Diapering your baby the Mustachian way

[ForeignServiceWife]

We spent about 2.5 years cloth diapering one then two kids, and then switched to disposables when the second was around a year old.  I found that cloth diapering was easy and great until it suddenly wasn't.  Not sure if it was the change in the kids rhythms or our schedule or that I just got tired of it, but it went from no big deal to a huge chore.   

We then switched to Costco disposables, and life was suddenly better.  It was so much easier to stuff a couple extras and some disposable wipes in my purse.  I sold my stash for a decent chunk of money, enough to keep us in disposables for a while.

This was exactly my experience as well. Once we got past newborn craziness and figured out how to use and wash cloth diapers, it was great! No newborn blowouts, no leaks, laundry wasn't bad at all. Then my toddler started having peanut butter poops multiple times per day, she outgrew the absorbency of her diapers, and many of her covers started springing leaks. It would take me 15+ minutes to deal with a single poopy diaper and she was leaking all over her bed at nap time and in the night. During the day we had to change every 1.5 hours or she would soak through her pants. And FWIW, we were using high quality GMD prefolds and Blueberry covers, as well as Blueberry and Smartbottome AIO. So high quality doesn't always make everything work perfectly. We also got a few rounds of sky high utility bills from washing all those diapers.

So we hit the perfect storm of cloth diaper problems. We looked at the costs of cloth vs disposables and we went with disposables. We are using Pampers from Amazon because we get them cheaper than Costco brand diapers, but I have heard good things about the Costco brand. We may try them at some point.

Like you, I found that switching to disposables instantly made life 1000 times better. We decided to keep our sizable stash in case we want to use it at some point for our next child, or in case we move someplace where we can't get regular, reliable shipments of disposables.

Bottom line: disposables were invented for a reason. 95% of American babies use them for a reason. I like those reasons.

[Kitsune]

but I have heard good things about the Costco brand. We may try them at some point.

They're basically Huggies with different images. *shrugs*

Pampers have elastics positionned slightly differently, etc, but the construction of the Kirkland and Huggies diapers seems pretty identical.

[ForeignServiceWife]

but I have heard good things about the Costco brand. We may try them at some point.

They're basically Huggies with different images. *shrugs*

Pampers have elastics positionned slightly differently, etc, but the construction of the Kirkland and Huggies diapers seems pretty identical.

Stopped at Costco today and there was an open box of both the Huggies and Kirkland brand. They were pretty much identical, except for a few small differences in where the tabs were placed. The Kirkland brand seemed to run extremely small though. I compared a size 4 to a size 4 pampers I had with me and it looked like it was a full size smaller. I was also surprised at how expensive they are! The size 4 Kirkland were 21 cents each and the size 5 were almost 23 cents. Pampers are on Amazon subscribe and save for 16 cents and huggies are 17. So I guess we will not be trying the Kirkland brand!

[Acorns]

I am currently CD'ing my third baby; for about 18mo, a couple years ago, I was CD'ing two kids at once until my oldest potty trained (now kids #1 and #2 are both potty trained). I use CD's about 75% of the time, over night we use disposable diapers (Pamper's FTW!) because we just could not find a CD method that didn't leak, and if the kid did make it through the night, the smell of ammonia in the morning would make our eyes water and it just didn't seem healthy to have urine in contact with the skin for so long.

I have tried a wide variety of diapers and I mainly use Flips and Bumgenius pockets. I also like prefolds with covers (I use Thirsties duo wrap), but it seems like prefolds are more size sensitive baby grows out of them more quickly than the Flip/BG which are more adjustable. I did find that after my second child, the Flip covers were pretty much done, the waterproofing on the inside was cracked and we had lots of leaks, so I bought new covers for baby #3.

At some point, right around 2.5yrs old, we mostly switched back to sposies (I used Earth's Best bought in bulk from Amazon), I don't remember the exact price  per diaper, but it wasn't outrageous. Reason for the switch was massive toddler poos - so much not fun with CD's. From about 6mo on I used liners in the diapers, much easier to dispose of the solid waste that way (I shake as much in the toilet as possible from the liner, then throw the liner in the trash), spraying/scraping/dunking diapers is just gross and messy and the liners really helped make the situation tolerable.

I haven't done significant cost comparisons, but considering that some of my diapers have been with me through three children, I would say they have saved us some money, but I definitely don't think that one stash of CD's (whether all in ones, prefolds and covers, China cheapies, pockets, etc) can reasonably be expected to completely last for more that 2 or 3 kids, elastic will give way, waterproofing starts to fail, etc.

