Many moms want to try cloth diapers, but are fearful of what “dear old dad” might think of the idea. I often hear, “I want to use cloth diapers, but I don’t think he’ll go for it. I sure don’t want to get stuck with all the diaper changes.”
In diapering, as in life, good communication and partnership is the formula to success. Instead of resigning to full-time diaper duty, consider these tips and discussion points when bringing up the issue with Dad:
- DISPOSAL. Cloth diapers are not much different than disposable diapers; instead of throwing them in the trash can, you throw them in the laundry pail or wash.
- POOP. Poop can get on your hands whether you are changing a cloth or disposable diaper; luckily you probably have access to a sink and good soap!
- If the poop question still prevails…an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Select a cloth diaper with an inner microfleece layer – solids will slide right off.
- Besides microfleece, there are other cloth diapering accessories to make changes easier and more hygienic; paper liners, sprayers that hook up to your toilet tank, and odor eating sprays.
- COST. Most families will spend up $2500 on disposable diapers from birth to potty training! A stash of cloth diapers, including the water and electricity used to wash and care for them, costs an average of $900. Cloth diapers can even be used for subsequent children for greater savings.
- WASHING MACHINE. Do not fear using your family’s washing machine to wash cloth diapers. Washers are equipped to handle even the heaviest soiled items without lingering odors or messes; everything will come out “in the wash”.
- ODOR. There is less odor when using cloth diapers than with disposables. With cloth diapers poop is flushed away to the proper sewage treatment facilities before putting the cloth diaper in the pail; disposable diapers “hold” the poop IN THE DIAPER PAIL until trash day.
- RUBBER PANTS. Rubber pants are a thing of the past. Unless you really, really want to use them, you don’t have to use rubber pants OR diaper pins. Securing a cloth diaper around baby is as easy as putting on a disposable diaper.
Experience has shown that when Dad’s concerns are respectfully addressed in a logical manner, even the most reluctant are willing to try.
The advances in cloth diapering are huge; designed to make caring for baby’s basic needs far easier, cloth diapers are also safer and more cost effective. Who wouldn’t want that for their family?
If after all that Dad still isn’t convinced, buy him a pair of paper underwear and challenge him to wear for them for a day. What do you bet he won’t want disposables for his baby once he gets a “feel” for it himself.
Bryana is the owner of 
Becca is a part-time Spanish Teacher and part-time Stay-At-Home-Mom. She's a cloth diaper expert who enjoys spending time with her family, crafting and selling her wares in her very own
Julie is a mom to three kids including a set of identical twins. Through cloth diapering her twins she developed a passion for the industry and is an avid cloth diaper advocate. You can also find her on her blog
My husband’s biggest complaint is that the cloth diapers are too bulky. My baby doesn’t mind, but he’s convinced that she’s uncomfortable. He’ll still use them but grudgingly.
After reading this, I am very lucky to have a partner who very quickly came around to the thought of using cloth diapers! We ignorantly switched to disposables for a short while because we were dealing with a yeast diaper rash and it was just TERRIBLE. The very first disposable we put on, we had a “poosplosion”! She was red ALL THE TIME in the disposable, AND the smell of the disposable was just disgusting! We’ll never switch back to disposables for ANY reason…
And my partner told me after the whole disposable experience “yaknow, I really do LIKE changing the CLOTH diapers!”
lol I love the paper underwear suggestion, luckily my hubby is already on board for CDing!
When I first started pushing for cloth diapers my hubby just rolled his eyes. We have been using them for about 2 months now on our 14 month old daughter and the other day I overheard him telling a friend who is also a daddy that “cloth diapers are definitely the way to go. Man, you should see how much money we are saving.” This even comes 2 days after he was left at home with our little one by himself, and had to change 4 stinky’s! (Generally, I am the poopie changer if I am home). I will say that if he has to change the poopie CD I will find it on the back porch rather than the diaper pail when I get home, but all in all I really think cloth diapering has caught on with my husband.
