Affiliate links are included throughout this post at absolutely no cost to you. I only promote what I truly love! I hope these 8 Things I Learned Cloth Diapering help you out as you seek out a better diapering solution for your little one!
Almost 1 year ago to this very day, I put my very first cloth diaper on my tiny little 1 month old baby girl. I had anxiously been awaiting that moment since before she was even born! I was excited, hopeful, nervous and everything in between. I had put in countless hours of research and preparation to get us to that point, and I was hoping and praying that we would find success in our new endeavor. It was something that I really wanted to work for our family, but I knew that there would be a lot of things that I wouldn’t be able to know or learn until we took that leap and tried it ourselves.
And here we are one full year in, and we’re SO happy with our decision to cloth diaper our child. Just as expected, I’ve learned quite a few things along the way. I thought I’d share those things with all of you who may be looking into choosing cloth for your little one. These are the top 8 things I’ve learned that came to my mind when looking back on the past year. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom, because some lucky duck is going to snag a cloth diaper to add to their own collection!
-
Having a Support Group is Important…(And Finding One is Easy!)
- A common problem that I’ve seen many parents faced with is claiming to not have anyone to support them through the process. Maybe their spouse wouldn’t get on board with the idea, or maybe they just didn’t know anyone that had any experience to reach out to for help getting started. What I discovered early on into my cloth diaper journey is that there are TONS of online support groups of moms (and even a few dads) who are excited for you to start and are rooting for you to choose cloth! They are willing to answer your questions, address your concerns, and even share info that they’ve found to be useful during their own journey. If you’re looking for a place to get started (or even if you just want to be a fly on the wall for a little while,) I recommend getting connected with the other cloth lovers on in a cloth-specific group on Facebook. You may even want to do a search to see if there is a local group that you can join. I have been a part of several groups over the years, some brand specific and some not. I encourage you to seek out both general and brand specific in case you have any particular questions about a certain brand! Because Buttons is one of my favorite brands, I’ve grown to love the Buttons Diapers community on Facebook.
- A common problem that I’ve seen many parents faced with is claiming to not have anyone to support them through the process. Maybe their spouse wouldn’t get on board with the idea, or maybe they just didn’t know anyone that had any experience to reach out to for help getting started. What I discovered early on into my cloth diaper journey is that there are TONS of online support groups of moms (and even a few dads) who are excited for you to start and are rooting for you to choose cloth! They are willing to answer your questions, address your concerns, and even share info that they’ve found to be useful during their own journey. If you’re looking for a place to get started (or even if you just want to be a fly on the wall for a little while,) I recommend getting connected with the other cloth lovers on in a cloth-specific group on Facebook. You may even want to do a search to see if there is a local group that you can join. I have been a part of several groups over the years, some brand specific and some not. I encourage you to seek out both general and brand specific in case you have any particular questions about a certain brand! Because Buttons is one of my favorite brands, I’ve grown to love the Buttons Diapers community on Facebook.
-
It’s Not Always Easy, But It’s Certainly Not Hard! (And SO Worth It!)
- Most people that embark on the cloth journey go through a struggle or two along the way. I think it’s true that cloth diapering isn’t as easy as using disposables for a few reasons (convenience being the biggest one,) and putting on a cloth diaper for many is not nearly as intuitive as putting on a disposable. You may find that you struggle initially with getting a proper fit on your baby (not uncommon), or you find yourself going through a few different styles and brands of diapers to find one that fits your needs. You might even need to go through some trial and error to get a good wash routine down pat (definitely not uncommon.) The good news is this: those struggles are temporary, and with a little research and perseverance, you’ll come out a cloth diaper champ! Once you really get in the groove of things, it’s high flying from there. And if by chance you do encounter another hiccup, you’ve got your support group to consult about it!
- Most people that embark on the cloth journey go through a struggle or two along the way. I think it’s true that cloth diapering isn’t as easy as using disposables for a few reasons (convenience being the biggest one,) and putting on a cloth diaper for many is not nearly as intuitive as putting on a disposable. You may find that you struggle initially with getting a proper fit on your baby (not uncommon), or you find yourself going through a few different styles and brands of diapers to find one that fits your needs. You might even need to go through some trial and error to get a good wash routine down pat (definitely not uncommon.) The good news is this: those struggles are temporary, and with a little research and perseverance, you’ll come out a cloth diaper champ! Once you really get in the groove of things, it’s high flying from there. And if by chance you do encounter another hiccup, you’ve got your support group to consult about it!
