The truth about cloth diapers

If you research online, you will find lots of websites boasting about cloth diapers and how wonderful they are. They are great, I'll give you that, but it can be a lot of work. Here is the truth as I see it.

Before having kids, the thought of cloth diapering didn't even cross my mind. I knew I had cloth diapers as a baby, but I assumed I would use disposable like the rest of the world. Luckily when I got pregnant I had a friend who was using cloth diapers on her baby. I saw how much easier they were compared to the old fashioned prefolds and how soft they were. That got me thinking (and Aaron too). We did some on-line researching and we bought cloth diapers for Henry with Velcro closures (BumGenius if you want to know).  During his babyhood (up to 1 year) they were working pretty well, but then it went downhill.  He was always leaking at night and the Velcro was not working very well. We tried stripping the diapers, but that didn't improve the leaking. We also were not diligent in putting the Velcro on the Velcro taps when washing (to prevent damage). So, around that time we switched to disposable and finished out his diaperhood in those.

Henry, 3 months with his cloth diapers

When Frances came around I felt we needed to move on from our mistakes. This time we bought cloth diapers with snap closures and adjustable elastic around the waist and legs (FuzziBunz).  For us, these are working a lot better. It seems like every few weeks we have a lot of leaks and have to adjust the elastic or snaps until it is right, but eventually we get it right and the leaks stop. Frances also started soaking through at night (because she is a lot better sleeper than Henry). We bought some hemp inserts and these work well if we put them in. Sometimes she falls asleep early and we don't have time.

 Another issues has been that Frances is very sensitive when there is poo in her diapers. She usually lets us know right away, but when she doesn't she gets a little red. Most diaper creams don't work for cloth diapers, but we found one that works and have been pretty happy with the results. If her bottom is super bad, we might switch to disposables for a diaper or too, just to use strong diaper cream. That usually remedies the situation.

The most important issues that scares people away from cloth diapers is the laundry.  We have 18 diapers and end up doing laundry every 2 1/2 days or so.  It isn't so bad since Aaron stays at home, but we really do need to keep on top of it.  When we do her laundry we have a cold cycle with no detergent, then a hot cycle with special cloth diaper detergent then drying on a gentle cycle. This takes time and if Frances has a lot of little poos during that time, we can run out of diapers quickly. If that happens, we again need to use a disposable diaper until the regular ones are clean.

So, here's the thing, because I have only used cloth diapering on both kids when they were infants, I'm not sure if they leak more or less. I'm inclined to think a little more, but I don't know.  Usually the leaks aren't that bad and for me it's not big deal because urine is sterile. We just have to change her outfit, but luckily for us we are not lacking in these.

Compared to disposable, cloth diapering is more work,  but the rewards are pretty huge. I like not throwing away the diapers, I like no wasting money and I like they way they look.  I'm definitely willing to put in the time.

Now like Elmo, it's time to ask a baby.  Frances, what do you think of cloth diapering?

She has spoken!

P.S. I also should put a little plug in for FuzziBunz here. One of the diapers had stitching that was coming out. I e-mailed the company with a copy of my recipt and a picture of the diaper and I got a new diaper quickly. It was very painless.