- The other day, Seth was like,
"I'm really glad you did this cloth diapering thing.
It's not difficult.
And it is saving us money to not have to buy these diapers."
"What?
You are? Great."
Hey guys, my name is Shayla.
Welcome to the channel.
If this is your first time here,
I started this vlog traveling, then I got pregnant,
and talked about all the pregnancy things.
Now I'm talking about mom things as I learn them.
If this is not your first time here, welcome back.
This video, I want to talk about cloth diapers.
We're starting to do cloth diapering,
and a lot of people have questions about it
because it's overwhelming.
It's super overwhelming.
And I think that's why most people don't do it.
And I get it because I almost was just like, forget it.
We're doing it 'cause it saves some money
and because it saves the world.
So that's why we're doing it.
We're doing, I want to call it cloth diapering 80-20.
80% we do cloth diapering, 20% we do disposable.
Also 80-20 is a good place to convince your partner.
If you're like, "I want to do cloth diapers."
"Absolutely not."
You're like, "Okay, well, how about this in between method?"
It's working for us, it makes sense for us,
and I wanted to make this video
to give you permission if you're like,
"Well, I don't know if I can do it all the way."
You don't have to.
So I kind of want to explain to you what we do, how we do it.
I think the hardest part about cloth diapering
is just getting started and getting the system together
and figuring out all the things.
There's 50,000 brands and 50,000 different-
There's pocket diapers, and all in ones,
and know it can get super duper overwhelming.
And then you're just like, "Forget it."
What do they say?
Paralysis by analysis.
You just keep trying to figure it out.
You just can't move forward with anything.
I just didn't like the idea of having
to pull out dirty liners.
This is not going to be a video that's going to tell you
about all the different kinds of diapers,
because I just took the advice from somebody
who'd tried all the diapers and was like,
"This is the best one."
So I'll pass that information along to you.
So the very, very basics to get started,
you need diapers and you need a wet bag.
And the wet bag is just like a bag
that you put in your hamper just
to keep everything contained.
We put ours in the Diaper Genie.
Breastfed poop is water-soluble.
So I'll tell you about that.
It's so easy to clean.
You never have to touch the poop while they're breastfed.
I haven't fed her any solids or formula.
I know the game totally changes then.
So then what you need, they have these sprayers
that you hook up to your toilet.
You just hook it up.
It's like the sink sprayer.
And then they have these pails
that you just sit on the toilet,
you put the diaper in there,
you spray it off, it goes into the toilet,
and then you throw it in the wash.
They also have liners that you can put in the diapers.
And then you just, if it's a poop diaper,
you just pick up the liner and throw it away,
and then that's it.
Those videos are to come because we haven't gotten that far.
If you just wanted.
I hate to be really annoying,
but I can hear your phone out here.
Period, can you just turn it down a little bit, please?
This is a bumGenius all in one diaper.
So these diapers are good from about 8 pounds to 34 pounds,
which is what my three-and-a-half-year-old nephew is.
These are super big for newborns,
so they have newborn cloth diapers,
but a lot people just start with disposables.
And for me, I was like, "Let's just take one new thing
at a time."
So we didn't start cloth diapering
until she was three months, I think.
When I finally decided, yeah, I'm going to do this,
I got super intimidated by all of these snaps.
Basically what the snaps are is these connect
to each other like this
just to make it a little bit smaller.
Your diaper can fit a little bit smaller baby.
And then these just connect around the waist.
So that's pretty simple.
And then as they get bigger, you'll just make these bigger.
She's already like, we don't have to use these anymore.
We just use the ones around the waist.
And then when you use the ones around the waist,
oh, let's say we're going to clip to these.
Then the second clip goes out one.
Okay, so to prevent showing her lady bits,
we're putting a disposable diaper on her.
But first let's show what it looks like.
It's got all those little snaps.
If you open it up,
let's just do the elephant in the room here,
this is not a stain.
We used diaper rash cream stuff
that apparently is not supposed to be used
with these cloth diapers, so it stains.
With disposable diapers,
you start with this thing super high up.
With cloth diapers, you start with it just on their hips,
so it starts really low.
Then it goes up.
- Oop.
(Seth whistling)
Boom.
- Okay.
Then basically however big your baby is,
is how big or is where you're going to strap those on.
Okay.
Yeah, okay, very good, Seth, very good.
So you're going to strap these ones on first
and then these are going to go back one.
Then you want to kind of squish the crotch
so that there's obviously going to be a gap because of that,
but you want to make sure all the cloth is tucked into there
and that you kind of squished the crotch
so that it gets pushed into her little legs.
Also want to make sure that the cloth isn't hanging
out a little bit.
I had done a few diapers like this.
Well, guess what?
Her clothes got wet
because I didn't tuck that little cloth piece in.
So make sure that that's tucked in.
How many do you need?
Apparently 24 is the magic number.
That's how many we have.
These things are $20 apiece.
So that's like 480, right?
$480 to get your stash of diapers.
That's going to be 4 1/2 months of disposable diapers.
Now it also depends on what kind of disposables,
how often you change them.
So if you think you're going to have your baby
in diapers longer than 4 1/2 months, it could be worth it.
If you buy these new or used,
I got 24 baby diapers for $200.
So we're definitely saving money there.
It's just whether or not you feel comfortable doing that,
which I did.
But also I feel like baby products are super expensive
because people just put things on their baby registry.
So maybe just throw this on your baby registry.
The other thing was when you went from disposables
that were blue line, it's wet, it needs to be changed.
Where's the blue line?
How am I supposed to know if this is wet?
You kind of figure it out as you go.
It's warm, usually.
Or if we do an activity,
if she is playing on the floor for awhile, I'll change her.
If we go on a walk, I'll change her when we get back.
If she's napping, when she wakes up from her nap,
I'll change her.
