The sprayer was a great tool; I just needed to learn how to use it well. My first rinsing attempt lead to a bath, for myself and for the bathroom. As I navigated the gentle tweaking of the valve to get just the right amount of water pressure, the water and organic matter went flying. I tried again, hoping it would get much better. While my next several attempts got much easier, it was still messy.

I decided to bring the dry pail into the bathroom and pull it close to the toilet. This helps prevent dripping (huge move). I also used to lift the toilet seat before spraying. I did not want to get it dirty. However, the lid, actually, helps keep the splatter to a minimum. If you put the diaper sprayer below the level of the toilet seat, it works.

In the end, I learned a few things. Bring the pail to where your sprayer is located. Open the pail ahead of time. Pull out the liner, if it is a pocket, before rinsing off the bulk of the poop. Put the insert in the pail. Then, fold the diaper in half (opening side down) with the inside out. Rinse in a downward motion. Put the sprayer close to the fabric on a lower setting to prevent tones of splatter. It may take a little longer to rinse, but it will prevent bathroom clean up.

If you are using an all-in-one, you will most likely need to wring the diaper. I have heard that you can use tools (aka. tongs) to hold the diaper and press it against the side of the toilet bowl to remove the access water. I, admittedly, have never tried this myself.

My conclusion is that sprayers are great. They take some getting used to, I still am; however, it helps keep the diapers from staining as horribly. Cloth diapering can sometimes be a labor of love, but overall the sprayer makes it a little bit easier.

Ashley Williams is a 24 year old first-time mom to an amazing little boy and wife to a great husband. She is taking a year off school to be a stay at home mom. Before going back to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Ashley considers herself a “cloth diapering, baby food making, sling carrying, warrior momma” and loving every minute.

In her free time Ashley cooks, scrapbooks, goes to a mother’s bible study, watches TV, and sleeps (if she’s lucky).

I’m always looking for ways to continue that love outside of the nursery, to make every day an earth day, and I believe you all are doing the same. I’ll be posting green tips as I find them, but I’d love to hear from you all as well. I’ll group them together and turn them into a one-click online resource for parents who are just getting started on their eco-conscious journey.

Today’s Green Tip: Green Cleaning
When I was growing up, my parents made decisions that were about being less eco-conscious, more about being cash poor. Whatever their motivations, the end result was that we used what we had versus buying expensive disposables. In our house, there were seven kids and only one income. For us, baking soda was akin to a miracle.

• Round one: baking soda plus toothbrush. For the first 30 days or so, it was the combination we used it in our mouths to clean our teeth. Not so tasty but it did the job.
• Round two: scrub around the sink fixtures. A little bit of baking soda and water kept those faucets sparkling clean.
• Round three: Baking soda plus vinegar or lemon juice. Who needs expensive cleansers when you can combine two natural ingredients that do a foamy, fizzy, delightfully clean dance over soap scum and bathtub rings?

We also used baking soda to clean countertops, baking soda to freshen diaper pails and baking soda in our carpet to absorb any smells. With all the chemical options on the shelves, isn’t it nice to know that one of the best and most versatile cleansers is eco-friendly, inexpensive and non-toxic?

Do you use baking soda? Let us know how it worked (or didn’t work) for you!

This applies even more to bringing a baby with you whether they are cloth diapered or not. This summer, my little family has taken an inordinate amount of trips away from home and every time we go, we go with cloth diapers. In fact, I’m proud to report that not once, while away from home, has a nasty, chemical-ridden, plastic-y and loud disposable diaper touched my daughter’s precious bum.

Was it difficult to use cloth? Maybe at times.
Worth it? Absolutely!

You just learn to go with the punches and make do with what you have!

Solving Sticky Situations

In our travels, here are some of the sticky situations my husband and I have encountered and the solutions that we found worked for us:

No Washing machine.
I’ve traveled many times to places without a washing machine. In such instances, all you really need is a place to soak your diapers. A hotel bathtub or sink will do nicely.

If you’re going to be away for more than two days you will have brought your cloth diaper detergent with you anyway – so just use this inconvenience as a chance to strip your cloth diapers while your at it!

Give them a good, long soak in some all natural laundry detergent or dish detergent and rinse, rinse, rinse until all the bubbles are gone. Your diapers will smell so fresh when you’re done that you’ll want to hand wash them more often!

