Fitted Diapers

Another very popular type of cloth diaper is the fitted diaper. Basically, a fitted diaper is an all-in-one without the waterproof cover. They are very easy to put on, and they usually either snap or velcro. However, you do have to use a separate waterproof cover to prevent leaking. Fitteds allow a bit more flexibility than all-in-ones. It tends to be easier to add a doubler for overnight, and the ability to choose which cover you want to use can be helpful as well. They are also more durable and easier to wash and dry because they don't have the waterproof layer attached. They can also be a less expensive option, depending on what covers you choose to pair with them. If you choose a cover with a wipeable interior, many times you can just change the fitted diaper, but wipe and reuse the cover. This way, you only need a few covers.

Personally, fitteds aren't my favorite type of diaper. It is great that you don't have to deal with pins or fasteners, but I don't like how expensive they can be to buy new. They are often $12-$15 a diaper, but you still need to buy covers, most of which are another $12-$15. Granted, you don't necessarily need more than 5-6 covers, but I prefer other, cheaper options (like prefolds, which I'll talk about in a future post) if I'm going to be sacrificing some convenience anyway. Also, having to use a cover, which adds an extra step to a diaper change, can be intimidating to caregivers. For me, I prefer the flexibility of prefolds if I'm already going to add extra steps. Fitteds are definitely more daddy-friendly than prefolds, however. They are a great compromise between the convenience of the all-in-one and the flexibility and ease of care of prefolds.

Pocket Diapers

Similar to all-in-ones, pocket diapers are some of the most popular diapers on the market. They consist of a waterproof outer layer sewn to an inner layer of fabric--usually moisture wicking--and forming a pocket that you can stuff with different kinds of inserts. Most brands of pocket diapers come with microfiber inserts, but you can use just about anything absorbent: old towels, automotive rags, flat diapers, etc. Once the pocket has been stuffed, the diaper goes on and off just like a disposable. When you take it off, though, you either have to shake or pull the insert out of the pocket before you put it in the pail. If you leave it in the pocket to wash it, the insert won't come clean.

In my experience, pocket diapers have two major advantages: extreme customization and the stay-dry layer. My daughter was especially sensitive to feeling wet for the first few months. She generally screamed anytime her diaper felt wet. During the day, this wasn't a big deal for us, since we didn't want her sitting around in a wet diaper anyway. At night, though, she was waking us up every few hours to change her diaper. If you have a newborn who sleeps through the night, nothing is more infuriating than a diaper that wakes your baby up. Pocket diapers were a lifesaver for us. She could sleep for 8 hours, and when we pulled her diaper off in the morning, it felt dry to the touch, despite the insert being completely saturated. Now that she's older, we stuff the pocket with two inserts every night, and she still wakes up dry to the touch, even after sleeping 12 hours in one diaper (she can't even do this in a disposable). The diaper in the picture is a BumGenius 3.0.

There are two drawbacks to pocket diapers, in my opinion. Any stay-dry, moisture-wicking fabric is going to be a petroleum-based textile. It will be polyester. This causes major static in the dryer, it can hold onto an ammonia smell more easily than natural fibers, and it can cause skin irritation in particularly sensitive babies. Also, stuffing the pockets is a bit of a pain, and my husband flat-out refuses to do it. Admittedly, he can't fit his hand inside the pocket, but it's still annoying to have to run upstairs to have to stuff a diaper for him if he's changing her before bed. I stopped pre-stuffing the pockets when we started having variable absorbency needs. Sometimes we need one insert, sometimes two. I don't want to have to un-stuff and then re-stuff a diaper to adjust absorbency during a diaper change.

Despite the drawbacks, I love my pocket diapers, and if we didn't have any, we would be using disposables at night, and she wouldn't be sleeping for a full 12 hours. Since I am determined not to break down and use disposables, our pocket diapers are a very important part of our diaper stash.

All-in-ones: The Gateway Diaper

There are so many different kinds of cloth diapers today that researching and buying cloth diapers can be very confusing. Pins and plastic pants are considered old-school, even among the cloth diapering parents. The simplest and easiest to use type of cloth diaper is the all-in-one. It is exactly what it sounds like: a one-step diaper that goes on and off just like a disposable. It has absorbent layers on the inside and a waterproof layer on the outside. They usually fasten with velcro, like disposables, although some fasten with snaps instead. Unlike disposables, you wash the diapers after each use instead of throwing them away.

