Don't be intimidated: Cloth Diapering

When I first had my son two years ago, the thought of cloth diapering made me cringe.

All I could think about was endless amounts of laundry and theprobability of getting nastiness all over my hands with every diaper change. I also thought about CDing on the go or out in public and it all seemed too complex for a new mommy brain. I was turned off by the idea and ran straight to the disposable diaper section at Target. I used disposable diapers for the first four months of Max’s life, until I read some pretty disturbing facts about disposable dipes.

Did you know it is estimated that the U.S. consumes nearly 28 billion disposable diapers annually? Probably not, but this will baffle your mind even more: Disposable diapers are estimatedto decompose 250-500 years after its been thrown into a landfill. Pretty mind boggling right?

Even if the environmental impact doesn’t sway your decision, there are tons of other reasons to make the switch to CDingyour baby.

For babies with sensitive skin, a cloth diaper might be the solutionto a problematic rash. Think about all of the chemicals that are used to create one disposable diaper; dioxins, sodium polyacrylate, tributyl-tin, dyes, fragrances and other kinds of plastic. Personally, that’s too many chemicals I want against my baby’s butt.

Different dipes for different babies

If there’s one thing you need to know before you start buying cloth diapers, it’s that not all cloth diapers are the same. Finding the system that works best for your family is extremely important, so here I’ve demonstrated the basic types of diapers that I’ve owned and worked with, so that the process of choosing which systems to try out is easier for you.

Here we have 4 covers, 3 microfiber / hemp inserts, 2 wipes and 1 unbleached 

Indian cotton pre-fold.

In other words, 4 diapers and 2 wipes.

I know, it seems like a handful but its really not.  The covers (blue, green, red and purple) are what we’ll see on the baby’s butt. You can either use a pre-fold (above purple cover) or you can use inserts (right of green cover) to stuff into the diaper cover for absorbency.

The gDiaper

This is a diaper from a brand called gDiaper. These are the more mainstream of CD's (I bought these at Babies R’Us, but I’ve seen them at Target, too) and sell in packs of 2. Each diaper comes with a gCloth that’s just a hemp/microfiber insert that works as an absorbent layer for the baby.  It also comes with a snapped-in liner that holds the gCloth in place. The liner can be snapped out and interchanged with other gCloth diaper liner inserts, too. 

The diaper also fastens behind the baby, so that the ‘g’ is on the baby’s butt. 

This helps to keep the diaper on the baby, so that there’s no way they can take it off by themselves.  The liner, the cover and the insert can all be thrown in the wash when its time to clean the dipes.

Buy the gDiapers here.

The PreFold Diaper

This is a standard diaper cover I found on Amazon for under $10. Its called the Bummis Super lite, but any kind of diaper cover (with a polyurethane laminate inside to prevent leaking) will do. Here’s what it looks like inside:

To make this cover into a fully functioning diaper, we need to fill it with a pre-folded piece of cotton (unbleached and organic if possible).  I bought my prefolds at Cotton Babies for only a dollar a piece. 

There are many different folding techniques when using a prefold diaper so instead of demonstrating my folds, I chose my favorite link with the most information.

The Eco Friendly Family has awesome pictorials here (and they use a cutesy stuffed bear to demo, so you have to see it now).

**They also use a Snappi which is a rubbery device with claws that holds the prefold in place. Personally, my diaper covers were enough to keep the prefold in place so I didn’t need the Snappi. If you do need one though, they’re pretty inexpensive and you can find them online.

After you choose the fold that suits your baby, cover the prefold with the diaper cover, and you have a fully cloth-diapered kiddo. Also, depending on the fold, it might be more efficient to fold the prefolds in advance and place them in the covers, so that when its time to change a diaper, you don't have to fold anything.

The Pocket Diaper

What you are looking at is a diaper from Charlie Banana (get it here) the savior to my cloth diapering issues. This type of diaper is a hybrid of the two diapers that we’ve talked about. 

The first diaper had a liner system which has a moisture-wicking cloth inside.To clean the diaper, you have to completely remove the liner and replace it for another use. The second diaper consists of cotton that serves as the only absorbency and a laminated piece of material to prevent leaking.

The pocket diaper is a soft cover with a lining that’s sewed into itself to create a pocket. The inside of the diaper is usually a micro fleece that serves as a smooth, moisture wicking material so that your baby doesn’t feel wet when they are.

The front of the diaper includes snap-fasteners.  Compared to Velcro, these are probably better diapers for babies who might pick at the diapers or try to take them off.  

A great feature of the Charlie Banana brand is the sizable elastic straps around the legs. They’re similar to bra straps and size from a newborn XS (its so ridiculously small) to a toddler LG. These diapers could really last a long time. 

Using the pocket diaper is pretty simple. All you have to do is stuff the pocket with absorbent material and after the diaper is full, toss the diaper and the material into the washer. Its cake, really. These Charlie Banana diapers come with  I chose to stuff my diapers with hemp inserts because I felt that they worked best for my son. You can buy diaper inserts here 

or use the ones that come with your diapers. 

You can also use a ‘doubler’ which is just another layer of fabric 

underneath your insert for maximum protection. I used doublers at nighttime 

and hardly dealt with leaking diapers.

If you choose to buy cloth diapers online, I recommend a diaper cover/or pocket diaper that has a snapping fasteners with three or more rows of snaps. 

These diapers can be used on a small infant or a toddler. Here's a Kawaii diaper (one of my favorite dipes) that demonstrates how to use snaps for different sizes.

I promise to do a follow-up post on how to wash and maintain CD's! Until then, you have this guide to different CD's and systems. 

What other questions about CDing do you have?

xoxo

-A