Yep, I Cloth Diaper

It is amazing to me all the decisions that face new parents. What kind of delivery do you want? Midwife or doctor? Hospital or home? Who will be your pediatrician? Breastfeeding or bottle? Will you make your own baby food? Will you vaccinate? Will you cloth diaper?

I am so happy that for this pregnancy basically all those decisions have already been made. I am open to using an epidural, I love my OB, I would never have a home birth, I love our pediatrician, I love that I get to breastfeed, I make my own baby food, we vaccinate, and yep, we cloth diaper.

When I dreamt about being a mother, I never dreamt I would cloth diaper. A few former colleagues of mine at The Detroit News told me they cloth diapered, and each time, I would make sure that they knew I would never, ever do that. Well, never say never. I would love to tell you that our reasons are environmental, but the truth is we are frugal. The idea that we would be able to use our diapers for years to come and for multiple children and we would not need to continuously buy diapers really appealed to us. I just had to convince Bob that poop was not an issue.

Let me be the first to tell you, poop is not an issue. Modern cloth diapering is awesome. Diapers are cute, washing is a snap, and I don't touch poop.

Here are some myths that kept me from cloth diapering:

Myth #1: I have to touch the poop to get it in the toilet

There is a great invention called the diaper sprayer that easily attaches to the toilet and does all the work for you. All I do is lay the soiled diaper inside the diaper bowl, touching un-soiled parts of the diaper and spray downward. Poop is gone, hands are clean, and the diaper is ready to go in my diaper pail.

Myth #2: I will be doing laundry all the time

It is true that a baby does increase your laundry loads, but my diapers do not make it any worse. Ever since Calan was about 3 months old, I wash diapers every 3 to 4 days. That is just one load twice a week. When he was a newborn, I did diapers probably three times a week and that is because he went more often like most newborns and I had fewer diapers for a newborn requiring me to wash more often. With two babies in cloth, I will probably have to do diapers every other day, but now that I am so use to it, I don't see it being an issue.

I should also mention that I thought I would have to touch the diapers to get them in my washer, but I do not touch a thing. I take my pail liner filled with dirty diapers and empty it into the washer throwing the liner into the wash too. Pretty easy, right!

Myth #3: I will have to deal with diaper pins

Modern cloth diapering is great and offers so many options. In fact the amount of options can be intimidating, but once you do a little research into the different types, you realize that cloth diapering can be as easy as putting on a disposable. We mostly use pocket diapers for Calan. A pocket diaper from the outside basically looks like a disposable diaper. It closes by either Velcro or snaps on the outside. On the inside, it is lined with usually a soft micro fleece that will wick moisture away and has a pocket that is stuffed with an absorbent insert. We personally like this type of diaper because it requires less drying time in the dryer and once stuffed is basically like an all-in-one, which is actually the closest to a disposable of all the cloth diapering options. I highly recommend looking for a local cloth diaper shop that hosts information classes. If you live in the Royal Oak area, No Pins Required in Ferndale offers a class. We took a class at Little Seeding in Ann Arbor because at the time it was the closest option that we knew about. The class totally convinced us that cloth diapering was for us and explained so much in just an hour.

Myth #4: My nursery will smell like poop

Since you flush the poop in the toilet, my nursery never smells. My diaper pail is nothing special. It is a regular plastic, flip-top trashcan with a Planetwise diaper pail liner and that's it.

Here is a link to a few more myths if you want to learn more.

We have been cloth diapering Calan since he was 7 days old. Since then, I have bought one package of newborn diapers and one package of size 3 diapers, and both packages probably a total of 10 diapers have been used. I keep a few disposables around for babysitters to make it a little easier for them. I actually cannot wait to buy girl "fluff" (cloth diaper lingo). There are so many cute girl diapers. I can't wait to add to my stash!

Diapers shown in video: Smartipants, GroBaby (now called GroVia), Flips, Bumboo Bamboo fitted, Thirsties Duo Wrap, and Wonder Wrap one-size covers (which have been discontinued, but any cover works, I just got these half-off). Not shown were my favorite diapers for night time, which are Sustainablebabyish Organic Fleece Fitted Diapers