Our Experience, Pros + Cons, and Essentials for Success — Kate Eskuri

Hello, hello, my friend!

As you may know, we recently welcomed our sweet boy, Miles Oliver, into our lives. Life with a newborn is beautiful! sleepy! challenging! incredible! peaceful! stressful! all the things!

and while we alllll have our own unique experiences in motherhood, there is ONE THING we have in common.

our babies… are going to….

poop themselves.

hahahaha.

diapers— let’s talk about it

Because, yes, no matter what “type” of baby you have— sweet as a button, or fussy, a good sleeper, a bad sleeper, or a somewhere-in-between sleeper, a cuddler, or an independent little soul….

the one common thread is… you are going to need diapers.

so let’s talk about it.

Because, while there are a lot of options out there, you may remember from my holistic baby registry, that Adam and I decided to go with cloth diapers for Miles.

OOF. this was a big choice—

because we know there are obviously many pros to disposable diapers. They’re easier to use, you don’t have to do laundry, it’s one and done, etc., but for us? 

The many, mannnyyyyy pros of cloth diapers DID outweigh the cons. 

To be completely honest, I thought using cloth diapers was just something I was going to kind of….. suffer through, for lack of a better word.

I wasn’t necessarily giddy about using cloth— I knew it would add laundry, I knew it would require some planning, I knew it wouldn’t always be the most convenient, etc.

Because when I looked at the LOGIC (environment impact, most cost-effective, nontoxic materials, etc.), I just felt like using cloth diapers was just kind of something I “should” do.

…Like, I knew it made sense to do, but I didn’t think I’d necessarily like it, ya know?

but honestly, 3 months in, and I *genuinely* have loved using cloth diapers and I am so happy I decided to go for it.

In this post, I’m going to tell you my honest experience using cloth diapers, why we chose them, how we do it, and a peek behind the scenes. I was kind of surprised– but this is something a lot of you have expressed interest in, DM’d me about, asked questions, etc., so I thought I’d do a full round-up!

I was soooo intimidated by cloth diapers before I started, but I’ve had a really positive experience, and I just kind of want to tell you our honest thoughts (and tangible tips) on all things cloth diapers…

so let’s get into it! 

why we chose cloth diapers

They’re sustainable. First and foremost, cloth diapers are a more sustainable option than single use diapers. Every time I use a cloth diaper I have a thought of “Oh this is one less diaper going to the landfill,” which means a lot to me (and is weirdly motivating!). On a more micro-level, they also create less waste for our household— no constant trips to take the garbage out for us!

They save money. While there IS an upfront investment for cloth diapers, as all parents know, disposable diapers are quite expensive over TIME since you go through them so quickly. While cloth diapers are more of an up-front investment, ultimately it saves a lot of money to use cloth over time. (While I’m not sure if this is true… i’ve seen a stat that using cloth diapers can save parents $2000 per baby)

They’re organic & gentle. One of the biggest selling points for us was that you can get cloth diapers with clean, organic fabric. A lot of single-use diapers are full of toxic chemicals which can be irritating to baby’s bottom. The brand we use is organic cotton so it’s suuuuuper gentle, and Miles has had like zero diaper rash. Another check mark in the “pros” list for cloth! 

They work SO well. If you’re reading this post I’m going to assume there’s no such thing as TMI, so I’ll just go ahead and say: we’ve found that the cloth diapers hold pee and poop in SO much better than the disposable diapers we’ve used. So not only are they great in all of these other ways, they actually WORK!

They may help potty train quicker?!: Did you know the average age of potty training has increased over the last few decades? Kids are getting older & older before learning to use the potty. While there are many potential factors for that, one thought is that disposable diapers are sooo good (almost, too good) at wicking away moisture from baby’s bottoms so it’s more difficult for babies to correlate their peeing with that uncomfortable wet feeling. There is thought that cloth diaper helps babies potty train more quickly because when they pee they are wet & learn to correlate that feeling with the need to go to the bathroom! 

Out of diapers? No sweat.: Okay, hot take, but in these wild newborn days, it can feel STRESSFUL when you realize you are almost out of diapers. With disposable diapers, I would have to get my baby dressed, load him in the carseat, drive to the store, find the diapers, check out, drive home, unload the carseat, etc. For me, it feels wayyyyy less burdensome to just do a load of laundry when I’m “out” of cloth diapers than having to run a full-blown errand. For me, i have LOVED that a new “stock” of clean diapers is only a load of laundry away!

They can be used in the future! Another benefit of cloth diapers is that we can use them for our future kids as well! I love knowing that we made a one-time investment that we can keep using and will save us even more money in the long run. (not to mention, cloth diapers have a PHENOMENAL re-sale value. yes, really.)

cons of cloth diapers:

they are a bit bulkier: just the nature of cloth fabric, the diapers are a bit bulkier than disposable options. this padding in the booty can be tricky to fit little baby pants over, ha! It’s not a big deal at all… but cloth diapers do give a little #junkinthetrunk

they require water/electricity to launder: We all know that disposable diapers create waste— in fact they estimate that diapers alone contribute 3.6 million tons of landfill waste every year. (yikes). While cloth diapers aren’t perfect from a sustainability standpoint either (more laundry requires more energy and water waste), it still felt like the “better” option to me. From an environmental perspective, neither option is 100% perfect; so just pick the one that feels best to you.

they aren’t as easy on the go: this one is obvious, but cloth can be a bit tricky when you aren’t at home because you can’t just throw it away like a normal diaper… We personally just opt to use disposable diapers when we are out of the house (more on that below), but if you wanted to use cloth out-and-about, you CAN. very easily, in fact! just get a “wet bag” to transport any soiled diapers.

you will have to do more laundry: I mean, duh. But a definite con. As someone who HATES laundry, this is what I was most nervous about. You will be doing more laundry with cloth… but it may not be as much as you think. We only do 2-3 more loads of laundry per week to have unlimited diapers! Personally, this has NOT been as bad as I anticipated.

you have to be somewhat “on top of it”: going off the previous one, it can take a little bit to figure out your rhythm of laundry. at the beginning, we would forget to wash the diapers and run out of clean cloth diapers in between loads. After a few weeks, we got into a really natural, effortless rhythm, and doing the diaper laundry is just second nature. But it is an adjustment at the beginning!

location does matter: while we have a home with a separate laundry room, soaking tub, etc., I know that’s not everyone’s living situation! I do think cloth diapering would be really tricky if you didn’t have accessible access to laundry in your immediate living environment! (there are cloth diapering services if you are really set on it, but just saying I think it would be VERY hard if you had a community washer/dryer, needed to use a laundry mat, etc.)

there is an up-front cost: while disposable diapers are more expensive overall, the cost is spread out over time. with cloth diapers, there is more of an up-front investment. again, it’s less total money in the end, but you do have to invest up-front!