A Look at a Few Cloth Diapering Accessories

ac·ces·so·ry

Cloth diapering (CDing) is a simple thing, but can become complicated really quickly if you let it.  I’m going to cover some CDing accessories in this post and mean for them only to be suggestions.  I posted the definition of “accessory” above to emphasize that you do not need any of these items to successfully cloth diaper your child.  In reality, all you really need is some sort of cloth, some sort of water repellent cover, and something to put soiled diapers in.  Here are some things I use to make my cloth diapering life a little easier:

As you can see, we spared no expense with our diaper pail.  Seriously, if I had paid retail for my pail liner (seen in red), I would have paid more for the liner than our $15 step trash can.  One of my motivations to use cloth was to save money, so I have two pail liners, lavender and red, neither of which match my nursery. I happened to come across a woman who was liquidating her cloth diaper business inventory, so I got a great deal on my pail liners (I think I paid $9 each).  While they don’t match the nursery, they do the job (and you can’t see them with the lid closed anyway).  As you can see, it’s time for me to do diaper laundry.  I simply pull the liner out of the can, use it like a sack to carry over to the washing machine, dump everything in, set to wash, and then go over my can with disinfectant and replace with clean liner.  Easy peasy.

L-R: Snappi & cloth wipes

Because I almost exclusively use prefolds, Snappis are a staple for me.  I prefer to use something to hold diapers in place on my son, so I use a Snappi to keep everything together; you can see an example of how the Snappi works here.  There are other alternatives, such as the classic diaper pin, or another item called a Boingo.  I’ve not had the opportunity to try Boingo fasteners, but would love to (feel free to send me a set to try out, Boingo!).  You can, of course, completely bypass using any type of fastener by simply laying a folded diaper in the cover, or placing a cover over the diaper after it’s on your baby.

Cloth wipes, for me, go hand-in-hand with CDing.  It only seems natural to use a cloth wipe and fold it into your soiled diaper once you’re finished using it (just as one would do with disposable diapers and wipes).  I think it would be weird not to use cloth wipes.  I’m already doing diaper laundry, so why not toss wipes in there too?  One of the greatest things about cloth wipes is that, in my experience, one wipe does the trick.  In my 8 1/2 months of cloth diapering, I’ve dealt with some pretty messy poos, and one wipe has been all I needed to ‘take care of business’.  There are a ton of different cloth wipes to choose from on the market, but I’ve only tried two brands:  Charlie Banana (seen above w/ the blue emblem) and OsoCozy (above on the right).  I’ve also added some Circo brand baby washcloths that were on clearance; almost anything can be used as a cloth wipe, and many people make their own out of flannel or recycled receiving blankets (I’m not that handy with the sewing maching).  My favorite?  Definitely the Charlie Bananas; they’re heavy duty, but wonderfully soft with fleece on one side and a cotton jersey-type material on the other side.  I would love to add more CB wipes to my collection — they’re really that great!

Prince Lionheart cloth wipe warmer

Speaking of cloth wipes, I use a cloth wipe warmer.  My son loves his wipes warmed, and actually has a startled reaction when we travel and use ‘cold’ pre-moistened wipes.  My warning with a wipe warmer: put your wipe solution on your wipes right before you’re gong to use them.  The discoloration you see on the above wipes is actually not from cleaning nasty messes, it’s from scorching due to me applying my solution before putting wipes in the warmer.

I love wet bags.  I think I could go crazy buying wet bags with all of the great designs out there!  I was able to pick up the above pictured Wahmies wet bags from the woman I mentioned previously (the pail liners I have are also Wahmies brand).  Above, you see two different sizes.  On the bottom, is a larger wet bag with loop, perfect for when we travel; you can use the loop to hang on a doorknob or handle.  Some people use this larger size wet bag in lieu of a diaper pail.  Because we use prefolds, the larger wet bag will hold an entire weekend’s worth of diapers and wipes.  The smaller wet bag is one that I use in my diaper bag.  I can easily fit 4-6 prefolds in the smaller bag.  We recently joined our local YMCA, so the wet bags come in extremely handy with wet bathing suits as well.

Again, while I use some of these items in my daily CDing routine, none of these items are necessary to successfully cloth diaper.  It seems the longer I cloth diaper, the more related items I discover and want to try.  What are some of your favorite cloth diapering [essentials] accessories?

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