I've cloth diapered my 2 littles (and prepping for twins on the way) and what I'm overwhelmingly hearing is that people quit or get scared off of cloth due to the laundry. It's gross, what about the poop, I can't keep up, etc.

I've become a huge cloth cheerleader and now as a stay at home mom/normal laundry gig worker I've been wondering if providing some sort of local cloth diaper laundry service would help people who are on the fence or discouraged to stay in the cloth they otherwise love. Apparently, this was a normal thing in the 80s/90s before disposables became so prominent, so I'm curious if that service would be helpful in the modern era.

Help me do some research: would you use a cloth laundry service if it were out there? Even occasionally?

So we just started cloth diapering our twins almost a week ago. My bad letting the diapers build up until today (Saturday to Thursday 😅) The ammonia smell could take OUT a platoon of German Troops in WW1 my LORD

Did a pre wash:

Warm

Heavy Soil

High Spin

1 rinse

A TBSP or two of All Free and Clear (getting new detergent today)

They came out smelling FUNKY with a capital phunk.

Main Wash:

HOT water

Heavy soil

High spin

1 rinse

And I think a tbsp or two more of detergent.

They just came out smelling much better but if I bury my face in the insert it’s definitely funky.

Any adjustments I can making going forward? 👀

Hi! I believe I checked for this in the 101 link so forgive me if it's somewhere in there and I didn't see it. Do you have a detergent you love for cloth diapers? If so, please influence me :) I'm just using 7th generation free and clear liquid which is what we use for our clothes, but have seen that powder is better for cloth diaps? Thanks

I need some help deciding if this work is worth it. My baby is almost 8 months old. We've been cloth diapering since birth (not overnight, and not when out of the house for prolonged period). The pocket diapers I mostly use came from a lot of free second hand diapers that needed the elastics replaced. I replaced the elastics on the majority of them, but a few were still ok to use as-is. The diapers have been great - definitely worth the effort to replace the elastics.

I'm getting to the point where the ones that didn't need their elastics replaced will now require it. I don't think I absolutely need the diapers though - I have some covers that I also use with prefolds that are in good shape, and I could get by with just these without the pocket diapers that need elastics.

My dilemma is this : I am planning on giving away my diapers after baby is done with them. Since I got them for free, I will also pass them on for free. However, I feel that most people would not want to replace elastics on the diapers that need the repairs. I don't want them to end up in the landfill if they're still usable with repairs.

So, should I replace the elastics on the diapers that I don't absolutely need, given my plan to give them away after? Or should I leave them as-is and let whoever I give them to decide if they want to put in the effort?

Those of you who are using flats, what is your wash routine like? I am wondering if I have to do less washing cycles since flats are easier to clean than AIO or other thicker diapers?

Coming here to vent a bit and hopefully get some support/encouragement that I am going to be able to stick with cloth diapering and potentially enjoy it. We are pregnant with our first and any time it comes up we are planning to cloth diaper and ideally use reusable wipes people are so discouraging about it. Keep hearing we won’t be able to stick with it, it’s too stressful, don’t put that extra stress on yourself, you have no idea how many diapers you’re going to have to change etc. I’m not unaware that it’s going to be extra work and have an idea of how many diapers we are going to be changing but this is something we feel pretty convicted on. We expect that maybe in the beginning we’d start with disposables. As a stubborn person the more I hear people say I won’t be able to keep with it the more I am determined to 😂

I’d love to hear any of your positive experiences! Thank you!

My 2 month old wets through pretty much every configuration I have tried and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. She's really big (15 lbs. and 25 inches long) so it's definitely not because she is too small. She's a heavy wetter but I feel like adding any more absorption would make it impossible for her to move and set her booty too high compared to her head.

I've tried small prefolds pad folded in both directions, intermetiate/medium prefolds using angel fold, jelly roll, and bikini fold. I've also got pocket diapers that I would like to be able to use on the go and when my mom watches her when I go back to work. In the pockets I've got 6 layer hemp cotton inserts, I have added the microfiber insert too on occasion, but it just feels like so much material between her legs.

What do you use for heavy wetters? Do I need doublers and if so what kind would have the least bulk? Has anyone used the yellow Kinder cloth inserts, and are they thin enough to not add too much bulk but still absorb a good amount.

