cloth diapering your bunch

By Brenda Massung

When you hear the words - cloth diaper - does it make you cringe? Does it remind you of giant white towels that you watched your mother somehow fold onto your little sibling, or the horrid thought of sticking someone with a pin?  For me, when I first heard about cloth diapers, I thought it was nuts.  I began nannying a set of twin girls who were wearing them, plastic pants and all.  It wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, and then they switched over to the world of high connivence cloth diapers.  Where all you had to do was snap a diaper around the child - and they were set.  It felt all too good.

But to be honest, it WAS good.  I learned that one disposable diaper sits in a landfill for about 100 years.  I learned that using cloth really does cut down on costs, and the best part it’s great for the bum of my precious baby.  So when our first little lady “announced” her arrival on the lovely little pee stick, my husband and I decided that we would venture into the cloth diaper world.

Entering the world of cloth diapering can be like walking into a foreign country - where people use words like, prefolds, snappis, one-sized, pocket, the list goes on and on.  So my advice to you is to find a website, such as the very helpful storkwarehouse.com, and look at cloth diapering 101.  There, you will determine what the needs of your family are and how to go about the process of cloth diapering.

I know what you’re thinking - “oh, no I”m going to have to rinse the poo out in the toilet, my husband won’t even touch regular poopy diapers.”  Well with the technology of today’s washers - you don’t even have to let that diaper touch the toilet.  You just toss it into a dry bag designed to hold the diapers, and wash within 3 days. Seriously it’s that easy.  Once your child has started forming solid poos- you just toss the solid into the toilet and put the diaper into the bag waiting to wash.  It really is simple.

The best part about baby bunching and cloth diapering, is for those who used sized diapers, you are most likely to have you children in the same sized diaper within several months after baby #2’s birth. The investment cost can be upfront higher, however you can use the diapers you bought for baby #1, on all your babies to come, and even better, if your diapers are still in usable condition you can pass them on/sell them to a friend!

Our family uses sized fuzzi bunz, which come in small, medium, and large - and currently both my girls are in mediums, which is great for the diaper bag.  Now don’t get me wrong, we still use disposable diapers too, when we go on trips, and some nights.  But as you will find with cloth, you aren’t having to run out to the store to do a
diaper run, you are seeing less/NO diaper rashes, and all around know that what you are doing is better for the environment.  Trust me, it’s not as scary as you think.

Brenda is a Des Moines, Iowa - Baby Bunching, part-time “take the kiddos to work with” mom to two girls, 28 month old dolly who arrived 15 weeks before her due date, and a 11 month old dolly who arrived right on time.

Comments

[Rachel O.]

We use bumGenius and I agree! So much easier than disposables once you get the hang of it. And cheaper, even for me who has to pay for laundry in my apartment building. :)

[Brandi]

I agree, we use bumGenius for pockets and I ventured into prefold with Thirsty covers and G diapers for the new babe as well and they are all great. Now that the older has potty trained (at 23 months) I have too many diapers!

[Kelly]

I just started CDing and I love it. (Never thought I would say that, but I do!)
I'm using the Flip system and bumGenius one size pockets, and it is WAY EASIER than I ever imagined. Even the poopy diapers aren't bad.
my bumGenius diapers fit on both kiddos, although my toddler is only using diapers at nap and bedtime.

[Heidi]

I'm so HAPPY to see this post! I'm about to have #2 & we'll be happily cloth diapering 2 babies which will only be twice as nice!

[Emily]

We're cloth diaperers too...they are easy and personally I think, much more fashionable than disposables.

[Jen Anderson]

OK, I am a working Mom that would like to use cloth diapers but how do you find daycare to take a child with cloth diapers?? Help.

[Brenda]

@Jen Call around - and ask. Also educate them on how to do it - if they can just put them in a large wet bag without rinsing or dumping or anything that will help show them that there is no dirty work involved for them. Then you'll be responsible for taking them home and washing them - but that's not all bad. Many daycares are just frightened of the whole cloth diaper system, so it's important to show them that it's not as scary as it sounds. One of the ways you can ask is, would you consider using a cloth diaper system?