An unfamiliar washing machine.
Even if the place you’re staying does have a washing machine, all washing machines are different and will treat your laundry differently. While visiting a friend over a couple of days, she was kind enough to allow me to wash and dry my daughter’s diapers in her machines. Now, hers are much more fancy than mine are, and though I’m accustomed to an HE washer, hers seemed to use much less water than my HE does. This meant that I found I had to add more rinses to my wash in order to get all the urine out of the inserts.

It took me a few times, but right around the time I was ready to leave for home, I’d figured out the best method of washing my diapers in her machine.

No dryer
This is absolutely not an issue because you can line dry your diapers just about anywhere.

I’ve laid my diapers over air conditioners, hangers, curtain rods, and even on my car to dry them in the hot, Southern sun while I was away on vacation.

Normally I line dry my shells anyway and machine dry my inserts so it’s really only half a hassle for me not to have a dryer at my disposal.

Granted, it will take longer to dry your inserts this way but if it’s sunny outside, why not use it as an opportunity to take advantage of the sun’s natural and safe bleaching properties? And if it’s raining or cold, use the luggage rack that the hotel provides and hang them near the heater.

No Diaper Sprayer
With a spray bottle, some dunking, or even toilet paper, poop can still be extricated from soiled diapers even if you don’t have your trusty diaper sprayer with you. Yes, it may be more gross than using a diaper sprayer, but you’re going to wash your hands and you will eventually wash the diaper that you dunked in a public toilet anyway.

No Diaper Liners
With some sturdy toilet paper or even a flannel cloth baby wipe, you can easily create a cloth diaper liner to avoid said dunking and prying of poop.

If you’re going to go with toilet paper, though, make sure it’s the tough stuff, not the flimsy one-ply deal you may find in some public restrooms. In either case, having a even a make-shift liner will make the disposal of poop much easier as you travel.

No Changing Pad
Failure to remember a changing pad does not have to be a big deal. If you cloth diaper with prefolds or flat diapers, just pull an extra one out and stick it under your baby’s bum. If you don’t have one of those, then a blanket will do nicely as well. If you’re worried about messes and leaking, a grocery bag or even an empty wet bag underneath your baby accompanied by a soft blanket or prefold will really take care of things.

No Wet Bag
Though it’s not ideal, it’s not the end of the world if you forget your wet bag. A ziplock bag or a grocery bag will do nicely.

No Wipes
If you forget your baby wipes, there are so many possible solutions! If you’re at a friends house, you can beg some of their cleaning rags. If you’re in a hotel you can easily use the washcloths left in your room. If worse comes to worse there are plenty of disposable paper products you can use. Wet a couple of paper towels from the gas station bathroom or, use some tissues from your purse.

Traveling with cloth diapers doesn’t have to be difficult and it doesn’t have to be stressful either! You just need to go into it realizing that you probably will find yourself in situations where you don’t have all the conveniences of home and that you’ll have to find a way to get around those things with a little bit of creativity and flexibility.

GUEST BLOGGER

Becca is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

Since we bought a diaper sprayer, poopy diapers have been a non-issue in our house. It is a convenience necessity we just don’t think about, and definitely can’t live without, much like the toilet to which it is attached.

When we go on vacation, using cloth diapers is the only choice for us. Vacations can be expensive enough as it is without the added cost of a couple of boxes of disposable diapers.

But what about the poop? What do you do with the poop when you’re on vacation and you don’t have a diaper sprayer at your disposal? It’s not like we live in Europe where bidets are commonly found in every dwelling place. As my husband put it, it’s one thing if your baby poops when you’re gone for a day. At least then, you can put the mess in your wet bag and deal with it properly when you get home. But when you’re away for a span of time, saving the poopy diapers until later is just not an option.

My husband, daughter and I have gone away three times already this summer (it’s not even July when I write this) and we still have a couple of trips left before the summer is out. This means, that we’ve had plenty of time to experiment with alternate ways of disposing of poop from our cloth diapers, and plenty of time to decide how we will be taking care of said poop in the future.

Here are the options we’ve discovered in our journey

Shake it off. Sometimes the poop really does just “shake off” the dirty diaper and into the toilet. I’ve found that this is true mostly with diapers that have microsuede, rather than microfleece, as an inner fabric; sometimes it works for my fleece-lined diapers too, depending upon the texture of the poop and whether or not the diaper was also wet.

Pry it off. When the poop won’t just fall out into the toilet, we’ve found that using wads of toilet paper to pry it off by hand also works. Yes, this is disgusting, I know, but when it’s all you can do, you’re willing to do it.