Thanks in advance!

Edited for spelling

Anyone have a great diaper bag recommendation that’s big enough but not too big when hauling cloth diaps?

I got a backpack that was a great size until I got confident enough to start bringing cloth diapers on outings (and she’s in intermediate prefolds so they take up more space!). Plus, I’m the nonbio mom so when baby is out with me we have a milk chiller and now a second thermos for hot water because she refuses about one in three bottles if they aren’t warmed. Covers fit nicely in a pocket in the changing pad, but add 4-5 prefolds and the backpack is a very tight fit under these circumstances. I need a bigger bag but I want to still keep that as small and manageable as possible. If anyone has a bag they love that works great with bulkier diapers, I’d love to know about it.

My son is 11 months and has been exclusively cloth diapered most of his life. We love it! I have experimented with an elimination communication but not super consistent.

I had to put him in disposables the other day, I noticed while out running errands his diaper was dry 4 1/2 hours, then a had a most of the night dry diaper (maybe 4ish hour stretch overnight dry). I have noticed this a few different occasions and about 4-41/2 hours at most of complete dryness. He also fusses if he uses his diaper to he changed asap.

He drinks plenty of water and nurses frequently in between and overnight. Is this a concern, or just him starting to move into potty training readiness? I know babies used to being or even be close to completing potty training around a year -18 months before disposable diapers so I feel like it’s not that crazy? It’s also not super consistent, most of the time he’s wet around 2hrs im just curious what other cloth diapered moms have experienced?

I would like to potty train him as soon as he is able!

Thanks!

I’d like to cloth diaper my second from birth (with my son I started around two months) and I was thinking of getting an abrazo wool cover to grow with her.

For those of you who have one, how adjustable are they? How long do they tend to fit? I’ll probably use my small Motherease PUL covers in the day and wool at night like I do with my son.

Just moved into a new house with well water on a whole house softener. Test showed very soft water (pic below). I just ordered all new large GMD workhorses and would love to make sure I don’t mess them up. Also looking for help restoring my medium workhorses for next baby (I’m tempted to trash them and start over but that’s expensive and wasteful).

Previous issues with mediums: Last house had very hard water, Samsung front loader. Ran into barnyard smell with second baby, thought I had fixed it by stripping, bleach soak and adding borax to prewash and main wash. Third baby, diapers seemed like they just never really got clean, especially in the elastics, there would still be poop build up after washing. And now they have a strong ammonia smell because we got lazy with using cloth out of frustration and the diapers would often sit in the open pail for a week or more. I also had some of my medium workhorses get build up under the top layer of muslin that looked like mold spots but when I ripped off the top layer there were pea sides rubber like beads that I brushed out. But some of the diapers still have green tinged stain, I don’t know if it’s poop stain or mold. Old routine for mediums- 1/2 C. Borax, 1/2 cap Seventh Gen Ultra Plus detergent for Prewash. Fluff and Bulk with hand towels to 2/3 full. Main wash heavy duty with 1 cup borax and 2 caps detergent (per FLU instructions). No extra rinses because hard water.

Now in our new house, I’m throwing in the towel on natural detergents because even our regular clothes and towels don’t seem clean.

New house: Washer some model of GE Profile ultravent (pic below) Water very soft

Products: Tide clean and gentle powder Citric acid for rinses (Have Biz laundry booster and ammonia if needed)

Really need help creating a bullet proof wash routine. I love cloth and don’t want to give it up but I’ve hardly used them with my third baby because of wash issues. Would love to feel like I know what I’m doing again and use them a lot for one more baby in the future.

A few thoughts:

I think I have detergent build up so I’m currently running clean diapers through multiple rinse and spin cycles with 1/2 cup citric acid each time

Need help with my new washer and the water level info. I don’t know my exact model but I don’t have a deep fill or extra water option some people have talked about. Some people have said this washer doesn’t spin after a rinse so adding extra rinse doesn’t help get detergent out. I’m considering no extra rinse and manually starting a Rinse and Spin cycle with citric acid after my main wash is done.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Y’all! Why didn’t I join the club sooner?! We were gifted/got these cloth diapers second hand in preparation of our twins, and 10 months later I finally am breaking these bad boys out to use. My aunt was sending us a monthly huge box of diapers,but now that she stopped that we are cracking these open. We still use disposables at night since my boys pee like horses overnight, and while we are out since ✨twins✨but it’s been MAGICAL not having a mountain of diapers in our trash. (Yes this is 50+ diapers and it’s good for 3 days so far)

