice for diapers, you really should not use it on the covers because it will deteriorate them. If you wanted you could maintain 2 diaper bags - one for the cotton and fleece, and another for the covers, and wash them separately. But honestly, we do not have that cycle on ours, and we've never had an issue.

It is amazingly easy to cloth diaper - honestly. Modern cloth diapers go on and off every bit as easily as disposables, and washing them is not very difficult either.

Wipes

For our first guys we bought cotton material and made a bunch of wipes. And quickly learned that it was much easier just to buy a bunch of cotton facecloths and use those! For our current 12 week old we are just using washcloths and water, and have not had any issues whatsoever with rashes or what have you. With our previous kids we made our own wipes solutions with water and essential oils like tea-tree, which has antiseptic properties. But with this guy we simplified with just water, and are not looking back. The wipes just go into the diaper bag and get washed with the diapers.

Diapering Shops

OK, technically I am kind of biased here because my wife works in a diapering shop here in town. Just to let you know. But I think most people will agree with what I am about to say anyway. The number one most important thing in a good shop is having people work there who are using the products. Period. Some of the other shops in town, for example, have teenagers working there who do not even have kids. Or even adults with kids who are not using the products. You really need a shop with people who have direct experience with as many of the products as possible. Another thing that the shop where my wife works is known for is underselling customers. So many stores (of any type, not just cloth diapering) want to upsell customers and load them up with a bunch of stuff they really do not need just for the sake of making sales. The shop where my wife works is well known for stopping people at the counter who have a huge pile of stuff, and quizzing them on what they had in mind with it all, and finally telling them that they really do not need all that stuff. Sure, they sometimes will try to upsell a customer, but given how often they downsell, you at least know that when they are upselling you, it is for a good reason.

Videos

Here are a couple of videos I did on the subject