Purely Natural: Cloth Diapering: The Basics

Why use Cloth?

Cost

Diapering one child from birth to toilet training costs only hundreds of dollars with cloth vs. thousands of dollars with disposables.
The same cloth diapers you use with your first child can be used again with your other children.
Cloth diapers and accessories in good condition can be resold when you are done with them.

Environment

A child will typically go through 5,000 -8,000 disposable diapers from birth to toilet training but you only need about 5 dozen cloth diapers for the same period.
Disposable diapers take up to 500 years to decompose and leach chemicals and human waste into the earth.
Washing cloth diapers at home takes no more water then the amount a toilet trained child would use flushing.

Better for baby

The chemicals used in disposables such as dioxin and sodium polyacrylate have been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, and toxic shock syndrome.
Cloth diapers allow for air circulation which helps keep baby’s skin healthier.

Types of Cloth Diapers

Pocket Diapers – place insert or prefold inside the pocket

All-in-One Diapers – most like disposables

Diaper Covers – place insert or prefold inside the cover

Prefold/Flat Diapers –fold and place inside a cover or pocket diaper

Inserts/Doublers – place inside a cover or pocket diaper

Cleaning your cloth diapers

Dirty cloth diapers, wraps, wipes, and diaper pail liner can be washed together in your washing machine. Washing diapers typically adds only 2-3 more loads of laundry a week.

When changing a cloth diaper solids can be dumped into the toilet no need to soak the diaper what ever does not fall off will be gone after washing.

Normal Wash Routine

Use the longest wash cycle (usually includes a pre-wash cycle)

Use only 1-2 TBS of detergent (use detergent with no fabric softener, whiteners, or enzymes)

Use the rinse cycle twice (it is very important to rinse all detergent from the diapers)

Dry on low or high heat, depending on the type of diaper.

Out and About

Changing cloth diapers when out is as easy as using disposables, the only difference is you place the used diapers in a wet bag to wash later.

When going out I carry an extra diaper and wrap if needed, wipes, and a wet bag. I also always have extra diapers in my car.

What you need to start.

Diapers

About 2-3 dozen diapers and 4-6 covers depending on what type you are using.