Cloth diapering: Cons

I know, I know - judging from how excited I become over cloth diapers, you are probably a bit skeptical.  After all, it is poop that we are talking about.  A friend of mine asked me to be honest about the drawbacks to cloth diapering.  So here are my thoughts.

1. Laundry - it is only 1 load every other day, but it is still laundry.  If you have to use a laundromat or go to your mother in law's house every week to wash your undies, it may not be for you (although there are people who still do it!)  Before cloth diapering, we sucked at doing laundry.  We still suck at doing laundry.  We pull our clean clothes straight out of the dryer some days, or out of the laundry basket a week later.  Ironing?  Forget it.  But the diapers still get done.  My stash is big enough that I can do laundry every other day and still have some left over in case I don't feel like stuffing that day. And we bought 2 laundry baskets, so clothes can go in one and diapers can go in another, so our clothes can sit and become nice and wrinkled while Little Gal still has a clean bum.

2. Portability - Cloth diapers are bulky.  You can fit at least 3, maybe 4 pampers in your diaper bag where one cloth diaper sits (a pocket...prefolds and covers take up less space).  Not a big deal for a quick day trip, but if you are talking an overnight weekend to Grandma's, it takes some planning.  We went camping when Little Gal was 3 months old and used cloth for 5 days - we filled our 3 wetbags to the brim and had to do 2 loads when we got home, but it worked.  Luckily we were camping out of the car so we had a place to store them.  But since you have to pack out your trash, we would have had to carry around dirty sposies anyway until we reached civilization.

3. Poop - Breastfed poo is easy.  It is water soluble so those diapers can be thrown straight in the pail for washing, no rinsing required (unless you are grossed out by the idea, then by all means, feel free to rinse first).  Formula fed poo is not quite as water soluble, so this is kind of a personal preference.  I have friends who rinse, some who don't, and neither has problems.  Once solids are introduced, things get sticky.  Literally.  Before they are eating a lot of solids, that shit is going to cling to every surface of the inside of the diaper.  We installed a diaper sprayer (super easy!) to our toilet to make the process less gruesome  but some scraping may be required.  And gloves, possibly a face shield and hazmat suit...just kidding...sort of...er....moving along.  Once baby is eating more solids and the poo becomes nicely formed, it drops straight into the toilet, requiring no rinsing and no hassle before it hits the diaper pail.

4. Pee - Fact.  Disposable diapers hold more urine than cloth.  This is because of the super absorbant crystals found in disposables (sodium polyacrylate).  For long car rides or overnights, some parents choose to use sposies, while using cloth during the day.  Personally, we have never had an issue with this (after finding the right cloth absorbency  more on that later) and Little Gal goes to bed between 6 and 7:30 at night, and doesn't wake until about 7:30am.  We have to change her right away but rarely have leaks.

5. Trial and error - Microfiber, bamboo, charcoal bamboo, hemp, cotton, blends.  It has taken me awhile to figure out what inserts work for general daytime, naps, and overnight.  It was a frustrating process.  I now know that microfibers works out great in the beginning (what most diapers include when you buy them) but then the leaks start.  So here's the quick and dirty.  During the day I use a microfiber or a 4 layer Alva "blend" (2 layers of microfiber sandwiched between 2 bamboo) along with an Alva 3 layer (all bamboo) or a charcoal bamboo doubler.  At night I use a massive hemp insert on the bottom with a 5 layer charcoal bamboo on top (3 layers of microfiber sandwiched by 2 charcoal bamboo).  I will do another video at some point comparing the inserts.  Some people swear microfiber should go on the bottom, some on the top, some avoid synthetic inserts, some stuff with prefolds.  It comes down to personal preference and how long it takes to find the correct combination from your insert soup.  But once you figure it out, you are set until the baby's habits change (more peeing, less peeing, etc.).

6. Detergent - Many of the blogs and baby forums online say that should you use a non-approved detergent, you will ruin your diapers and they will no longer absorb.  As a newbie to cloth, the choice of detergent is stressful.  When you've just invested in a stash of cloth, the idea of ruining them all is a bit daunting.  But you won't ruin anything, it is a bunch of hooey.  I tried Rockin' Green and found there to be too much stink left.  Charlie's soap had a weird odor ("barnyard" comes to mind).  Ecosprouts didn't clean well enough.  I gave up and started using Tide original liquid.  Yes, full of harsh chemicals, but they get the diapers clean.  In general you do want to avoid anything that has fragrance and bleach though.  It depends on if you have hard water, soft water, and what kind of washing machine you have that will all play into your washing routine.

When I was pregnant...

When I was pregnant I loathed hearing "horror" stories from women about labor, childbirth, child rearing, etc.  Medicated, unmedicated, induction, midwife, doctor, birth center, hospital, formula, breastmilk, blah blah blah.  It was so profoundly annoying.  Clearly their situations were different from mine, so why should I heed their advice or even consider the thoughts they offered me?  After all, I have a computer, I've done my research - I know more than they do about xyz.  I found myself thinking "I will never do that after I get this kid out, nope, not me."  I still hate hearing "oh just you wait..." regarding the years we still have yet to face as first time parents.  It really grinds my gears.

When Little Gal was about 11 months old (um...last week) I attended a baby shower for a long time friend of mine.  I found myself spouting off at the mouth everything I swore I would not say.  "This really helped me; be sure to do this; this saved our sanity; don't bother with that"  It just kept coming.  I couldn't help myself.  The words were pouring out of me as though my filter had completely dissolved.  Now I realize that all of the advice I had received during pregnancy was really all done in good will.  As parents, we learn what works, what doesn't, and tricks of the trade, if you will.  I now understand that passing along the bounty of this information to a soon-to-be mom is just our attempt to save them time (and sanity?) when they are awake at 2am with a screaming newborn.  What may have taken us months to figure is bottled and then passed along in an attempt to spare someone else the misery of wondering how poop got up to their infant's hair line as well as the wall.  Does this mean they will listen?  Maybe.  It will likely be filed away in a storage part of the brain, while she rolls her eyes and can't wait for the "advice" to cease; but later down the line when desperation sets in, perhaps she will go back to that conversation to get some relief.

I know I've doled out unsolicited advice, but I've also received questions from friends, some pregnant, some not, some first time moms, some "seasoned" pros.  Mainly questions about cloth diapering (I'm not shy and will talk your ear off about how much I love it if given the opportunity) but also about baby led weaning (skipping purees), baby "wearing", and how it is that Little Gal started sleeping through the night at 3 months old.  I've decided to start this blog in order to put all of my thoughts in a more organized package, one that can be added to as I learn new things as a first time Mama.  You can expect how-to's, tutorials, reviews, slightly biased research, useful links, and random commentary.  I hope you find this a helpful resource and would love feedback about things you would like to see or questions you want answered.

I realize I have a lot to learn, and that every baby is different (Little Gal has been a fantastically easy baby) but I can offer the tidbits of knowledge I have at this point in time and if it helps another Mama get a little more sleep or have more peace of mind, then I will consider this effort a success.