June 23, 2024 • 9 mins
Send Katie a Message with Your Questions/Thoughts! :)
Hey mamas! Today, we're diving into the world of cloth diapering to help you avoid the most common mistakes and empower you to have a more positive experience.
In this episode, we're revealing the top three mistakes parents often make when using cloth diapers:
- Improper Fit: I'll teach you essential fit tests to prevent leaks and discomfort!
- Misunderstanding Poop Handling: I'll explain the simple truth about handling your baby's poop before they start solids, saving you time and effort!
- Using Incorrect Products: I'll share which detergents and creams are safe for cloth diapers to extend their longevity and protect your baby’s skin! (not sponsored)
Plus I'll share a few extra helpful tips and benefits along the way 🙌 So, if you're wondering about how to use cloth diapers or you're a little nervous to try -- then join me for an informative episode packed with actionable advice to make cloth diapering a breeze!
P.S. Please subscribe and leave a review if you found this episode helpful. It's such a quick and easy way to support the show! ✨
Pssst-- did you hear??
🌟 It's Jumpstart June! 🌟 June is my favorite month and I'd love to spread the joy by gifting YOU 1 FREE month inside our Eco-Minded Mama Collective! ➡️ Use the code JUMPSTART at checkout to receive one free month (30 whole days) and let's jumpstart your sustainable living journey with instant access to everything you need to start saving money & reducing your stress levels + carbon footprint!
⏰ code expires at midnight on June 30th, 2024
P.S. Be sure to subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and follow us on Instagram & TikTok @ecomindedmama to stay connected! ✨
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Katie Kurpanek (00:00):
Hey mamas! Welcome back to The Eco Minded
(00:02):
Mama Podcast where we aresupporting parents who want to
live sustainably, meaning theywant to live a life that is
saving money and reducing wastein their homes so that they can
live with overall less stress. Ihave gotten tons of questions
and reactions when it comes tocloth diapering over the years.
And there are three commonmistakes that I want to help you
avoid at all costs so that youcan actually have a positive and
(00:26):
dare I say, an enjoyableexperience cloth diapering. So
let's get into it. A few quickbenefits when it comes to cloth
diapering that you may or maynot already know. So number one,
they save you 1000s of dollarsover the years. And number two,
they also save 1000s likeliterally nearly 3000 diapers on
(00:47):
average per baby per year fromgoing to the landfill and just
rotting and decomposing, and ittakes like over 500 years for
each diaper to eventuallydecompose, emitting methane into
the atmosphere in the process.
It's super gross. I know. And,cloth diapering is not for
everybody. So I don't say any ofthis to shame you or to put
judgment on your plate, thereare just some things that are
(01:09):
outside of your control. And wetalk a lot about that inside The
Eco Minded Mama Collective.
There are other alternatives tocloth diapering that are also
sustainable. But for those thatcan access cloth diapering and
they want to do it, I want youto be as like supported as
possible. And so I really wantyou to know these top three
(01:30):
mistakes that you can avoid, sothat you have a much better
experience. Okay, number one,improper fit.
If you have an improper fit foryour baby's cloth diaper, then
it is going to lead to moreleaks, which you know, is just
frustrating for you to have toclean up, it's frustrating for
your baby to like beuncomfortable in that. And then
of course, it might lead you tofeeling like cloth diapers don't
(01:52):
even work and it is just a wasteof time, which is not true. It
doesn't have to be that way. SoI have a couple of tests for you
to do to make sure if you'venever used cloth diapers before
to just make sure that it isfitting properly. So most cloth
diapers these days have likesnaps, or some sort of band that
can be tightened. So when youput them on, you need to make
(02:15):
sure that the fit is snug, butnot too tight around their legs
or their inner thighs and theirwaist. So a way to test this for
their waist, you can do the twofinger test. So if you can take
two fingers, and easily put thatbetween the cloth diaper and
your baby's skin around thewaistline, if it's able to like
(02:35):
easily fit in between there, youdon't feel like you're like
forcing two fingers into thatspace, then that means that it's
snug enough. But if it's soloose that you could just like
easily put two or more fingersinto that space between the
cloth diaper and your baby'sskin, then you're going to want
to like tighten it up a littlebit. And then you also want to
do the test around their thighor like the leg openings for the
(03:00):
diapers. So you could do thepinch test. So basically, you
want to just take the fabricthat is right underneath the
inside of your baby's thigh. Andyou want to take the fabric and
see if you can pinch it. So ifyou can pinch it and when you
pull the diaper doesn't havelike this big gap between your
baby's thigh and the openingthen that means that that will
(03:23):
be snug enough. If you try topinch it but you can't even
pinch the fabric then it'sprobably too tight and you're
probably gonna see like a redline on your baby's skin. So
making sure that it fits snug sothat that way it is like closed
around your baby's legs. Thatwill prevent a lot of leaks from
happening and make it a muchmore comfortable and enjoyable
(03:43):
experience for everybody. Ofcourse as your baby becomes more
mobile, then you're going towant to be checking this and
adjusting it as needed.
