What I learned about cleaning cloth diapers

[JDBracho]

I used cloth diapers for 6 months with my first child.  You can buy cloth diapers at Target, but the quality is not so great.  They are very thin, andyou have to fold them over 100 times to get the right size.  I found prefolded diapers online.  They have an extra layer of cloth down the center of them, and they are  much easier to fold when the baby is small.  I had a difficult time finding the plastic covers that go over the top of the cloth diapers.  Target and Wal-mart also sell them, but the x-small size is impossible to locate.  I also bought  them online (Gerber).  There are many different styles of cloth diapers to use these days.  I found several with the plastic cover and Velcro built in, but they only came in larger sizes.  I think they are mostly used as training pants  while potty training.  I went with the traditional prefolded style mostly because I received some of them as hand-me downs.  The other options were too expensive for me.

It takes quite a bit to work out a system for cleaning them.  This is what I ended up doing:  I used a kitchen sized garbage can with a lid.  Every diaper change I would wash it out in the extra master bath sink, and then place the diaper in the garbage can that I would keep at leasthalf full of water with oxiclean.  I kept a small scrub brush for scrubbing off the poop, which is quite unpleasant.  I refused to do this in the toilet, which would be even more disgusting.  Then comes the task of sanitizing the sink, it is very hard to do after every diaper change.  I used alot of Clorox clean up.  I would place the plastic cover up pants in a laundry basket, after I would rinse them off.   If you soak them in the oxiclean they eventually become brittle.  I chose not to use bleach, for fear of it being to harsh on my newborns bottom.  Then after about 2-3 days I would have enough diapers to wash the diapers and plastic pants in the washing machine.  Don't use fabric softener on the diapers, and I realized  that the generic giant tub of cheapo laundry detergent works just fine.   Don't put the plastic pants in the dryer, you have to hang them up to dry, the will become brittle, stiff and crack if you do so.  You will have to have at least 4 days worth of diapers to be able to do this, so approximately 40 diapers should be plenty.   You will save money in the long run, but it is not easy to make the time to clean, sanitize, and fold the diapers.  A diaper service would be great, but you have to live in a big city for it  to even be available. I would imagine that all cost savings would go out the window if you used one.  If you do not have city sewage I would not recommend washing the cloth diapers at home.  I totally killed all the bacteria in our septic tank, and we had to get our tank pumped  from all the frequent washing.  You can't have a weak stomach to do it, and I personally had to stop when my son started solids and I became pregnant with my 2nd child.  Every poopy diaper would make me gag!

As far as what to do when you leave home, if you don't leave often.  Splurge on a disposable when away from home.   I didn't go much, and that worked great for me.   I was also a little nervous about using a pin near my baby.  I figured out a way to pin the diaper  by placing my hand between my baby and the diaper.  I never poked him, thank goodness.  Another word of warning, you have to change your baby more often.  The baby can feel the wetness, and will complain after each pepee.  With the disposable diapers, you don't always know instantly when the baby pepees until there is enough in the diaper,