This post is part of the Cloth Diaper Carnival from
Cloth Diapering Bloggers and
Dirty Diaper Laundry. Each participant writes about the chosen topic, this month is Newborn Cloth Diapering. If you want to read what others are saying just click on the Dirty Diaper Laundry link. Enjoy.
I have been asked a few times why I cloth diaper and normally my answer is why not. I dont do it to save the planet even though the thought of my childs diaper sitting in the land fill for hundreds and hundreds of years bothers me. I dont do it to make a fashion statement even though they are super cute. I do it because I dont like the idea of throwing my money away or the idea of my child sitting on all those chemicals. I do it because I want to.
When it came to cloth diapering the little lady I was new to diapering a newborn but I was not new to cloth. Since I did not start cloth diapering the little man until he was a year old, this stage was all very new to me. I was very lucky to have many people around me who have been there and done that.
Washing the diapers is just about as easy as remembering to go to the store and buying a box of disposables. Well, maybe not quite that easy. I wash about ever other day. The night before I am going to wash I place all the diapers in the washer and let the soak in cold water and baking soda over night. In the morning I just add the diaper from that night, a little natural free and clear laundry soap (about a 1/4 of what your would normally use) and I let the washer do the rest. They are washed in hot with an extra rinse to make sure all the soap is out. Once they are done washing they either make there way to the dryer with my dryer balls (that I love) or they can be dried outside in the sun. I have only put her diapers in the sun once so far but it does wonders on the stains. Now that the diapers are washed they are ready to go on the little bottom.
Laundry day in our house
The little ladys stash consist of
18 fitted diapers with snaps
3 small Velcro covers (2
Thirsties and 1
Bummis)
at least 36 infant prefolds (never used as diapers yet)
12 small pocket diapers (
Fuzzi Bunz)
5 or so wool soakers (lanolized, but never used yet)
2 small snappies
100+ cloth wipes
and this is just what she fits in right now. I have three bags in the closet of the larger sizes. The only things that I bought were the two Thirsties covers (second hand), the snappies
here and some wool to make a few of the wool soakers. Maybe soon I will get around to trying the wool, I hear that once you try it you dont go back. Everything else was given to me by my sister or of from friends.
My goal was not to buy any disposable diapers, and I have not. So the few packages that I was given as gifts were all that I had. So at about a week when I saw that I was running low I knew that it was time to make the switch.
I wanted to wait until her belly button stub fell off before I put her in cloth because I did not buy any newborn diaper covers and it was just my luck that it fell off early right at a week. She started just wearing them during the day. After about a week of that she was in cloth all the time. I use the fitted diapers during the day and the pockets at night. The first few times she wore the pockets we had some leaking but I think that it had to do with her still being so little.
We have only had a few leaks. Sometimes I forget to make sure that all of the cloth is inside of the cover and the diaper will leak. Even with the big blowouts the mess stays in the cover and does not venture out onto her outfit. She has had more messy blowouts in a disposable than she has had in cloth.
This is just the beginning of my cloth diapering journey with the little lady. Before I know it she will be out of diapers and I will look back and miss seeing her fluffy bottom. There are thing that I will miss about cloth diapering but there are also things that I wont miss. But until then she will proudly sport her fluffy bottom.
