I am lucky. I was not the first of my friends to have a baby, so I had all their advice to build on with my own little one. One of my mommy friends used cloth diapers and they sounded like something I would be interested in trying.
“Haha. Ok, sure. You go ahead and try it.”
“Don’t waste your time. You’ll be back to disposables before you know it.”
Those are just a couple of the many things I was told when I shared my interest in using cloth diapers for my baby. But neither of those remarks came from my friend. She only had positive things to say and since we agree on a lot of outlooks on life, I thought maybe I could make it work, too.
Since her son was finished with diapers when my son was born, she sold me her lot of gDiapers for dirt cheap. She takes amazing care of her things so they were all like new. She even sanitized them before sending them my way (something a germaphobe like me REALLY appreciated). She also gave me the in-depth information I would need. I typed it all up and made the informational graphic at the bottom of this post.
I have been using them for about 3 weeks now and I love them. My husband not so much, but we a figuring it out.
Here’s what you should know:
- Newborn poop is a huge hassle.
- It stains and makes a big mess to rinse off.
- I wash diapers every other day.
- I use about 2 shells a day and up to 4 plastic liners a day. My washable pail lining and gDiaper shells take a full day to dry.
- Have an “in-between” placement option.
- I use a plastic wipe case to carry them to the tub and back for rinsing.
- Your baby will pee in between diapers more often.
- It takes MUCH longer to swap out diapers, especially if you need to change out plastic liners or a new shell. Be prepared for more pee-pee cleanup.
- It doesn’t stink up your house.
- We rinse all diapers with poop immediately after changing. This also prevents the need to run it twice through the wash. I use a Dekor Plus Diaper Pail with their washable liner. I put baking soda in the bottom of the pail and on the “in-between” washing days. I also have a small trash can for disposable wipes.
- You will need a wet/dry bag for on-the-go.
- I change the entire shell and all when on-the-go to avoid additional pee pee messes. This also helps keep the wet/dry bag clean since the mess is contained in the old diaper.
- Don’t use a changing table cover.
- This is because it is hard to avoid pee pee mishaps. Much easier to just wipe the plastic changing table instead of washing the cover. Babies don’t care if the changing table is soft or not so save your $ and skip buying one.
**UPDATE (4/25):
We stopped rinsing the diapers before tossing them into the washer. I just send them through a rinse cycle before cleaning them. Saves water and a lot less hassle. This is while we exclusively breastfeed at 3 months.
I stopped hanging my gDiaper shells to dry. I just throw them in the dryer on a low setting with the liners and inserts.
I love my Planet Wise wet/dry on-the-go bag and my Dekor cloth diaper pail.
Have anything to add? Comment below.
We went through this same thing with a lot of people when we said we were going to cloth diaper. Everyone was very negative and basically were like “eew gross” or “good luck” with sarcasm. I’m proud to say we have a five month old who we have cloth diapered since she was a week old and it’s still going strong. We’ve never tried the gdiapers but they seem cool! We use bum genius pockets (hubby’s fav) and prefolds and covers (my fav) and the occasional all in one we’ve bought off etsy because of cute prints!
I’ve heard that gDiapers aren’t high in the ranking of cloth diapers, but we got them for a steal so it was totally worth it.
Since we are “cheap” I can’t see us buying any other ones, but I don’t doubt I’ll come across a REALLY cute print and fold.
It’s only a matter of time!
How do you go through cleaning them? We use the tub spout, but my husband wants another option since he doesn’t want the tub to stain over time.
I’ve heard of the sprayers but I think that would make more of a mess with the newborn poop than it would help.
We’re still exclusively breastfeeding and everything I’ve read suggests that breastfed/non solid eating baby poop is water soluble. We just toss the dirty diapers in a flip top trash can we got at Walmart that’s lined with a reusable wetbag.
Once it’s full (usually every 3 days) I take the whole bag and dump it in our washer with some original tide. I set it for all the bells and whistles: extra rinse, presoak, super cycle, hot water, high water level, etc.
then I toss the inserts in the dryer and the pockets/covers on a drying rack.
I’ve heard that you can put everything in the dryer as long as you don’t mess with them until they’re cool because it can mess up the elastic.
There’s a million ways to do it, I think, haha. I just do the way that feels simplest and doesn’t make my diapers smell/stink/be gross. =)
I don’t have kids yet, but I definitely plan on cloth diapering. I read a blog post where someone actually broke down the cost of cloth diapers versus disposable, down to the water and electricity for the washer, and the cost savings is just too substantial. I know a few people that cloth diaper and they don’t have any problems with it. My one friend used disposables at night because her son would just pee through everything. She also used them when they were out and about or while he was being babysat just for convenience sake. I’m looking forward to picking her brain about it.
Love this. By far my favorite post 🙂 you are such a super mom!