Well, it’s been a long time coming but we are finally back to using cloth diapers! I was thinking of writing a post titled “Cloth Diaper Dropout” but it looks like that won’t be necessary. To start, when Little Deer was first born, cloth diapering definitely wasn’t on my radar. It’s pretty popular with moms in the Seattle area, but it just wasn’t something I had given much thought to. We met with our childbirth instructor the week after LD was born to talk about newborn care, and she brought some of her cloth diapers with her to show us. I was pretty impressed. She had lots of great reasons for why she chose to cloth diaper (I was definitely most excited about the prospect of saving money), and I think it quickly became something we wanted to do.
After Mr. Deer deployed, I began looking into it more. Let me just say this: researching cloth diapers is like getting a second degree. All the acronyms, terminology, washing routines… it’s crazy! After days and days of getting myself familiar with it all, I decided the best thing to do would be to buy a few different brands of diapers and try them out for ourselves. Everyone seemed to have a different opinion about each brand, so I thought we’d test the waters and form our own opinion (I’ll save the low-down on what I thought about different brands for our next cloth diapering post). With the few that we purchased, we were able to do cloth about 75% of the time which worked out well. Unfortunately, my initial enthusiasm began to wane. Here’s why:
- Leaks – Most of the cloth diapers we had would leak around the legs. LD had a big baby tummy, but skinny little legs, and it made it hard to get a good fit. The brand I thought we would like the most actually fit her the worst. It seemed like I was constantly changing her clothes because of all the leaking. And at this point in time we still hadn’t figured out her MSPI, so she was having 5-6 loose stools a day as well. Not fun!
- Fit – I didn’t mind the poofy cloth diapers, but I was bummed when I realized that suddenly a lot of her onesies didn’t quite fit. I had to start using bigger ones, but they still seemed so big on her. It bugged me.
- Laundry – Being essentially a single mom at the time, I was beginning to feel overburdened with all the laundry cloth diapering was generating. It wasn’t just the diapers, but all her clothes as well as my clothes (which she frequently messed with blowout diapers). Because of how our house was situated, I couldn’t run the washer or dryer while she was sleeping without waking her up. So it seemed like all my spare time was being spent strategizing when I would do laundry.
- Diaper rash – This was what finally ended it. LD had a never-ending slew of diaper rashes. There are some creams that are cloth diaper safe, but we had already bought so many different creams that weren’t helping that I couldn’t justify buying more. We decided to put the cloth away until we got the rashes under control.
Well, I think she was about three months old when we took our hiatus from cloth diapering. And now she’s ten months old… so it was a pretty long break! I knew once we went to disposables it would be hard to come back, and that definitely proved to be the case. I bought a month’s supply of Honest diapers with a 40% off code. Then my mom bought us another month’s supply using the same code too. Then I got $10 off new customer discount on Diapers.com. Followed by an awesome deal where you got $25 towards diapers when you signed up for Amazon Mom. Can you see where I’m going with this? I loved the convenience of disposables, and I started using all of these deals to justify that fact that I really wasn’t spending as much as I could be. The deals eventually ran out and Mr. Deer and I decided it was time to make a change. Here’s why we’re back to cloth diapering:
- Money – You really can save a lot of money with cloth diapering. It may mean putting more money up front, but if you’re smart about it you can go far. Not to mention that cloth diapers really retain their value if you want to sell them. We ended up liking a really cheap brand the best, so it cost us about three months worth of disposables to get all our cloth diapers.
- Comfort – Now that LD’s rash is gone, I really think that cloth diapers are the most comfortable for her. She always had little marks on her inner legs where disposable seemed to rub. I love how fleecy and soft the cloth is on her skin.
- Better fit – Now that LD is bigger, we’re not really having issues with leaking around the legs anymore. Yay! Not to mention that with her MSPI in-check we don’t have any more blowouts (thank goodness).
- Settled at home – We’re finally feeling good and settled in our new home. I’ve recently made a weekly schedule and am feeling pretty good about our day-to-day routine. It felt like a good time to throw cloth diapers into the mix.
- Environment – I do like knowing that we’re contributing less disposable diapers to landfills. I know with cloth diapers you use more water to wash them (also a resource) but it still seems like the better choice in my book.
So yes, we are back in business with the cloth! Please don’t take this post as a “cloth is best” kind of deal. No judgement here! I just wanted to share a little about my reasoning behind the switch. With us really trying to tighten the budget, it just seemed like the best option for us. I’m going to give it a week or two to get settled in to our diapering routine, then I hope to share that as well. I definitely want to do all I can do to help those get started with cloth diapering that are interested. So stay tuned!
What are your reasons for using cloth diapers or disposables? Are you thinking about switching?
