r/clothdiaps

Hello! We’ve been trying to switch to cloth diapers exclusively but are still struggling over here! Where do I store the used diapers? I’ve been doing it in a plastic grocery bag until the next day, but if I wait 2 days instead to do laundry, it wreaks of ammonia. How can I fix that?

Thanks!

I’m thinking about getting reusable wipes and wanted to know people’s opinion on them. How do people store them? Do you keep them wet or do you get them wet right before you use them? How many would I realistically need? TIA

Edit: I do my best to minimize plastic. I think I’ll probably store them wet because that would work best for us and our changing stations around the house. Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations for storing them in anything but plastic? I’m thinking like a big mason jar or maybe a metal lunch box type of thing but wanted to hear what others are doing too!

I got some cloth diapers used..

The second I picked them up I knew they likely had build up.

The first 7 rinses or so were BAD. It's looking better, there's still *stuff* in the water.

Of course I'm seeing on this sub that some people believe it's a myth... which is news to me..

So I'm wondering if I continue rinsing, or if I dry them and give them a shot.. or what! I have made an attempt at stripping and sanitizing as well.

Hi everyone! I’m going to my mom’s once a week, where she watches the baby and I get some work done.

She offered to keep some cloth diapers at her house, and to have them washed and ready to go when we get there to make it easier to pack up to leave. My little guy is very sensitive to being wet, so he gets changed about 1x/hour.

If I’m there for 8 hours, that’s just 8 diapers. Will she have enough to do a wash…? Or should I just keep toting diapers to and fro?

I occasionally stay for a night or two, in which case I’m packing literally bags full of cloth diapers, our detergent, agitators, wet bags, etc.

Thank you in advance!!

Hey everyone, I am basically just seeing if anyone has any cloth diapers (I don't care what kind. I am used to pockets, but any type will do) that they are willing to part with if I cover shipping. We got a surprise after my IUD failed, and diapers are eating every bit of extra $ we scrape together. We have 2 under 2, and I am currently trying to potty train my 2 year old just to save money, regardless of my mental capacity for this at the moment. lol. We just moved as well, to better our circumstances, and until my husband gets a few paychecks under his belt, and my schooling is finished, we are just SOL. Anyway, thanks! I wish I hadn't rehomed all of mine, but we thought we were done, and my toddler is a super-soaker and NO cloth diaper was standing up to him and his bladder haha

Hello!

My husband and I are planning to use cloth nappies for the birth of our first child, due in July.

For parents who’ve done this, what are your best tips?

Are you team ‘start using cloth nappies as soon as we get home from the maternity ward’, or ‘wait a bit’?

If we go for it straight away, we’re thinking of renting a nappy kit for the first few months so we don’t have to invest in newborn-sized nappies.

Thanks :)

Hi all, we have been using cloth wipes for our newborn baby and have been storing them in a glass dish and soaking them in water daily. I’m realizing now that I’m not sure if this is ok given that it could allow bacteria to grow.

I’ve seen posts here saying that people individually wet the wipes each time of use but I’m not sure that’s realistic for our family.

If we are replacing the wipes daily and only soaking a days worth at a time, is this safe?

As far as I know - stripping is just stain removal by soaking in water and sanitizing is bleaching.

Can someone walk me through how to properly do either and how often/when?

If it helps, I use flats and covers right now.

Our baby uses Nora’s nursery pocket and occasionally at night will leak right through. It can be early in the night and not happen again so not an absorbency issue. Sometimes if he’s in the car seat or other positioning as well however all other day to day use is fine so I don’t think it’s the fit. Anyone else have this experience with NN? We did Kanga care newborns when he was first born and were very happy with those.

I’ve been cloth diapering for 3.5 years. I use a 6 layer bamboo/cotton/ hemp diaper. I’ve been trying to figure out my stink issue with the pattern I’ve recognized.

No stink as a baby, hit toddler stage stink. Potty trained my oldest, same thing, no stink as a baby, hit toddler stage stink.

I recently stripped the entire collection (RLR was somewhat disappointing the first was slightly cloudy the second was clear, nothing like the satisfying pictures I’ve seen), did 50,000 rinse cycles, a single bleach sanitize wash at the end etc. they were essentially as clean as new.

We’ve been good, no smells for about a month, and yesterday it came back. The only thing I can think is… I didn’t spray the insert after a poopy diaper? More back story: I use disposables overnight, and the toddler now poops first thing in the morning, but was slightly off schedule yesterday and pooped in the afternoon.

Everything I’ve read about spraying diapers though, it seems like if it’s ploppable you just do that, and are good to go. I always spray the pocket off until there is no color and leave the insert.

The only reason I’m doubting this as the reason for my stink is that the diaper was completely fresh, as soon as I put it on, he used it 🙄 and I immediately took care of it. Now it was a blueberry poop iykyk and some color transferred to the insert nearly immediately

TLDR is my stink problem because I’m an idiot who doesn’t spray inserts but should be?

My baby just turned 3 weeks old today. We were using disposables until she reached 7 pounds and her umbilical stump fell off, about a week ago, and then switched to Esembly cloth diapers, which I got second hand from a neighborhood group.

I love them, but an issue that has emerged is that she cannot tolerate any wetness at all. She is cluster feeding, drinking a lot, and peeing a lot. The means sometimes up to 5 diaper changes in an hour! We go through an insane number of diapers a day. My husband is especially frustrated and wants to switch completely back to disposables.