Dunk it off. While dunking your prized diaper in a public bathroom (or even the bathroom in a hotel or your host’s house) may not be ideal, it can effectively remove most of the offending poop. I grab both the top and the bottom of my diaper tightly and dunk it while flushing the water. The pull of the flush seems to remove a good amount of the poop. I generally need to do this at least twice. Be careful, though, to have a good hold on your diaper. I couldn’t imagine how awful it would be if I accidentally flushed one, or got it jammed. *shudders*

Spray it off. I don’t know why, but I always have a spray bottle with me when we travel for an extended period of time with cloth diapers. One particular day, when I was just tired of trying to extricate the poop on a soiled diaper using the methods listed above, I figured it couldn’t hurt to use my spray bottle. I adjusted the spray so that it came out forcefully rather than in a mist, and aimed it at some of the worst clumps. Granted, it was a lot of work getting the poop off just a little bit at a time, but with no other option, it worked.

Use a diaper liner. This, is by far, the best option. I promised myself I’d get some of these before we went on vacation after some of the poop experiences we’d had in our previous trips, but alas, I forgot! What a bummer! There are lots of different options of cloth diaper liners. All of them involve a thin barrier between the diaper and the mess.

You can get disposable disposable bioliners which just slough off into the toilet with the poop leaving your diaper washing machine ready. You can also get or make cloth diaper liners out of a bit of microfleece or microsuede and just deal with cleaning the mess of cleaning off a thin strip of fabric rather than the creases and folds of your diaper. Either way, these seem like the absolute best option for traveling with poop. If I can get my act together, I will remember to buy some of these before my next trip

We Only Travel with Cloth

Despite the challenges of traveling with cloth diapers, my husband and I still refuse to buy disposable diapers even if it is just for trips.

We’ve dealt with poop just about everywhere you can imagine – in the car, in gross gas station bathrooms, in nice gas station bathrooms, in Wal*mart, in fast food restaurants, in hotel rooms, and even in friend’s houses – and in none of those cases did we have our beloved diaper sprayer (one of our best cloth diapering investments, by the way!)

Overall, we find that the rewards or using cloth everywhere we go far outweigh the difficulties. We’ve discovered that with a little bit of problem-solving, even the difficulties of cloth diapering can become non-issues after practice.

GUEST BLOGGER

Becca is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

When going on vacation with cloth diapers, getting a good swim diaper is a must!

Basically, a swim diaper is special diaper designed to keep your baby’s poop from invading the swimming pool.

A good swim diaper will allow liquids to pass through and contain the poop safe and sound. It has no absorbent layers because they would add extra weight making buoyancy difficult and causing a safety hazard to your child.

When considering swimming with cloth diapers, you have two choices.

You can buy a diaper that is specifically made for swimming. Brands such as Bummis, Kushies, Imse Vimse, and Apple Cheeks offer quality swim diapers in various sizes.

The plus to buying these diapers is they are specifically made with swimming in mind and are specially designed to contain messes while being submerged in water. They generally aren’t too expensive and usually come in great prints and colors.

Use Pocket Diapers as Swim Diapers!

You can use some of your pocket diapers as swim diapers. Brands such as Happy Heinys and Rump-a-rooz advertise what great swim diapers their pocket diapers make.

When using a pocket diaper as a swim diaper, just take out the absorbent insert, adjust the size to one size smaller than your baby normally wears and you’re set to go.

The positive to using your pocket diapers as swim diapers is you don’t need to buy any extra diapers! However, I would take care to make sure that the manufacturer of the diaper doesn’t advise against using their diapers in this manner before proceeding.

Swim Diapers are Required!

When it comes to summer vacations, swimming is a must! When swimming in public areas, swim diapers are required, so my husband and I have chosen to continue the cloth route rather than wasting our money on swim diapers that will be used once before getting thrown away.

I guess a couple of disposable swim diapers wouldn’t make a huge hole in the environment or my wallet, but why make my vacation more expensive than it already is? And why add even a couple of diapers to our growing landfills? I see no reason to do either. That’s why I choose cloth!

GUEST BLOGGER

Becca is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

When we went to the beach this summer for our vacation, I was so excited to use my daughter’s cloth swim diapers for the first time.

Now, I sort of realized that swim diapers are not waterproof. I’d read somewhere that they are made this way so that a baby won’t be held down by absorbent layers while swimming. But honestly, it just didn’t occur to me that putting my baby in her swim diaper before getting to the pool just wasn’t the best idea.

