Jan was born exactly on Rose Monday in Dusseldorf – who does not know carnival in the Rhineland – there goes nothing at all in our city *laughs*! In the evening, Philipp called me in the hospital: "You don’t believe it, but our washing machine has just broken down – motor damage – nothing works there anymore! What are we going to do with our cloth diapers when you come home tomorrow!?"And I answered him after a short hesitation: "Then run quickly to the drugstore and buy another pack of disposable diapers."
Sure, Philipp would have struggled to find a washing machine somewhere the next morning, or we could have gone to the laundromat, but the last thing parents need shortly after giving birth is stress! We wanted to start life as a family of five in a relaxed way, not rushed and completely out of breath.
It felt weird and in my head a loud voice was shouting: "Ey Andrea, you have a cloth diaper online store and buy disposable diapers?! But that is really not possible!" – I heard this voice and indeed I felt bad, but I knew it was only a few days until I could fall back on our beloved cloth diapers.
The 16 most important cloth diaper tips
With our 16 free cloth diaper tips, you’ll get valuable and practical help for all the situations you encounter in everyday life with cloth diapers, without any effort on your part.
Take the pressure off – Why am I even telling you this here??
I want to take the pressure off of you for the cloth diaper launch. I always see parents who put a lot of pressure on themselves with cloth diapers. Use cloth diapers full time right from the start, preferably while you are still in the hospital. That is of course very laudable and I also support that very gladly, but you never know what the new earth citizen so brings with him. Maybe the birth was very exhausting and mom can’t get up for a while – maybe breastfeeding doesn’t work out and you’re only busy feeding the baby – maybe you’re so in the babymoon that you do nothing but marvel at the new miracle all day long. And that is all so important, to enjoy the special first days, to get to know the little person!
Of course, it’s great if cloth diapering works great from the beginning, but it’s not a must. Every diaper saved counts. And believe me, you save so much waste in the whole diapering time with cloth diapers, a few disposable diapers at the beginning won’t make that much of a difference.
Patience and serenity are good advisors
I firmly believe that a successful cloth diaper start requires one thing above all – patience and composure. If you have to account for a few leaked cloth diapers right at the beginning under pressure, you are likely to get annoyed and stressed quickly. Then you are much more likely to use disposable diapers – just to be on the safe side. And that then rather turns into the opposite.
Using disposable diapers and cloth diapers in parallel in the beginning is not bad and in no way reprehensible, it is simply a safety net that may provide the necessary relaxation.
Start without printing
If you have decided to cloth diaper your newborn, then you don’t have to feel bad about using disposable diapers for the first few days. There are so many new things to experience in the first days with baby, please don’t get stressed!
Patience and composure are the most important things
It can be a bit frustrating as a newbie in the cloth diaper world if not everything works perfectly in the beginning, but be patient! It takes a little time to perfect cloth diapering and find the right systems for you.
Cloth diaper rental packages
We offer rental packages for newborns to give them the opportunity to try out all diaper systems without buying them right away. Renting the newborn size at the beginning saves a lot of money and mispurchases.
Are cloth diapers in the newborn size worth it??
Our answer to this is definitely YES – if you want to use cloth diapers from birth, you should definitely go for cloth diapers in the newborn size. The one-size-fits-all is way too big for most babies, so you would only see the diaper and no baby at all. Too big cloth diapers leak in most cases and this then causes total frustration for the parents. One-size cloth diapers often don’t fit well until the baby weighs 5.5 kg or more. Cloth diapers in the newborn size fit from birth to approx. 6 kg.
This relatively short time frame for newborn diapers unsettles many parents, as they don’t want to buy a complete cloth diaper kit for a few weeks. This is also absolutely understandable.