Reblog – Cloth Diapering from Dad’s Point of View

Recently, I’ve written a couple of guest blog posts on my wife’s business’ website – WholeMe! Programs. Though my blog is usually about art, I thought I’d share my post on cloth diapers, for any other discerning diapering dad’s, or mom’s, out there:

As the ol’ Daddy’o around here, it’s my honor-bound duty to do the diaper changing. One thing’s for sure – you can’t be afraid to get down and dirty. I’ve been peed on, pooped on, and peed on again…in that sequence…at 3 in the morning. I’ve walked around with a dried-up poop stain on my leg for most of the day before realizing it. Along the way, I’ve learned a lesson or two. One – always cover them up with a cloth while preparing the next diaper, unless you want to be the target of their shooting practice. For some reason, this one is still hard for me to remember to do every time. Two, make sure you always have wipes available at your changing stations. There’s been too many times where there was a big ol’ mess, I took the dirty diaper off, and then realized I didn’t have any wipes nearby. So now what? Do I leave him there to kick around in his poop? Or do I put the dirty diaper back on while I go get the wipes? I think what I’ve done is grabbed a temporary clean cloth diaper, wrapped it around him, and carried him with me to wherever the wipes are, then added a new clean diaper after cleaning up.

Anyways…since I’ve had over 7 months of diaper duty at this point, I thought I might have at least something helpful to share. I do recommend cloth diapers, since it costs much less in the long-term, it’s pretty easy, and you get to pick out cool colors for the cloth covers. If you don’t like doing lots of laundry, though, then you might go with disposables (if you can, go environmentally friendly and get the biodegradable ones!)

I haven’t tried everything, so I can’t give a multi-product comparison, but I do like what we’ve used.

During the day, we use GroVia brand diaper covers and unbleached cotton “prefolds” that go inside the covers.

While sleeping, we use Bum Genius All-in-One diapers, which come with absorbent inserts, and do a good job of absorbing whatever the baby throws at them throughout the night, thus usually eliminating the need to change a diaper in the middle of the night. We put in two inserts, for extra absorbent protection. …That sounds like something I could say on an infomercial for diapers.