Okay, common mistake number two,not knowing that poop is water
soluble before your baby eatssolid foods. So we're going to
talk about poop. I know it'sgross, but you're listening to a
cloth diapering episode soyou're probably prepared for it.
(04:04):
Okay, when your baby is justdrinking breast milk or formula
and they are not introduced tosolid foods yet, then their poop
is completely water soluble.
It's just like liquid right?
There's nothing solid in it. Soyou do not need to do like a
whole bunch of prep work. Likereally thoroughly rinsing your
(04:26):
diapers off before they go intothe laundry. This will just save
you some time and make it a moreenjoyable experience in the
beginning of your babiesdiapering experience. So if you
are changing your baby's diaperat this stage, then I would
recommend having a what's calleda wet bag. So you can find those
online and just hang that youknow on the changing table or
(04:48):
somewhere nearby. And when youchange their diaper, you can
just take the cloth diaper andthe cloth wipes if you're using
those and put them into the wetbag. And then I would recommend
like you know Once a day or onceevery other day just doing a
small load of laundry, but youcan just take what's in the wet
bag and dump it right into thewasher, make sure that you're
(05:08):
using a proper detergent, whichwe will get into. And then if
you just do that second rinsecycle, you're going to be
golden. You don't have to worryEverything is going to be
totally clean and it takes lesseffort on your part.
Okay, so speaking of detergent,then that leads us to a common
mistake number three, make sureyou are maintaining the
longevity of your cloth diapersand not irritating your baby's
(05:31):
skin by using the rightproducts. So the common mistake
is going to be using a productthat is not meant for cloth
diapers, or has a lot of toxicchemicals. So you want to be
sure that you are using a clothdiaper specific detergent.
Personally, I'm not affiliatedwith this, but this is who I
used. I used the Charlie'sbrand. So Charlie's laundry
(05:51):
detergent. It's a powdereddetergent made for, well, I
don't know they might have onethat's made for cloth diapers,
but there's this for surelabeled like cloth diapers safe.
It's a formula that is made fortough things like poop and blood
and just like gross stuff likethat. Do not use fabric
softener. I would say just don'tuse fabric softener in any of
(06:12):
your laundry. But that's anothertopic for another time. And then
cloth diaper safe diaper cream,so you want to make sure that
you are using a diaper creamthat is labeled as safe for
cloth diapers or cloth diaperscertified, something like that,
to reduce build up and stains sothat will just make your cloth
diapers last longer. If you usea diaper cream that is not cloth
(06:33):
diaper safe, then the residuecan actually build up in layers
over time and it will makewashing your diapers harder and
it will make them lessabsorbent. And then finally, you
want to make sure that you areair drying your cloth diapers,
don't stick them in the dryer tomake sure that they can last
longest and the elasticity staysintact.
(06:55):
There is so much more, SO muchmore to cloth diapering. And
like I said before, other ecofriendly alternatives like EC,
or elimination communication, orlooking into fairly sustainable
brands of disposable diapers,there's all of this and more
covered inside The EMMCollective, or The Eco Minded
Mama Collective. We get intothat all together, as well as so
(07:17):
many other topics and offer yousupport in real time. So you can
bring all your questions to thetable. You can bring the
challenges, the weird thingsthat come up in the moment that
you're like, Who do I ask aboutthis? Right? So one of our mama
members inside the Collective,her name is Akua, and she is
expecting her first baby thisyear. It's so exciting. But she
(07:37):
recently wrote "even though Ihave been intentionally on my
sustainability journey for oversix years, I am looking forward
to seeing what new things Ilearned. I really haven't
thought much of mysustainability journey from the
perspective of an eco mindedmama. So this model will be so
insightful for me..."So whatever stage of motherhood
let alone eco minded mamahoodthat you might be in, we have
(07:59):
support for you. We have mamaslike Akua who are pregnant with
their very first baby,motherhood is all new to them,
but they've been livingsustainably in their personal
lives for a long time. We havemamas who have been living
sustainably for a super longtime and have kids and can
mentor you. We have moms who arenew to all of this and don't
(08:21):
even know where to start andthey're just here for more
support, or something inbetween. Whatever it is, we've
got support for you.
