Cloth Diapering Tips

Washing and removing solids...

One of the biggest reasons people choose to not take advantage of cloth diapering is that they are worried about clean up. I had my doubts as well, but once I got the hang of it, it was neither messy nor time consuming. The clean up method will change as your child transitions from newborn to infant and when your child moves up from breast milk or formula to solid foods. When the child first comes home from the hospital, I found that the best method of clean up, for solids, was to use the little peri-bottle they gave me, after giving birth, to spray off solids into the toilet. There is no clean-up requirement for a diaper that is only wet. As my daughter got older, I noticed she made bowel movements much less frequently, so after the first couple of months cloth diapering was smooth sailing. When the child gets to be about 6 months, and is on a diet of a variety of solid foods, the clean up becomes easiest of all, because, if your child is like mine, the solids will just plop into the toilet. After removing the solids, you simply remove the liners and throw everything together into the wash. (I usually wash every other day.) It is best to use a detergent that is free of dyes and perfumes, so that your child's skin will not be irritated.

Using inserts...

One of the neatest things about one size cloth diapers is that they grow with the baby. Inserts also provide this benefit, as they can be added as the child grows. When my daughter was a newborn, I only had to put one small insert into her diaper to keep her dry. At about 3 months, she started soaking that one small liner through pretty easily, so I moved onto the big liners. Now that she is 9 months old, I put in one large liner and one small. This will probably vary from child to child, but is very simple to make these adjustments.