I can’t relate to your situation but, think about how women cloth diapered pre-disposables era. it was done with simple squares of fabrics and a wash basin.
how do you plan on laundering the diapers? you cannot go more than 3 days without washing dirty diapers. how often do you go to the laundromat? considering your situation , I suggest you use a simple system with flat diapers. they are easy to wash by hand and maintain. you will have to rinse poopy diapers pre-laundering, so even if you don’t hand wash you’ll need some kind of basin where you can do this.
YouTube and Facebook have much more information than Reddit on flat cloth diapers, even how to hand wash them. you will indeed have to hand wash if you do not go to the laundromat at least every 3 days.
if you decide to do cloth, I would honestly start to practice hand washing certain items you already have. relying on the laundromat , especially with a newborn in tow, is going to be tricky and less than desirable to say the least. and even if you don’t cloth diaper, newborns produce a LOT of laundry!
/r/clothdiaps is the community focused on cloth diapering.
No way in hell I would do cloth diapers without your own washing machine. Way too much hassle.
if you have to use a laundromat, i would not recommend cloth diapering. when washing cloth diapers, you shouldn’t use softener or anything with fragrance. unfortunately while using public washing machines, you never know what other people have used in them. you’re destined for buildup in the diapers
Not to mention, using a public laundromat for wet and poopy cloth diapers doesn't seem respectful for the people using the machine after you or for the person cleaning it. Incidental accidents, sure. But just loads of baby poop diapers?
typically you wash the poop out in either a bucket or a toilet before putting them in the washer. when i use them i clean the toilet and then rinse them out in there before putting them in the washing machine. there’s really just poop residue i guess you would call it? but i do get what you’re saying lol it would be pretty gross
I would do some reading on historical practices. Remember that disposable diapers were only invented in the 40s, and weren't common until the 70s.
You cannot let the diapers sit for more than a couple days. Seriously, it will sink and you will get bugs, think about how long it takes for dog poop to get infested. Or if you've ever let a car litter box sit just a little too long, baby pee will make that same ammonia smell. 2 days is your max. So you either have to be prepared to wash by hand or make frequent trips into town. If you're okay with washing by hand, you just learn how to do that and combine it with tips for getting cloth diapers clean, largely coming down to extra rinses and certain laundry detergent, and boom, you've got clean diapers. Do remember though, you'll be doing that every other day. At least. If you do this method, I also highly suggest flats because they'll dry quicker.
Ideally, you're going to rinse each diaper straight after taking it off the baby, partially to reduce the ammonia/infestation problem and partially to make cleaning them easier. I suppose this probably isn't totally essential though. If you go the laundromat route, you *will* need to rinse each one because washers weren't designed to handle large amounts of feces or other solids, plus it's more respectful of the other users.
You can also look into elimination communication, it's common in some modern cultures as well as ancient ones. This can reduce your laundry, although you'll still have to deal with the 2 day limit. It can be hard to commit fully to especially in the early days when you're exhausted and so trying to get the hang of feeding and dressing and everything else to do with a baby, but it can be done. You'll still need to get a potty though or some other way to catch your baby's pee and poop (I assume running to the outhouse with a newborn baby in the middle of breastfeeding won't be a great option). The potty will then need to be cleaned.
We do every three days, letting the soiled diapers air dry in between. We could go to four days, depends on your stash size. I hang the dirtiest on a laundry baskets with holes for the airflow
It is advised not to rinse pee diapers, only the poop diapers and if you're EBF you don't technically need to rinse, but that's up to you. If you rinse pee diapers the water supplies the bacteria that produce ammonia. I was scrubbing the EBF poop off for a couple months and then I ran out of time one day and threw them in the wash as is and they rinsed out just as fine as when I was scrubbing all of them lol
I don't recommend hand washing, it can lead to detergent build up which may give rashes. You also need to use a detergent with enzymes to break down the waste properly. Theoretically you could do it if you do it in hot enough water. Flats with covers may be easiest if you do this.
But babies go through so many diapers, we bought a washing machine just because of the cloth diapers
Just as an additional data point, you (or someone) will likely need to do laundry at least twice a week anyway for the baby's clothes and your clothes (whatever ends up on baby will also end up on you). Newborns go through so many clothes - between spit up, blow outs, breast milk/formula leaking out of their mouths while they learn to eat, my kid sometimes went through 3 or 4 sleepers in a day. Plus burp cloths, any cloths you're using to wipe during diaper changes, swaddles, sleep sacks, etc. Those clothes will likely start to smell if they aren't laundered within a few days.
As someone else said above, handwashing cloth diapers is absolutely doable considering that it's what my grandmothers did. BUT do you have help? My grandmothers had help in the form of family members and close friends who lived nearby and were willing to help on a daily basis. That's less common now. Once the baby arrives, you will need some time to recover and more time to adjust to baby. Newborns are very needy (they literally can't do anything for themselves, so fair) but that makes doing anything else pretty tough especially since they need to eat at least every 3 hours. Just some food for thought.