-
You’ll Get Questions
- As long as your baby is wearing cloth, you’ll have people asking you about them. Sometimes the questions are on the positive end of the spectrum – coming from people who think modern cloth is neat and maybe even something they’d be interested in. Those are the best! I’ll always love answering cloth-related questions for someone who’s sparked an interest. Unfortunately, sometimes you may get questions from people who just don’t “get it” and don’t really want to “get it”. They’re concerned that you’ve decided to do something that is, in their eyes, out of “the norm.” I don’t get those questions or comments a whole lot, but make no mistake, I do get them. I’ve even had people that have never cloth diapered a day in their life tell me how I need to do it, completely undermining the hours of research, time and preparation I’ve put into it. In those situations I just remind myself to keep my cool and always be a positive advocate for cloth. After all, people throw rocks at things that shine! I truly believe that cloth is making a HUGE comeback, though, and that hopefully my children will live in a society where cloth has become mainstream again. No matter what kind of questions I get, I’ll always try my hardest to leave people feeling a little more educated and with a positive view of the cloth movement.
- As long as your baby is wearing cloth, you’ll have people asking you about them. Sometimes the questions are on the positive end of the spectrum – coming from people who think modern cloth is neat and maybe even something they’d be interested in. Those are the best! I’ll always love answering cloth-related questions for someone who’s sparked an interest. Unfortunately, sometimes you may get questions from people who just don’t “get it” and don’t really want to “get it”. They’re concerned that you’ve decided to do something that is, in their eyes, out of “the norm.” I don’t get those questions or comments a whole lot, but make no mistake, I do get them. I’ve even had people that have never cloth diapered a day in their life tell me how I need to do it, completely undermining the hours of research, time and preparation I’ve put into it. In those situations I just remind myself to keep my cool and always be a positive advocate for cloth. After all, people throw rocks at things that shine! I truly believe that cloth is making a HUGE comeback, though, and that hopefully my children will live in a society where cloth has become mainstream again. No matter what kind of questions I get, I’ll always try my hardest to leave people feeling a little more educated and with a positive view of the cloth movement.
-
Diaper Laundry is the Best Laundry
- Don’t get me wrong, diaper laundry is still work. There isn’t a magic fairy that comes around and mixes the detergent for you at the perfect ratios and stuffs all of the pocket diapers with their coordinating inserts. That would REALLY make me love doing diaper laundry! I guess there’s just something about all of the diapers being fresh and clean and put away that makes me feel so proud. I don’t ever feel that way about washing my own clothing, that’s for sure! Maybe it’s just because I truly see how beneficial my diaper laundry is for my family economically and environmentally. Plus, there’s nothing else quite as satisfying as seeing all of your cute diapers hanging on a line to dry!
-
You’ll Find Your Favorites
- When people ask me what kind of diapers to get or what brand to buy, I ALWAYS tell them that it’s important to buy a variety of brands and styles. An across the board “best diaper ever” does not exist, because every baby is different and every diaper is different. Other cloth diaper lovers may prefer brand-x diaper because it fits their baby the best around the legs, but brand-x doesn’t work that well for us because my baby has skinny legs. Do you see where I’m going here? That’s why you need to try out several! You’d really be in a pickle if you only purchased a bulk package of one brand of diaper without trying it and you find out that they don’t work for you. But once you do find a brand or style that works for you (there can be more than one), you’ll feel like you struck gold! For us, Buttons Diapers are a very clear winner. (If you’ve never heard of Buttons before, I encourage you to read my full review and watch my short video here.) In my review I break down all of the reasons why they reign supreme to me in my cloth diapering world.