Cloth Diapers part 17 of 17
1. Cloth Diapering by parenting2. Washing Cloth Diapers by parenting
3. Cloth Diaper Update and Potty Pail Review by parenting
4. How to choose a cloth diapering system by Mrs. Superhero
5. Real Registry: Diana's Cloth Diaper Registry by Real Registries
6. On Cloth Diapering a Newborn by Mrs. Superhero
7. Cloth Diapering Update by Mrs. Hopscotch
8. Easy Cloth Diapering by Mrs. Superhero
9. Who, What, Why, and How: Cloth Diapering by mrs. tictactoe
10. On Cloth Diapering at 4 Months by Mrs. Stroller
11. Building a Cloth Diaper Stockpile by Mrs. Hopscotch
12. Confessions of an (Ex) Cloth-Diapering Mom by Mrs. High Heels
13. Cloth Diapering Diaries by Mrs. Sketchbook
14. They really are genius! by Mrs. Tea
15. Wool, the Other Sleep Sheep (and Adventures in Early Toileting) by Mrs. Twine
16. Adventures in Cloth Diapering by Mrs. Lion
17. Cloth Diapering: We're back! by Mrs. Deer
persimmon / 1230 posts
I’m glad you’re happy to be back to cloth. I started out on cloth when DS was two months old (he’s 10 months now) and was using CDs pretty steadily until August. Then I went back to work. And had no time or energy for laundry. And daycare only does disposables. And DH has never been a fan of CD. I still have all of our CDs and once I get more energy and time (yeah, right!) maybe I’ll start doing CDs on the weekends.
guest
What was LD’s rash like and what did you do to stop it? We’re mostly cloth diapering, but I feel like we’re always fighting a rash or yeast infection. He had an AWFUL one at 3 weeks (he was in disposable at the time), a not so bad one at 2.5 months (late Oct), and another rash starting at 3 months. Basically every month since he’s been born and we can’t use cloth at least for the yeast infection, so what did you do to get the rash finally gone?
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
This is interesting to me. CD isn’t big in our area, so I really don’t know much about it at all. I’m glad you got the rash to go away, and glad you’re happy now!
pomelo / 5720 posts
Great post! we CD most of the time (85-90%) and have been since LO was 1 month. He’s 15 mos now and we are still happy with our decision, though I will say toddler poop is not my most favorite thing to clean. Yuck! I’ve definitely had moments where I wanted to give up for all the reasons you mentioned, but we always seem to come back to why we started using them to begin with and that helps.
kiwi / 566 posts
I’m interested to read this and your next post about what worked for you. I’m really excited to start cloth, and we’re hoping to do it 100% (or at least 99%) of the time, though I do know it’s easy to get discouraged and give up so I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to us! Our main reason is financial–we got most of our CD stash barely used (clean, of course!) from someone who gave up early (mostly covers and prefolds, which some people love and some don’t…hopefully we’re in the “love” camp!, but I’ve registered for some AIO’s too in different brands), so we’ll see! If we do stick to cloth we will be saving a TON of money, especially because all our utilities are included at our apartment so our water bill won’t go up.
blogger / nectarine / 2608 posts
I have CD with Lorelei since birth almost. She had to wear disposables while she was in the NICU for the first two days, but after that she was in cloth. I really liked sized cloth diapers versus one size for a good fit and no leaks. We were fortunate to find a brand that worked really well for us early on, and we have their largest size now. I also found a mama on a diaper swap who had a son just behind Lorelei in age and didn’t care too much about girly vs. non-girly diapers (we typically have a good mix) who was able to use our diapers right after Lorelei was ready to move up a size. We’ve loved using cloth. We have a box of 7th Generation disposables on hand for emergencies, but rarely ever use them (maybe one per month, usually less). We did travel with disposables this past Feb. because we didn’t have access to a washer or drier for most of the trip. Even Mr. T said he missed the cloth! I was surprised.
blogger / pomelo / 5361 posts
We don’t use cloth diapers with the boys primarily because I’m insanely terrified of how much laundry cloth diapering twins would be.
But, I would definitely consider it if we have a single child in the future. I love the cost saving, plus they’re so much cuter!
blogger / pomegranate / 3300 posts
I thought about it with my oldest. I was ready to order a trial box of different brands and then I found out I was having twins. I was so overwhelmed with everything it just got put to the side. The thought of three babies diaper laundry terrified me. It does make me a little sick to think of how many diapers I have sent to landfills, but my brain just couldn’t handle it at the time.
blogger / cherry / 192 posts
I would love to cloth diaper, but I didn’t think it would work for us… my husband (still) freaks out every time he changes a seriously icky diaper – he was NOT on board when I presented the idea. I decided to let this one go.
pear / 1723 posts
@Mrs. Blue: It’s really only one full washload every other day here! But we didn’t start until 7 months when the kids sleep improved somewhat….it would have been too overwhelming when we were still deep in the trenches. That said, we always get way more leaks with disposables (and next to none with cloth), so being able to do fewer loads of soiled clothes helps even out the laundry too.
pear / 1723 posts
@Mrs. Twine: I’ve been floored by how much my husband loves our cloth diapers too!
honeydew / 7444 posts
I actually don’t find the laundry aspect to be that overwhelming, but maybe it’s because i don’t mind doing laundry! It’s the least bothersome of the chores.
