We’ve been cloth diapering our child for almost 3 years now so our process has evolved with their bodily development. In this article, I’ll be discussing the life cycle of one of our cloth diapers, including the methods we use to clean them across the different stages from infant to toddlerhood.
Some people opt for a service that can drop off clean cloth diapers at your house and pick up the soiled ones so you don’t have to bother with cleaning them at all. My partner and I just clean them ourselves and it’s honestly not too bad. But again, this is where I stress having your partner and other caregivers on board with cloth diapering because doing this alone is exhausting and can derail the entire operation if nobody is willing to help.
You’ll Need a Wet Bag
Cloth diapering requires a wet bag. In fact, I recommend all parents of young children have a wet bag because you can use them to store all sorts of wet and gross stuff that happens to diapers and clothes. For example, you’ve probably gone swimming and then carried your swimsuit home in a plastic grocery bag. Ditch that and get yourself a wet bag!
We regularly use two types of wet bags, the big ones with an elastic band at the top (we have two of these) and the small ones that have two zipper pockets and a wrist strap (we have four of these). The big ones are hung inside of a trash can that has a step-to-open lid by the changing table, and the small ones with zippers are used for outings, traveling, and sent to daycare.
What do I do with a soiled cloth diaper?
Since I have experience with using both the all-in-one one-size pocket-style cloth diapers as well as the covers with prefolded inserts, I’ll walk you through what we do once we take the soiled diaper off the child to store in the wet bag.
- Carefully open diaper without spilling contents
- If there’s a liner/filter, some people will wash and reuse it but I throw it away since we use very few
- If it’s a pocket diaper, pull the inserts out of the pocket without spilling the contents and toss them into the wet-bag
- Carefully toss diaper contents into the toilet (if any) and flush away
- If needed, rinse or spray it with the toilet’s sprayer attachment
- If it’s a diaper cover with prefolded insert and the cover is still clean and dry, keep the same cover and reuse it with another clean prefolded insert, just put the soiled insert into the wet-bag. If it’s a pocket diaper, put the whole thing into the wet-bag
To be kind to your future self, always deconstruct your diapers and flush away loose stools before storing them in your wet bag. If I’m traveling and don’t have access to a bathroom or the sprayer, I will button them up tight to store in the wet bag so I can deconstruct them when I get home.
Washing Cloth Diapers
Babies that exclusively drink from the chest or bottle have water-soluble poops, meaning you can just put the soiled nappies directly in the washing machine without spraying and it won’t damage your machine.
We wash covers, inserts, and wet bags together (but pull the inserts out of the pockets first) in the hottest, most vigorous setting possible to really get them clean and sanitized to kill any bacteria. Wet bags are turned inside out.
If using a dryer, we treat them like you would a towel and put them in without a dryer sheet. If it’s a more plastic-y cover like the Thirsties, then we’d hang dry to avoid melting. Double-check the wash instructions on your covers to make sure they’re safe for the dryer before sticking them in. I think ours were safe, but we just hung them up anyway. We always hang dry the wet bags.
Washing Machine Maintenance
Every few weeks, we use a special treatment pod instead of the usual detergent to help with build-up on the nappies and the washing machine. This also helps prevent the types of leaks made by butt creams so my partner doesn’t have to scrub them with a toothbrush ever again.
Solid Foods lead to Solid Poops
Once your kid starts eating solid foods, their poops become more solid too. It’s easy enough to just use a wipe to pick it out and toss it in the toilet (just don’t flush the wipe down the toilet either, it does not matter if it’s marketed as “flushable,” your plumber will tell you otherwise). Or you can carry it to the toilet and dump it. However, if the kiddo is sick with diarrhea or otherwise has a monstrous, sticky crap, that’s what the toiler sprayer and splash guard are for.
If I’m going through the small wet bag we received from daycare or brought up from traveling, each diaper is snapped up into a nice little package, so I just deconstruct each one before putting it into the larger wet bag.
Cloth Diapers Resources
Here is a list of shopping links and resources of stuff we used in our cloth diapering that I discussed above, so you can add these items to your baby shower registry.
- Small wet bags on Amazon that we use
- Large wet bags on Amazon that we use
- Toilet sprayer attachment on Amazon that we have
- Toiler splatter shield on Amazon that we have
- Laundry Treatment Pods for Cloth Diapers on Amazon that we use when washing cloth diapers every few weeks to help with build-up
- Recommended article: “Back to Basics: Poop and Cloth Diapers” (Sept. 21, 2012) Cloth Diaper Revival.
