On Using Cloth Diapers

When I was trying to decide if I wanted to try cloth diapers with Axton, I came across a lot of different blogs and styles and do's and don'ts and frankly I found it all very overwhelming and confusing. I literally read for hours and hours on the oh-so-exciting topic of what to wrap around my son's butt and how to get the best deal on them and how to wash them and yadda yadda yadda. But! I am here to tell you that cloth diapers are not as bad as you might think. Here's my own two cents, just to add to the already abundant wealth of information on the web.

I am going to try to simplify things by posting pictures and not using any abbreviations like AIO or CPF or PUL. And I even had to google "cloth diaper abbreviations" to even know those ones.

A review on Gdiapers, to begin with:

They sucked. Let me tell you why.

For one thing, they are expensive.

For another, I had a big baby who never fit into the newborn size. There goes 60 bucks down the toilet instantly (not really cuz I was able to sell them on Ebay, but I still lost some money on them).

The next size up, size Small, were still too small for my 9.5 pound infant. Both the disposable and the cloth inserts leaked every time I used them, no matter what business he did in there. Leak, leak, leak.
So I gave up on Gdiapers pretty quick.


So then I ordered AlvaBaby and SunBaby diapers. Both are companies in China and are super cheap. I was a little hesitant to order from them, but everything came when they said it would and looked great. However, instead of being too small for our 2 week old babe, these diapers were too big. So we used disposable diapers on Axton until he was about 8 weeks. After that, he fit into them fine. This is how we use them:

Oops! Someone has a dirty diaper!

First adjust the snaps on the outside of the diaper to fit your baby:

Lay out your diaper:

Then take your cloth insert: 

and either lay it on top:

Or stuff it inside: 

(I lay the cloth on top so I can reuse the outer shell, but I have to change the insert more often)

Then snap it up and put it on your adorable little babe:

Warning: They do give the tushie extra padding, so be prepared to dress baby in bigger onesies!

We rinse the dirty insert (and the outer shell, too, if necessary) out in our tub (you may think that's gross, but we never use our bath. Plus, he is solely breastfed so there aren't any solids in there! Once he does start solids, I will use a spray and spray it in the toilet). Then we throw them into a bucket that is filled with water and Bac Out. I wash them every 2-3 days with a small amount of laundry detergent.

We only use cloth when we are at home - when we are out and about we use disposables. We also use a disposable diaper for nighttime. That's it! Totally simple. It may be completely "wrong" but it works for us.


And for you non-mommies out there: This was probably a bit boring, and you're most likely rolling your eyes at my now-boring Mommy blog but here are some more super cute photos of Axton, hopefully that will make up for it?