So, eager to escape the Southern summer heat, we got ourselves ready, and changed my daughter out of her Happy Heiny’s Pocket Diaper into her adorable Kushies swim diaper. Bags in tow and the baby on my hip, we walked down the hall to the elevator.

“Oh no!” I thought to myself, “She’s peeing!”

Ding! The doors opened and we went inside to join two adolescent boys also on their way to the pool. As I stood there with my happy little girl bouncing around on my hip, I suddenly felt it – very hot liquid seeping into the side of my suit.

“Oh no!” I thought to myself, “She’s peeing!”

I didn’t move a muscle, hoping she would just pee a little bit and no one would even notice. I don’t think of my daughter as a heavy wetter because she can use a pocket diaper all night with no doubler even though she wakes up to nurse two or three times.

So, I was sure I would just get a little pee on my hip and that would be that.
But it kept coming.

And coming.

And coming.

I looked down and to my horror a little puddle was forming at my feet.

I looked down and to my horror a little puddle was forming at my feet. Still, it was inconspicuous because it was silent as it ran down my hip and leg.

If only we weren’t so bone dry, if only we were on our way back from the pool then no one would notice the puddle of liquid amassing underneath a dry mommy and her happy little girl.

“Surely, she’s done now,” I thought to myself, casting a worried glance over my shoulder at the boys who were sharing the elevator with us.

Was it me or was this elevator ride extremely long?

I looked back down and the puddle continue to grow, and the pee started loudly slapping against the floor as if someone had turned on a faucet or a hose. Our cover was blown.

“Dave…Dave, she’s peeing!” I said in a whisper that was unfortunately loud enough for the boys to hear

“Ding”

The doors opened, and they walked out.

I wasn’t positive but I thought I heard them snicker.

I couldn’t wait to dunk in the pool.

Now, I knew that the right thing to do would be to report the puddle of pee first thing, but I was so embarrassed at this point that I wasn’t ready to do so. That, and I was covered in pee. I couldn’t wait to dunk in the pool.

It didn’t seem gross to do so since swim diapers are designed to allow the pee to pass through into the pool water. So that’s what we did. We went in the pool first.

I swam for a few minutes and though I know I should be smacked for this, I tried to ignore the fact that there was a puddle of pee in the elevator that was surely spreading throughout the entire resort as people walked through it assuming it was pool water.

So finally, tail between my legs, I dried myself off, and flip-flopped my way to the front desk.

“Um, my daughter peed in the elevator,” I said apologetically.

The lady didn’t miss a beat as she giggled and then assured me she’d get someone to clean it up.

As I walked back to the pool I was sure of two things

I will never look at pool water the same way again now that I understand how swim diapers – disposables and cloth – work

My daughter will now and forever be changed into her swim diapers poolside.

GUEST BLOGGER

Becca is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

Leaving your baby with a sitter is stressful enough without considering the fact that most people are absolutely uneducated in the art of cloth diapering. So what do we do? We educate.

Demonstrate

People are scared of cloth diapers. This is sad since they are just so easy and fun these days, but it doesn’t change the fact that most people only resort to cloth diapers as a last ditch effort to beat the current economic crisis.

Then, those people who wouldn’t dream of going to such extremes, despite the massive amounts of money it would save, look at those of us who do and think we’re crazy for putting poop in our washing machines. But if you’re going to babysit my daughter, then you are going to cloth diaper because that is all she uses, case closed.

“Let me just show you her diapers,” I say just before my hubby and I make our way out the door for a hot date to Walmart.
“They’re pretty simple. Just like disposables but you don’t throw them away!” I pull one out and show them the simple closures and that they go on just like disposables.

“You put the diaper on just like a regular diaper. Then, you spray the wipes and throw the old diaper and the wipe in the wet bag that hangs right here.”

Make it simple

Don’t leave your most complicated cloth diapers at the top of your stash. Leave out the easiest possible diapers for your sitter to use and make sure they know the steps of using them.

I prefer to leave all in one diapers or pocket diapers with Velcro tab closures at the top of my stash for baby sitters.

I don’t point out my fitted diapers, prefolds or various diaper covers because it’s just too many different types of diapers to choose from.

When I have the sitters use pocket diapers, I don’t even ask them to take out the insert before putting them in the wet bag, and I won’t make them use the diaper sprayer either. “Just stick it all in there,” I say, indicating my hanging wet bag “and I’ll take care of the rest.”

