There is no right or wrong way to cloth diaper your child. The internet is full of cloth diapering rules, but these are arbitrary rules designed to help simplify the process. In doing so, we’ve overwhelmed you, and its our turn to say – goodbye cloth diaper rules, and “hello, how can I help?”
If baby is happy, healthy, and the diapering process is sustainable for the well-being of your family then you are cloth diapering. This can look like a part-time routine, or a full time routine. One of the best ways to start cloth diapering is just one diaper per day.
How to Cloth Diaper
Cloth diapering is as simple as grabbing an absorbent blanket and wrapping it around baby, adding a waterproof cover (if desired). When baby soils the blanket, toss it in the wash, and keep going.
Purchasing cloth diaper specific products or luxurious fitted cloth diapers, or fancy all in one diapers is a nice to have and a way we’ve tried to simplify the cloth diaper experience. Today the industry is dominated by women entrepreneurs with cloth diaper brands, and specific stores designed to provide you with the best selection of cloth options. These are fantastic places to get started and buy a stash. But you also don’t need these places to cloth diaper.
A day of cloth diapering looks like a day of disposable diapering but instead of placing dirty diapers in the disposal, they are added to the laundry pail, and then washed daily or every few days, or once a week (depending on the routine that works for your life). You can find a wash routine that works for you. Here’s some great wash routine stories form parents around the world on the Cloth Diaper Podcast
Cloth diapers do require some assembly
Assembling a cloth diaper means pairing an absorbent insert, flat diaper, fitted with and waterproof cover. This pairing process might be simple like laying it all together, or more complex with folds. Pockets, snaps, and various modern twists ensure that we can set up a diaper to be as absorbent and trim as we need it to be. Each of these choices is not to overwhelm you but to do you give you back control.
The beauty in cloth diapering is how you do it is incredibly versatile and adaptable to the lifestyle you want to live.
I’m not a person of absolutes, so me writing this introductory series is challenging because I don’t give you an absolute – I want you to know that you can just use an old kitchen towel fold it in a pad, shove it in a pocket diaper, put the diaper on baby and go.
Cloth diapering is only as complicated as you make it, and the best place to get started with cloth diapering is to chat with a local retailer, boutique, or pick up a copy of my book – Cloth Diapers: the ultimate guide to textiles, washing & more a modern resource to help you define the FAQ. The more expensive copy of my book is available in colour.
Three Steps to Washing Cloth Diapers
— but perhaps the reason you opened this is not the process of how to cloth diaper, but the process of how to wash. So before, I leave this post let’s chat about my super simple three step approach to washing cloth diapers.
Step 1: Remove the Poop
First, remove the poop.
We do not put poop in washing machines because it doesn’t break down and just clogs pipes, fibres and creates a mess. There is an exception, most breastfed poop and some formula poop is water soluble and can be easily cared for in your washing machine. But, most poop chunks need to be removed and you can use liners, sprayers, toilets, buckets, spatula’s and more to remove the poop.
The most important part of the poop removal step is to wash your hands.
This is also a great time to rinse your diapers, you can rinse your diapers by hand in the sink or in the machine with a quick 15 minute cycle. If you end up spraying all your diapers you might not need that pre-wash cycle in the machine. If you only cloth diaper part time and want to do smaller loads, or wash with your regular clothing then pre-rinse in the sink to get that first layer of grub off the diaper.
Step 2: Wash the Diapers
Second, toss the diapers in the washing machine, if they aren’t already there from the pre-wash cycle.
Once in the machine you’ll select the longest agitation cycle you have. This is usually the cotton cycle and it features a good long scrubba dubba with a rinse. You’ll want to add a scoop of detergent as per the detergents recommendations, and set the water to warm. Use whatever detergent you want as long as its free of added fabric softeners. Some detergents work better than others, some don’t’ work for some people – this is an area of trial and era.
This is the step that can be very overwhelming but I like to say you can start off that simple. If the diaper doesn’t get clean, then start adding steps to get to cleanliness.
Laundry is a mix of agitation, water quality, water temperature, soil, textiles, and detergent. Together these elements work together to clean, and sometimes you’ll need to make changes to one element or all to get that clean you need. But, there’s no science way to really get there besides doing it yourself.
- Can we stop fighting about cloth diaper wash routines?
- My Cloth Diaper Wash Routine
- Do you REALLY need to Measure the Drum of your Washing Machine?
- How to Rock your Hand Wash Routine
Decades of laundry science has stood by this, and we’ll talk about this complexity of laundry science in the Cloth 102 episode of this on the Cloth Diaper Podcast in the membership platform.
Step 3: Dry the Diapers
Third, Dry the diapers.
You can hang to dry to extend the life of your products or you can toss in the dryer and call it a day.
Many brands don’t recommend dryers because the heat is hard on textiles and materials. The dryer is a great way to make diapers soft and to prep them, but continual use will shrink and break down the products. I love the dryer, used it for everything.
Cloth diapering is as easy as you want it to be.
Washing doesn’t have to be complicated, and most cloth diaper brands want you to succeed. Reach out to them for 1:1 support. They should be your biggest resource and aly in finding the right wash routine for your family. They can be that person you sit down with to chat about how to do it better, how to simplify.
There are people with worksheets, and admin recommendations, but I’m not that person.
I’ll never be that person because after 6 years in this industry, I’ve met so many parents who have just gone for simple, gone with their gut, and discovered a routine that works for their family that defies these rules. You don’t need the rules and recommendations, you need support and trust that is built on empathetic listening to find a solution tailored to your experience.
We can draft complex routines built on science and numbers, but at the end of the day, your routine is really a reflection of intangible aspects that can’t be quantified, and you are just human capable of doing laundry.
The goal is to clean the yuck – and you can do this. You can also hire a cloth diaper service.
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