For someone considering using CD, I would highly recommend a diaper trial where you can get a variety of different styles and brands to try and return if you don't like them (usually requires a small nonrefundable deposit).

I have no valuable contribution to this thread. Just wanted to throw out there that there is a third alternative. In China, many babies go diaper-less. Their pants have a gap...it's basically two pant legs and a waistband. Grandmas hold their kid up with their tushie hanging down (kind of like making a ring with your arms with the baby sitting in the ring with their bottom in the middle of the ring) and the baby just does his/her business...in the toilet...on the side of the street...in a trash can... Toddlers learn very quickly to squat and go.

Once DH and I were hiking on the Great Wall outside of Beijing (not sure exactly where, but it was a pretty touristy spot) and DH nearly stepped in a pile of poo and says, "who brings their dog here and doesn't clean up after it?!" I was like, "I don't think that is dog poo, dear..."

[Acorns]

I find it funny when I see these green bloggers going on about how cloth really isn’t that much work…and then they list all the requirements to keep diapers in good/non stained condition:

1.   Wet pail soak (and if solid poo, first need to switch scrape off before going in the pail) No wet pail for us, diapers go straight into a cheap lidded trashcan with a washable liner, we don't have a problem with odor
2.   No zinc oxide creams (you know…the ones that actually work for hardcore diaper rash) I use regular effective creams but put a liner on the diaper first
3.   Special detergent nope, I've tried the special ones and found that Tide powder works best and a large tub of it lasts a very long time, I do also use bleach once a month
4.   Hot wash, double rinse (others insist on a 15-20min hot soak before washing and a double rinse) cold rinse, hot wash, double rinse, my washer has settings for all these, so I set it once and walk away
5.   Slight tumble dry on low/gentle in dryer for 10-15 min (not too hot, not too long!) hang dry the covers and pockets, everything else goes in the drier on regular until dry
6.   Air dry still very damp diapers (don’t forget them in the dryer or else they’ll get mildewy!)
7.   Repeat every 2-3 days with a smile on your face honestly, there is so much laundry with kids that what one more smallish load every other day, and I keep sposies on hand for when I get behind

Voila! SOOOOO easy! Special pail, special creams, special detergent, special washing instructions, special drying instructions…but soooo easy and not time consuming at all!!! Rolls eyes.  Cloth can be great if you don't mind it and baby does well with them, but they are definitely far more work in my opinion.

Mommy bloggers drive me nuts, especially the crunchy ones. I was so intimidated by the wash routine at first, but pretty quickly hit on what works for us. See bolded, I'm mostly putting this up so that if someone wants to try CD'ing it gives another way it can be done.

[VeggieTable]

I have a lot to say about cloth diapers (I love them, they've saved us a ton of money, we've only spent about $250 + the cost of detergent/water for 2.5 yrs of diapering), but I mostly just wanted to pop in and add - Aldi now sells disposable diapers and they're actually pretty good! We'd been using Luvs when traveling and the occasional overnight at home since they were the only ones that didn't leak for us. BUT Aldi brand has been just as good. DS is in size 4 now and when buying a box, the cost per diaper is about 15.2 cents, about 4 cents cheaper per diaper than the Luvs we'd been buying occasionally.

[SimpleCycle]

......but for now the disposables have given me back a good 3 hours of my time every week.

Yes, the time piece is something I never see people quantifying – I also spent hours each week just managing the cloth diaper situation. It is what eventually made me say screw it.

I find it funny when I see these green bloggers going on about how cloth really isn’t that much work…and then they list all the requirements to keep diapers in good/non stained condition:

1.   Wet pail soak (and if solid poo, first need to switch scrape off before going in the pail)
2.   No zinc oxide creams (you know…the ones that actually work for hardcore diaper rash)
3.   Special detergent
4.   Hot wash, double rinse (others insist on a 15-20min hot soak before washing and a double rinse)
5.   Slight tumble dry on low/gentle in dryer for 10-15 min (not too hot, not too long!)
6.   Air dry still very damp diapers (don’t forget them in the dryer or else they’ll get mildewy!)
7.   Repeat every 2-3 days with a smile on your face

Voila! SOOOOO easy! Special pail, special creams, special detergent, special washing instructions, special drying instructions…but soooo easy and not time consuming at all!!! Rolls eyes.  Cloth can be great if you don't mind it and baby does well with them, but they are definitely far more work in my opinion.

This has not been my experience at all.  We are 20 months into prefolds and covers with disposables for travel, overnight, and rashes.  It's a really good happy medium.