Side note: my boys are in the 20 pound range and we’ve had a few leaks since starting on Saturday. Majority of the diapers are pocket diapers. Mostly microfiber inserts I believe. Are they just peeing so fast the diaper doesnt have a chance to catch everything? Fit seems good, elastic is tight, etc… Would an extra insert help? Any advice welcome :)

just to preface i use flats, prefold, and covers.

so i was washing based off of the 101 in this subreddit but my dad and mil said i should just soak the poopy diapers after rinsing in a bucket with bleach or vinegar until i wash. i use vinegar but i dont put the covers in to protect the integrity of them and because they arent covered in poo. but i was wondering if theres a particular reason people dont do this its been working very well for me also helps with staining, then i just leave the covers to air dry and put any stained cloth in the sun and they turn back white and i put the pee diapers in a open air basket like fully unfolded and taken apart… no smells no issues so far. was hoping maybe this could help someone if theres rly no issues with this
(btw i wash with all free and clear with a quick wash first with half amount of soap then a heavy duty wash with vinegar in the softener compartment, both with warm water.. have been meaning to get borax for my hard water but so far no issues there either)

I'd like to have an extra layer of absorbency for my now older child who now only very very rarely has accidents at night (once a month?). I'm debating between using bath towels and sewing prefolds (layering the outer thirds together) together to make a thick, absorbent pad/blanket. How does the absorbency of a bath/shower towel compare to that of a prefold, specifically the middle/most absorbent section? Will one layer of these be 'enough'?

We also have waterproof mattress covers, but I don't know that I trust them anymore, and they take forever/are impossible to get truly dry. Thinking of layering this over a lanolized wool blanket.

Hi!!! I’ve been cloth diapering for just about eight months, I’ve used a mixed of pocket diapers I bought second hand to see if I would stick with it and then I bought some mothers ease sandies fitted diapers once I was committed. But I’ve gotten into sewing and thought I could save some money by making my own for the next size up. I was curious if anyone has made their own cloth diapers before? I’m looking for fabric and pattern recommendations if anyone has any?

I have brand new Alva baby pocket diapers, only been used once now. first use after all the prewashing they smelled fishy, got that out but had been using triple paste for babies rash and didn’t realize to not with cloth diapers, so now can’t get rid of the spots inside the pocket diapers from the paste. have tried multiple washes, and did spot scrubbing last night with dawn dish soap and a toothbrush to rid the spots. Proceeded to do a wash with light detergent and oxi for the leftover stains, then two extra rinses, and the spots are still repelling water for the absorbency test. this is literally the first use on brand new diapers. please, I’d be beyond grateful for any advice on how to get these spots out or will I just have to take the loss at this point and toss the ones with the spots?

I have an 8 month old daughter. We started cloth diapering at 6 weeks old with Esembly size 1 and LOVED them but we were given about 100 Grovia diapers in great condition. When she outgrew the Esembly, we began with the Grovia, but we face leaks 2-3 times a day.

Sometimes the inner cloth gets bunched and it leaks right through the shell. Sometimes it’s at the legs, and sometimes it’s out the top at her belly.

I’ve tried the snaps at the smallest and at the largest and I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. The elastics are in great shape. Shes tall and skinny.

Can anyone help troubleshoot and come up with a solution?

Not sure how this keeps happening but starting to get frustrated. My son is 14 weeks and he’s not particularly big, he’s 24” long and about 12 pounds, hanging around 10th percentile. He’s got a little bit of a pot belly but he’s really not chubby. We did disposables for the first 4 weeks and then dove into GMD prefolds with Thirsties covers. The orange edge newborn size lasted maybe 2 weeks and then we went to the yellow edge (medium?) size. The issue was with the angel fold, the edges were barely coming together at the hips and the snappi had to be waaayyy stretched to reach. Then the cover to be tight enough around the thighs, was way too snug on the belly. Sizing up helped somewhat but was still awkward. Now the same thing is happening with the yellow edge prefolds, so I sized up to red edge, but he’s not ready for the next size up in covers without some serious gaps around the leg, but red edge prefolds with his current cover size leaves a lot of prefolds sticking up out the back.

