When you are new to cloth diapering or still deciding if you want to make the switch from disposables there are a lot of common concerns that arise. Such as how much extra laundry you will be doing and what to do with the poop? In this post, I will address those concerns for you and hopefully clear them up.
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Laundry
One of the major concerns with cloth diapering is how much extra laundry you will have to do and the extra money you will have to spend on your bills.
How many times a week you do laundry will depend on how many cloth diapers you have and the style of the cloth diapers. The average wash cycle for cloth diapering is every other day. But if you have a big enough stock of cloth diapers you can go as long as washing them every third day. I wouldn’t recommend waiting any longer than this to wash your diapers because the ammonia smell will build up and can be harder to get the smell out.
As for the extra money, you will spend on bills. It honestly isn’t that much. The increase in your bills will still be less than what you would be paying on disposable diapers for the year. If you do all your laundry during the off peak hours you will save even more.
Poop
You have a couple options for poop. Option number one is to just shake the poop out in the toilet before you wash. The easier and better option would be to buy the diaper sprayer available here. The sprayer hooks up to your toilet to make for easy cleaning of your diapers. No worrying about touching any poop and since it sprays down the diaper before washing, it will help with staining. This is especially handy if your baby is not having solid poops yet. Another option would be to buy biodegradable diaper liners available here. You just lay the liner in the diaper and then slush it once it becomes soiled. This makes for a great option when you are out and about.
Good news if you exclusively breastfeed! The poop is water soluble, which means that you can put the dirty diaper right in the washing machine with no extra care. I know what you may be thinking. That’s gross and there is no way you’re putting poop in your washing machine. Seriously, I’ve done this and it’s true. The poop just washes away and leave no smell or residue in your washing machine. If you still do not feel comfortable doing this you can spray the poop out before you put it in the machine.
Safety Pins
No more worrying about poking your baby with a pin!
For the most part cloth diapers, all have snaps or velcro for the convenience of putting the diapers on. With the exception of pre-folds. But you do not need to worry about safety pins. You can buy snappi’s or another brand of diaper fastener. These are ease to use and eliminate safety pins completely.
More Work
Depending on the style of cloth diaper you go with, they can be just as easy as disposable diapers. Once you get into the routine of using your cloth diapers you won’t even notice if there is any extra work that goes into cloth diapering. And the benefits of cloth diapering definitely outway the little bit of extra work you might have to do with diapers.
You can read more about the benefits of cloth diapering here.
I hope this post has cleared up any concerns that you were having about switching to cloth diapering. Feel free to comment below with concerns you still might have!