1. Dry pail and diaper sprayer for #2.  No stinky diaper pail since it goes down the toilet.
2. Disposable and zinc oxide for any diaper rash that lasts more than a day.  We've needed to do this maybe 3 times in the past year.
3. Special detergent - wasn't originally true, but DD's tush had other ideas and needed a free and clear detergent.  We order Country Save with Amazon Subscribe and Save, which we use for all our laundry now.  It's very economical.
4. Hot wash, double rinse.  True!
5. Dry on medium or high until dry.  Shove in a drawer.

It is such a negligible amount of time that I barely notice it.  DW or I do spend a minute or two every day rinsing any poo diapers that come home from daycare, and we wash every third day.

I think a lot of "cloth is so hard" arguments probably aren't talking about prefolds and covers.  All the "fancy" diaper systems seem expensive and complicated to me, but prefolds and covers are easy peasy and pretty inexpensive.  We've spent $442 on sized Green Mountain Diapers prefolds and covers, the hot water costs maybe $6-7/month, and we use $16 of disposables every 2 months.

We're about to have two in diapers, and the cost savings really accumulate since you already have all the diapers for #2.  We'll see if our washing plan needs to change.

[tweezers]

......but for now the disposables have given me back a good 3 hours of my time every week.

Yes, the time piece is something I never see people quantifying – I also spent hours each week just managing the cloth diaper situation. It is what eventually made me say screw it.

I find it funny when I see these green bloggers going on about how cloth really isn’t that much work…and then they list all the requirements to keep diapers in good/non stained condition:

1.   Wet pail soak (and if solid poo, first need to switch scrape off before going in the pail)
2.   No zinc oxide creams (you know…the ones that actually work for hardcore diaper rash)
3.   Special detergent
4.   Hot wash, double rinse (others insist on a 15-20min hot soak before washing and a double rinse)
5.   Slight tumble dry on low/gentle in dryer for 10-15 min (not too hot, not too long!)
6.   Air dry still very damp diapers (don’t forget them in the dryer or else they’ll get mildewy!)
7.   Repeat every 2-3 days with a smile on your face

Voila! SOOOOO easy! Special pail, special creams, special detergent, special washing instructions, special drying instructions…but soooo easy and not time consuming at all!!! Rolls eyes.  Cloth can be great if you don't mind it and baby does well with them, but they are definitely far more work in my opinion.

This has not been my experience at all.  We are 20 months into prefolds and covers with disposables for travel, overnight, and rashes.  It's a really good happy medium.

1. Dry pail and diaper sprayer for #2.  No stinky diaper pail since it goes down the toilet.
2. Disposable and zinc oxide for any diaper rash that lasts more than a day.  We've needed to do this maybe 3 times in the past year.
3. Special detergent - wasn't originally true, but DD's tush had other ideas and needed a free and clear detergent.  We order Country Save with Amazon Subscribe and Save, which we use for all our laundry now.  It's very economical.
4. Hot wash, double rinse.  True!
5. Dry on medium or high until dry.  Shove in a drawer.

It is such a negligible amount of time that I barely notice it.  DW or I do spend a minute or two every day rinsing any poo diapers that come home from daycare, and we wash every third day.

I think a lot of "cloth is so hard" arguments probably aren't talking about prefolds and covers.  All the "fancy" diaper systems seem expensive and complicated to me, but prefolds and covers are easy peasy and pretty inexpensive.  We've spent $442 on sized Green Mountain Diapers prefolds and covers, the hot water costs maybe $6-7/month, and we use $16 of disposables every 2 months.

We're about to have two in diapers, and the cost savings really accumulate since you already have all the diapers for #2.  We'll see if our washing plan needs to change.

This has also been our experience....easy, and cheap.  We used a combination of fuzzy bunz, and prefolds with snappis and whisper wraps, and used them for two kids.  We used disposables at night for our first because she was a terror to get to sleep and we didn't want to risk a leaky dipe waking her.  Our diaper pail was a 5 gallon home depot bucket with a lid (no soak water, baking soda, etc.), and didn't have issues with odor.  We laundered twice a week using Charlies Soap (which we use for general laundry too), and always dried them in the drier until completely dry.  I found our prefolds on Craigslist for $50 (I lucked out huge on this because it was a giant stash of three sizes for $50; I think only a few of them had been used), and bought the fuzzi bunz new (20 at ~$18/diaper).  When we were done with diapering I sold the prefolds for what we paid for them, and the fuzzi bunz for $7 each.  I don't know if cloth accelerated potty training.  Our first was day trained at 22 months, but our son was at least three years (and if I'm honest, at nearly six years old, he still wets his pants at least 2-3/week...too busy for bathroom breaks.  Sigh).

