Cloth Diapers

Since Jack was born, we’ve been using a cloth diaper service.  Overall I’m still happy with cloth diapers, but they do have some disadvantages.

I don’t think I’d use cloth if we didn’t have a service; there’s enough laundry without washing all those diapers as well.  In the first few weeks we were using 90 a week!  Now I think we’re around 60.  (We also put a clean diaper on the changing pad to save having to wash that as often, though not for every diaper change.)  If I’m going out for the day or overnight, I’ll still use cloth, but if I were traveling for longer I’d use disposable.

We had been having a lot of problems with leaks, but that’s gotten better since we switched to the next size up, and now at night we put an extra diaper down the middle.

Anyway, the cons:

• Bulk:  they are much bigger than disposables, so they take up a lot more room in the diaper bag.  If you wanted to travel for a week you’d need a big bag to lug them around in!
• Diaper covers:  we finally found some that seem to work pretty well and contain the diaper adequately:  Bummis Super Whisper Wrap.  The problem is that when they get dirty, they stain.  (We own these, and wash them ourselves.)  I wash them in the machine with a small amount of a very mild detergent, and line dry them.  Anyone have any suggestions for getting out poop stains?
• Travel:  if you use them when you go out, you gotta haul them back home.  No big deal when you’re just out for the afternoon, but a day’s worth of diapers starts to take up a lot of room, and stink.  I would not want to haul back a week’s worth on the plane.  Right now I use whatever plastic bags we have around the house to put them in, but it’s not a very reusable solution.  Anyone have suggestions for something that can contain dirty diapers and used multiple times?

We’ll continue to use them for the foreseeable future.