Myth vs Reality: Cloth Diapering

Let me tell you, becoming a parent provides fodder for a few dozen of these Myth vs Reality posts!

Cloth diapering is going to be difficult and tedious, but will be worth it so I'll muddle through - Actually, my husband and I agree that it's far easier and more enjoyable than we expected! Changing the diaper might take another step or two, but not so much that you notice it. And while yes, we have to do laundry every 2-3 days, even that has its upsides. There have been plenty of days where the only thing I managed to get done other than feeding the baby and letting him nap on me was diaper laundry, and it's nice to have something that's actually achievable in those early weeks! The laundry really only takes about 15 minutes total of human effort, and most of that is the putting away.

I have to make sense of all this information, figure out exactly what I want to use, and get all the diapers I will ever need before the baby is born! - This one had me going a little crazy a few weeks before he was due. The truth is, if you grab a couple dozen prefolds and a handful of covers you're set to start, and you can try out all the pockets and fitteds and AIOs or whatever you like a piece at a time as you go. Find something you like, buy more; something you don't, sell it. You can even start with disposables and build your stash a piece at a time from the ground up. There's no right or wrong. You don't have to fully invest in any one "system" or commit to one brand. And in the end, you won't know what fits your baby best in advance anyhow, so buying two dozen BumGenius 4.0s or nothing but Thirsties covers might result in having to rebuy your whole stash anyhow!

We'll use disposables or pocket diapers when we're out and about, and only use the prefolds at home - Some people do this and it works fine. But we found it annoying to keep track of what to put in the diaper bag separately, plus we'd either have to change him before we leave (whether he's wet or not), or else wind up with extra stuff at changing time. With disposables, we'd still have the wet diaper we just took off of him to deal with. And with pockets, we'd have a clean cover and snappi that we'd have to remember to dig out of the diaper bag later. Changing a prefold on the go is a little harder, especially if you're somewhere without a real changing station, but for us the annoyance factor is lower overall.