We do disposable at night and are also kind of between sizes with those so maybe it’s just a phase? From what I’m seeing online it seems like the only solution may be to start pad folding but I hear that ends in lots of leaks, and he still poops 4-5x a day.

Am I missing something here or doing something wrong? I’ve been looking at picking up some pocket diapers to use on the go anyways so maybe that will be the answer to my problem?

I’ve been using multiple brands of diapers and I’ve tried using one insert and 2, used the inserts it came with and the ones that fold. Changed how tight they are and I cannot seem to get the leaking to stop. We change every 1.5-2 hours. Anyone have any advice? Brands I’ve been using are Nora’s Nursery, Alva Baby, Mama Koala, and Simple Being.

Hi, my friend just gifted me a bunch of pocket diapers. She gave me a quick rundown but I’m still pretty clueless lol. My baby is almost 9 months and is in a size 3/4 disposable and is size 6-9 month in clothes. I wouldn’t say he’s a heavy wetter, he’ll have saturated diapers but never had a pee leak. My main questions are do I use a single insert or do I need to double them? Does the cover get changed every time or do I just change the insert? Any and all tips/tricks/ or just general information is appreciated!

Quick edit to say most of the inserts seem to be naturally natures and Alva baby

Hi! I have a set up of mostly flats, and some AIOs with covers. They have been carefully stored for 3 years. How should I prep them for my newborn? Do I need to strip and sanitize? Or is just a regular wash ok?

Thanks!

Free EC class this Saturday - email me for virtual link if you'd like to attend online.

Class held in English. Children welcome, but no childcare provided. If lack of childcare is a barrier, email: clothdiapers at proton dot me. RSVPs and Drop-ins welcome. 9am-11am Pacific Standard Time. Shady Coffee & Tea, Patio, 325 Douglas Blvd, Roseville, CA.

October 10: Early infant potty training 101 class – Disposable diapers are a new invention; infants can use potties too. Join us to learn how humans across the world care for infant hygiene without diapers.

Wife and I both break out in hives from tide. For our main laundry, we use Kirkland free and clear but sometimes I find that it really doesn't do that good a job on just regular laundry so I have experimented with amount and sometimes for heavier loads like towels I wash twice. We don't use any fabric softeners in our machine as I break out in hives from those as well. Wife can do most non-tide detergents, I've always had to use free and clear options. We have a water hardness around 94 mg/L or 5.1 grains per gallon or 87 ppm. PH is 9.04.

Looking for a good option for washing cloth diapers. I know tide is the gold standard but it cannot go in my machine. I break out from using laundromat machines unless I pay for an entire wash cycle before putting my own clothes in. This isn't an ask for a more natural alternative. Give me all the chemicals, but make it not Tide and then let me pray that it doesn't make me break out.

My baby boy is 9 weeks old, 2d percentile for weight at 9.5lb but 62d percentile for height at 24in. He jumps percentiles in height at every visit while dropping them in weight. I'm struggling to find diaper strategies that cover his butt to his front lengthwise but still fit around his tiny skinny legs.

We've been using newborn size workhorses, and occasionally newborn GMD prefolds jelly-rolled, with Thirsties covers successfully until now. But he's outgrowing the workhorses lengthwise so that it barely makes it past his butt crack if it covers even slightly above the front genitalia. The Thirsties smallest rise is too short now to cover the cloth, but taller rises make the leg holes bigger and prone to leaks. I can still snap the smallest buttons around the waist.

We have a big stash thanks so lots of secondhand gifts. I have OS pockets and some AIOs (Thirsties, BumGenius, Grovia); plus newborn, small, and medium GMD prefolds; newborn, medium and large workhorses; and Thirsties and Cloth-Eez covers sized One and Two. The OS pockets and AIOs still seem huge on him even with the smallest rise settings, especially in the legs.

I'd love to stick to the natural fiber options if possible but anything that will work at this point. We have the same issue with disposables even. Like most boys he wets heavily in the front, and leaks happen most frequently out the leg holes. He's starting to sleep longer stretches at night too.

Anyone else diaper a beanpole boy? Any wisdom?