I knew I wanted to cloth diaper. My only exposure to cloth diapering was by way of my younger brother: vague memories of safety pins with oversized, pastel blue heads and lumpy cotton rectangles that lived on, reincarnated as shop rags for my dad. 

I was surprised when my google searches began turning up myriad “Diapering Systems;” each poshly marketed brand requiring an investment of money, time, materials, and intimations of signing over your immortal soul. And the jargon! Prefolds, all-in-ones, pocket diapers, what was this?

Are you familiar with Michael Pollen’s Food Rules? One is not to eat anything advertised on TV. I like to extrapolate this idea to basically everything. If it’s monetizable enough to warrant an advertising campaign, then I’m probably getting screwed. 

So here’s Cloth Diapering the Masaaki Way, aka what worked for us:

Ingredients:

• 2-4 sizes of cotton pre folds from Amazon
• 6 waterproof diaper covers (snaps, no fabric lining)
• Cotton wipes from Amazon
• Wipe solution/spray bottle
• Fragrance free, sensitive skin laundry detergent
• Clothesline or rack
• Large fabric incontinence pads (possibly optional)
• Diaper pail with fabric bag (possibly optional)
• Bidet attachment for toilet (possibly optional)
• Very low heat, low powered travel hair dryer (optional, worked well for us)

Washing Method:

• Cloth diapers are supposed to be washed at least every other day
• 2 cycles:

1. First – cold rinse, extended spin
2. Second – add detergent, normal cycle, warm, 2nd rinse (to make sure all detergent is out) & extended spin (makes line drying easier, I think)

• Hang in the sun (yes, sun-bleaching is an actual thing) to dry. 

General use method: 

• Newborn: I used one small prefold, no cover. This helped me get a feel for frequency of urination. 
• When he started wetting through the prefold, I added the cover. 
• When he started soaking through, especially at night (wow!), I started doubling the prefolds: trifold one prefold, center it in the second prefold like a maxi pad, and put on as usual. At this point having multiple sizes of prefolds and sizable covers starts coming in handy. 
• Air dry! The sure fire diaper rash preventative and cure. Let your baby be naked! I like the washable incontinence pads for nekked playtime. But for routine drying on the changing table, I used a little low-powered, barely-warm hair dryer. 
• I dump wet/dirty diapers directly in the washer, mostly because getting a full diaper bag out of the diaper pail, emptying it in the washer, and replacing it with a clean diaper bag is really hard to do with a baby in one arm. 
• Poop: you don’t need to wash off milk poops. Once your baby starts solids and his poops start looking (& smelling) like real people poops, dump them into the toilet before you put your diapers in the diaper pail. I also bought & installed a bidet attachment for my toilet so I could rinse the poop diapers. I rarely use it, not sure I recommend it, but it’s an option. Maybe depends on the insidiousness if your little one’s poops. 
• Covers: I rotate through covers and let them air dry, and wash them on laundry days (with a couple leftover to get me through drying time). 

That’s it. I throw our regular laundry in with the diapers after the initial rinse cycle. 

(And now I line dry everything, since I’m out there anyway, which has had an impact on our electricity bill. Added benefit – your towels become really effective exfoliators.)

Open to questions. At some point I’ll tally our up front expenses. 

P.S. For something completely different, you might check out “elimination communication.” We started late (7 mo) and it’s been an interesting journey.