How many people really use environmentally friendly diapers?

Used regular for first kid, then got more switched on and used cloth for second.  Loved the cloth. No weird smells or odd gelly crystals clinging to the skin.  Less irritation.  My takeaways...

1. Get lots of diapers, but sample a couple of each kind before committing. I loved Bumgenius, but they were more expensive so I only had a few I rotated with extra inserts, and made up the rest of the stash with cheaper, but nice quality prefolds and covers from Etsy.  If you have plenty, you only do laundry a couple times a week. (Remember, covers can be reused if not soiled.)

2. WOOL SOAKERS!!! I only discovered this miracle at the end of our cloth diapering journey because my toddler was soaking the cloth too heavily overnight and we always had leaks.  Wool soakers to the rescue.  They kept her leak proof and comfy til morning.  These things are actually miraculous, so if you are cloth diapering you HAVE to check them out. Wish I'd learned about them earlier. I mean, they basically clean themselves.

We did use Pullups briefly during potty training because we couldn't find a good cloth alternative that could be gotten down fast enough.  But we still did cloth +wool soakers overnight. And potty training was finished by 18 months.

Forgot to say... we were able to pass on our diaper stash to another family, so those diapers went a long way
!

I have used for all three kids so far. I don’t know what they are called but they are these big cotton rectangles that are thicker in the middle, and definitely a few layers. Then you fold them in thirds or so and put them in the diaper cover and you’re all set!  I was able to use my 20 or so (maybe 30 or 40? My mom was generous.) diapers for both older kids before they got a little ratty. Got a new set with #3 and they’ve are definitely still good enough to use with #4. I can’t remember the name of the diaper covers right now either.. I had Sunbaby ones at one point and they were really cute. I always just lay the diaper inside the cover. I never stuff it in if there’s is a pocket. If you stuff it in, you have to change the cover too every time. But if they just pee and the cover is still dry, you just take the diaper out from the inside, throw it in your diaper bucket, and put a new one in the same cover.  Oh yeah, there is a separate bucket for the covers too, because they will break down if they sit in bleach. Poopy diapers get a rinse in the toilet before going in the bleach bucket.

I always bleached my diapers. I would make bleach solution (pretty diluted) and soak the diapers in that in a 5 gallon bucket next to the toilet in the bathroom closest to the washing machine. Usually it would take about 3 days to get a load. Then it is important to do an extra rinse after the cycle to get that bleach off. But, it helped a ton with the smell and they of course were disinfected thoroughly each time.

Cloth diapers are so easy that I don’t know why so many people don’t do them, unless you have to get quarters to do laundry. That’s a pain. But I still did it with my first. I mean you have to go grocery shopping to eat (unless you are a hardcore permie who has really got things going) so you just figure out your quarters routine within that. So much better than throwing away diapers that will sit hundreds of years in the landfill. Sure, I have used a few disposables, especially in the first days and weeks, but I do feel better knowing that even having 4 kids, I have not made much trash in this respect!

Gina Capri wrote:I have used for all three kids so far. I don’t know what they are called but they are these big cotton rectangles that are thicker in the middle, and definitely a few layers. Then you fold them in thirds or so and put them in the diaper cover and you’re all set!  

Prefolds! I used these, too. You can actually pin them directly on kids, too. But, I almost always did exactly what you said: fold them in thirds and lay them in the diaper cover. I especially liked these for night-time, because they were a bit more compact than the "flats" and held a lot of pee!

Prefolds

Maybe this thread needs definitions of what all these crazy diaper terms are. Because I know I was totally confused by them as a new parent! (I'm basically drawing on my own experience. And I didn't try out a lot of different brands or inserts, so I can't speak very well to their quality or uses)




Flats: These a durable, thin, absorbent flat piece of cloth.  You can either fold them fun ways and pin them onto your baby. Or, you can fold them in into a long rectangle and put them in a cover.

Advantages:

• They are easier to wash because the water only needs to go through one layer.
• You can fold them in all sorts of shapes and sizes to fit your growing baby and what works for you.
• You can buy a whole bunch and use the same size for your whole babies life.
• You can wrap other inserts or prefolds or flats inside them to make a really thick diaper for nighttime!
• You can use other cloth like dishcloths in the same way.
• Might not work with all diaper systems?