And this month is superexciting. We are calling it
Jumpstart June. So the month ofJune is my favorite month. It
has my birthday, my weddinganniversary, Father's Day, so
many back to back funcelebrations. And I just love
(08:42):
summer. And so in this month, Iam just wanting to like spread
the joy of spread the love. AndI am gifting you a free month of
The Eco Minded Mama Collective!If you want to join the
membership but you've been kindof like on the fence about it,
not really sure if that's foryou, or you're just hearing
about it for the first timetoday, I want you to go into the
(09:03):
episode description and you willfind the link for checkout and
you can use the code JUMPSTART,so jumpstart all one word that
will give you one month forfree. That code will last until
the end of June. So June 30 atmidnight, and I just want you to
try it out and come and have funwith us. You will have instant
access to our digital library ofvideo lessons, all different
(09:27):
topics of sustainable living andresources for you. We have our
online community of mom friendsthat are supporting each other
on a weekly if not daily basis.
And we also have really funperks like challenges,
giveaways, Live Q&As with myselfand other experts. It's really
fun and I just am excited to seeyou on the inside!
Hey mamas! Welcome back to The Eco Minded
(00:02):
Mama Podcast where we aresupporting parents who want to
live sustainably, meaning theywant to live a life that is
saving money and reducing wastein their homes so that they can
live with overall less stress. Ihave gotten tons of questions
and reactions when it comes tocloth diapering over the years.
And there are three commonmistakes that I want to help you
avoid at all costs so that youcan actually have a positive and
(00:26):
dare I say, an enjoyableexperience cloth diapering. So
let's get into it. A few quickbenefits when it comes to cloth
diapering that you may or maynot already know. So number one,
they save you 1000s of dollarsover the years. And number two,
they also save 1000s likeliterally nearly 3000 diapers on
(00:47):
average per baby per year fromgoing to the landfill and just
rotting and decomposing, and ittakes like over 500 years for
each diaper to eventuallydecompose, emitting methane into
the atmosphere in the process.
It's super gross. I know. And,cloth diapering is not for
everybody. So I don't say any ofthis to shame you or to put
judgment on your plate, thereare just some things that are
(01:09):
outside of your control. And wetalk a lot about that inside The
Eco Minded Mama Collective.
There are other alternatives tocloth diapering that are also
sustainable. But for those thatcan access cloth diapering and
they want to do it, I want youto be as like supported as
possible. And so I really wantyou to know these top three
(01:30):
mistakes that you can avoid, sothat you have a much better
experience. Okay, number one,improper fit.
If you have an improper fit foryour baby's cloth diaper, then
it is going to lead to moreleaks, which you know, is just
frustrating for you to have toclean up, it's frustrating for
your baby to like beuncomfortable in that. And then
of course, it might lead you tofeeling like cloth diapers don't
(01:52):
even work and it is just a wasteof time, which is not true. It
doesn't have to be that way. SoI have a couple of tests for you
to do to make sure if you'venever used cloth diapers before
to just make sure that it isfitting properly. So most cloth
diapers these days have likesnaps, or some sort of band that
can be tightened. So when youput them on, you need to make
(02:15):
sure that the fit is snug, butnot too tight around their legs
or their inner thighs and theirwaist. So a way to test this for
their waist, you can do the twofinger test. So if you can take
two fingers, and easily put thatbetween the cloth diaper and
your baby's skin around thewaistline, if it's able to like
(02:35):
easily fit in between there, youdon't feel like you're like
forcing two fingers into thatspace, then that means that it's
snug enough. But if it's soloose that you could just like
easily put two or more fingersinto that space between the
cloth diaper and your baby'sskin, then you're going to want
to like tighten it up a littlebit. And then you also want to
do the test around their thighor like the leg openings for the
(03:00):
diapers. So you could do thepinch test. So basically, you
want to just take the fabricthat is right underneath the
inside of your baby's thigh. Andyou want to take the fabric and
see if you can pinch it. So ifyou can pinch it and when you
pull the diaper doesn't havelike this big gap between your
baby's thigh and the openingthen that means that that will
(03:23):
be snug enough. If you try topinch it but you can't even
pinch the fabric then it'sprobably too tight and you're
probably gonna see like a redline on your baby's skin. So
making sure that it fits snug sothat that way it is like closed
around your baby's legs. Thatwill prevent a lot of leaks from
happening and make it a muchmore comfortable and enjoyable
(03:43):
experience for everybody. Ofcourse as your baby becomes more
mobile, then you're going towant to be checking this and
adjusting it as needed.
Okay, common mistake number two,not knowing that poop is water
soluble before your baby eatssolid foods. So we're going to
talk about poop. I know it'sgross, but you're listening to a
cloth diapering episode soyou're probably prepared for it.
(04:04):
Okay, when your baby is justdrinking breast milk or formula
and they are not introduced tosolid foods yet, then their poop
is completely water soluble.
It's just like liquid right?
