2 Kids in Cloth
In today’s blog post, one of our customers talks about how she is cloth diapering her two children – a three year old and a ten month old. There are many ways to do this. This mentions the use of prefolds. Prefold nappies are made of layered rectangles of cotton with a thicker layer in the centre, which are then covered with a nappy wrap or used as inserts in pocket nappies. Prefolds are very economical and come in very handy when you are cloth diapering more than one child.
Our lovely mum of 2 has also taken the initiative to start the first cloth nappy library in Malta. Check out her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/maltanappylibrary/
Here’s what she had to say:
Often there are times where parents find themselves with 2 children in nappies at the same time. We were one of those lucky families. While I had great plans of potty training my first son before the arrival of our second, the little dude just wasn't ready, and at 3 is only just approaching being mostly dry.
I became pregnant when my first son was 18 months old. Being pregnant, working full time, caring for a toddler and being a wife took its toll and I took a break from cloth, wrongly assuming this would make my life a little more straightforward. During this break I lamented the whole time about how much I preferred cloth, for practical reasons more so than environmental!
Towards the end of my pregnancy the rubbish collection switched to only 2 days per week, and this was the final straw! I decided to return to cloth - the stinky poo needed to be where it belonged - in the toilet. I also just missed my pretty soft nappies and a cushy butt on my son.
Once tiny arrived I opted to cloth part time from birth as my children tend to be so small even newborn nappies are bulky and gappy. Therefore, I was reluctant to fork out on a newborn stash so I opted to use disposables until the little one was a little bigger. I also think this was the right option for us until we adjusted to having a new human in the house. When the little one was around 4-6 weeks old, we dived into full time cloth for both of them.
My stash consisted of pockets for the toddler, using cotton prefolds as inserts. For the baby I used flats and covers. From around 10 weeks we switched to birth to potty which consisted of a mix of All in Ones like the Totsbots Easyfit and All in Twos like the Bambooty Basic and Bambooty One Size, as well as prefolds and covers.
Our children are now 3 years old and 10 months. Our 3 year old is in underwear at home and wears a Bambooty Basic or One Size for out of the house. We also make use of cloth pull-ups (various brands, but we love the Bambooty training pants). Most catch a dribble of wee or a poop but they won't hold a full toddler wee without some leakage onto his clothes. So if my toddler is protesting a nappy I will lay an insert in his training pants. As cloth training pants have a PUL outer it makes a good nappy compromise and if he communicates “potty time” it’s easy to pull up and down.
During the day, my in-laws look after the kids while I’m at work. While my mother-in-law used cloth in her day it was very different from today's modern cloth nappies. For ease of use, the day stash for the baby is made up of Velcro fastening pockets and All in Ones. Totsbots are very good. Pocket nappies with cotton prefolds inside are also great. When I am home I prefer using prefolds laid in nappy covers such as the Bambino Mio Miosoft set up. These last a long time on the bum and are easy to wash, plus if the cover is not pooped on it can be re-used on the next change reducing washing. At night both children mostly sleep through and so a nappy needs to last the night (10 hours). For the toddler, we use a night insert of either cotton or hemp laid in one of his training pants. For the baby, we use fitted nappies like the Totsbots Bamboozle with a bamboo or hemp booster paired with the Totsbots Peenut wrap. Alternatively we fold an old school cotton Terry nappy with a hemp booster.
Having two kids in cloth is not that much different to just having one. I haven't found more or less issues. It hasn’t added any more washing as all nappies are washed together. It has probably saved me laundry since cloth contains poops much better than disposables.
Cloth nappies do add some bulk to the nappy bag and it takes a bit of thought to make sure you are going out of the house with the right nappy setup for the occasion. But that’s a small price to pay. Cloth has saved us a lot of money and also saves us having to remember one more thing at the supermarket! We also make use of cloth wipes which are much more efficient than their disposable counterparts.
Two in cloth is not as daunting as it sounds. I encourage anyone thinking of giving it a go to jump in. It only takes a few nappies to dip your toe in to see if it’s a change that would be suitable for your family. Every time you use cloth it saves space in landfills and reduces your input to the emissions it creates.