Disadvantages:

• You have to fold them. (The folding didn't take me very long, though)
• Depending on how you use them, you might need to pin them


Avoid: Gerber birdseye flats. These are NOT durable (at least they weren't 6 years ago when I wasted money on them). They will shrink and shed link until there is barely anything left of the diaper. They're tiny and not absorbent.

Prefolds:  A flat diaper that's folded to have extra layers in the middle of the diaper. The edges can be used to pin the diaper to the baby. Or, you can fold the prefold in thirds and just use it as an insert!

Advantages:

• Are available at places like Target, if you have a registry there
• Absorbent and already folded for you!
• Water can get through them easier than through compact inserts


Disadvantages:

• Might not work with all diaper systems?
• Thicker than a flat diaper, and so can be more prone to ammonia or soap build-up
• Depending on how you use them, you might need to fold or pin them


brands: Gerber prefolds aren't too bad. They're at places like Target, so you can add them to your baby registry. I liked the Osocozy ones better, but the Gerber ones did hold up quite well and did a good job.

Inserts/Doublers:  "Inserts are designed to be stuffed into pocket diapers. They are usually rectangular, and are made of absorbent material. Doublers are used with cloth diaper inserts to provide extra absorbency in a pocket diaper." (quoted from Cloth Diaper Inserts - Helping You Understand Absorbency Options)

Advantages:

• No folding
• Lots of different materials, thicknesses, absorbance, breathability, etc options
• Are an integral part of some diaper systems, like the "All-in-One" diapers, where you slide or snap or velcro the diaper onto/into the diaper cover
• You can customize the absorbency, etc by stacking inserts or picking specific inserts (note, a lot of the time, you can do this with flats and prefolds. I certainly did!)
• Despite what some companies might say, most inserts can go in most covers
• There's some disposable inserts. You can get a few of these to use when traveling so you don't have to do as much laundry. You use your normal cover, and just put these inside instead. Some are supposedly biodegradable, and mean a bit less trash in the landfill than if you bought disposable diapers. Added bonus: These can be folded to fit inside different sized covers, meaning you can buy a big package and use it whenever you need to for months/years (with disposable diapers, if your kid outgrows them, you've wasted the money. But with disposable inserts, you don't need to worry about using them before the baby outgrows them)
• "Fleece"/microfiber inserts don't feel wet on the skin....but they're usually made of plastic (polyester). But, their "stay dry" quality might allow your baby to sleep, instead of waking up when they feel wet. That might be a life-saver for you!
• Cotton inserts are natural, often organic or unbleached, and absorbent and durable.
• Bamboo is  "super soft, wicks moisture away quickly, and can keep your baby comfortable even when wet. There is, however, some misunderstanding about the eco-friendly nature of bamboo fabrics. Bamboo fleece is essentially a synthetic, not a natural fabric." (I never had bamboo inserts, so I quoted this website, which also has an article all about bamboo inserts)
• Hemp inserts are said to be extra absorbent and durable. Usually a cotton/hemp blend (I never had hemp inserts, so I can't speak from personal experience here)


Disadvantages:

• Thick and might be more prone to ammonia or soap build up, might take longer to get fully clean
• Some small sizes might only work for small babies, and you'll need to keep buying longer inserts for older babies
• Some inserts might only work with specific covers and not work well with others
• Read labels carefully, especially if you want to avoid plastics. Many cloth inserts are made of plastic (look for words like polyester, microfiber, minky, zorb and stay-dry)

Liners:  Put on top of inserts or prefolds or flats, and closest to your baby's bum

Advantages:

• You can lift the poop off the diaper and either put it in the trash, or down the toilet. Less mess and less scraping poop into the toilet!
• Some are made of natural materials


Disadvantages:

• Read labels carefully, especially if you want to avoid plastics. Many cloth liners are made of plastic (look for words like polyester, microfiber, "fleece," and stay-dry)
• Putting poop in the trash just sends it to the landfill, and it'll take a lot longer to decompose there
• Will these clog septic systems? Do they actually clog pipes, like "flushable wipes" do? I haven't researched it, but it might be worth looking into

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Man, this is long. I think I'll do diaper covers in another post!