- Buy All The Diapers! – When you find your favorites, you may have to show some serious restraint to not go overboard and buy all of the colors and prints that they have. People may think it sounds weird to say that cloth diapering is addicting, but I’ve definitely come to find that it can be! Just when I think I’ve got more than enough diapers in my stash, Buttons comes out with a brand new print that is just to die for! I try not to be impulsive about buying a ton of diapers, but it’s not hard to convince myself to buy them when I know that all of my future children will be able to wear them, too! I definitely can NOT say that about disposables. 😉
-
Poo Doesn’t Scare You
- I think an initial turn off for a lot of people looking into cloth diapering is knowing that they can’t just roll up a poopy diaper and throw it in the trash. You do actually have to deal with the poop, but let me tell you, with the proper tools, it really ain’t no thang! If you’ve done any cloth diaper research, you may know that there are several different methods for dealing with #2. I use am amazing little invention called a diaper sprayer that attaches directly to my toilet and rids the diaper of any solids within a matter of seconds without your hands ever having to touch anything nasty. Sure, it isn’t the most glamorous job, but it very quickly becomes second nature. Seriously, poo doesn’t scare me at all anymore thanks to my sprayer. When things start to get stinky, I just take it into the bathroom and handle the situation #likeaboss. No problem!
- You’ll Cringe At Having To Buy Disposables
- We consider ourselves to be part time cloth diaperers. We cloth 6 days out of the week and are in disposables ALL day on Sunday. We also keep disposables on hand when we travel and when our daughter stays at her grandparent’s house. We could certainly make the effort to only use cloth and never buy disposables, but we’ve found our current method to work best for our family. I stocked up on a good bit of disposables during my pregnancy, and because I started putting her in cloth when she was just one month old, I didn’t ever have to buy a pack of diapers until she was 10 months old. It was AWESOME! But ever since I bought that first pack, I seriously cringe every time at the thought of letting my daughter poop on my hard earned dollars and then throwing it away. I cringe at the thought of putting her in chemical-filled plastic when she could be sitting on soft, luxurious and natural fibers that won’t be thrown into a landfill. Disposables do still have a place in our lives, but I’m so much happier with our choice to invest in cloth diapers that are far more sustainable in the long run. Plus, cloth diapers are WAY cuter than those ol’ disposables! See what I mean?! (Pictured below: Buttons Diaper Cover – Rosebud – limited edition print no longer available)
- We consider ourselves to be part time cloth diaperers. We cloth 6 days out of the week and are in disposables ALL day on Sunday. We also keep disposables on hand when we travel and when our daughter stays at her grandparent’s house. We could certainly make the effort to only use cloth and never buy disposables, but we’ve found our current method to work best for our family. I stocked up on a good bit of disposables during my pregnancy, and because I started putting her in cloth when she was just one month old, I didn’t ever have to buy a pack of diapers until she was 10 months old. It was AWESOME! But ever since I bought that first pack, I seriously cringe every time at the thought of letting my daughter poop on my hard earned dollars and then throwing it away. I cringe at the thought of putting her in chemical-filled plastic when she could be sitting on soft, luxurious and natural fibers that won’t be thrown into a landfill. Disposables do still have a place in our lives, but I’m so much happier with our choice to invest in cloth diapers that are far more sustainable in the long run. Plus, cloth diapers are WAY cuter than those ol’ disposables! See what I mean?! (Pictured below: Buttons Diaper Cover – Rosebud – limited edition print no longer available)
-
Your Reason for Using Cloth is Watching You
- It’s no secret that cloth diapering is a responsible choice environmentally and economically. I recently read somewhere that the average baby goes through roughly 6,100 diapers before they’re potty trained. I go through a rotation of about 25 cloth diapers, and I really have more than is even necessary. Those 25 cloth diapers that I invested in will not only be used for my daughter, but also for any future children that I may have. Instead of dumping thousands and thousands of dirty diapers into a landfill, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint drastically, leaving the Earth a little bit cleaner for our children. We’ve also been very frugal in our diaper spending, meaning we can have more money to put into things for our children that really matter. These are the types of lessons that I strive to show my daughter every single day. Children learn by watching. Are the choices you’re making something you hope your children will repeat? Knowing that my daughter is watching what her Mommy does makes me push even harder to successfully cloth diaper her so she can have a better future. We’re one year into our cloth journey, and we’re so SO happy we took that jump!
