Using cloth diapers is not a lot more work that using disposable diapers - once you get into a routine it works out about the same. But what kind of routine does cloth diapering involve you wonder? Here's a snapshot of how cloth diapers are used on a daily basis:
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Keep your clean cloth diapers in a handy place. In a small laundry basket (or decorative basket) or on a shelf near your changing table. Keep a few clean diapers in your diaper bag as well as some
cloth wipes in a small wet bag or a pack of
biodegradable flushable wipes. Have an extra
medium wet bag on hand for dirty diapers. (Most wet bags easily attach to strollers, door knobs, wherever you need to hang them!)
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Take out a clean
diaper or
diaper cover - lay an
insert inside if using an all-in-two style. Take the soiled diaper off. Put on the clean diaper. If your baby is a breastfed infant there is no need to rinse the diaper, the poop will come out in the wash - if your baby is eating solids simply shake the poop into the toilet. Place the soiled diaper in the large waterproof wet bag or line a plastic pedal-operated garbage can with your
large wet bag and use it as a diaper pail. If your baby is in the in-between stages you can use a diaper sprayer, or
flushable diaper liners for easier cleanup.
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If the diaper is just wet and not soiled and you're using an all-in-two system such as
AppleCheeks simply change the insert and re-use the cover or rinse the cover and hang to dry.
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Instead of commercial wipes (Pampers and Huggies wipes are *not* biodegradable and contain chemicals which are harsh for baby's skin) use
cloth wipes. Wet them ahead of time and keep them in a wipes warmer or your old plastic Huggies wipes dispenser. You can also use all-natural
wipes cubes to replace the chemicals used in commercial wipes.
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Keep soiled diapers in a dry pail - do not soak them in water or bleach. Although this was the norm years ago modern cloth diapers do not require bleaching and it may actually cause the fabric to deteriorate. Also a diaper pail full of water poses a drowning hazard to a small child. Your dry pail or dirty duds bag will not smell as long as it is kept tightly closed.
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When your large wet bag or diaper pail is too full simply empty the contents into the washing machine. Rinse in cold water with no detergent to remove solid remnants, then wash in hot water using 1/2 to 1/3 the recommended amount of regular detergent, or one scoop of a natural detergent that's safe for cloth diapers such as
Nellie's. Dry on medium, or hang in the sun to dry for nature's best form of whitening and stain removal!
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Place clean cloth diapers back in the basket or on the shelf. Pre-stuff or place inserts inside if you're using pocket diapers so you're ready to go!
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? (And there's nothing like a clean, fresh load of super-soft cloth diapers right out of the dryer!) The number of diapers you own will determine how often you wash them. Calculate approx. how many times a day you change your baby (10-12 for an infant, 7-9 for an older baby) and multiply that by the number of days you'd like to wait between laundry loads. For example 8 changes x 3 days = you'll need 24 diapers.
What about when you leave the house? Going out with cloth diapers is not only possible - it's easy! You can change a baby in cloth anywhere you'd change a baby in a disposable - simply flush solids down the toilet in a public washroom the same way you would at home and stash the dirty diaper in your small waterproof (and smell proof!) wet bag. When you get home toss it in your diaper pail.