Write it Down

Cloth diapering isn’t as much complicated, as it is foreign territory, to those who have only used disposables. So make a list. Leave it with the sitter, or post it somewhere near your changing table. Write down things such as “Please don’t use rash creams” or “Diapers go in the laundry not the trash.” where your sitter can see them. Of course, what you write in your directions is up to you and dependent upon your cloth diapering style.

Leave it out

To make matters even more simple for your sitter, leave out the amount of diapers they will need. Leave them in a visible place, so they don’t have to go fishing in drawers and baskets through AIOs, AI2s, and fitteds to find what they need. It might be prudent to leave out two or three diapers right next to your cloth baby wipes and spray bottle. Then, the steps of what to do are obvious and less ominous.

I know, I know, it may seem much easier just to pull out a few disposables and let the babysitter use those on your child, forgoing your cloth stash entirely, but honestly why would you do that when the cloth diapers are just as easy? And who knows, when your babysitter is done taking care of your child, you just may have created another cloth diaper convert!

GUEST BLOGGER

Becca is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

Since I majored in Spanish in college, it was part of my course requirement to study abroad. I had always wanted to see Europe, so choosing to go to Spain was a very easy decision for me. The first time I walked into a bathroom in a Spanish hotel, I was surprised to see what I thought were two toilets. Later, I discovered one of them was not a toilet, but a bidet — a device used for washing your…um…”diaper area”, after…you know.

Soon, I moved into an apartment to live with a sweet little old lady for the duration of the semester, and I discovered that she also had a bidet and used it for many things other than just washing her bottom. She not only washed herself with it, but used it to wash our underwear and socks as well. What seemed like a device with very little purpose, turned out to be quite useful in many areas of her life.

When my husband and I bought a diaper sprayer, we bought it with one purpose in mind – taking care of nasty poop on our daughter’s diapers without having to touch it. But since, we’ve discovered that our diaper sprayer has many other helpful uses as well, meaning it won’t become obsolete once we no longer have a little one in cloth diapers.

Obvious Uses for a Diaper Sprayer

The first most obvious use for a diaper sprayer is to clean off your cloth diapers when they have solids on them. Sometimes the poop doesn’t just shake off nicely. Sometimes it has to be helped – especially when it’s that soupy newborn poop we all know and love.

They are very useful for prepping cloth maxi pads for the wash as well as cloth diapers. Since it’s very important to clean blood with cold water, your diaper sprayer is ideal for rinsing out your mama cloth before adding it to your load of diapers in the washing machine.

They are great for personal hygiene; turn the pressure down and clean yourself just like the Europeans do, but without the extra porcelain!

Not-so-obvious Uses for a Diaper Sprayer

They are wonderful for cleaning messy mops! Don’t you hate how nasty your mop gets after you’ve given your floors a good, hard scrub? I always used to wash my mop in the bathtub, which was problematic because then I had to worry about draining all that dirt – some of which took a few rinses. But with a diaper sprayer, you can spray off the dirty mop into the toilet and then flush it. No more messy bathtubs!

The most useful thing a diaper sprayer is good for, outside of cleansing cloth diapers, is cleaning the toilet! I always give my toilet a little spray while rinsing a soiled diaper. If you keep a sponge handy in the bathroom, or even just a rag, you can have your toilet shiny clean all the time!

So, if your only hang up about getting a diaper sprayer of your own is that you’re worried it will be a useless piece of hardware once you baby has potty trained, then worry no longer. You’d be amazed by how helpful this wonderful contraption can be for many things—though I don’t know that I’d go as far as my Spanish friend and wash my underwear and socks in my toilet with it :)

Have you found any other creative uses for your diaper diaper sprayer? Leave a comment and let me know! I’d love to know how else I can make this contraption functional in my house!

GUEST BLOGGER

Becca is a part time Spanish Teacher, a part time Stay-at-home-mom, and the wife of the best husband imaginable. Becca’s absolute favorite thing to do is to spend time with her little family. She also enjoys doing anything crafty – from making jewelry, to writing, to sewing, to photography.

You can read more about Becca at her blog, Becca’s Cloth Diaper Blog.

When I first began cloth diapering, I was nervous about nighttime. I learned quickly that my son is what they call a “heavy wetter”–he can soak a cloth diaper in very little time. I wondered how any cloth diaper could stand up to such a challenge. And so I Googled–and wasn’t relieved by what I found there.

