Before our little girl was born, I did A LOT of research. Like most new parents, one of the things I thought about was diapers. I considered the many different brands, the diaper pail, the wipes… Yet, as I continued with my research, I had a nagging memory creeping in each time I thought about diapering (and believe me it was many, many times!). I recalled seeing a window display in one of the local shops on Tennyson, where it visually showed the waste that is created by disposable diapers and what happens every year to our landfills with said-waste. My heart cringed (it still does thinking about it!). It was in that moment that I considered using cloth diapers, even before my family included a little human.
This was my chance to reduce, reuse, and recycle. and I was determined to reduce our family’s growing carbon foot-print with cloth diapering.
Our cloth diapering journey began a month after our daughter was born, because let’s be honest, we were new parents and had experienced enough adjustment in the first three weeks of her life. If I said that was one of the best pieces of advice we could have been given, I’d be selling it short, because it absolutely was! So if you are even considering cloth diapering and you are a new parent, wait at least two weeks after your babe is born to allow yourself to adjust to parenthood.
I thought I had done a lot of research on disposable diapers, but then I was unleashed into the world that is cloth diapering. It was overwhelming! With researching cloth diapers, I had to again consider everything that comes with diapering and then some! Pails and cloth pail liners, diaper sprayers, wet bags, along with the vast differences between all of the current cloth diaper brands. I was whole-heartedly confused! So, like any rational pregnant woman, I spent hours getting lost on the internet in my research! If you ever find yourself in doubt, ask lots of questions to the parents who use cloth diapers, and find sites like Baby Gear Lab. As a mama-to-be, this was one of the greatest websites to find the information I was looking for, by people who had done the research and then some.
At the end of our research, we chose to go with Rumparooz cloth diapers, as we felt these would meet our family’s needs the best.
Here are the loves and hates over our journey with using cloth diapers:
The Loves
- Patterns – Rumparooz has many different styles and fun patterns for their diapers! What’s not to love?!
- Pocket diapering system – I love the technology of the design! It allows you to customize your diaper in terms of how much protection you might need.
- Reducing waste – any time you choose to use cloth diapers, you are reducing your waste by reducing one less diaper to end up in a landfill.
- Local company – Rumparooz is a local Colorado company and I am a sucker for supporting awesome, local brands and shops!
- Prevent the newborn/infant “blow out” – my husband is a HUGE fan of this! With these cloth diapers, you don’t ever get the infamous blow outs that newborn/infant babes often experience due to their developing immature intestinal systems.
- Customer service & trouble shooting – Rumparooz has incredible customer service! If you have a question about use of the diapers and care, they have awesome tutorials and information on how to properly care for the diapers. Also, if you choose to send your questions via email, they are super quick to respond!
The Hates
- Bulky – This is not something I truly dislike, so much as I didn’t consider this when thinking about clothing. You need to keep this in mind, as you will need to size up your child’s clothes (ex: my daughter is 13 months and needs to be in 18-24 month clothes).
- Solid(ish) Poops – You absolutely need to have something that helps you contain your kiddo’s soiled diaper. My husband and I learned this the hard way…. we currently have this Spray Pal Splatter Shield on its way to us as it came highly recommended by dear friends who are also fellow cloth-diapering parents.
- Smell – when you use cloth diapers, it’s inevitable that your diapers are going to smell due to the ammonia, etc. Often times this means that your diapers will need to be stripped at some point, which can tend to add a bit more work, but this is something that is not done very often.
- Diaper Pail – This is a tough category for me, because it doesn’t completely fit here, and yet it does… We have the Ubbi Diaper Pail, and while I love it because it keeps the smell contained and is large enough for holding a lot of the cloth diapers, the opening is not big enough for a diaper covered in poo. So I more often find myself having to clean the outside of the pail every time I put in a dirty poo diaper, unless I am working some crazy harry potter type magic and am able to manipulate the diaper and opening just right. We are now considering having two pails, one to keep in the bathroom (after a soiled diaper is sprayed) and one just for pee diapers. I would definitely use the Ubbi pail for just pee diapers. Or just as a regular trash can, because that child lock is on point!
In the little over a year that we have been cloth diapering, I have to say that I am pretty in love with it! I am especially glad that I didn’t listen to the nay-sayers in my life who told me I was crazy for wanting to use cloth diapers and wouldn’t be successful with it! While cloth diapering today is much more convenient than it used to be, it is still an engaging activity that you have to be invested in. Certainly there are trade-offs with it, but the positive trade-offs win out in my book, especially because our family is staying as true to our values as we can.
Thanks for this timely post! I just began my own cloth diapering research in anticipation of our first baby (and to hopefully add to our registry list). It didn’t take me long to become a convert. Even though I have a pretty crunchy baseline, I thought it would be a huge hassle, especially if/when someone else cares for our baby. They also initially appeared pricey at the outset, but when you see the math of how many disposables you go through on a monthly basis, it’s incredibly sobering, both financially and environmentally.
I’ve read the all-in-one options are best for people like nannies or grandmas who might be more reluctant. My current plan is to use the pocket-style like you mention above for around the house use and keep the all-in-ones for when we’re out or if someone else is in charge.
P.S. I just added the splatter shield to our registry based on your suggestion!
We love cloth diapering! We have been doing it about 6 months and started when our little guy was 1 month old. We started with a gifted set and that made it so much easier to try and then get good at. Your points are right on. We use disposables at night and when on travel, but we love that we have saved many diapers from the landfill.