Top Ten Tips for Cloth Diapering

As you all know, I have a love affair with my cloth diapers.  My poor child has to go half dressed all the time just so I can ohh and ahh over all the cute designs I have collected.  I finally counted all my diapers up the other day since they were all clean.  (Destructo had a poopy diaper after I laid him down the other night and by morning his little bootie was awful.  I felt horrible.)  I have 35 diapers.  But I must have all the diapers......

Anyways, here are my top ten tips for cloth diapering. 
1)  When you think you have the diaper on tight enough, put it tighter.  When I first started using cloth diapers, I would think I had it on tight enough only to get leg leaks.  I was so afraid of the dreaded red marks on his legs that I wasn't tightening it enough.  You want a nice fit with no little gaps at the back, stomach, or legs.

2)  When it comes to detergent and washing your cloth diapers, less is more.  Too much detergent will result in buildup which can result in ammonia or other stink problems.  I actually use less than the recommended amount and this seems to work well for me although you need to play around with it to figure out a routine that works for you.  Here is a post about prepping diapers and my wash routine.

3)  The same does not hold true for water.  More is better in water terms.  You want to wash your diapers on the largest load setting possible.  Lots of water and agitation are what gets your diapers clean.  I don't have a front loader or HE machine, but I have heard to add wet towels to the cycle to trick the machine into adding more water. 

4)  The sun is your best friend.  Instead of drying them in a dryer, throw them outside in the sun.  If it is hot out, they dry quickly.  You also get the added benefit of the sun killing bacteria, yeast spores, and getting rid of stains on the inner part of your diapers.   Here is a post about beating yeast.

5)  When you are first starting out, either buy a diaper trial or buy an assortment of different diapers to try.  You don't know what you will like until you try them.  I found that an all in two system is by far the favorite in our house, although the family members that babysit Kai while I work prefers pocket diapers.

6)  A diaper sprayer makes life a billion times easier.  I love being able to spray the poop diapers off since Destructo does not have ploppable poop as I have read some babies have by this age. See this post here for my favorite cloth diapering accessories.

7)  Find a cloth diaper store that has rewards points that you can redeem for gift certificates.  I have already redeemed a few at Kelly's Closet and have a 30 dollar certificate saved up right now.  You can check out the link on the sidebar if you want more info on their rewards program.

8)  Cloth diapers can be a learning experience for you child.  For instance, we point out the different animals on Kai's zoo diaper and do the baby signs for them.  We are also working on colors when I change him since I always ask him what color the diaper I am about to put on is and then tell him if he doesn't answer.  So far he knows "booo."

9)  I really like RLR for stripping diapers.  I have done it with hot water and with blue Dawn and loved RLR the best.  This could be because I am lazy and it required less rinsing than the other two methods.  Either way, it is what I prefer.   See my post here for detailed instructions on stripping with RLR.

10)  Leave your wet bag open to let air circulate and rinse all diapers (even just wet ones) before putting them in the bag.  Since I hit the dreaded toddler pee filled with ammonia stage, this has really helped with my ammonia buildup problems. 

I hope these tips and tricks might help you out as you start out cloth diapering.  It has been a fun journey for me and I have made some friends solely because of cloth diapering.  It really gives you something to talk about anytime someone sees your child's diaper.  I have struck up cloth diapering conversations in the strangest of locations, Sam's Club, church, the pediatrician's office, restaurants.  But then again, I do like to talk.  :)



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