You should also push the smell factor. That’s an underused selling point. Never once has my daughter’s diaper pail smelled so bad that I had to take it out of her room. In fact, when I put a soiled diaper in the pail and close the lid, I don’t smell anything. With my nephew’s diapers (his mom puts him in dispoables) WHOOOOOOOOO! It’s awful! One diaper could stink up the whole house! Even when he was exclusively breastfed, it was just terrible. The polymer in sposies, I’m convinced, makes the smell of baby’s waste smell worse than it naturally does. Friends of mine who also cloth diaper have said the same thing. And for that matter, disposable sanitary napkins do the same thing. Since I switched MYSELF to a menstrual cup, there have been no odors of any kind to account for.
I’m lucky that my husband originally wanted to use cloth diapers because he hates waste and also the high cost of disposables. If any ladies out there have issues with dads, the best bet is to push the cost of diapers! I also agree with Denise about the smell. Disposables unused even have an unnatural and unpleasant odor that overwhelms that cute baby smell.
Hahaha, i’m so glad that so many of ya’ll had husbands who were so willing to use cloth! Mine needed MUCH convincing. I finally got him with the cost. I broke it down for him and told him what we could buy instead. After I said we could get a new LCD tv with the money we would save, he was on board!
I got my husband with the cost too. He said, “Why didn’t we start this when he was born?” (he’s one). Now I just need to find the ones I like :)
I’m so lucky that my hub was on board with cloth. He just won’t use the prefolds and covers so, gee darn, I was forced to buy some all in ones for him. :-) My friend, however, isn’t so lucky–her husband flat out refuses to use cloth, despite my attempts to show him how great it is.
My husband is on board. He hasn’t complained one time. Our son has terrible eczema and he knows that cloth is better for him!! (plus, he’s excited about saving a little money:)
When I first told my husband I wanted to use cloth he forbid me! LOL, not how it works, sorry. She’s 3 weeks old and has yet to change a cloth diaper. In his defense he is in the military and not home much anyway, but he really has no choice but to come around. I really doubt he’s going to make a special trip to the store to buy diapers.
I was not at all in the know about the changes to cloth, until friends of ours who are expecting in September said they were thinking about the BumGenius CD. I started researching, and wow, was I impressed. My hubby, on the other hand was not on board at all. He got the savings part, but was worried that they would take time away from other things that needed to be cleaned in the house. After listening to him complain, I just ordered a few to try. And just kept adding to the stash :) He doesn’t do the laundry, ever, so he had nothing to worry about. He’s gotten over it, and doesn’t complain anymore :)
As a guy, I am appalled that more men are not taking an active role in the rearing of their own children. I can’t imagine not doing laundry. I grew up in a household that if you got it dirty, you cleaned it up.
I love cloth diapers because of the environmental reasons and cost. But I do disagree with the poo argument. I get much more poo on my hands with cloth than anything else. But it’s nothing that a little soap can’t handle. Off to do an errand for my wife…
My husband wasn’t wild about CDing either, so I just bought a few to try out myself, and then once he got used to the idea and saw how easy it was for me, he agreed to do it too! We both work, but I work every other weekend, and this weekend was his first with using the cloth diapers. There were no complaints last night…so apparently it’s not as bad as he thought! I think it helps too that I promised to do all the washing of them (I do the majority of the laundry anyway, so no biggie – he does the kitty box, so I think it’s a fair trade!).
I totally agree!! Even though my daughter is now 2, we are slowly making the switch. SO is looking for a new job right now and we can’t afford the $15 every week! It’s not feasible right now! So we have 4 CD right now and He’s totally adjusted. He was against it, but as soon as he saw her in one he started asking questions, we openly talked about it. I answered all his questions and now he’s on board with it! I have since purchased 3 more and they should be here this week!! I paid as much for them as I did for 2 weeks of diapers! Not bad. And with these 7 diapers I should be able to cloth diaper her full time. I also have always done the changing so That’s not an issue here. I also do all the laundry so again, NOT a problem!!
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