[ForeignServiceWife]

I wonder if part of our problem with cloth was that our daughter has EXTREMELY sensitive skin. If she is in contact with urine for more than an hour or with poo for more than 10 minutes, she gets horrible burns on her bottom that require steroid creams to heal. It was a huge problem when she was a newborn/before she started solids and she had a BM every 2/3 hours, but it's less so now that she poops 1-2 times per day. With cloth, she had to be changed 8-12 times per day right up until we quit using them at 19 months. Even with such frequent changes, we were constantly fighting rash. Every poop had to be meticulously cleaned off her bum with Dr Bronners and several wet cloth wipes. Urine diapers still required a good wipe down. Our washing routine had to come close to perfectly sanitizing each load or she would get a bad rash.

With disposables, we still have to make sure she is perfectly clean after each poop, but that's much easier to do with the seventh generation wipes that don't irritate her skin at all. And the super duper absorbency of disposables means that her skin isn't in contact with urine except for overnight (we use a barrier cream each night to help with this). So for us, disposables do save a huge chunk of time and money on our wash routine.

I think so much of it comes down to individual preferences of parents and idiosyncrasies of kids - my mom cloth diapered two of her kids because they would get bad rashes in disposables. The other two had to be in disposables because cloth gave them bad rashes. Kids will always keep you guessing.

RE: Aldi diapers. I saw them there too and I think it's awesome that they sell them! I still encourage parents to check Jet and Amazon because you can find luvs or Cuties brand for 12-14 cents per diaper for size 4, often less than 10 cents for smaller sizes.

[Poundwise]

Has anybody mentioned elimination communication?  Oh, I see, yes--

Anyway, I tried this with my kids and highly recommend it in conjunction with diapers.  Basically, I got a sense for when my babies needed to go, and then I could "catch" their elimination in the potty. However they were in diapers in case of mistakes. But they knew what a potty was for at an early age, and had the habit of using it. 

 In a nutshell, my experience:
1. Child #1 (boy): cloth diapered exclusively and heroically, including cloth wipes, + EC starting around 9 months.  Completely potty trained by two years old.

2. Child #2 (boy): half-heartedly cloth diapered for a few months, then moved to an apartment with a miniature washer/dryer. Stopped cloth diapering when I realized I was doing 21 loads of laundry a week! Used disposable diapers after that. May have used EC, but was stressed so can't remember. Daytime trained by, I don't know, 2.5 years old. Was still wetting the bed after age 6, a real frustration... tried everything including restricting liquids, bedwetting alarms, making him do his own laundry, etc.  Magically dried up some time in the 7th year.

3. Child #3 (girl): used disposable diapers almost always, but also EC as much as possible. Used very few diapers in a day.  Completely trained by 2.5 years, had a month of potty regression around 3rd birthday, now dry again.

I liked cloth diapers, I knew how to use them, I had already paid for them, but by my second child I just didn't have the time.  Moreover, we weren't as desperately poor as we were with our first child.  At least I freecycled the cloth diapers recently so they will hopefully be used.

[JustTrying]

I just have one child, and find cloth diapering to be easy. But now I see that apparently people feel that it's easy till it's not... Will the "it's not" come to me soon???!!! I hope not!

[catan]

I've enjoyed cloth diapering for the most part. My second is 26 months old and I'm so ready for her to be potty-trained. She hates having her diaper changed and her skin is sensitive enough that she gets rashes if left for too long. She's in disposables when we go out or are traveling. Definitely glad disposables exist when you need them.

She has been EC'ed for poops since 6 months old so fortunately not too many poopy diapers to clean. Those are gross.... I highly recommend EC! My first child wasn't and getting her to poop on the potty was a challenge. Her sister will tell me when she needs to poop and go in the toilet.

I used mostly flat diapers for both. Economical, washes well, and versatile. I'd bought other diaper types secondhand to try but have always ended up reselling them and returning to flats.

Nobody has mentioned wool covers. They 'breathe' better than PUL, and  bulletproof at night. My little one hasn't had a leak since infancy, and she doesn't get rashes in wool. Wool covers are more work to maintain so she's only in them at night at this age.


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[cacaoheart]

Nobody has mentioned wool covers. They 'breathe' better than PUL, and  bulletproof at night. My little one hasn't had a leak since infancy, and she doesn't get rashes in wool. Wool covers are more work to maintain so she's only in them at night at this age.

My wife and I are about to start diapering, with our first due March 10th. I ordered a mix of fitted, flats, and various covers off Green Mountain Diapers this weekend, with a couple wool covers included. Two big boxes of disposables arrived from amazon today, newborn and size one, so we'll be trying a bit of everything and seeing what works.