We started CDs from birth, putting her in disposables when we went out. We slowly added disposables to the mix when she started sleeping through the night and taking longer naps.
We stopped sending CDs to daycare because they couldn’t tell if she pooped and she had this one incident where the rash was awful. @Katrocap: The new daycare we switched her to went through the disposables like crazy and i hated that we were buying disposables all the time. Now we do cloth on the weekends and when she comes home from daycare. It’s a compromise i can work with!
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
This post totally makes me regret selling off my stash when I quit around 3 months. Kudos to you for starting over again!
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
I clothed diapered with Drake but had to stop around 7-8 months with an issue with the downstairs neighbor. I wish I had started again with Juliet but with the move I have no idea where I packed my stuff up now, its probably in one of the million bins in my moms basement, and I just dont have the time or energy I admit to try to find them now Good for you for retarting
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
We used cloth for a long time- BG 3.0, 4.0. We’re in school full time now, and they required paper diaps… but M is potty training, so we’re almost done with diapers altogether. I’m going to have to sell my stash!
blogger / watermelon / 14218 posts
I love it! That picture of all the colors is cute enough to make me want to switch! But we are at the tail end of our second (and probably final) child so, obviously, it’s a little late for us
We decided early on that cloth diapering wouldn’t be for us, but I love em!! I love the fact that you were able to revisit and actually switch back once the rashes were under control. We actually had really bad diaper rash with Wagon Jr. (just lots and lots of loose stools all the time) on disposables and I thought maybe switching to cloth would had made things better! Now that I read your post, probably not? Who knows…
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
Yay cloth. It was the one and only baby related item I could get myself excited about because they can be so darn cute!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
I was a bit of a dropout too- ha. We cloth diapered until J was 8 months old. We moved to an apartment with community laundry and had to pay for it, so it no longer became cost effective or efficient. It was so much work.
Now we do honest diapers. If we have another child, and have our own laundry then we will likely do it again though!
guest
We started using CD recently at 8mos. She’s almost ten months now and I have noticed that when the rashes do happen, it’s harder to get rid of them. We do CD about 75% and disposables the other 25%, especially out and about. We did it to save money in the long run. $80+ a month on diapers is ridiculous.
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
I’m a total cloth diaper drop out, but they are so cute! Love cloth diapered bums.
guest
Glad to read this! We use cloth and luckily our daycare accepts them too. With two working parents, we are constantly running around on week nights between diapers and bottles and pump parts and now baby food. I love them, though. We’ve been in disposables for two weeks fighting a yeast rash after bring on amoxicillin. I can’t wait to get him back in cloth. I’m sick of diaper blowouts in disposables, seems to never happen in cloth.
coffee bean / 48 posts
I looooove cloth diapering but I’m pretty sure I would have quit if I had gone back to work. Mad props to the working moms who make it work for them!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
@Mrs. Polish: Yeah, it’s funny how in certain areas it’s more popular and “cool” to use cloth diapers.
Jen: We never figured out what initially caused it (though I think it was some lingering soy in my diet) but it eventually turned into a yeast infection that was suuuuper hard to get rid of (used lotramin with no luck then nystatin)
@ILoveLettie: we started with prefolds and a few covers. I didn’t mind them at all and definitely thought they worked great for when LD was small. I think the pockets and AIO’s are more convenient and maybe comfortable for baby once they’re on the move
@Mrs. Train: Yeah, the thought of three in CDs would definitely make me less excited about it all!
@Mrs. Markers: My husband definitely gets grossed out more easily than me too, oh men!
@Mrs. Twine: That is awesome! My husband likes them but he has yet to get a poopy one so we’ll see
thanks again for the pic of your hose setup! I have to do that soon!
@Freckles: I don’t mind it as much now, but laundry has always been one of those things I super dislike (give me dishes any day!)
@Mrs. Pen: Yeah I’m not sure we’d do it if we had a communal laundry setup either. I loved using honest diapers!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
We’re definitely into cloth diapering here. Mostly to save money.
I will say that for those with little legs you can find CDs with “double gussets.” That’s why we like “Just Simply Baby” brand so much. They fit Little P’s skinny little legs well! 
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
Very cute! Laundry is one of the biggest deterrents for me.
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
I actually have been thinking about this a ton… I need to figure out what to do when boy two comes home. I loved the look of cloth diapers… but I’m not sure that I can handle the amount of laundry that cloth diapers will add. School uniforms keep the washer going more often than I like as it is!