- It’s no secret that cloth diapering is a responsible choice environmentally and economically. I recently read somewhere that the average baby goes through roughly 6,100 diapers before they’re potty trained. I go through a rotation of about 25 cloth diapers, and I really have more than is even necessary. Those 25 cloth diapers that I invested in will not only be used for my daughter, but also for any future children that I may have. Instead of dumping thousands and thousands of dirty diapers into a landfill, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint drastically, leaving the Earth a little bit cleaner for our children. We’ve also been very frugal in our diaper spending, meaning we can have more money to put into things for our children that really matter. These are the types of lessons that I strive to show my daughter every single day. Children learn by watching. Are the choices you’re making something you hope your children will repeat? Knowing that my daughter is watching what her Mommy does makes me push even harder to successfully cloth diaper her so she can have a better future. We’re one year into our cloth journey, and we’re so SO happy we took that jump!
I have been cloth diapering for 5 years and I love the meadow cover
I like midnight the best! My baby is due in three days and we are planning to use cloth!
I’m just starting my CD journey! I have a few Buttons covers, and they’re great!
I love Buttons Afternoon Tea. It’s so pretty and girly. We have four girls, ages 7, 6, 2, and 7 months. I just started cloth diapering for the first time with our youngest when she was about 4 months old. Buttons was the first brand I bought and I love variety of cute prints and solids. They fit great, too!
Afternoon Tea is my favorite…but, despite not gravitating towards red, Rosebud is looking awfully cute.
I’m due in August and plan to cloth diaper with Buttons diapers! Can’t wait to experience it all! Love the Meadow print!
We’ve been cloth diapering for 2 months and Buttons makes up most of our stash! My favorite diaper cover is either afternoon tea or meadow.
I am due on June 14th and can not wait to try the Buttons Diaper on my little man! I have only purchased one so far ( the robot one ) but look forward to getting more!
I love the Cherry cover. I have not cloth diapered my own kiddos yet, but I am hoping to use cloth with baby #3
I am just about to begin cloth diapering with baby 2 due this month! I love so many of the buttons covers, but especially Rosebud and Seabreeze!
Gadget is my favortie and i’ve been cloth diapering 4 years total so far. 1 year for my first, 2 for my second (early potty trainer), and 1 year for my 1 year old
I really love the Adventure print and I start cloth diapering in July with my first!
I just am quickly approaching the one year mark of cloth diapering. I did not use cloth for my first two children, but decided to take the plunge when my third was 3 months old. Now I wonder why I didn’t think I could do this with the first two! Afternoon Tea is my favorite Buttons cover print.
I love the Adventure print on the Buttons diaper covers! I have been using cloth diapers for only a month. I’m still trying out different kinds and trying to get the hang of it, but so far so good! I have a few Buttons covers, and I really like them!
I don’t have kids yet and am definitely waiting several years, but I really enjoyed this! You’ll be my go to when I’m deciding if I should go cloth or not.
I love the gadget print and I’ve been cloth diapering for 2 years
I’m going to start my 2 month old (my first) in Buttons diapers in a couple weeks! I love the new Picnic cover. 🙂
im super excited to start cloth diapering our new little one in who is due in august
Hi! I am 33 weeks pregnant and I am where you were…in the research phase! I am hoping that cloth diapers will work for my family! I love the meadow print.
Hi! My favorite Buttons diaper is Meadow. I’ve cloth diapers both of my kids, so we’re at 2.75 years! Love cloth.
Adventure is my favorite print though I can’t pass up a black diaper like Midnight.
I helped cloth diaper my sister back in 1980 and my first baby in 1996, both involved folds and pins and uncomfortable plastic covers. I’ve been diapering my third baby for about four months now, it was difficult to keep up with his heavy wetting and thin legs in the first two months but now I’ve got it down. I just toss his pockets in with the daily towels, no big deal.
I have the Afternoon Tea on my baby registry, but I also think the Banana Cream is such a pretty color. I ordered white during their Memorial Day sale, and yes… I caved and ordered that sweet pastel aztec print that was a seasonal Spring thing. Baby due in July and I have a feeling Buttons is going to be our go-to!
Oh, I forgot to mention we’ll be cloth diapering beginning in July when this baby comes. But, I came from a CD family, so it just seemed like the thing to do. Especially now that plastic pants are out (to my mother’s dismay.)
I LOVE the buttons diaper! But I also really love the sherw oodles diaper!
