Welcome!

A few people have asked me what's working for us in the cloth diapering world, so I figured rather than writing multiple emails (I always forget something!), I'll just post stuff here.

The Baby Fish is now 4 months old and we've been using cloth since he was about 2 weeks old. Now that he's starting to outgrow his itty bitty baby diapers, we are starting to branch out and try different types. We are still learning, so if my more seasoned friends have tips and tricks, feel free to speak up.

If you're thinking about cloth diapering, I really encourage you to try it! I know it seems really intimidating (and maybe gross), but it's really simple and no yuckier than disposables.

Here are some false assumptions that you might have about cloth:
1. You have to scrub the poop off before you wash them*
 2. It's time consuming
3. Cloth diapers have to soak in a pail until they're ready to wash
4. They stink*
5. They cause an excessive amount of laundry

* My experience is based on an exclusively breastfed baby. Formula fed babies and babies who eat solids will have a slightly different diaper routine.

If your baby is exclusively breastfed, the poop will dissolve in the washer like magic. There is no need to wash it off ahead of time or soak the diapers. In fact, all of the modern cloth diaper manufacturers I've read up on suggest that you use a dry pail.

This is how our diaper routine goes:
1. Baby poops/pees in diaper
2. I take the diaper off and put it in a dry pail along with any cloth wipes I have used.
3. Once a day I run a load of diaper laundry (washer and dryer, but there are certainly benefits to line drying...I'm just lazy!)
4. Fold diapers and start over.

You don't even have to wash the diapers every day (every other day is fine), but I just feel less stressed when I know I'm not getting low on clean diapers. Laundry is the one household task that I don't hate, so it's just not a big deal to me. If you do choose to wash them every other day, try not to wash more than about 20 diapers in one load.