All-in-ones are the most expensive cloth diapering option, but they're also the easiest. They usually run between $20 and $30 a diaper, which sounds expensive, but you only have to buy them once. You still end up saving at least $1000 over disposables if you use them on one child. If you use them on more than one child, you save even more. If you're worried about pins or getting used to cloth diapers when you're already used to disposables, this is a great option.

I started with all-in-ones, and I loved them. Once I got used to using cloth diapers, I realized that all-in-ones have a few limitations that other types of diapers don't. They are less customizable than some other options: if you need more absorbency, it can be hard to fit extra layers in the diaper. I was using BumGenius Organic One Size diapers, and I found that they weren't absorbent enough once my daughter started sleeping through the night. I tried adding layers (called a doubler) for more absorbency, but it was pretty hard to fit them inside, since an all-in-one is really designed to work alone. They also wear out a little bit faster than other varieties because it's a little bit harder to get them clean without putting heavy wear on the waterproof layer.

However, they are by far my favorite diaper to use in the diaper bag. When trying to change my baby on one of those flimsy wall changers in a public restroom, I love the convenience of only having one piece to deal with. I take the dirty one off, put it in the wet bag, and put a clean one on. I don't have to worry about sorting anything or air drying anything. It's no different than a disposable. I highly recommend anyone using cloth diapers to have at least a few of this kind in the stash. They got me started, and I still love them for daytime and traveling.

Why Choose Cloth Diapers?

Honestly, I never really even considered disposable diapers. I wore cloth diapers, my siblings wore cloth diapers, and my husband wore cloth diapers-- it used to be normal. Before "being green" was fashionable, being economical was a way of life for average Americans. I chose to cloth diaper my daughter for an old-fashioned reason: it's cheap. By most estimates, the cost to diaper the average baby in disposable diapers from birth to potty training is around $2000 (According to Consumer Reports). An extravagant, top-of-the-line cloth diaper system runs less than $1000 (closer to $600-$700; I'm just trying to be generous), and it can be used again on subsequent children. Although you can argue that cloth diapers are easier on the environment (I personally feel this is fairly obvious), disposable diapers just seem generally wasteful to me.

I live in a townhouse complex, and every Sunday evening, our neighbors put their overflowing garbage cans out for pickup the next morning. Every row of units has a row of cans that are too full for the lids to close properly. For the life of me, I do not know how these people generate so much garbage. We live in such an affluent suburban American culture that it's even financially possible to throw that much stuff away. Reusable plates, napkins, and diapers are so much cheaper. Yes, they require a little more time and a little more work, but if money's tight, it's completely worth it. Everything in those garbage cans had to be paid for at some point. If you're throwing away less, you're probably spending less.

Although cost was the deciding factor in cloth diapering for us, there are other benefits. We've never had to run to the store in the middle of the night because we ran out of diapers. We rarely have to deal with blowouts (On our brief stint using disposables, we had to change her outfit every time we changed her diaper). Our daughter has never had a diaper rash. There are studies that show disposable diapers may be linked to a higher risk of asthma also, so cloth diapers are probably healthier for babies' respiratory systems, but I can't claim to have reaped that benefit in any tangible manner. I was cloth diapered, and I have asthma, so clearly other factors are involved as well.

I have heard some people object to cloth diapering because they don't want to have to deal with poop and pee too much. Reality is that having a baby means your life revolves around bodily functions and fluids, whether you use cloth or not. To me, washing poop out of cloth diapers is no different than having to wash poop off her bottom every day. As a mom, you just have to deal with poop. And if you have a dog (which I do), baby poop is no big deal at all.

As I said, I never really considered disposables. We use real plates and cloth napkins. We cook most of our own meals, and we don't get fast-food very often (although we do fall prey to the lure of Costco's hotdogs for $1.50 about once a week). Cloth diapers just make more sense for us. And we're probably the only family in our complex who could easily have our garbage picked up every other week and still fit the lid on our can on garbage night.