There's nothing solid in it. Soyou do not need to do like a
whole bunch of prep work. Likereally thoroughly rinsing your
(04:26):
diapers off before they go intothe laundry. This will just save
you some time and make it a moreenjoyable experience in the
beginning of your babiesdiapering experience. So if you
are changing your baby's diaperat this stage, then I would
recommend having a what's calleda wet bag. So you can find those
online and just hang that youknow on the changing table or
(04:48):
somewhere nearby. And when youchange their diaper, you can
just take the cloth diaper andthe cloth wipes if you're using
those and put them into the wetbag. And then I would recommend
like you know Once a day or onceevery other day just doing a
small load of laundry, but youcan just take what's in the wet
bag and dump it right into thewasher, make sure that you're
(05:08):
using a proper detergent, whichwe will get into. And then if
you just do that second rinsecycle, you're going to be
golden. You don't have to worryEverything is going to be
totally clean and it takes lesseffort on your part.
Okay, so speaking of detergent,then that leads us to a common
mistake number three, make sureyou are maintaining the
longevity of your cloth diapersand not irritating your baby's
(05:31):
skin by using the rightproducts. So the common mistake
is going to be using a productthat is not meant for cloth
diapers, or has a lot of toxicchemicals. So you want to be
sure that you are using a clothdiaper specific detergent.
Personally, I'm not affiliatedwith this, but this is who I
used. I used the Charlie'sbrand. So Charlie's laundry
(05:51):
detergent. It's a powdereddetergent made for, well, I
don't know they might have onethat's made for cloth diapers,
but there's this for surelabeled like cloth diapers safe.
It's a formula that is made fortough things like poop and blood
and just like gross stuff likethat. Do not use fabric
softener. I would say just don'tuse fabric softener in any of
(06:12):
your laundry. But that's anothertopic for another time. And then
cloth diaper safe diaper cream,so you want to make sure that
you are using a diaper creamthat is labeled as safe for
cloth diapers or cloth diaperscertified, something like that,
to reduce build up and stains sothat will just make your cloth
diapers last longer. If you usea diaper cream that is not cloth
(06:33):
diaper safe, then the residuecan actually build up in layers
over time and it will makewashing your diapers harder and
it will make them lessabsorbent. And then finally, you
want to make sure that you areair drying your cloth diapers,
don't stick them in the dryer tomake sure that they can last
longest and the elasticity staysintact.
(06:55):
There is so much more, SO muchmore to cloth diapering. And
like I said before, other ecofriendly alternatives like EC,
or elimination communication, orlooking into fairly sustainable
brands of disposable diapers,there's all of this and more
covered inside The EMMCollective, or The Eco Minded
Mama Collective. We get intothat all together, as well as so
(07:17):
many other topics and offer yousupport in real time. So you can
bring all your questions to thetable. You can bring the
challenges, the weird thingsthat come up in the moment that
you're like, Who do I ask aboutthis? Right? So one of our mama
members inside the Collective,her name is Akua, and she is
expecting her first baby thisyear. It's so exciting. But she
(07:37):
recently wrote "even though Ihave been intentionally on my
sustainability journey for oversix years, I am looking forward
to seeing what new things Ilearned. I really haven't
thought much of mysustainability journey from the
perspective of an eco mindedmama. So this model will be so
insightful for me..."So whatever stage of motherhood
let alone eco minded mamahoodthat you might be in, we have
(07:59):
support for you. We have mamaslike Akua who are pregnant with
their very first baby,motherhood is all new to them,
but they've been livingsustainably in their personal
lives for a long time. We havemamas who have been living
sustainably for a super longtime and have kids and can
mentor you. We have moms who arenew to all of this and don't
(08:21):
even know where to start andthey're just here for more
support, or something inbetween. Whatever it is, we've
got support for you.
And this month is superexciting. We are calling it
Jumpstart June. So the month ofJune is my favorite month. It
has my birthday, my weddinganniversary, Father's Day, so
many back to back funcelebrations. And I just love
(08:42):
summer. And so in this month, Iam just wanting to like spread
the joy of spread the love. AndI am gifting you a free month of
The Eco Minded Mama Collective!If you want to join the
membership but you've been kindof like on the fence about it,
not really sure if that's foryou, or you're just hearing
about it for the first timetoday, I want you to go into the
(09:03):
episode description and you willfind the link for checkout and
you can use the code JUMPSTART,so jumpstart all one word that
will give you one month forfree. That code will last until
the end of June. So June 30 atmidnight, and I just want you to
try it out and come and have funwith us. You will have instant
access to our digital library ofvideo lessons, all different
(09:27):
topics of sustainable living andresources for you. We have our
online community of mom friendsthat are supporting each other
on a weekly if not daily basis.
And we also have really funperks like challenges,
giveaways, Live Q&As with myselfand other experts. It's really
fun and I just am excited to seeyou on the inside!
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