Cloth Diapering – Questions Answered

Many thanks to my friend, Meghan, who took time from her very busy job as stay at home mom to twin four year old boys and a nearly two year old daughter to answer my questions about cloth diapers.  Clearly time is not argument against using cloth diapers!  There is a ton of info out there but nothing compares to honest answers from good friends…so here is Meghan’s take on life with cloth diapers:

1. What are the types of cloth diapers you’ve tried and what the differences?

A “fitted” diaper is made of soft fabric (usually cotton, fleece, hemp or bamboo). It is elasticized in the legs and waist. It will have either snap or hook & loop (Velcro) closures. It is not waterproof, so it will require a cover.

A “prefold” is what most people think of when they think of cloth diapers. It’s just a rectangle, but it has a thicker panel sewn in, down the middle.

Currently we use fitteds with covers. We use Thirsties covers or wool pants over the fitteds. The brands of fitteds I have used and liked are: Muttaqins, Zephyr, Bottom Bumpers, Thirsties Fab Fitted and Kissaluvs (though these take longer to dry and are harder to “empty”).  Some of those brands are out of business, but you can find them used.

We also use some pre-folds in our rotation. I really only use them if I’m behind on laundry, and only immediately after changing a poopy diaper, cause they’re not as easy to rinse off – mostly because they are so big and the mess gets kinda spread out into the folds…  I know that description sounds gross, but that’s exactly the point. I didn’t mind pre-folds when Sera was tiny and exclusively breastfed. Soiled diapers during that time don’t need to be rinsed. Plus she wasn’t mobile, so they stayed in place.

2. Where do you purchase your CD supplies? How many diapers do you keep in rotation?

I’ve purchased almost all my diapers online. Some used from Spots’ Corner on Hyena Cart.   Some new from shops on Hyena Cart.   Some new from Pinstripes and Polka Dots. I have found a few at resale shops – specifically ones that catered to crunchy mamas. Pinstripes and Polkadots has a really detailed list of what detergents are good for CDing as well as a discussion about when and how to disinfect.  I have 18 fitteds and 4 prefolds in my stash. For covers, we have 3 Thirsties, 1 pair of knit wool longies, and 2 pair recycled sweater longies. We go through 4-5 diapers a day.

3. What supplies do you use in addition to the diapers? (Pails, wipes, etc.)

For wet/dirty diapers: I have 1 pail and 2 wet bags. The pail is a standard wicker hamper – it came with a vinyl liner, but that got yucky, so I bought some PUL material and made a new liner that I could machine wash. PUL is pretty terrible to sew – it sticks to the needle – but I’m happy with my hamper. Googling just now I found they have this style of hamper with a vinyl lid, I think that would be easier to clean. My wet bags are both Planetwise brand. I have a medium one for the diaper bag and a large one (with an awesome snap-handle) that I use for overnight trips. I also use the large one when the hamper liner is in the wash.

Wipes: We only recently made the switch to cloth wipes. I didn’t buy any that are marketed as wipes – just use the thin baby washclothes and I cut up some terry cloth diaper pad covers that had shrunk. We keep them in an old disposable wipe container and use a spray bottle (or sometimes the sink) to wet them.

We use snappis to fasten our pre-folds.

4. What is the method to managing the process?

I wash every 3-4 days. At night, I run the wash cycle on cold, no soap, then after it empties, fills back up, and starts agitating on the rinse cycle, I pull the knob out and let soak overnight. Then in the morning I let it finish agitating and spin out. Then I run a hot/cold wash cycle with soap (you only need a little bit) and 20 drops of GSE. Then I hang them, weather permitting, outside on a drying rack.  If the weather is bad, I put the drying rack in the bath tub. During the cold, damp winter months, I sometimes needed to throw them in the dryer for a bit, after they’d hung for 24 hours.

I keep the diapers and covers in the top drawer of the changing table/dresser, with the wipes and spray bottle on the dresser. The hamper lives in the bathroom, which is convenient after having to rinse soiled diapers.

5. What inspired you to CD?

Money is a big one. But eco-friendly and low toxin aspects are really important to me, too. With the twins, I didn’t even consider CDing – I just thought, no way could I manage that. It would have been crazy tough in the beginning, but now knowing how little extra work it really is, I wish I’d given it a try back then. I feel guilty about all the diapers we put into the landfill.