I did find a few bloggers’ lists of favorite nighttime underwear, but reading these lists was mind-boggling: “An Imse Vimse wool cover with a prefold and a Joey Bunz Hemparoo insert.” “FuzziBunz OS, double-stuffed.” “Fleece-lined Happy Hempys with Thirsties inserts.” “Goodmama with two bamboo doublers and a fleece soaker.”

It felt more like a game of assembling a Mr. Potato Head than information about how nighttime diapering works…

It felt more like a game of assembling a Mr. Potato Head than information about how nighttime diapering works, and what the best products available are! Bear in mind, too, that I was new to cloth diapering at this time, had only experimented with one brand, and had barely even heard of these others. I wasn’t keen on the idea of purchasing one of everything, “just to see.”

So here’s what I’ve come to understand: nighttime cloth diapering is doable, and there are several variables to consider–each of which plays a part in what type of nighttime diaper you choose.

FIT

A good nighttime cloth diaper fits snugly, with no gaps at the back or legs. Obviously, every baby’s physique is different, and therefore each baby’s diapering needs are different in this department. If your baby’s thighs, for example, are thinner than average, you’ll need a diaper that allows for a lot of adjustment in that area.

FuzziBunz One Size Diapers are extremely adjustable, and can be changed over time as your baby grows. You might also consider pull-on covers, such as those offered by Imse Vimse, which are snug at all openings.

ABSORBENCY

Of course, absorbency is of primary concern. A diaper’s absorbency depends on the material it’s made of, and there are a host of choices in this department: cotton, microfiber, fleece, hemp, bamboo…or any combination thereof.

GroVia One Size Diapers feature organic cotton inserts that count as six layers of absorbent material in one fairly slim soaker; they also have organic cotton boosters that can be layered in for extra absorbency. However, given the size of the soakers and boosters, usually only one soaker and one booster will fit in a diaper cover. Usually, this is enough for the average baby overnight.

Hemp and bamboo are both environmentally friendly, sustainable materials that are also exceptionally absorbent. You can get a lot out of an insert or doubler made of these, and they’re usually quite thin as well (which is to your advantage if you plan to be layering these on top of other inserts or prefolds).

Parents of “heavy wetters” would do well to purchase a few of these to have on hand–a good example would be Joey Bunz Hemparoos. These are simply hourglass-shaped inserts that can be layered in to almost any kind of diaper cover, which converts whatever you have in your stash already into a nighttime-worthy combination.

FEEL

Of course, what really matters is how Baby feels in his or her diaper. Nobody likes to feel wet! And so the construction of the diaper, and how the inserts work inside it, is very important. Some diapers, like bumGenius!, can stand alone without inserts, with a microfiber lining that wicks moisture away from the skin.

FuzziBunz and Happy Heiny’s also operate as a pocket diaper with a microfleece lining that is very soft and leaves your baby feeling dry even after a full night’s sleep.

Fleece is also a good choice for the diaper cover itself, as is wool. While the polyurethane-lined covers do an excellent job of keeping clothes dry, they don’t always breathe well, and that can lead to discomfort in some babies. Fleece and wool covers, such as those sold by Bummis or Imse Vimse, can help wick moisture away if it gets through the diaper itself, while allowing for maximum airflow and comfort.

While it can be daunting to explore all of the options available for nighttime diapering, remember that your baby’s daytime needs can help inform you of his or her nighttime needs, too.

…remember that your baby’s daytime needs can help inform you of his or her nighttime needs, too.

Observe how often he or she soaks a cloth diaper during the day, and that can help indicate to you how much absorbency is needed to get through the night.

Experiment with different combinations of covers and inserts to determine your baby’s comfort, and keep checking in as he or she grows. Remember, as babies grow and no longer need to feed constantly throughout the night, the amount they will urinate through the night will also decrease; also, increased mobility means that diapers may not fit the same way they did when your baby was a newborn!

If cost is an issue, consider the following options:

• Purchase different styles of cloth diapers pre-owned, and therefore discounted;
• Invest in items that you know you’ll use at some point, regardless of diaper choice, such as hemp inserts;
• Investigate the possibility of swapping with other local moms so that you can try out styles in their stashes, and they can try out yours!

Cloth diapering at night can be done, and it’s worth it! Feel free to list your favorite nighttime diapers or cloth diaper combinations as comments here for other moms to see.

GUEST BLOGGER

Issa M. Lewis is a first-time mom to Matthew (8/23/09). She is employed as a college English instructor, and is always seeking to find balance between being a full-time mother at heart and a working at a fully rewarding job.

You can read more from Issa at her blog, Matthew’s Mom Blog.