Getting Started With Cloth Diapering
Getting all the diaper ready for action!
I’ve been saying “this is the week!” for weeks and weeks, but finally I really mean it. This is the week that we are starting cloth diapering. I’ve been holding off until now for a couple of reasons.
Before Cullen was even born, I decided we’d start out in disposables. I figured having a new life to take care of was enough of a life change for us, and we didn’t need to over-complicate things at the beginning. A few weeks went by, and I knew we could start the diapers at any time, but they always looked so BIG compared to his tiny newborn body. I kept waiting and waiting for him to get bigger, while my cloth diapers waited patiently in their packaging.
About two weeks ago, I thought perhaps it was time, so I tired one of the diapers on him. Of course he pooped in it immediately, but I also realized that with these new bulky diapers he wouldn’t be able to wear any of his size 0-3 clothes anymore. I wasn’t quite ready to make the jump to our 3-6 stash, so I put it off another few weeks.
Now here we are, 12 weeks old, wearing 3-6 month clothes, and ready to make the switch.
Unlike most organized and prepared pregnant women, for some reason I decided to avoid the cloth diaper preparations until after the baby came. Not my best move. So this week, while juggling work and a baby, I also did ten million loads of laundry to get these bad boys ready to be pooped in.
They are all prepped and washed, stuffed, and folded. He’s been wearing them for a few days now and so far so good! I’m sure that once we get going it will be a breeze, but it seems so complicated and overwhelming when you are reading and preparing to use them. Wash cold, rinse cold, wash hot, rinse cold again, use half the soap, line dry in the sun — who has time for all this?
Obviously it can’t be that bad because so many moms rave about cloth diapering. Hopefully I will be one of them soon! I promise to write a follow up as soon as I figure out what I’m doing…
As long as you have a nice snug fit around the legs so runny breastmilk poop doesn’t run out, you should be golden
also, you dont need to line dry (altho sunning stains is helpful) i pretty well never line dry them…
Emily, I just wrote a post on my blog about our cloth diapering, if it’s helpful: http://girlevolving.com/2012/01/11/dipes-and-wipes/ We wash on the hot cycle and double rinse, but that’s all.
I don’t do all that wash stuff- just a cold rinse, then my machine’s “whitest whites” cycle (which is hot) with an extra rinse. Then line dry if it’s sunny; if not, dry on low heat. Also I highly recommend Rockin’ Green detergent.
This is what I do: Rinse cold, then start a cycle wash hot using liquid detergent for babies.
As long as the baby exclusively breastfeeds (should be up until he’s 6 months old), you can put poopy diapers directly in the wash.
You’ll get the hang of it in no time! I work full time outside the home and we use cloth. It’s really just an extra load of laundry every couple of days, and you’re doing so much laundry with a baby anyways it’s no biggie. Have fun!
Timely post, we’re in the process of switching right now
I bought for different kinds of diapers to try, and then once we figure out what our favorite is, I’ll round out a stash until I have enough for day time. Still will be using disposables at night for a while.
Can’t wait to hear more of your adventures!
Your wash routine is too much mama!!
Like others said- a cold rinse/soak, then a hot wash/cold rinse. Inserts can be dried in the dryer! If you tumble low, so can the shells/pockets. Too much heat, or soap, will cause issues eventually. Now get obsessed and find adorable fabrics and patterns!! 
We just made the transition with our 6-week old. We use Bum Genius and unfortunately she leaked out the back twice now with the small inserts! So now we are using the larger inserts even though she’s still just barely 9lbs, but with so much pee, we had to!
Yeah, please stop doing all that crap. I don’t do anything special besides washing them on warm instead of cold. Then I just pop it all in the dryer. My only holdup is that after 3 months, I had to strip my diapers due to detergent buildup. I switched to a cloth diaper friendly detergent, so hopefully I’ll avoid that in the future. But really, you don’t need to do all that crazy stuff.
I think she was referring to the diaper prep – not daily washing instructions. The first couple of washes are usually a little higher maintenance, as they reach their full absorbency (depending on the type/brand this can vary quite a bit!). I doubt she’s doing all that wash for every load!
http://www.thehappinessofrainydays.blogspot.com
Good luck! I’m another happy cloth user. I got into a routine with them pretty quickly and while it is a bit of extra work, I can manage it quite easily. In fact, for a short time I had 2 kids in cloth.