Cloth Diapers! They’re making a comeback, and for good reason! Whether you’re interested in cutting down on landfill waste, saving money, or just having your kids’ butts look cuter, this post is my attempt to summarize all we’ve learned about cloth diapering in the past two years. To begin with, cloth is an up-front investment. Instead of paying $50 a month (or whatever disposable parents spend) throughout your diaper years, you’re looking at spending $200 or more up front, depending on what you use. (Remember, though, that loving friends and family members are always looking for shower present ideas–most of our stock was gifts!) Utilities and detergent are your only on-going expenses. For families like us, who hope to have several kids, cloth diapering should be a serious option!
To start with, there are two major kinds of diapers–prefolds or pocket diapers.
Prefolds ($20/dozen) are the cloth diapers of our childhood, which you usually fasten with pins or snappis and cover with waterproof covers. Our favorite covers are Bumkins wraps ($13) which don’t need pins or snappis. With this option, you buy 18 or 24 prefolds and two or three wraps, which you can reuse until they get dirty. You throw all of them in the washer together. So start-up cost is about $60-80. We did this for Tommy’s first two and a half months, and it worked well. (With free utilities, we started saving money really quickly!) You will want to get different sizes of covers as your baby gets bigger. You do have to learn how to fold them (pretty easy with bumkins, more complicated if you just do the ultra-cheap rubber pants of our childhood), and it is not quite as easy as disposables (though all our parents and babysitters can do them).
Pocket diapers are more expensive but basically just like disposables. They have a waterproof exterior and a fleece interior with an opening that you slide microfiber inserts into to absorb the moisture. So basically it’s like a sandwich. Pockets cost around $18-20 apiece. Fuzzi Bunz are the original pocket diapers, coming in several sizes. There are many options, but the best bang for your buck are the one-size-fits-all diapers that fit from 8-35 pounds (really!). We have mostly Bum Genius which velcro shut. EDIT–Three years in, our velcro is pretty worn. I would now recommend only snap diapers, and my favorite new brand is Swaddlebees Econappi with snaps. Pocket diapers sound complicated, but they really aren’t. They are the most popular cloth diapers out there, and grandparents and babysitters love them. With the price, you’ll be investing about $200 up front for a dozen or so diapers, but remember–they can last you from birth to potty training and for multiple kids (well, the prefolds will last multiple kids, too).
So we started with the prefolds, got some medium Fuzzi Bunz for shower presents, and then used them from 2-14 months. When Tommy outgrew his medium Fuzzi Bunz, we bought him more one-size pocket diapers that will last ’til potty training. EDIT–we’ve accumulated a few other styles of pockets with Elizabeth, so we’re up to about 20 diapers if I keep them all washed. We also have some prefolds and Bumkins covers so that we can stretch longer between washing them. I wash every 2-3 days. You do have to change more than disposables. In disposables, a one year old needs 4-5 diaper changes a day, but I probably change them 6 or 7 times in cloth. We are lazy and put the kids in disposables overnight because it’s a 12 hour period. I won’t have to buy any more cloth diapers because we now have enough for a baby and toddler to be cloth diapered at the same time. I buy a small bag of disposables once a month for overnights and church nursery and car trips. I would recommend that kind of mixture if you have the funds (or generous relatives) to do it, but either option is great on its own, too!
We also do cloth wipes (just saved the multiple packages of cheapo baby washcloths we were given and use a spray bottle with water (or occasionally a special soapy spray), then toss them in the diaper pail with the diapers–easier than having a separate pail for disposable wipes), sometimes use flushable disposable diaper liners to catch the poop (not necessary, but makes it easier to flick it off into the toilet) and have waterproof diaper pail liners that we use and toss in the washer with the diapers.
To wash our diapers, we use this method:
- Keep soiled/wet diapers in a dry pail with lid (with an optional waterproof liner), sprinkling in baking soda as needed to keep down odor. (I recommend pulling inserts out when you toss the diaper in the pail.) Flick off as many solids as possible into the toilet, but breastmilk poop just dissolves in the wash.
- Start with a hot wash, using 1/2 the usual amount of detergent. (The best brand I’ve found is Allen’s Naturally.)
- Cool rinse.
- Double rinse in cold water to get the suds out.
- Line dry (can throw in dryer for quicker drying), using the sun to bleach out any soiled spots. (Prefolds feel like cardboard if you completely line dry them, so I usually put them in the dryer unless they need to be sunbleached.)
ETA–A note on resale. There are tons of great places to get used cloth diapers (from people who tried them once and didn’t like cd-ing, etc), and there are tons of places to sell used diapers when you’re done. This may sound gross to some, but I was able to stay under $200 because every diaper I’ve bought Tommy has been gently used. I highly recommend that interested moms check out the local cloth diaper distributers in your area (there’s a fabulous store in St. Louis) if this economical option sounds appealing.=)