Cloth Diapering Time Machine

This cloth diapering thing has worked out well for us so far - almost seven months in and counting - but there have been a few lessons learned. These are the things I would do differently if I had access to a Michael J. Fox-esque DeLorean.

1. I would have got it through my head sooner that sometimes you have to spend money to save money (and energy).

I know, I know, we should have just done the smart thing and gone with the 10 week trial diaper service, and rented covers like reasonable first timers. In hindsight, by buying covers we ended up locking ourselves into a set of diapers that we might have otherwise decided weren't the right type for us. We're lucky we don't mind the flat/fitted plus cover combination, but I sometimes wonder if we would have gone the more expensive but also more convenient route of pocket diapers or all-in-ones. By doing the trial we could and should have tried all of these options, and decided what was best for our family based on real experience rather than on our assumptions. Also, having been through the early days of having a newborn and imagining doing that with a toddler in diapers at the same time, if we were to have a second child I can envision us engaging a diaper service for the first few months, to get us through the period of time where we'd be in survival mode.

2. I would not underestimate the affect of first-time-parent syndrome and would have been slower to make purchases.

At the time, the wipes warmer seemed to be an absolute must. I had a screaming baby half the night, and if I could prevent even one episode of screaming baby in the daytime I was going to do everything in my power to do so. The day after we took the warmer out of its packaging, our midwife told us about another genius solution. Get a thermal carafe, that you fill with hot water every day. Take a pair of tongs and dunk the wipes in the carafe just prior to use. Ta-da!!! a less expensive, and dual purpose solution. Taking a wait and see, or a wait and research, approach would have saved us money, and in many cases left us with a better solution. 

3. Everything changes. Quickly. Constantly.

Just when we thought something had become consistent enough to be a pattern (discomfort at being wiped with cold wipes, or needing extra covers because the baby is pooping so much), it changed. This too caused an unnecessary outlay of money, and some baby frustration because we were a bit slow to catch on. It turns that the fundamental definition of parent should be, “learns to adapt, frequently, out of necessity.”

And finally…

4. What works for other families may not work for us, and vice versa.

So much of what we've learned by trial and error is really about adapting to what works for us and our child. For instance, I can only imagine that most human beings don't like to have a dirty diaper. But our baby really, and I mean REALLY, does not like it. As a result it was causing her to wake up multiple times through the night in distress. As soon as we got some super absorbent microfibre stuffed pocket diapers like Bum Genius diapers, she was able to sleep through the night in relative comfort. Similarly in the day, bamboo squares work better for her than cotton fitteds, just in terms of her comfort level. We can still tell when she needs her diaper changed, and we respond immediately, but thankfully it isn't accompanied by the screeching pterodactyl cries, which had come to be her ‘I must be changed, and I must be changed NOW' signal. Along those same lines, we have the time and energy to deal with flat diapers and covers, but all-in-one diapers might better suit other families' lifestyles.

Next up: Advice for first timers...

Confessions of a First Time Cloth Diaperer

Hi, my name is Chelsea, and I'm a first time parent.

Why does it feel like I've just stepped behind a podium and am about to confess the last time I had a solid night’s sleep? Probably because I'm addicted to chubby cheeks, wiggly toes, huge grins, and various other wonderful baby attributes - even the less cute ones.

Aaaand speaking of poop. Seriously, you must be baby junky if you go so far as to share stories about the colour and consistency of your baby's poop, while chatting leisurely over brunch with a child-free friend, like my husband did on a recent Sunday.

Figuring out how we were going to harness our baby's waste was a topic of much discussion in the latter days of my pregnancy. We knew we wanted to cloth diaper in order to save money and to partially make up for inflicting another rampant consumer on the world. What we didn't know was where to start. Engaging a diaper service in the early days was the easiest way to get used to cloth diapering. That way, we wouldn’t have to worry about the laundry learning curve on top of all the other new parent adjustments. The downside was, if we have a second child, we would have to either re-engage a diaper service or get newborn diapering supplies for a newborn. Our work around was to buy...time. That way we saved a bit on the diaper service and had covers to use for any future children.

Here are the things we did in our first eight weeks of cloth diapering:

We engaged Sweet Peach for a four weeks of diaper service and purchased 8 diaper covers, rather than renting them. Their diaper service offer two types of diapers: fitted and prefold as well as wipes and soakers - for overnight. We opted to try out both types to give us an idea of what works best for us and for baby, before going out and investing in them ourselves.

We bought a wipes warmer, in spite of making fun of such a concept only a few months prior. When you’ve got a baby who abhors the cold, and an old home who’s pipes are slow to deliver warm water, you do what you have to in order to solve the problem.

We bought four more covers three weeks in, so that we didn't have to do laundry every day. Who knew newborns needed so many diaper changes, not me!

After our four weeks of service were up, we bought in for an additional three. Sleep deprivation meant we weren't ready to make a decision about what kind of diapers we were going to invest in yet and it really is very convenient to have someone else taking care of that laundry.

When it started getting close to go it on our own, we decided to go with seven bumGenius pocket diapers at night for their wicking properties, 12 bamboo squares for day time and a few Sweet Peach Side-Snapping Fitteds for their trim fit and adorable prints. This should be enough diapers so that we only have to wash them every other day. We also invested in a diaper pail, two waterproof laundry bags, and a small travel wet bag for our diaper bag, along with a stash of cloth wipes and two snappis to help fasten the squares.

Ultimately we transitioned to washing our own diapers mid-way through the last week of diaper service to test everything out and make sure we were ready to go it alone.

All in all we're set for the rest of our daughter's diapered life, except for needing to invest in a half dozen more covers when she grows out of the first size.

Stay tuned for future posts on diapering options and costs, frequently asked questions, and detailed information on cloth diaper types and accessories.

Next up: What I'd do differently during the early days if I could have a 'do over'.