When we first decided to cloth diaper I was overwhelmed with all the “best diaper” options out there, the wash routines and laundry detergents, the coded language and then Facebook groups of moms addicted to purchasing new prints but didn't answer my questions of how to get started. If that wasn’t enough to turn me away- almost everyone we told we were cloth diapering had something negative to say. (And why?!? Just keep your mouth shut, Karen!)
I don’t know if it has been out of sheer ambition to prove the naysayers wrong or because I genuinely love that I know the things placed on my little man’s skin isn’t harmful, or that we’re reducing the amount of items ending up in the landfill, or the amount of money that we’re saving by not purchasing diapers... but I’m happy to report that we’re still doing it and we’re still loving it!
Right now, I'm picturing you with a little baby bump, doing as much research as you can before your little one arrives about all 👏🏽of 👏🏽 the 👏🏽 things. And one of those things is cloth diapering. If I could invite you into our living room to share a caffeine free beverage and blueberry muffins (that's what I craved my entire pregnancy) I would and tell you how we cloth diaper. Is it the "right" way? I don't know. But it works for our family and if you chose to cloth diaper, I hope it works for you, too!
First things first. The type of diapers.
There are so many kinds of cloth diapers - pockets, AIOs, prefolds and covers... I feel like there's way more but I'm going to stop there. We've tried two kinds- pockets and all in ones (AIOs). The kind that we ultimately chose was the All-in-Ones. It made more sense to me and was less things I had to keep up with.
We chose the BumGenius Elemental! I wanted all of our diapers to be white because I love that aesthetic and so they were gender neutral for all of our kids to use them. I had originally selected the Freetimes, but they were out of the color I wanted so they upgraded me to the Elemental for free.
Things that I love about these diapers:
-one size that fits 8 lbs to 35 lbs
-there's only one piece!!
-Elementals are made with Organic cotton
-Elementals are not super bulky
-Freetimes dry super quickly and don't stain easily
-Both are extremely absorbent
We were given a handful of unisex pocket diapers. There's SO many designs of pocket diapers, and they are probably the cheapest (I think you can find a package of 6 of Amazon for around $30). What I did love about these is that if you have a heavy wetter, you could easily add more into the pocket to make it more absorbent. However, I don't like the extra time it takes to unstuff wet diapers to launder or restuffing dry diapers. The extra steps was ultimately my deal breaker.
We have 12 Elemental diapers, 4 used Freetimes, and a handful of pockets that our back-ups. I wash every 2-3 days depending and have never had any problems!
Our Wash Routine
On the Bumgenius diapers it says to wash them in cold, then wash again in hot with an extra rinse and tumble dry on low... and that's exactly what we do. It's fairly easy.
If it's a pee diaper, I place it directly in the pail. If it's a poo (if you EBF you don't have to wash it out because poo is water soluble) then I use the diaper sprayer in the toilet, rinse it off and place it in the pail.
Every 2ish days, when I notice we're down to our last 5 diapers, I dump the diapers and the wetbag in the washer machine. I run that load on cold with a little (I mean seriously only a little bit) of Oxiclean. Then, I wash on hot (my whites setting) with about a 1/4 cup of my Liquid Dr. Bronner's Laundry Soap with an extra rinse cycle. Once they are washed, I place them in the dryer on low for about an hour and then hang dry in the sunlight for another couple of hours until they are fully dry. I like to place them on our window ledge to let the sun remove any stains leftover. The sun is literally the best at this!
The Extras
There's a few things that you need to make your cloth diapering journey easier. These are the items we use in our home and love:
Wetbags
These reusable bags go in your diaper pail! We also have these to go in the diaper bag. They also come in handy when clothes get dirty, too!
Diaper Pail
I didn't purchase the 'traditional' diaper pail but because the stainless steel ones were almost double this price. I do recommend a stainless steel one to help keep smells to a minimum.
Diaper Sprayer
This is easy to attach to your toilet and works great to spray off any poo from diapers. It also doubles as a bidet which came in handy during the pandemic. Haha It is cold though.
Spray Pal
This is essentially a shield to protect you from splashes while cleaning dirty diapers. It fits in the toilet and I like that it holds the diaper secure for you.
Cloth Wipes
This was one of the last things we started using, but it has been so much easier to just throw them in the diaper pail instead of having to take the wet wipes to the bathroom to throw away! I just make a jar of cloth wet wipe solution, fill it with the wash clothes and I'm done. I do replace the solution about once a week to keep it fresh!
Diaper Rash Cream
For diaper rashes, you'll need to use a cream made with zinc oxide to not ruin the diapers. I love using Young Living Seedlings Diaper Rash Cream because it smells so yuumy. I have heard that coconut oil works, but my kids' booty must've been bad.
And, there you have it! Everything I do to cloth diaper my little one with the links of how to purchase these items in ONE location!! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.