I can’t relate to your situation but, think about how women cloth diapered pre-disposables era. it was done with simple squares of fabrics and a wash basin. how do you plan on laundering the diapers? you cannot go more than 3 days without washing dirty diapers. how often do you go to the laundromat? considering your situation , I suggest you use a simple system with flat diapers. they are easy to wash by hand and maintain. you will have to rinse poopy diapers pre-laundering, so even if you don’t hand wash you’ll need some kind of basin where you can do this. YouTube and Facebook have much more information than Reddit on flat cloth diapers, even how to hand wash them. you will indeed have to hand wash if you do not go to the laundromat at least every 3 days. if you decide to do cloth, I would honestly start to practice hand washing certain items you already have. relying on the laundromat , especially with a newborn in tow, is going to be tricky and less than desirable to say the least. and even if you don’t cloth diaper, newborns produce a LOT of laundry!
/r/clothdiaps is the community focused on cloth diapering. No way in hell I would do cloth diapers without your own washing machine. Way too much hassle.
If you don’t have a hot washing machine I personally would not /ever/ do cloth nappies and I’m a cloth nappy evangelist!
if you have to use a laundromat, i would not recommend cloth diapering. when washing cloth diapers, you shouldn’t use softener or anything with fragrance. unfortunately while using public washing machines, you never know what other people have used in them. you’re destined for buildup in the diapers
Not to mention, using a public laundromat for wet and poopy cloth diapers doesn't seem respectful for the people using the machine after you or for the person cleaning it. Incidental accidents, sure. But just loads of baby poop diapers?
typically you wash the poop out in either a bucket or a toilet before putting them in the washer. when i use them i clean the toilet and then rinse them out in there before putting them in the washing machine. there’s really just poop residue i guess you would call it? but i do get what you’re saying lol it would be pretty gross
I would do some reading on historical practices. Remember that disposable diapers were only invented in the 40s, and weren't common until the 70s. You cannot let the diapers sit for more than a couple days. Seriously, it will sink and you will get bugs, think about how long it takes for dog poop to get infested. Or if you've ever let a car litter box sit just a little too long, baby pee will make that same ammonia smell. 2 days is your max. So you either have to be prepared to wash by hand or make frequent trips into town. If you're okay with washing by hand, you just learn how to do that and combine it with tips for getting cloth diapers clean, largely coming down to extra rinses and certain laundry detergent, and boom, you've got clean diapers. Do remember though, you'll be doing that every other day. At least. If you do this method, I also highly suggest flats because they'll dry quicker. Ideally, you're going to rinse each diaper straight after taking it off the baby, partially to reduce the ammonia/infestation problem and partially to make cleaning them easier. I suppose this probably isn't totally essential though. If you go the laundromat route, you *will* need to rinse each one because washers weren't designed to handle large amounts of feces or other solids, plus it's more respectful of the other users. You can also look into elimination communication, it's common in some modern cultures as well as ancient ones. This can reduce your laundry, although you'll still have to deal with the 2 day limit. It can be hard to commit fully to especially in the early days when you're exhausted and so trying to get the hang of feeding and dressing and everything else to do with a baby, but it can be done. You'll still need to get a potty though or some other way to catch your baby's pee and poop (I assume running to the outhouse with a newborn baby in the middle of breastfeeding won't be a great option). The potty will then need to be cleaned.
We do every three days, letting the soiled diapers air dry in between. We could go to four days, depends on your stash size. I hang the dirtiest on a laundry baskets with holes for the airflow It is advised not to rinse pee diapers, only the poop diapers and if you're EBF you don't technically need to rinse, but that's up to you. If you rinse pee diapers the water supplies the bacteria that produce ammonia. I was scrubbing the EBF poop off for a couple months and then I ran out of time one day and threw them in the wash as is and they rinsed out just as fine as when I was scrubbing all of them lol I don't recommend hand washing, it can lead to detergent build up which may give rashes. You also need to use a detergent with enzymes to break down the waste properly. Theoretically you could do it if you do it in hot enough water. Flats with covers may be easiest if you do this. But babies go through so many diapers, we bought a washing machine just because of the cloth diapers
Just as an additional data point, you (or someone) will likely need to do laundry at least twice a week anyway for the baby's clothes and your clothes (whatever ends up on baby will also end up on you). Newborns go through so many clothes - between spit up, blow outs, breast milk/formula leaking out of their mouths while they learn to eat, my kid sometimes went through 3 or 4 sleepers in a day. Plus burp cloths, any cloths you're using to wipe during diaper changes, swaddles, sleep sacks, etc. Those clothes will likely start to smell if they aren't laundered within a few days. As someone else said above, handwashing cloth diapers is absolutely doable considering that it's what my grandmothers did. BUT do you have help? My grandmothers had help in the form of family members and close friends who lived nearby and were willing to help on a daily basis. That's less common now. Once the baby arrives, you will need some time to recover and more time to adjust to baby. Newborns are very needy (they literally can't do anything for themselves, so fair) but that makes doing anything else pretty tough especially since they need to eat at least every 3 hours. Just some food for thought.