How We Do Cloth Diapers
This article was originally published in October, 2008.
Before our toddler was born my husband left the cloth vs. disposables decision up to me. I knew his preference was cloth for both financial and health reasons. I felt the same way, so I researched the different types to see what was out there. I hadn’t changed a baby’s diaper in… well… ever really so I had no idea what I was looking for. Somewhere in all of my research I came across Mother-Ease.
Diapers
These are what have made cloth diapering so easy that I find using disposables rather difficult and quite leaky. These are the Mother-Ease one size diapers. I love these diapers for many reasons, but one is simply because they were designed by a mother from Canada who wanted better cloth diapers for her baby.
The first thought that popped into my head when I thought of cloth diapering was “Oh no, not pins.” These are pin free and so easy. They literally work from 8 lbs. up. Both our 6 week old baby and our two year old toddler are using the same diapers as we speak. Granted, our baby has a huge bum, but it’s very cute and charming on a little guy like him.
When we first ordered diapers we ordered the complete package. This supplied us with diapers, soaker liners and covers. I know it’s a lot of money up front, but it certainly does pay for itself in the long run. I also realize there are less expensive ways to do cloth diapering, which I absolutely encourage.
Diaper Covers
We have used the air flow covers. We very rarely have leaks, and they generally occur not because of the diaper cover but because our little man is a heavy wetter. As our 2 year old has grown out of them we simply order new ones and save the old ones for the next in line.
We have not had to buy diaper covers for our youngest. He has simply used the same ones his brother wore without any leaking. This has been a big money saver.
Wipes
We also chose to use cloth wipes for the same reasons as cloth diapers – cost and health. To dampen the wipe we use a thermos with warm water and a couple of drops of tea tree or lavendar oil. This cleans them up with no added chemicals or alcohol and the essential oil acts as both a deodorizer and a disinfectant.
We purchased some wipes online and I (not so brilliantly) tore some old wash cloths in half and didn’t sew them up. I remember telling my husband “Look, I cut all of those washcloths in half and now we have twice as many wipes.” He looked at me and said “You know the edges are going to fray, right?” Whoops. We still use them, though. Our babies’ bums don’t know the difference.
Overall I have found cloth diapering to be a simple way to both save money and keep dioxins and chemicals away from our baby.
What about you… How do you diaper your babies and why?
I am heading into year 8 of diapering. Actually my kids have been potty trained for a long time but my kids are both bedwetters. I have found cloth diapering to have become a silent issue after the age of about 3 or 4 so after my kids outgrew everything they had in the biggest size we could find, we went to *gasp* pull ups (well, Underjams, until they out grew them and now Goodnights). I had spent a bit of time looking but I couldn’t find anything that would accommodate up to 100lbs (my kids are big for their ages, although they are not fat; plus I wanted them to fit for a little while). Right now I’m excited because I found a Canadian company that makes diapers and covers for incontinent youth and even adult. I am making the diapers myself but it took me so long to find covers for my super soakers. I should be able to make the switch this week. I will be so glad not to buy pull ups anymore! So sometimes you think you may be done with diapers at a reasonable age but life throws a curve at you, lol! I am glad there are options and am glad my kids don’t have to be ashamed to have this common childhood problem (DH and I as kids on the other hand….talk about shame city!).
we also cloth diaper, but i jumped on that train late, our oldest was 18 months at the time. I should have switched a long time ago. we have tried them all over the past 2 yrs and we are now settled on pockets, fuzzi bunz, bum genius, haute pockets, and smartipants. we also do cloth wipes, but didn’t at first. I don’t know what we were thinking it makes it so much easier. we have had our trials with washing them, but i think i have finally found something that works for us and our water!
We love our MotherEase One size diapers. We also use infant size prefolds trifolded into a random assortment of snapping covers. We also use pockets when we are on the go since they are stay dry. But MotherEase are def. a favorite!
What laundry soap/detergent do you use?
Thank you
I was more of a pocket-style diaper cloth mama (Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiney, bumGenius, etc) but the ME air flow covers I had worked WONDERFULLY over pinned prefolds. They were bullet-proof and held up wonderfully after many washings.
Thanks for the peek into your cloth diaper style. Even though we are done with diapering (for now), I love to see what works for others!
I received Mother Ease as a gift but never used them. I preferred prefolds. My eldest we started to do infant potty training at 12 months and where diaper free by 14months. However with my second baby we started infant potty training at 3 months and it worked great until teething started at around 6months. Then both of us gave up. She ended up getting really bad diaper rashes with the cloth diapers and we ended up using disposables. This only lasted a few months as I wanted her to be diaper free. She potty trained before 2years.
We also used mother ease diaper covers. I also had a wool diaper cover that my MIL used on my husband when he was a baby. When the babies were newborn I used the sugar peas wool diaper covers.
I just gave away my cloth diapers last week. They brought back a lot of memories.
The great thing about cloth diapers/covers is that you can hand them down or sell them once you are finished using them.
Also if you don’t like washing your own diapers a cloth diaper service can be an option. They cost ~20$ a week. They bring you a diaper pail and clean diapers right to your door. They also pick up dirty diapers. You don’t need to do anything to them. They will pick up and drop of diapers every week.
I loved the diaper service when I was living in an apartment. It was very convenient. They probably did use bleach on the diapers though.
There are so many cloth diapering options. 🙂
I did the same thing with the washcloths for wipes. Oops.
Our favorite wipe, however, is a cut up old t-shirt with the soft fuzzy inside, no need to sew.
I am entering 7th week of CDing. I used disposables with my first baby, but for my 2nd I did the research and stocked up well before. I mainly use fitteds (Under the Nile, BumGenius, various others) and prefolds (from Green Mountain Diapers) plus various covers. I just started using Sandy’s on my 12.5 lb 7 week old – he still seems too small for his air flow covers. I’m looking forward to trying them out.
I bought some cloth wipes plus I use some washcloths as well. I use a wipes warmer (really glad I got this since my baby was born in January) with a solution I make. I love it !!! I have to stop myself from buying more diapers… they are all so darn cute !!!
We use the BumGenius one size diapers. So, like you our 7 week old and our 17 month old are using the same diapers. I basically picked them for all the same reasons that you picked the Mother Ease ones and I feel the exact same way about disposables! I could never go back (though I have used them a few times, like during our recent move when we had a couple days without a washer and dryer).
*comes out of lurkdom*
No babies yet here, but we are pretty sure we will cloth diaper our future babies if nothing for the fact that my MIL cloth diapered my husband!
I am about to hide my disposables. I keep a stash around for nighttime ( the little guy can not keep dry otherwise), but hubby always wants to use those instead. So we have made a deal. If its a poopy one in cloth, I will change it. But if its a poopy one in dsiposables, then its all his.
We have found that baby wash cloths make the best wipes We had too many for abth time anyway, and then I picked up a bunch more for like a quarter at a yard sale, so now we have an upstairs stash and a downstairs stash.
We use and love one-size mother-ease too! I used Green Mountain pre-folds when my last was a newborn b/c she was so tiny–5lbs. 11oz and gained wait slowly but Mother-Ease has worked with babies and toddlers too!
we love cloth diapers! we use bum genius OS pocket diapers. for newborns, prefolds from Green Mountain diapers and newborn covers (either prowraps or thirsties). our diapers are all still going strong and are now on baby #3…so i’m sure they have paid for themselves many times over. but i have always been interested in Mother-ease…if ours ever wear out, i’ll have to try them.