My children were born in the early 70’s. Everyone I knew used disposable diapers. But, finances were really tight for me and I was able to find cotton cloth diapers second hand. I kept a covered bucket of water with borax by my changing station and dropped the urine soaked diapers in it. Bowel movements were removed in the toilet and the diaper was dropping into the borax solution. When the bucket was full, I drained the borax solution off the top and dumped the whole load into the washing machine. I felt the system was easy because I had a washer and dryer. I carried my bucket to the washer. Women with disposable diapers took them to the trash. Once I was working the system I felt that disposables were not that much of a convenience. I did not use plastic covers. They hide the wetness. It is harder to know when the diaper is wet. And, they tend to create rashes. If you have a washer/dryer disposables are totally unnecessary.

OP, I’ll second elimination communication (EC). Diapers aren’t natural and are basically anti-potty training. In the developing world and in more indigenous/traditional communities they aren’t used and you simply use a combination of timing, verbal/physical cues, and knowing your own baby to reliably predict when they’re going to need the bathroom and then position them in a place to go. Eventually the baby won’t even want to go if he’s not in your bathroom spot and signaled to by you.

http://diaperfreebaby.org/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ECers/

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Diaper_Free_Baby.html?id=4zin1cOsbLYC&source=kp_book_description

Almost 30 years ago I used only cloth diapers. Thankfully, there was a diaper service in the small City that I lived in. Yes, it cost money, but I felt it was worth it; and we were always cash strapped.

Flora Eerschay wrote:...But now seems like most friends with kids are using single use diapers, because washing cloth diapers is too much work.

My partner and I have been cloth diapering for over a year now and I will admit, it is a lot of work. We wash a diaper load about once every 4 days.

Flora Eerschay wrote:Some use biodegradable single use diapers, but they cost twice as much so most don't bother spending their monies on that.

Caution when reading the word "biodegradable" in diaper ads. There may be some greenwashing in some of that marketing, depending on the company and their practices of course. The sun and wind will "biodegrade" plastic... in about 400 years.
What I would like to try for my next child would be truly compostable diapers. So far, the only ones I've found have some parts that aren't compostable that have to be cut out with scissors before composting. Yeah... I'm not going to be cutting up a big poop-filled diaper to throw away the elastic; sorry. If anyone has links to 100% compostable diapers please share. Thanks.

Flora Eerschay wrote:Seems like really only a few people have a more "environmentally friendly" approach to that. What I hear more often is "with kids you'll create a lot of garbage, it's inevitable". What do you think?

Perhaps. As a pattern-literate permie, I tend to see garbage creation is a matter of individual and societal behavioral patterns. For example, there are people in my social circles who buy their babies those little single-use plastic squeeze tubes with "food" industry products in them. Lots of garbage created. Our family grows much of our own food and a lot of what our baby eats what comes out of our own garden and our farm. Our baby hardly eats anything that was ever wrapped in single-use plastic, hence less garbage. And I put that pattern down to years of re-adjusting and practicing new patterns of behavior at our homestead.

Flora Eerschay wrote:One example of newborn parents: they have some reusable diapers which they didn't start using, some biodegradable single use diapers and some cheap single use diapers which they use most often. Other friends used the cheap single use diapers only.

Yeah, I get it. Every person and every family is different. For example, I have had more than one single mom tell me that they would love to cloth diaper their child, they just do not have the time because they are a single mom. IMO, they should not be faulted for their decision to not cloth diaper. Every individual person and family unit has their own unique situation that may - or may not - easily accommodate what their own - or someone else's - opinion of a more environmentally-lived life is. It's up to each of us to do the best that we can when we can while recognizing that the current cultural mainstream is unfortunately not very permacultural and hence, not very accommodating for individuals, families, and communities to be more permacultural. Of course, we are all doing our best to change that: building a better world one backyard at a time, and adjusting one personal pattern of behavior at a time.

Flora Eerschay wrote:The permie friends mostly used reusable cloth diapers but also moved out of the city first.  Seems like the thing is extra hard to do for city people.

What makes it extra hard for city people?

As for water: yes, it takes a lot of water to wash diapers every 4 days. However, if my very primitive understanding of the global water cycle is correct, then the water used for the diapers does eventually go back into the global water cycle. I'm assuming this is true whether the diaper washer is using a gray water laundry-to-garden system or a conventional municipal treatment facility. Last I checked, there was no plastic diaper-to-landfill cycle. Just a whole bunch of ever-growing landfills.