6. Have you done a cost analysis to see how many times a diaper must be used to be more cost effective than disposables? Or how did you determine that CD-ing would be more cost effective?

Here’s my math: When we use disposables, we use Huggies. I know there are cheaper disposables, I know there are more eco-friendly, less chemical-ly disposables, but they work great for overnight – and sometimes I let myself choose easy instead of right.  Huggies typically cost about 25 cents apiece, so 4 for $1, or 20 for $5. I try to not spend more than $10 on a cloth diaper. So that means a diaper would need to be worn 40 times to break even. I figure in a 2 week time frame, a diaper gets worn about 5 times. So that’s only 16 weeks to break even.

The Kissaluvs I have cost about $14 a piece. We asked for them for Christmas when Sera was 2.5 months old. We’ve used them over a year, so we certainly got our (family’s) money’s worth.   Prefolds typically cost about $2 a piece, which make them REALLY economical.

Another place I think I save is that without needing to buy disposables, I take less trips to Target. I don’t know about you, but I can’t go to Target without spending close to $100. I have no idea what I’m buying, but that’s what happens, and going there less often helps our budget tremendously.

(** Tan’s note: new diapers run about twice as much ($20/ea.) and so they pay off in 8-9 months instead of 4 months…still a good deal of you start a year or more before potty training!  And seriously, I think fewer trips to Target mean overall savings to any household!! **)

7. Stains – how do you manage them?

If you hang dry them on a sunny day, the stains almost always “bleach” out. (Score, Earth: 1, Clorox: 0) Sometimes it might take a darker stain a few washes and suns to brighten up. Especially if you had a lot of blueberries in the house one week…

8. Leaks – how do you manage them?

We haven’t had much trouble with leaks – unless I lost track of time and her diaper got really wet. But that can happen with disposables.

9. Overnight – how do you manage that?

It took me a long time to get brave enough to use cloth at night. But we’ve been doing it for 2 months now, and we haven’t had wet sheets once. I bought some 2nd hand pocket diapers, specifically, Fuzzibunz and Blueberry brand. I stuff them with a Bumkins Contour diaper, plus another standard insert. I definitely wish I’d made the switch sooner.

10. How do you handle diapering when you are traveling?

We cloth diaper when we travel. If we’re trying to do a long leg in the car (over 2 hours) then I might use a disposable for the drive. Depends on the time of day, whether she’s pooped recently, if we’re going straight to an event, etc. Usually we’re not in the car longer than 2 hours, so it’s not an issue.  If we’re staying more than 2 overnights, I do laundry there (at Grandma’s usually). If this is the case, I usually wind up bringing a few dirty diapers with me, because I don’t want them sitting dirty at my house more than 4 nights.

11. What are your favorite (and least) parts about CD-ing? Have you used disposables? How would you say it compares?

I love how cute the diapers are. It’s just fun to shop for them and see them when it’s diaper changing time. And the accessories are fun: baby legs, shorties, longies (hand knit and recycled sweater), wetbags…

CDing can make clothes a little more complicated. One piece outfits typically don’t work. And you have to be picky about pants, you need a bigger rise. Sometimes sizing up will do the trick, but sometimes the length and waist is too much… It’s not a huge inconvenience, but it makes shopping harder, especially for family members.

And there you have it – CD 101.  Thanks again, Meghan!

For anyone wondering, no, Pumpkin is not a cloth diapered baby.  Despite this being a great way to reduce his exposure to chemicals and plastic (the core components of disposable diapers) and despite my initial good intentions when he was born, we haven’t made the leap.  My questions to Meghan were intended as research so we could change over with confidence.  We tried a set of cloth diapers but they were too small for Pumpkin (though I got the largest size) and even though it was a small set back I never worked up to trying all the brands – buying and reselling – to find the right match.  We also tried gDiapers, which function well but took some trial and error to flush…and are 2.5x the cost of the Target brand disposables we use.  If/when we do switch, I will share the adventure – as I am sure it will be an adventure!  For today, Meghan gets the granola while Tan is on a fast food detour…