I have been cloth diapering for 7 months with my baby girl and we love her cute fluff butt we love buttons
Our son is 8 weeks old and we started cloth diapering when he was a few days old. I really like the adventure diaper and critter diaper! Thank you!
I’m an expecting mom about to start my cloth diaper journey. This post was very helpful and informative. Thanks for sharing!!
We’ve been cloth diapering since my baby girl was born in March. We love the picnic and tea time prints!
I’m expecting my first in September, so I’m completely new to cloth diapering. It’s hard to pick a favorite print, but I think I’ll go with thicket!
I love the adventure cover! I started using cloth in the hospital when #2 was born. He will be 14 months on the 14th!
I’ve been cloth diapering for a year and I LOVE Afternoon tea print. Playful comes in a close second! 😉
My favorite cover is Adventure (followed closely by Critter). I will start cloth diapering in the next couple of weeks, as soon as the baby’s born!
At lo has not arrived yet, I am a cloth newbie! I love the adventure print
Great article! I am just about due with my third baby, but first time using cloth, I cant wait! I have also been researching a lot! I love the acres diaper cover!
I’ve been cd’ing 3 kids for 4 years. And I love Afternoon Tea.
I’ve been cloth diapering almost a year (started when my youngest and oldest were 1 and 2 1/2). I love the girly prints, but since we don’t have girls the noble is cute. But really, they need more boy prints. Plenty of boy solids.
I like the critter one. We’ve been cloth diapering for 10 months and still going strong!
While I love the meadow diaper, I am still mad at myself for missing the opportunity to get the fox one. Layla has been in her cloth diapers for almost 2 months now and we love them <3
We haven’t started Diapering yet as new nephew not due till mid July investing to reduce foot print and save money for our family. Love all the cute diapers but love acres probably because our little town is rural and our school has one of the biggest FFA programs in Ohio. With 168 kids not talking 4-H. One of the biggest days is the parade of tractors to the high school. Love cloth diapers and already planning stash .
I like the adventure cover :). We are preparing for our first baby, which is due in about a month. This will be our fist time cloth diapering.
I cloth diapered my first child and will cloth diaper our second come October. I love the adventure print, it’s so awesome!
I love seeing my Granddaughter in all the cute cloth diapers.
My favorite is one that we already have, Acres (we had the stereotypical black & white Holsteins growing up and green tractors), although I’ve got my eye on Gadget :). We’ve only been cloth diaper here for about eight months!
If I knew it was a girl, Playful for sure, cute cats.
If I knew it was a boy, Gadget.
I wouldn’t find out though, so I would pick Meadow, as it’s gender neutral.
My favorite buttons print is sherwood.
I love Posy!!! We’re just getting started with cloth so winning this giveaway would really help us build a stash.
I’m expecting my first little one in August, and someone just gifted me some cloth diapers, I’m excited to try them out. I LOVE the Apple diaper cover.
I really like the Adventure one! totally cute. I cloth diapered my 2nd, until he was potty trained, now I have a new baby on the way to use cloth with! So, almost 4 years
I’ve been cloth diapering my twins for 4 months now so we are still in the process of trying different diapers to find out favorites. Ive heard great things about buttons but haven’t been able to try them yet. Super excited cause the prints are adorable!
We’ve been cloth diapering our 11 month old since the hospital. There are so many cute Buttons prints, but sadly, we don’t have a single buttons diaper.
I’m slowly building my stash up, but I haven’t cloth diapered yet. My favorite is the buttons print
I have a 3 month old daughter and we’ve finally worked through the baby shower diaper cake disposables and are going cloth!! I’m so excited! I really love all the designs but I think Meadow is my favorite!
I love the Buttons print diaper cover! We have been cloth diapering for about 13 months. 🙂
I love the buttons print NOBLE!!!
Ten years! Meadow is my fave.
We have been cloth diapering since daughter’s birth one year ago, and I love the Afternoon Tea 🙂
Great
I love Achers and Aboy! I’ve been cloth diapering for a year and a half!
My favorite diaper cover is “Adventure.” I have a 5 month old and have not started cloth diapering yet. Haven’t run out of disposables from the showers yet!! Honestly, I plan to give it a try, but it scares me. Mainly the dirty diaper. I cringe thinking about it. 🙂
I haven’t started yet. I like the buttons print.
