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The Ups And Downs Of Cloth Diapering

July 29, 2011 By Erika Zane

29 Jul

When I tell people I cloth diaper, I am not looking for a pat on the back.  I usually only mention it following a comment on Little Man’s girth or how much he weighs.  He looks like a little wrestler in his cloth diapers and a string bean in disposables.

I say this often, but I never thought I’d cloth diaper.  I mean it.  I was in the “That’s way too much work. I can’t even keep up with my own laundry.” camp, just like everybody else.

Living in Colorado and choosing a birth center for my birth introduced me to a whole world of supportive cloth diaperers.  There were also several local cloth diapering shops nearby.

Today, as I procrastinate on doing the laundry that needs to be done, which happens to include a load of Little Man’s Rump-a-rooz diapers, I am reminded of the downside of cloth diapering.

Keeping up with my laundry.

The thing is, it’s also a really good motivator to keep me on top of the already increased laundry pile thanks to my little mess maker.  That, and it’s the easiest load of laundry I have.  No need to fret over what temperature to use to make sure I get all the stains without colors bleeding together, because I get to follow the same exact routine every.single.time.

Then the other list of positives on the side of cloth diapering are:

  • I pretty much never have to run out to the store to pick up disposable diapers. I just dump the ones I have in the wash when I’m halfway through my stash of 24.
  • I don’t have to worry about keeping up with wipes because I use cloth wipes, which are GREAT because they don’t fall apart and, even with the messiest BM’s, I rarely have to use more than one and never more than two.
  • Little Man has blown out of more disposables while traveling than he ever has his cloth ones.
  • I have dealt with very few diaper rashes as long as I keep up with changing him every 2 hours (during the day, not overnight).  With his little constitution, that’s pretty much necessary anyway.
  • And my favorite: Little Man’s room never smells like a diaper because all his BM’s get flushed!

Unfortunately, we do use disposables overnight.  I wish we didn’t, but I have yet to find an alternative reusable diaper that keeps him dry enough and doesn’t leak.  As it is, with disposables, I buy the next size up.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Clearly there are many advantages to disposable diapers, but cloth diapers are not nearly as hard to stick with as I thought they would be at first and they give me a sense of peace.  I enjoy knowing most of his diapers aren’t sitting in a pile of waste somewhere, forever preserving his BM’s because they are unable to break down along with the surrounding garbage (though there are a few :/).

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Filed Under: baby, Cloth diapering, Family, Natural Parenting, Parenting

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Comments

  1. Diana @Hormonal Imbalances says

    July 29, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Ok, for nighttime I use Kissaluvs, a GroVia insert, and a wool cover. It’s never failed me yet and Bella is a SOAKER. Like, “holy moses what did we give her to drink last night?” I’ll email you the links or you can wait till my post tomorrow. 😉 And nothing is cuter than wool.
    Diana @Hormonal Imbalances recently posted..The (not quite) American Dream

    • Erika @NaMammaSte says

      July 30, 2011 at 8:12 pm

      You rock! I’ll check out your post now! Sorry, a little behind today!

  2. Amber says

    July 29, 2011 at 5:44 pm

    Ooo…I wish I had asked Diana this question before. Jonas is in BumGenius and if I let him hang out in bed for a little bit after he wakes, he’ll end up leaking (that first pee of the morning is a big one I guess 🙂 ).

    But, so long as I don’t let us be lazy in the morning, we do pretty good with the BGs.
    Amber recently posted..Friday Inspiration – Be Interested

    • Erika @NaMammaSte says

      July 30, 2011 at 8:17 pm

      I’ve heard great things about bum genius. The rumparooz are great, but they don’t pull the moisture away and I think you might be onto something with the morning pee for little man, too. Maybe I’ll try being a little quicker on my toes in the morning! 😉 (yeah right)

  3. Tracy Hall says

    November 2, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    I doubled my Fuzzi Bunz and never had an issue on long car rides or overnight.

    • Erika @NaMammaSte says

      November 3, 2011 at 8:53 am

      I didn’t know you cloth diapered! That’s a good idea. I don’t know why I never thought of doubling my main inserts. I guess maybe I didn’t think they’d both fit, but I’m sure they would.

  4. Vanessa says

    November 14, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    I’m glad I’m not the only one using disposables at night. The thing is, we were using double stuffed fuzzibunz overnight for a long time and never had leaking. Then my little man started getting ammonia burns and yeast infections from being wet for too long overnight. It was maddening. Switching to disposables overnight has saved his tender bits.

    I’m not proud of it, but I’d love to hear if someone has found a cloth solution that keeps the baby drier at night. I keep thinking that once he gets a litte older and doesn’t pee so much at night (he still wakes up several times a night at 15 months!) it will be better.
    Vanessa recently posted..Ombre Lamp Shade

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About me

Hello and welcome.  It’s been a while.  For Lent this year I decided to fast from the thing that took too much of my attention from what is truly important: Social Media.  Though there are countless amazing benefits to Social Media, after about a month offline so far, there are seemingly just as many negatives.  I never realized how much of my brain had been hijacked by it.  I’ve had so many revelations about how much easier it is to move forward when I’m not constantly reminded of the past.  But I still want to record my family as they grow at this ridiculous speed and, I’m realizing, so many of our family’s memories are here.  Those along with so many of the struggles and stages we’ve worked through.  Maybe in the midst of COVID19 isolation and my kids around me so often, I’m brought back to a time when they were too young for school and with me so often.  Writing here during that time helped make up for the limited adult conversation in my days and the overwhelm provided by my… little treasures 😉 My husband, fur babies, three fiesty kids, and I hereby extend an invitation to visit this little sneak peak into our life. We’re super flawed and broken and there aren’t too many dull moments around here.  And I promise it’s not always as magical as some of my golden hour, sun-soaked images would suggest.  There’s usually too much coffee in my system and we welcome all the prayers.  Come on over if you want to process with me.

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