I just change her kind of consistently.
And it doesn't really matter
because it's just a load of laundry,
and I do laundry about every two days.
The other thing that happened when we switched
to cloth diapers is that she got a rash.
Disposables wick moisture away super well.
Cloth diaper doesn't do as great.
I would literally just blow.
(blowing)
Blow on her until she was dry,
and then I would put the cloth diaper on,
and that helped a lot.
There's also different kinds of creams
that you're not supposed to use with cloth diapering.
I didn't know that.
So we have really nice stains in ours from the creams.
So when people come over, and I'm like,
"Yeah, cloth diapers are great, they're not gross at all."
And I open up a diaper with stains, I'm like,
"This is from the diaper."
What's it called?
Diaper cream.
- [Seth] Butt cream.
- Yeah, butt cream, thank you Seth.
Some babies will pee a lot.
If that's your baby, you can buy inserts.
You can lay an insert in there
and then put this over it just so that it absorbs more.
So because I bought these used,
if you buy them off Marketplace or used,
you just want to check to make sure
that the elasticity is good, that's the thing that will go.
And then that's when you're going to have a mess.
There's been one diaper in particular
that always comes out.
So I mark it with a permanent marker.
I have a tally on the ones that I've had problems with.
Three strikes and you're out.
That particular diaper is only at two strikes,
but I'm watching it closely.
We use disposable diapers overnight
because that's what my guru does.
Her son would just pee so much at night
that it would overflow
and then she'd be changing sheets every day.
We do disposables if we leave the house,
which right now is never.
Those are the two times you use disposables
and then we're still using disposable wipes,
just because I haven't figured out the reusable wipes.
I think it would be easier to use reusable wipes
because right now, I'll show you my system,
but I have it like a hamper and a trash bin,
where I could just have a hamper
with the reusable wipes and the cloth diapers.
It just seems easier to me.
So everything I'm about to tell you is
for exclusively breastfed babies.
No formula, no food, just because the poop is different.
But with the breastfed babies,
all I do is I change her, take it out like this,
just throw it in the hamper, and then I bring it upstairs.
Then when I go to wash it,
I grab it here, shake, shake, shake, throw it in the wash.
I do one rinse of cold water just to get rid of everything
'cause the poop is water-soluble.
I used to work on the Appalachian Trail in a hostel.
When you're hiking for three days in humidity,
your stuff stinks so bad.
We would do the hikers' laundry,
and we would just put a cup or two of vinegar in there.
Your clothes do not smell like vinegar,
but it takes away the smell.
It's miraculous.
And then I do one rinse on hot water with the detergent,
and it's just a natural detergent from Target.
And then I also do a hot rinse afterwards.
So cold rinse, regular load, and then a hot rinse at the end
to get rid of all the detergent.
And that seems to wash it the best.
When I'm done washing them,
I throw them in the dryer on low or medium.
And that's it.
Easy freaking peasy.
Because you're doing a rinse, a wash, a rinse,
you're using a lot of water.
So you kind of have to decide
what's the worst or evil or whatever that phrase is.
Do you want to add to the landfill
or do you want to use more water?
And some people are like,
"Isn't that gross to have poop in your laundry machine?"
That's why I do that last rinse, and to me, it's like dirt.
It's like if you came in with your pants full of dirt
from playing soccer or something.
I don't know, but Seth did get a washing machine washer,
and so I'll throw that in there.
I don't know, every couple of weeks.
Is it a money saver?
That's what everybody wants to know,
because why would you do this if it wasn't?
Other than saving the world.
I think it is.
So, like I said, you want to buy 24.
They're $20 apiece, that's $480.
You can either put them on your baby registry
and see how many you can get new,
or you can go on Facebook Marketplace
when people sell their lot.
That's what they call it, a lot.
And I found bumGenius all in ones, 24 of them.
Amazing.
You get 75 diapers for 25 bucks, which will last you a week,
$100 a month on disposables.
So if I spent 200 on these
and I would spend 100 a month on disposables,
it takes two months for me to make up.
'Cause we do the 80-20 cloth diapering,
we still probably buy a box of 75 a month.
So it'll take me a little longer to actually pay this off.
But then you add in the liner and the diaper pail,
or the spray thing, and it might take a few more months,
but how long is your baby going to be in diapers?
We're going to look into elimination communication,
which is where you train your baby
to go to the bathroom on the toilet.
They got voice commands and classical conditioning, I think.
But I'm curious about it.
So I'm going to read a book about it
and I'll share that with you.
And the other day, Seth was like,
"I'm really glad you did this cloth diapering thing.
It's not difficult.
And it is saving us money to not have to buy these diapers."
"What?
You are?
Great."
Here, let me show you my set up here.
These are my notes that I was reading off of,
but here is what I have.
So all the diapers go in that little thing.
So here's my little setup.
We have the cloth diapers go in here
and this is the wet bag.
And then I have just a Target bag for the wipes,
and then her disposable diaper in the morning,
and then this is just regular laundry.
They're not that bad.
And you can get really fancy designs and stuff.
I honestly would just prefer to have all white ones,
but the lot that I bought had a bunch of colors.
I hope that was helpful,
and it gave you a little insight into cloth diapering
and a non-intimidating insight.
It's really not that bad.
I hope this made it a little bit less intimidating.
Like I said, when she starts eating solids,
I'll have to figure out the liner and the spray thing,
and I'll let you know when we do that.
But right now, it's so simple.
I'm also going to make a video
where I actually show the washing process,
so stay tuned for that.
I'm going to bring it up there,
show you what I do with the washer and all the things.
So thank you guys so much for watching.
If you have any questions, go hop on Instagram and DM me
and ask me, I'd love to answer them.
I will talk to you all soon.
Thanks guys, bye.