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
So helpful and so cute!
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