Adventures in Cloth Diapering

First question: how do mommy bloggers do it? I haven’t the foggiest idea. I’m pretty proud of myself if I’ve managed to eat all three meals and shower in the same day.

But I did promise to go into detail about our experience with cloth diapering! We decided to go about 50/50 with cloth diapers and disposables, and in the last few months I have noticed definite pros and cons to both. There are also different environmental costs for both choices. I came across this article that does a great job of comparing the relative impact: https://www.life.ca/naturallife/0910/which_are_greener_cloth_or_single-use_diapers.htm.

As the article says, cloth obviously requires water and energy to wash, so it’s not a zero impact option. However, disposables use water in their manufacturing, and the waste products can be a lot more harmful than the water waste from washing cloth diaps. This is in addition to the waste they create in landfills. I won’t go too deep into this because I think the analysis in the article covers everything, so check it out if you’re interested in learning more.

I wanted to talk more about what it’s like to use cloth diaps and how they stack up against disposables. My personal pros for cloth diaps include:

-The diaper covers are super cute (exhibit A below)

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-The inserts are ideal for what I call “poop continuation”, which is where you go to change a poopy diaper and then it just keeps coming. I’ve gone through as many as 3 disposable diapers when this happens, whereas if I’m using cloth then I can fold the insert to make a clean spot over and over again until he’s done.

-The baby has a better idea of when the diaper is wet. The pro of this is that you’re only changing the diaper when it actually needs it, as opposed to changing as soon as the indicator stripe (wetness indicator on most disposables) changes colour. So you’re not wasting a diaper that doesn’t need to be changed. The con of this is that the baby won’t be content in a wet diaper for as long, which is why we tend to go with disposables for overnight.

-Like I mentioned in my earlier Instagram post, cloth wipes are the bomb. I love them. I use a spray bottle with water, a bit of castile soap, and a drop of lavender oil to wet the cloths, and this solution is cheap and super gentle on the baby’s bum. The cloths themselves are much sturdier than disposable wipes, so they won’t tear and leave you with poop on your hands, and also they can be used to block unexpected pee-attacks.

The cons are:

-Cloth diapers are bulky. Often we have to fit him in a size up clothes to allow space for the diaper.

-A wet bag (reusable waterproof bag) will work for bringing home a few dirty cloth diapers, but on a long trip it is more difficult to use cloth. It depends on whether you have somewhere to store a pile of stinky diapers, or if the place you’re staying offers a washer.

-Cost, possibly. I haven’t figured out which is cheaper yet. We unfortunately had to size up early in diaper covers because our guy is a chunky monkey, so we didn’t get the use out of the Size 1 covers that I was hoping for. The service we use is a good deal, though, at $100 a month. This includes the inserts and wipes, so we didn’t have to buy our own, and them doing the washing means that we go through less laundry at home.

For me, both types of diaper have their time and place. I do feel as though reducing our disposables use through cloth diaper use is a good choice environmentally, particularly in reducing the strain on our landfills – I’d like to cover landfill waste more in another post, so stay tuned. Hopefully if you are considering making the plunge to cloth diaper your kiddo, this post helped you understand what to expect!