We tried adding in both the fleece liner and the cotton overnighter, but they both still resulted in her wailing as soon as she wet her diaper.

Anyone have experience like this and overcame it? I don’t know if she’s just a more fussy baby and the cloth won’t work for us, or maybe there’s an issue with absorbency of the used diapers, or maybe 3 weeks is too early and she’ll be fine with them later…or something else? Would love to hear your experiences!

Hi all! I’m a FTM and we want to cloth nappy from when our Bub is first born, the thought of the nappies in our bin, the plastic nappy being on bubs fresh newborn skin and the cost all make us not want to use disposables but everyone is telling us we are crazy. Has anyone had a success stories of using reusables from the get go? The washing doesn’t worry me at all, I’m concerned about the fit on our little boy and leaking.

Any tips welcome

This might be a stupid question but I figured you would all have useful advice. My 18mo is now waking up dry every morning and doing her first pee on the potty. Would you double wash those diapers? It’s possible there is a trace amount of urine in them that dries up overnight, although when she sleeps in disposables the line is still yellow, so likely she is just not peeing overnight.

I had a questionable wash routine (a loved one did it for me and didn't add agitators and took a got shower during the secound cycle). When I put my nose in the clean diapers I can smell detergent. Do I need to strip them? Can I use them now and strip them with the next wash? The smell is only there if i stick my nose in them.

How do you go about stripping them? Do you just do a regular warm cycle with no detergent or a heavy hot one?

So my husband had this thought and I didn't have a straight answer: say, we JUST changed the diaper with a paper on top and immediately catch the poop, do we also have to change the insert? I just always assumed yes, but if it is immediately removed, can it still be used for some time?

I continue to get poop on wool covers and I feel super defeated - is there any hope left?

I don’t really want to buy a bunch of new stuff… + I already need disposables for daycare.

I’m thinking it’s partly my situation and not that I just somehow am terrible at diaper folding??

Status -

Folds: I’ve tried many folds - origami, pikmin, kite, angel wing, variation padfolds + jelly rolling + snappi

Plan: I set out to use flats + wool from the beginning.

Experience:

I used wool + flats from 6 weeks until 6mo (solids). I was afraid of “real poop” and my husband wasn’t on board. Poop almost always got on wool covers during this period too.

I started using cloth again now for a few months, since my son is getting closer to potty training (currently 23mo) - I’ve figured out “real poop” and it’s not so scary… except it still almost always gets on my wool cover. I’ve been trying all sorts of troubleshooting and still no luck (different folds, tighter at legs, room for poop.. etc etc etc)

My son:

My son is really small for his age and has always been.. he was 5.5lb at birth. He’s about 18lb now at 23mo. To say, he’s never had real chunky thighs and I’m sure that contributes a bit to diaper fit issues.

My son also poops 2-3x per day… almost never solid, always a little loose.

Is it hopeless? I either quit or accept cleaning wool for every poop? I’m due with baby 3 in July. I can’t commit to spot cleaning and hand washing wool every day.

hey everyone! im looking for some recommendations for active cloth diaper groups on Facebook (or other platforms). a lot of the ones im currently in seem pretty dead or haven't had new posts in ages.

where is everyone hanging out these days for troubleshooting, general chat, or BST? are there specific brand groups that are still super lively, or any good general ones you'd recommend joining?

thanks in advance!

I'm at a loss and I need help. I cloth diapered my older two children from birth to potty training and never had any issues with lingering smells. I had gotten rid of my whole stash in between my middle and youngest. I bought a used stash in good condition, no smells or anything when I got them. I used the same wash routine as with my older two but this time I'm having issue with them stinking after only 9 months of use. I used rlr and stripped them, I've done bleach washes. Anything I can think of to get the smell out and nothing is working.

My wash routine for reference every 3-3.5 days: Hot water heavy cycle with 15 minute soak and an extra rinse, then hot water normal cycle, using tide free and clear. As mentioned before I never had any issues with this routine on my previous two children. I start potty training just before 1 with all my children so I know we won't be in diapers much longer but I've been using disposable for a month now as I'm just frustrated and over the cloth diapers right now.

I really don’t know what else to do. My poor baby’s skin is dry and itchy. We’ve got a full Esembly stash, use disposable liners, and follow the Esembly routine exactly but with tide free & gentle powder. We recently went full disposable for travel for 2 weeks. When we returned home and started cloth again about 3 weeks ago the rashes started back up immediately and have not ever fully relented despite a 3-4 day disposable break and a full bleach reset wash routine.

I’m exhausted and so frustrated. Of course I want my baby to be comfortable but I hate the waste of disposable. I can’t keep fighting this fight. And I try to research what to do- bleach reset, adjust wash routine, try liners…. Like I’ve been doing all of that! I don’t have the capacity to spend hours researching and experimenting like a chemist!!!

We’ve been potty training for 3 months as well which seems to make everything worse, the training pants can’t be bleached and my loads might not be bulky enough. I live in a small apartment and I don’t have fluffy white towels I can just throw in all the time.

Anyway I’m sad if our cloth journey ends here. I suppose it has to eventually but we may just go full disposable until baby is fully potty trained. Which feels like an eternity away.