On electricity: we have solar panels on our house so the electricity is from the sun. Hang drying works well for my climate, but when I bring them inside I do tend to run the diapers in the drier for a short "fluff" cycle so that they cloth is softer on the skin. If one is trying to do this and be "environmental" I highly recommend finding out what the source of one's electricity is, because cloth diapers do use a lot. If you're being supplied with dirty electricity, perhaps look into a bicycle-powered washing machine.

Despite all of the work, I'm still very glad we are cloth diapering and inspiring others that it is possible.

PS- With our next child we are looking into trying elimination communication (aka: infant potty training). Something else to consider if you're looking to be really environmental.

if my very primitive understanding of the global water cycle is correct, then the water used for the diapers does eventually go back into the global water cycle.

This is so true. Maybe there are a few inhabited places in Earth where water is so scarce that it is better to wash with sand, but otherwise, it is just the industrial farming irrigating everything and other industrial uses what causes the water scarcity. There are orders of magnitude of difference.
I remember the last time we suffered water restrictitions, golf camps were still open and fresh.
It's as silly as trying to sell dishwashing machine as an ecological option because it saves water. It saves water (not much) but consumes a whole lot of energy and materials in its production, delivery and recycling (if ever), plus electricity and toxic products while it's working. Nothing of the latter is renewable, not even electricity which is still mostly generated on fossil fuels.

The real way for saving water is planting more real, mature forests for increasing rainfall, and creating more water retention/infiltration structures for storing more water.

A lot of what I have to say on cloth nappies/diapers has already been shared, but I figured the more we post about divergent and similar experiences, the quicker the information will reach a critical mass for those looking for it.

We adopted, so I have no experience of cloth nappies for infants since we only met our son when he was a toddler. When he came home, we immediately switched him to corn-based disposables for a few weeks. While they have plastic tape tabs, we did not have any sort of facility to safely compost them anyway, so they were the best option available for nappies destined for the landfill. Social workers strongly advised us to go for several months with our chosen disposables, but we just made the cloth nappies available for him and he soon wanted to try them on and use them, so we followed his lead. He preferred the soft cloth nappies to the plastic feeling (even the corn-based ones have that plastic feel) nappies. We used the biodegradable nappies when camping/travelling for more than a day, or when he would be in the care of someone unprepared to stick the dirty nappies in the dry bag for us.

When we were preparing to become parents, I made it clear to my wife that I wouldn’t budge on cloth nappying. We were both raised in cloth nappies so all I had to do was to show her that there were options that we would find more convenient than the folding and pinning she didn’t want to do.  

We talked through the following:
• Energy use in production and when maintaining the nappy supply
• Keeping resources out of the landfill and in use for as long as possible
• Price over the lifetime of child’s nappy use
• Convenience of using pre-folded nappies
• Once they’re purchased, they’re ours so we cannot run out (in our early days of parenting and sleep deprivation, we were so glad that we didn’t have to leave the house or pay for more)
• How the process could work (I sought advice from a friend who cloth nappied) in our small rental home
• Materials in our home and against our child’s skin. The pre-folds we chose have plastic in their waterproof layer, and some are cotton or bamboo blended with synthetics, but we felt that this was a better balance than endless (mostly) biodegradable disposables heading to the landfill.

I researched the types of pre-folded nappies available and chose the style that have a series of snaps/poppers to allow them to fit infants through toddlers and chose one brand to target. They secured at the sides with either snaps or Velcro. When my son was younger I didn’t notice a difference in ease of use. When he got a bit older and started to take his nappies off, we preferred using the Velcro closures as he couldn’t just pull indiscriminately to ‘free’ himself.

I chose a UK brand called ‘Totsbots’ as they seemed to have good durability and high resale rate. I headed to eBay. My guidelines were that the nappies needed to look in good order (i.e. no fraying) and that after bidding and shipping, each nappy shouldn’t cost me more than 1/3 of the price of what I would pay for a new one of the same brand. Apparently, these are considered ‘collectable’ and I would see some designs listed at very high prices. Since none of the designs were going to be out-right offensive, I just focused on the quality and price. In the end, I spent £75 on our supply of (23-ish) nappies, inserts, and liners. A friend said that around 25 was the perfect number, and we had 23-ish and I definitely agree. It allowed us to have a stack clean, a bag waiting to be washed, and a day’s supply drying. This way, none go for longer than two days waiting to be washed. We bought two brand new swim nappies direct from the company and they were a great part of our system because we knew how they would fit and were cared for in exactly the same way. I recognise our privilege in being able to front the cash for the nappies, even if they cheaper second hand. I think that besides the initial ‘ew’ factor of ‘dealing with’ dirty nappies, what puts most people that I’ve spoken to (friends and family) off from choosing it for their children is the initial outlay. Some also have concerns that they won’t be able to keep it going. For me, any single nappy not purchased brand new and made from from virgin materials then kept out of the landfull, is a win.

