Cloth Diapers: A Guide

We'll talk about different types of cloth diapers, how to use them, and why. Disposable diapers were a welcome change to the first generation of parents who tried them. These days, it's hard to imagine being a slave to cloth diapers washing them buy hand, folding them, and changing them frequently, because those diapers weren't all that absorbent.

A diaper you can simply throw away when it has been soiled must have sounded like a dream to those parents. But, sposies have a lot of strikes against them too.

Every single disposable diaper that was ever produced still exists today, and they make up a large part of the garbage in our landfill sites. Compared to modern cloth diapers, sposies aren't actually all that convenient, either.

Caring about the earth is certainly a great reason to use cloth diapers, but additionally they save money and may even save time and hassle, too. Does that sound counter-intuitive to you?

I agreed with you, when I started using cloth diapers a little over three years back when my second child was born. Admittedly, we mainly tried cloth for financial reasons. But, having diapered one baby in sposies and one in cloth, my honest verdict is that our cloth diapers were nicer to use. Throwing them in the washing machine doesn't take that much time, and depending on your drying method and the fabric of the diapers, drying them is quick too. We decided to line-dry our diapers, and we never ran out and had to run to the store late at night (like with sposies), or constantly make trips to the garbage container to throw used diapers away.

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Cloth diapers smell nicer than disposable diapers because there are no chemicals, and parents tend to change cloth diapers more frequently because they are not quite as absorbent and using more diapers a day doesn't cost extra money. So, before discussing some places where you can buy cloth diapers, from expensive to budget-friendly, let's have a look at the different types of cloth diaper available on the market today:

1. Prefold diapers

These are much like the diapers our grandmothers used in some ways. They are flat squares that require folding, but prefolds consist of several layers and are now often made of special types of absorbent materials. Prefolds can be closed shut with safety pins or special diaper hooks called snappis. And to keep the baby's clothes dry, you will need a PUL or wool cover over the top of your prefold. Why choose prefolds? Well, they're the cheapest option, and they are quite versatile. It's possible to double up at night for extra absorbency, for instance.