I have been using cloth for 3 months now, My favorite Buttons print was Sherwood, followed by Jack Frost.
Was the winner ever announced?
Hi Emily! A winner was randomly selected and verified, and a winning notification email went out to her. I don’t make special announcements for winners, but I do hope that you’ll continue to follow and enter all of my upcoming giveaways! (I’ll have another cloth diaper giveaway coming up next week!) 😀
I think it is great that you are open about using disposables too. Too often people are intimidated from trying things which seem overwhelming when a compromise or middle way still has great benefits. We always put our son in cloth but he slept so well at night and leaked through that he wore a disposable at nigbt. Our daughter on the other hand wore just cloth nappies.
Instead of cringing at every disposable you use, you should congratulate yourself on every disposible you don’t use! The best way to change the world is if we can get everyone to make small changes x
I am a new great aunt and was told that they are going the cloth diaper way so with reading all there is I am so confused but they are pretty. I have bought some don’t ask me what kind don’t know.
I now a pro at cloth diapers as I’m onto my 2nd baby in them. And one thing that I would like to share is my knowledge of how to care for and keep the PUL lasting through multiple babies. PUL is basically a plastic material that is sprayed onto the diaper fabric to make it waterproof. PUL (and other plastic/vinyl materials) do not like prolonged exposure to sunlight. The suns rays can actually start to break the chemical bonds of the PUL, which weakens it and leads to leaks. So, keep those PUL diapers and covers out of the sun. Also, it doesn’t hurt to throw the PUL diapers into the drier.
Now, I think I need to start my own blog and have a similar post. Love it!
This article seems to be more about promoting Buttons Diapers than teaching about cloth diapering. Seems kind of dishonest. How much is Buttons paying you?
Hi Wally,
That’s an interesting generalization. Did you read my entire post? Or did you just skim it, realize that I talk about Buttons at some point, and assume my whole article was swayed? I don’t start talking about that particular brand in detail until point #5, which is titled “You’ll find your favorites.” Wouldn’t it make sense that I talk about my favorite brand, and then link to that brand so that you, the reader, could check it out if you wanted to? That’s the beautiful thing about owning a blog. I’m allowed to share my favorite things with you. Just like you, the readers, are allowed to take the information in my blog post and move forward with it or not at all. I linked multiple times to other articles and pages that aren’t Buttons specific to help people who are interested in cloth. Also, I have multiple cloth diaper posts on my blog that talk specifically about other brands. I’ve done numerous reviews to help readers learn more about those brands.
If you can make an assumption about me being paid by a company to talk about them (which is not the case,) I suppose I could just assume that maybe you’re a competitor of Buttons and you don’t like that I like them. Tell me, how much did your company pay you to be rude?
Why do you use disposable on Sundays? I am new to cloth diapering and would love to hear the why to your tried and true habit! I want to be successful in this process.
Hi Tess, the only reason we don’t cloth diaper at all that one day out of the week is simply because we are away from home most of the day, and I didn’t want to have to try to pack enough diapers for the day to take with us and to carry around a wet bag for that long. The point being, I just really try to give myself a lot of grace through the cloth diapering process and not feel like I HAVE to do all cloth diapers all the time.
Sometimes I think people feel that when they choose cloth diapering, that they cannot ever use disposables, and that’s just not true. It’s not an all or nothing thing unless you just want it to be. If you have a day where it’s just easier to reach for a disposable, do it! If not, that’s great too! I just remind myself that 1 cloth diaper on the bum still mean 1 less in a landfill, and even if I only used 1 cloth diaper in that day I’m still making a difference. Just find a process that works comfortably for you and your family! 🙂
Awesome! That makes complete sense. Thank you for replying!
With each of my 4 babies I used cloth diapers. These were the Birds Eye brand of diapers. They were large squares and I just folded them to fit the babies as they grew. I used the large diaper safety pins to secure them and never had a problem with them fitting snugly. Washing them was no problem and they remained soft and absorbent . I had a total of three dozen with my first baby and never had to buy more. When you no longer need the diapers for babies they make excellent cloths for cleaning eyeglasses, mirrors, etc. I still have several diapers on hand and my oldest child will be 56 this year. If I was starting over with babies at this time, I would still use the cloth diapers.