Off to a fluffy start: Cloth diapering a newborn

When I decided to cloth diaper I wanted to start with cloth from day one of my daughter’s life.  After she born I faced three problems; meconium, cord stump and getting the right fit. I could easily see how any first time, cloth diapering, sleep deprived parent would throw their hands up and surrender to a disposable. That is exactly why I decided to write this blog post, I want to help parents get over the cloth diaper hump.  Here are the things that worked for me in those first few weeks of cloth diapering my newborn daughter.

#1 Meconium: Babies first poop, black sticky, pretty much like tar. This stuff can stain a sparkling white cloth diaper in a matter of seconds.  I used both AIOs and pre-folds with covers on my youngest and found it equally difficult to remove the stains with only regular washing. I did try rinsing the meconium before putting in the diaper pail but this didn’t help much.

My two favorite stain busters were and still are lemon juice and sunshine. Here’s what I do;

·         First wash your diapers per manufacturer’s specifications and after final rinse lay them in the sun for a couple hours.  The CD world refers to this as sunning your diapers.

·         If the stains are still there try a few sprays of lemon juice after washing and lay them in the sun.  You will need to wash your diapers again to remove the juice.

#2 Cord Stump: It drove me crazy that the cord stump was rubbing the top of my cloth diapers because I was afraid it was hurting the baby.  What saved my sanity were cloth diapers with a snap-down center to prevent the cord from rubbing. Now be warned most of this type of diapers only fit for a few weeks, so my advice is to buy them used.

#3 The Right Fit: My daughter was 7lbs 11oz at birth, which I believe is an average size baby; however I struggled with the fit of most OS cloth diapers. I wasn’t able to get them tight enough on the waist or the leg gussets wouldn’t hold in that liquid breastfeed poop. Every diaper change became an entire outfit change. Then I had a light bulb moment and remembered a cloth diapering guru (mommy that had CD’ed three children from birth) telling me that x-small/small covers and infant pre-folds would give me the best fit for the first few weeks or in my case months.  Switching to the covers and pre-folds kept me from giving up the cloth.  It was wonderful to have dry clothes at diaper changing time.  With anything new we try, there is going to be a learning curve, don’t give up, and remember you are doing a wonderful thing for you child.