So you want to cloth diaper...

It's kind of cool how often I get asked about cloth diapering these days. A lot of people want to switch, or get started, or learn about it for future babies, or something. It's catching on, as it definitely should. I mean, times are tough for Americans. Why the hell should people be purchasing garbage (literally) from Proctor and Gamble and Kimberly Clarke for an obscene amount of money, right? I'm all for people learning to cloth diaper.

So check this out, though. I can give you all the advice you want, but ultimately, you're going to have to figure it out on your own. I have tried a lot of different kinds of diapers. I can tell you what I think are the best. I can guess at what might fit your baby. I can't make the kind you really want affordable for a shoestring budget if the kind you want is the $32 a diaper all-in-ones. I cannot make a brand that fits beanpoles fit a Buddha, no matter how cute the prints are, or how cheap it is compared to what actually fits your baby. I cannot make a one-size diaper that fit my 9+ pound newborn fit your 5 pounder. Above all, I can't make it idiot-proof. With so many options these days, it will never be. At some point, you're going to have to take the plunge, buy something, and see if it works. If it doesn't work, don't blame me. Just buy something else, sell the thing that didn't work (no, not to me), and see if the next thing works.

I always say our cloth diapering journey has been pretty seamless, but that doesn't mean it's been idiot-proof, or without leaps of faith, or even bumps in the road. We've just managed to get over them all, and not see any of it as that big a deal. I was as confused as the next person when it came to the many different styles of cloth diapers, and especially the different brands and how their prices varied so wildly. Do you get what you pay for, or am I just paying for a trendy name? Which of these is most durable? Which will truly fit a large newborn from birth? Ultimately, this one Major's wife I know (she was a Captain's wife then), said to me, "Anna, you and Thak are exactly the same height and weight as me and Jim. I'll bet your baby will be skinny like ours. We like Bum Genius. That's what I'd try if I were you." and with that, I took my initial leap of faith, and ordered my first ever cloth diapers, a dozen Bum Genius one-size pockets, in gender-neutral colors. (We didn't know if Orren was a boy or a girl yet.) From there, I expanded to fitteds, and chose out some covers. By the time Orren was born, I had enough on hand to diaper him full time in cloth. I found that for those with large newborns, anything in newborn size is a waste to buy. Sure, in cloth diapers, it goes up to sometimes as much as 14 pounds, but when your baby is close to 10 at birth, they reach 14 very fast. The newborn diapers were not the best purchase, but live and learn.

With our newborn diapers outgrown and packed away, I needed something to augment our stash with, and cheaply, as we were preparing to move cross country. I thought prefolds were the way to go, so I ordered several dozen of them, along with a few covers in a different brand than what I had used before. This, again, worked out well. That was almost two years ago, and I'm still diapering with that same stash, except that I've sized up in covers as needed. (I've also taken that as an opportunity to try many brands of covers. Some were better fits than others, but I've made them all work.) I've never actually met a cloth diaper that I just plain could not use. Maybe I'm a better cloth diaperer than some. There are people who speculate that. I don't think that's it, though. I think I just see it for what it is, not what I would like it to be. I make things work, because that is the nature of cloth diapering. You have to make it work. It's not going to come to you if you don't go to it first.

Sure, I can tell you all day long what brands I love, and what I wouldn't be without, but look at my son. Is your baby built like him? If your baby is not here yet, are you and your husband skinny, and therefore likely to have a skinny baby? If you can answer yes to whichever of these is appropriate, then hell yeah, copy my stash thread for thread. If not, though, I can GUESS what might work for you, and I can point you to friends who have babies who are built differently than Orren, but you absolutely have to take into account that I have only diapered skinny babies, and maybe ask some people who are professionals in the cloth diapering industry what they would advise for you. (Don't worry. I have names and email addresses to give you!) Even they can't make it 100% cut and dry, though. Ultimately, you're the parent, and you'll be doing some leg work just as the rest of us did when we got into this however many years ago we did it.

Above all, can I just ask that people please stop getting mad at me when it doesn't work out? I told you I love it, that I'd never use another disposable again after using cloth for as long as I have, that it's nowhere near as hard as it looks, and I did not lie to you at all on those things. I never told you that you wouldn't have to shop around, or that every diaper would fit your baby perfectly, or that what works for me will work for you (except in the case of prefolds. Those work for everybody.) I never told you that you would never have bumps in the road, or laundry issues, or trial and error finding the perfect nighttime solution. Of course you'll have those things. I have had them, too, and I've told you about them. I've told you how I overcame them. It really wasn't hard. It wasn't always quick, but when I say it was ultimately a simple solution, that's because it was. (Really. It always comes down to something like a quarter cup of bleach in the wash, line drying, or a hemp insert for a pocket diaper. It's always the simplest adjustment that fixes things.) I never told you that it was no different than disposables. It's WAY different than disposables in all the best ways possible. I never told you that you wouldn't get behind on your laundry (I did three loads of diapers this weekend alone!). I just told you that you could do it, and that it's not nearly as hard as it looks.

If you'd give it a real honest try, as I did, you'd probably find that the urge to slap me for ever giving you this idea, will completely go away after a few months. I personally like numbers, and I tell everyone this, but I'll say it again. When I began purchasing cloth diapers, before Orren was born, I went through the time of, "Oh no. What if I hate it?!!" and to put my mind at ease for that, I added up how much I had spent on cloth diapers, and how many months' worth of disposables that amounted to. I determined that I would have to cloth diaper for six months in order to recoup my initial investment, and after that, if I hated it, I could quit with a clear conscience since I had not only kept six months' worth of disposables out of the landfill, but also not wasted any money. Turns out we loved it from day one, but even if we hadn't, it was helpful to know that we had a finite period of time that we were trying it for, and if we felt like it, could reevaluate our decision at that juncture. I strongly advise the same for anyone attempting to get into cloth diapering. If you think back, I told you that. I tell everybody that. Give it as long as the money you spent would buy you disposables for. If you still don't like it at the end of that period of time, then quit and have a clear conscience, because you have lost nothing, and still made a difference.