Cloth diapering, that is. Yep we started using cloth diapers for our little man as soon as his umbilical cord fell off, around day 12. We’ve known for a long time that cloth diapers would be the way that we would try and go. It wasn’t so much about choosing cloth diapers over disposable as much as it was about choosing what type of cloth we would use. To help decide we attended a very informative class at one of the local stores that specializes in cloth diapering and baby wearing, Babes in Arms. A super useful class if you’re new to the cloth diapering scene, which can seem a bit overwhelming at first. Babes in Arms also tends to focus on products made in Canada, with just a few exceptions, so you can feel even better about shopping there.
Many of our friends have been using various types of all-in-one diapers, but hubby and decided that we would start out with pre-folds and the traditional flats (which you fold up origami-style) with separate waterproof covers. Our organic cotton pre-folds and most of our covers are the Bummis brand. We also have a few Mother-easecovers that we borrowed from a friend.
The first day or so was a trial and error adventure, as we attempted to figure out what fit and worked best for our little man. So far we’ve mostly been using the pre-folds because the flats still seem a bit big for him once they get folded up, but he’ll be able to use those soon enough. We have been using the Bummis Bio-Soft Liners in each diaper to make poop clean-up easier. Although we are now considering discontinuing the use of these (Sam is pooping less and then when he does poop the liners don’t really cover that kind of volume, plus it’s one less thing being wasted).
We needed to look for a better night-time solution pretty early on because Sam thankfully was interested in sleeping 3-4 hours or more at night, as long as he didn’t get too wet in his diaper. That’s when we started using the Mother-ease covers, with a larger pre–fold and added a hemp/organic cotton wool liner. It makes for a rather big diaper on a baby that is just one month old, but Sam doesn’t seem to mind and is able to sleep more comfortably.
And before you even ask it, because it’s generally the first concern folks have about cloth diapering, let me say that washing them is no big deal. We have a nice diaper pail and liner which makes popping all the dirty diapers into the washing machine easy. We use Rockin’ Green detergent with and extra rinse cycle and the diapers come out nice and clean.
Another choice we’ve made in order to be more “green”, is that we aren’t using disposable bum wipes. We have a big stack of cloth wipes we just dampen in a bowl of water that we keep on the change table.
So that’s been our adventure in cloth diapering, so far. I’m curious to know what all the mamas (and papas) out there prefer to use, when it comes to cloth diapers. Leave a comment and let me know.
