Welcome back to the week I know you have all been waiting for: Using & Washing Cloth Diapers. If you missed the past two weeks, I discussed whether or not cloth diapering could be for you & also how to build an inexpensive cloth diaper stash.This week's post is actually going to be rather short & sweet - mainly because using & washing cloth diapers is extremely easy.
This is the topic that scares most people into never trying cloth. I know that this is why Ryan was really against it in the beginning and what initially worried me as well. I am proud to say that even when I am not around to change Rilynn, Ryan now puts her in cloth all on his own. I figured he would automatically reach for disposables when I wasn't around to "enforce cloth" (and I was ok with this), but he LIKES our cloth diapers. We don't have any more blowouts and he is convinced Rilynn likes them better too. So trust me, using cloth diapers and taking care of them is not as bad as you are picturing it to be.
If you choose to use one size pocket diapers like us, putting them on is simple. I have found that snapping them down to Rilynn's size and pre-stuffing them is the best system for us. I stuff about 4 days worth of diapers and then when it's time to change her, we just pull one out of the drawer. To show you how easy it is to change a cloth diaper, I made a little video:
As you can see, it really is no more time consuming or trickier than using a disposable. The snaps may seem intimidating, but some pocket diapers come with velcro if you'd rather use that. I didn't like that the velcro can stick to other laundry or that it can wear out faster than snaps - that's why I chose snaps.
So now that you see how easy it is to change and use cloth diapers, you probably want to know how you clean them. When I change Rilynn's diaper, I immediately pull the insert out and throw that and the diaper into our diaper pail. It has a waterproof bag inside that just gets thrown into the washer with the dirty diapers on diaper laundry day. Some moms leave the inserts in until laundry day and then pull them all out as they throw the diapers into the washer. That kind of grosses me out. Why not pull it out when it's "fresh", as opposed to 2-3 days old?
I do diaper laundry every other day. So in between washing diapers I just throw the inserts and diapers in our pail. Then when it's laundry time, I take the waterproof bag out of the pail, dump the diapers and inserts into the washer, flip the waterproof bag inside out and toss it in too. If your baby is entirely breastfed, there is no need to rinse the poopy diapers. Breastfed poop is completely water soluble. I didn't believe this at first, so I've rinsed them as well. They come out perfectly clean either way. Once your child starts solids you can spray or scrape the poop into the toilet (or purchase flushable liners that get placed inside the diaper) and then just throw the diapers in the pail like usual.
Now how do I set up my washer? I do one cold rinse and spin first. If you have a hot rinse and spin you should use that, but my washer will only do cold. I have a top loader HE washer. Then, set a hot wash with detergent and add an extra rinse at the end. Once they are done washing, I throw the inserts into the dryer and hang the pockets to dry. You don't want to throw the pockets into the dryer after every wash or it will ruin the waterproof PUL fabric. This wash routine takes no effort...just push a few buttons and come back to switch the items to the dryer and hang the rest.
I use Tide original powder for my detergent. You will see people swear that you have to use "special cloth diaper detergents", but after a lot of research I decided to go with Tide. A lot of moms start struggling with ammonia and smells when using the special detergents. They end up switching to Tide and their problems go away. I know some moms will disagree with this, but I just went off of what hundreds of cloth diapering moms told me and figured I would start out "right" so I didn't end up with issues and then make the switch anyways.To this day I have no stains, no smells and no issues with ammonia. I know with time I may experience problems, but I am really happy with Tide. If you do get stains, the best stain remover is the sun! Just place the diapers outside for a few hours and your stains should disappear. The best resource I can offer you is a group on Facebook that has helped me a ton. She is very knowledgeable and can tell you all about detergents, amounts to use, how to solve stink problems, etc.
She also talks a lot about stripping diapers. Again, a lot of moms think that using the "blue dawn" method is the best choice, but there are only certain circumstances where this is true. I encourage you to go and check out the group if you have more detailed questions you want answers to!
The biggest thing with washing cloth diapers is that you want to avoid all fabric softeners - this includes dryer sheets. Using fabric softeners will ruin your diapers and make them less absorbent.
Lastly, cloth diapering out in public is really no big deal. You do everything the same as you would at home, but you just throw the dirty diaper into a wetbag when you are finished. A wetbag is waterproof and seals in smells until you get home and can empty the diaper into your normal pail. If you have a good wetbag, you really won't smell anything (:
So that's the basics of using and washing cloth diapers. It really is not a big deal and I don't even notice a difference in the extra 2 loads of laundry a week. I usually start the diaper laundry at night, an hour or two before we go to bed, and then stuff the diapers the next day.
Come back next week to see our entire cloth diaper system! I like to call it my "lazy mom cloth diaper system" since I try to keep things as basic and easy as possible.
Also, what are your other cloth diapering questions? If I don't know, I'll try and find out! If you leave a question that will be covered in future weeks I will let you know, but I would also like to feature the most asked questions later in the series.
Please note that any comments that hint at a motive of judgment will be deleted. I want all moms to feel free to discuss cloth diapering without being criticized.