In a nice moment of social connection, my neighbour knocked on my door one day saying that she had one of my eBay deliveries. The seller noticed my address and asked her colleague/my neighbour if she would mind dropping them off. We connected in a new way and talked about parenthood, and I heard about her cloth nappy experience as well.

Although a few of the nappies I bought came with boosters/inserts (and a few washable liners), it took us a few weeks of using the nappies to realise the value of both. Luckily, we have a local second hand store that specialises in baby and childrens’ items and they sold both inserts and liners for 50p-£1 each. I found that we needed more inserts/boosters than we thought. This is particularly true for toddlerhood, when they can really soak nappies. If we were around the house and he wasn’t near potty training, we’d use one insert for day time. For travel we would use two and three for bedtime. They’re also easy to make with old felted sweaters or other wool fabric. When I made the first stack of inserts from a felted sweater, I made them exactly the same size as the pre-made inserts not realising that my fabric wasn’t done shrinking. If you decide to make yours, either make sure the fabric is completely done shrinking or make them larger than the factory made inserts. The fabric liners, which really are integral to the whole system, were crucial for dealing with poo. It was far easier to pick up a cloth liner and dangle that over the toilet to empty and rinse it than holding a full nappy up.

The only time his skin would be irritated was if he was using the disposables or if he fell asleep in the car home at night after a day away somewhere and it was several hours until we could change him. We used the Weleda calendula nappy cream that has already been mentioned and it was very soothing. I planned on making some but the tube we had was so efficient at healing and we needed it so infrequently, that we still have the same tube and he’s been out of nappies for more than three years.

Our washing and drying process evolved over time. We had two dry bags for the process. We kept a small one in our nappy bag for when we were out and placed a large one by the washing machine. All dirty nappies would be transferred to the dry bag to build up enough to wash. The urine-soaked ones could be washed at a lower temperature than the ‘soiled’ ones, so while we’d put them in the bag together (folded closed), we’d often pull out the wet ones to wash with our clothes until we had enough of the poo nappies to wash with things like towels. We learned to not lean too close to the dry bag if it hadn’t been opened in more than a day because the ammonia really builds up. We also learned to never let any dirty nappies sit for more than two days before washing. We were a few weeks into the system when I read that the bicarbonate of soda/baking soda in homemade laundry detergent can degrade the waterproofing, so we reluctantly switched to the special detergent sold for cloth nappies. Eventually, we just chanced it with soap nuts and they seemed to work fine. We used a combination of soap nuts and the powder.

For drying, it was fairly easy in the spring and summer when we could hang them outside on dry days or have them on the airer with the back door open on wet days. We live in Scotland and rain is a constant companion. When the rainy autumns came, and it was too cold to keep the back door open for air circulation to the drying rack, we had too many to dry on the racks near the radiators so we had to think of something else. Because of the waterproofing layer, they couldn’t be dried directly on the radiators. This led us to needing to buy an electric heated drying rack/airer. We didn’t really want to get into this level of energy use, but it was the only way we had of getting the nappies dry. Trying to dry them in humid climates is probably where the prefolds lose points compared to the traditional flat fabric nappies. In any case, the heated airers only get as hot as a very hot summer day so we didn’t think they would damage the waterproofing compared to radiators or a dryer (which we didn’t have anyway). A friend of mine who used cloth nappies with her two is also a science teacher. She was interested in seeing how much energy the heated airer/drying rack that she bought used compared to her washing machine. She put identical loads through her dryer and also her airer and found that the airer used far less energy. When it came time to admit that we needed to buy the heated airer, I bought the same kind as hers so I could at least quiet those thoughts. As another poster said, so much of parenting is about convenience when you need to focus on keeping your child safe and healthy. I’d also say it’s about wondering if you’re doing the right thing for your child and the world around you, particularly in choosing conveniences.