I initially didn't think I'd like the idea of wool since it's not machine washable, but as I read more it seems worth trying. And then there's super soft alpaca that is supposedly lower maintenance than standard wool. Tempting but I'm not sure about paying ~$70 per cover for sizes that will quickly be outgrown, particularly when I don't yet know what size our baby will be or how quickly she'll grow. My brother was 9 pounds 7 ounces and grew a pound per week for the first several weeks breastfeeding, while I started at 7 pounds 9 ounces and took my time growing.

[catan]

I initially didn't think I'd like the idea of wool since it's not machine washable, but as I read more it seems worth trying. And then there's super soft alpaca that is supposedly lower maintenance than standard wool. Tempting but I'm not sure about paying ~$70 per cover for sizes that will quickly be outgrown, particularly when I don't yet know what size our baby will be or how quickly she'll grow. My brother was 9 pounds 7 ounces and grew a pound per week for the first several weeks breastfeeding, while I started at 7 pounds 9 ounces and took my time growing.

$70 per wool cover sounds outrageous to me. I got Disana soakers for $20 a piece. I started with 3 pieces of 3-6m sized soakers, which worked from birth until my daughter was 7 months old. For her they doubled as bottoms so she only needed tops. She was in them full-time.

She skipped a size, and I got 2 of the 12-24m (large?), which she still fits in at 26 months old with room to grow. They're stretchy. We can get by with one soaker since she's only in them at night and reliably poops in the toilet. I sold the outgrown ones.

My daughter is on the smaller side though. Started out at 8 lb 8 oz and didn't double her birth weight until 6 months old.

The challenge with wool in the early bf months is runny poop and cleaning. Fitteds are great for poop containment but can be expensive.

[Poundwise]

Re: wool soakers, the Mustachian way is not to buy them!  Learn to knit (just google "wool soaker knitting pattern") or felt an old wool sweater in the washing machine and sew one. 
https://scrimplythrifty.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/diy-wool-diaper-soakers/

[catan]

Re: wool soakers, the Mustachian way is not to buy them!  Learn to knit (just google "wool soaker knitting pattern") or felt an old wool sweater in the washing machine and sew one. 
https://scrimplythrifty.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/diy-wool-diaper-soakers/

You are right! :p

I can't knit (on my list to learn). I did cut up an old merino wool sweater to make longies for my little one. By then she was an active toddler and I began to prefer PUL covers for daytime.

[SimpleCycle]

I did knit my own wool covers (just two) for DD, but I think I didn't lanolinize them correctly because they seeped pee.  It was gross so I gave up.

A very economical yarn for diaper covers is Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool.  It's like $9 for enough to make 4 or 5 covers.

[Poundwise]

SimpleCycle, did you felt them before adding the lanolin?

To be honest, I knit some wool covers which shrank down to a ridiculous size when I felted them, so I gave up and sewed covers from PUL (polyurethane-lined) fabric, using foldover elastic on the edges.  I agree that flat prefold diapers are where it's at! Way cheaper than the prefitted, and useful later on as super-absorbant rags.

[SimpleCycle]

Poundwise, the pattern I used didn't call for felting, which did seem odd.  I'm thinking about felting some thrift store sweaters and sewing ones from that for this baby.  I'd love to be in cloth full time, but disposables at night has been a reasonable compromise.

[catan]

I used disposables at night with my first (before discovering wool), and disposables during the day with my second when we go out or I'm tired of laundry. She's also at that age where she fights diaper changes and disposables allow more time between changes without leaks.

Sometimes parents just need a break!


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[golden1]

Oddly enough, giving up disposable diapers was my gateway drug to environmental consciousness.  I have a distinct memory of emptying a pail of diapers and putting the bag in the trash.  Then my brain started adding up that bag 2-3 times a week for 2-3 years.  And then I started thinking about all the babies in the nursery and in my town.  Just thinking about generating that level of trash got me on the road to cloth diapering.  I ended up buying something called "Wonderoos" which was an adjustable diaper that fit the kids from ages 3 months or so up to 2 years.  They had insertable absorbent pads that you could double up at night.  I used them for both kids and they worked really well.  I don't know if they still sell them but they probably sell something similar.  They weren't the cheapest option either, but I got a lot of use out of them. 

[Poundwise]

golden1, that reminds me of something that I found late in the cloth diapering game, which is thin paper liners for cloth diapers. Makes cleaning up poo much easier, with minimal waste.

Yes, if I had to make covers again, I'd felt FIRST, then sew, rather than try to knit it in one piece and hope it felts to size.