I loved cloth nappies for potty training. My son already knew what it felt like to be in wet cloth so had the skills to recognise that he had already gone and then we just needed to work from there. He was mostly naked in the house when learning (unless it was too cold), mainly because he just refused to keep wearing nappies one day so we went and bought a potty. Before we switched him to pants we used the nappies without inserts when out of the house. We called them big kid nappies like that. We also made sure we used the Velcro closures instead of the snaps at this stage as he was then able to open and close them himself. It was nice to know that when we would be in town we could just undo the nappy, have him use a toilet and then put the same unused nappy back on. Another benefit of cloth here is that traditional (or even biodegradable) disposables would be wasted (they rarely stick closed again) if a child removes a clean nappy to go to the toilet. With cloth, we just close it back up and go on with our day!

Brandi said, "I loved cloth nappies for potty training. My son already knew what it felt like to be in wet cloth so had the skills to recognise that he had already gone and then we just needed to work from there.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with the nappies and potty training.

Those nappies are very similar to the contoured diapers that I used for my babies.

I have enjoyed everyone's experiences with using cloth diapers.

Five babies and we have done pretty much everything. I thought cloth diapers were insane as a first time mom and refused when my mom offered to buy me all I needed. (I regretted turning down that offer when I started using cloth diapers when baby#2 was a year old. But with baby#1, we didn't have a washer and dryer and I had extreme postpartum depression and anxiety so I could barely take care of daily tasks, let alone drag a bin of diapers plus baby outside to the shared laundry facilities where we lived. I think I did laundry once a month during that time. Not a good time (my husband is military and was gone so I was by myself.)

Anyhoo, by baby#2, we had our own house and I had counseling and was feeling a 1000xs better and we bought 20 used pocket diapers for $50 off Craigslist. They were amazing, even though they were cheap ones. And those lasted through baby#3.

Baby #4, those cheap diapers started to break and he got bad diaper rash so we started using flats and prefolds, usually without a cover. When he started walking, those were bulky so a lot of times we just let him go around with nothing on his bottom and he started using the little baby potty on his own so potty trained himself at age 1. He had 2 accidents inside and that was it.

Baby#5 and we are back using disposables and I hate it. We were all set to go and and out washer broke a week before she was born! The wait for a repair guy was months long. Plus she screamed everytime we put the newborn cloth on her. She literally screamed for 8 hours without sleeping one night until we put a disposable on her after we recognized that she was calmer everytime we took the cloth diaper off to change it. Everytime we tried, she would get so fussy. We realized that she hated things tight around her tummy and the thin band of elastic was irritating her. So we tried just the loose flats and those were fine except that with the washer issue, the cloth was mildewing and getting destroyed. Then a couple of loads were ruined in the washing machine because it was supposedly fixed but it wasn't, so another cycle of calling the repair guy and waiting for weeks. It took 9 months and 5 trips by repair guys to get a working washer finally... maybe.... I still don't trust the thing.  So it was pretty disappointing to be using disposables when I have a beautiful stack of diapers right there but I think we are ready to start using them again. And when summer comes around, she'll be running around with a bare bottom.

All of our babies have done EC before I knew that was a word. When I was in highschool, i visited a family with a baby and toddler and was very impressed by the fact that they didn't wear diapers or anything. The pants had a slit in the crotch so if they squatted, it just opened up and they peed or pooped without it getting on their clothes. The baby was just a month or two old and I was so nervous to hold her without a diaper but babies don't pee and poop randomly. I noticed that my children would get a wet diaper about ten minutes after nursing or waking up so if I put them on the potty in that interval, they would go and the diaper remained dry. There have been plenty of times, one diaper has lasted for a day or two. This baby#5 cries before she has to go potty and is learning to sign when she needs to go. It's a bit annoying at 2AM or especially when we are in the car stuck in traffic and she is screaming because she doesn't understand why we can't stop and let her go potty. And she's stubborn- she's held it in for over an hour until we put her on a potty (in the traffic for example). No diapers is probably the best way to go and the best for the earth. But unfortunately I'm still a little too nervous to get rid of them.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote: 'old-fashioned' cotton diapers were still fairly common in use. You know (?), those squares of white cotton (in a certain weave) you had to fold in a diamond shape and then fix with a special clothes-pin over the baby's belly. And then knitted wool diaper-pants went over it (at least, that was what I did, many people used plastic pants).
The cotton diapers were easy to wash in the washing machine. The wool pants had to be soaked in hand-warm water.

LOL. Same here, minus wool pants.  Funny how "back then" it was a normal thing to do and now...it could be such a chore LOL

Amay Zheng wrote:I have a newborn, born 6 weeks ago.

We've been doing cloth diapers during the day, but I'm curious, is cloth diaper better for the environment if we don't recycle laundry water? The cloth diapers results in alot of laundry (twice a day) and I'm not sure if it's more environmentally friendly to just use disposables. Anyone have an idea?

Disposables are always second rate. The plastic is horrible for the environment and, to be honest, harder on baby's skin than soft cotton (without fabric softener - bad stuff). Doctors have told me both of those - no softener and cloth is better than paper, which is a wood product.

Water recycles through the earth and water cycle. It doesn't go away. It gets cleaned and comes back. Only put plastic pants on when baby starts moving around and can't be set on an absorbent pad and when it's too cold for baby to play outdoors in just a shirt and diaper. If necessary fold a cheap washcloth or other extra absorbency into the diaper so it doesn't drip when wet.

I was lucky that the hospital where I gave birth to my first used cloth diapers, so I just adopted their system when I went home. The hospital used prefolds, but I bought flats and I loved them so much I bought more as kitchen and house towels! I tried different covers, but in the end I preferred the ones the hospital used, which used Velcro and weren't multi sized. I probably would not have had the brain power to figure out cloth if the hospital had not demonstrated it for me. For my second, I went to a different hospital and they used disposable diapers but cloth wipes! So I continued using cloth wipes after my second.

For diaper rash, I simply used olive oil. Any oil applied liberally will reduce friction and relieve rash.

For pee buildup on the diapers, I tried bleach for a long time because nothing worked, but bleach really didn't work either. Eventually I found that soaking the diapers in enzyme (specifically, ecos pet stain spray). As long as you rinse the diapers thoroughly, there's no danger to the baby. Occasionally I would "scour" the diapers (and baby clothes!) to remove stains. This is a very old method. I used a large pot, added washing soda, soap flakes/dish soap, the cloth, and filled it with water and brought it all to a boil. Simmer/boil for an hour. Don't use an aluminum pot for this, the washing soda will degrade aluminum. When women in the past did whites on washing day, scouring is what they did. It will strip some dyes out of clothes, and it will ruin waterproof treatments. It is a powerful and natural way to remove stains and whiten cloth! It's more work though, so most days I would just do a presoak with enzymes. This is gentle enough for waterproof covers too.

For potty training, I tried elimination communication, but my babies weren't much interested nor communicative. Plus it doesn't work that great in a culture where it's frowned upon for babies to not wear pants, and pee outside. My local EC group was kicked out of the library where we were meeting because the library didn't want babies without diapers on, even though we covered the floor with pads. (And no baby ever had an accident) I more used the method in the book "Diaper Free Before 3" which is based on old European/American methods so is more compatible with my urban culture. My first started using the potty regularly at 6 months. When she started solids and her poos changed consistency, she really didn't like the feeling of them and preferred to use the potty. I just sat her on the potty at regular intervals (after meals, after naps, and before bed) and she started to hold it for "potty times" very quickly. Pee training took longer than poo. This pattern was actually common 70 years ago in the US. The average potty training age has doubled in the last 70 years, and incontinence among elementary age children has increased as well. If the average age of walking had doubled, would we not be concerned? Anyway my son OTOH had no interest on the potty until 15 months, and trained much later than my daughter. So I don't believe every baby needs to be trained early, but neither should parents ignore any of their babies' reaction to their need to poo and pee, just because they're "too young". Most parents of babies I've known will entirely ignore any discomfort their babies are having with pooping until after they go and then they just change the diaper. Try sitting them on the potty before they go and see what they think of it. They might like not sitting in poo. Or they might not care. But at least you gave them the option. 🙂

Yes I used cloth diapers in the day. Homemade flannel squares that had already been used for my two nieces, and I passed them along once we were done with them. I used the liners too: I was given a bunch of horrid ones that more resembled dryer sheets and would heat damage in a dryer, and my son was fed regularly so I could predict bowel movements and put those sheets on top of the nicer cotton liners I had, then chuck those synthetic sheets.

I also made his pants out of long sleeved adult tshirts:
The sleeves made the pants legs and the ribbing around the neck was perfect for the waistband after all the diaper bulk, with the extra scraps being great for more diapers linings