How to (Gently) Ease Your Partner Into Using Cloth Diapers
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Cloth diapering wasn’t an easy sell for my husband. He seemed to be so turned off by it that I eventually decided to not really discuss it with him and went ahead and bought some cloth diapers to use myself. He could either use them or not, but I wanted to use them so I did.
I wrote earlier this year how cloth diapering doesn’t have to be an all or nothing proposition and it doesn’t. There is no reason you can’t use cloth and he/she can’t use disposables. Every bit helps; a few dollars saved, less trash in a landfill, and less exposure to chemicals.
But what if you feel very strongly about using cloth diapers full-time? The above strategy worked for me because I was fine with possibly using cloth part-time and it turned out that my husband didn’t want to go out and buy diapers so it led to us using cloth full-time. However my strategy won’t work for everyone so here are some talking points.
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Cost
This is often the biggest factor for a lot of people. My husband was amazed by how much diaper laundry I do and he was able to see with his own eyes how much money is (literally) thrown in the garbage when you use disposables. Crunch some numbers. Show your partner how much you would spend in just six months of disposables and how much you would spend in 2-3 years of cloth. Also, point out that there are fewer diapers in a package for the same price as you size up with disposables.
Ease
Introduce your partner to all-in-ones and pockets. Even try hook and loop so they’re even more like disposable diapers. Show your partner that today’s cloth diapers are just as easy as disposables.
Mess
If it’s the poop that your partner is afraid of, be sure to point out that before your baby is on solids (if you breastfeed) then you just throw the soiled diaper in the pail without rinsing. After they start solids (or if you formula feed) get a diaper sprayer and even a Spray Pal to make clean up easier or use flushable liners if your partner is that squeamish.
Laundry
Tell your partner that cloth diapers leak far less than disposables so instead of a designated load of dirty diapers, you will instead be washing soiled onesies and clothes in your regular laundry. This will be a regular occurrence, maybe even daily like it was for us before I made the switch to cloth.
Cuteness
Okay, this might not be a huge selling point for men but not all cloth diapering advocates are female and not all couples raising children are of the opposite sex. If you are trying to win a male partner over then maybe showing him a WAHM diaper of his favorite sports team, hobby, or movie will win him over.
If you are a cloth diapering parent already did you have to sell your partner on the idea? How did you win them over?
we are far from even planning a baby yet, but I’m already researching all the options for CD and I’ve told my partner that I really want to use cloth nappies one day. He agreed straight away…but I guess he was kind of expecting it, since I’m using cloth pads for myself now (and he thinks those are cute and “great idea”), cloth diapers for our future kid are just natural next step in the same direction . 😀
i just jumped right in once ours arrived. 🙂 My hubby was hesitant because “our washer is going to be so disgusting.” Then I pointed out that there are products to clean washers but that most of the waste wouldn’t even be reaching the washer and definitely not the dryer! We haven’t experienced any blow outs and no rashes. It’s been amazing. I just wish we had begun at birth rather than at 3ish months.
i just saw this article after we have completely trasitioned to exclusively cloth diapering, and it’s spot on! I purchased a 24 lot of OS pockets in anticipation of our LO for just at $300 discussing with my husband that if we only ever spent that on diapers it would beyond what coupons could save you. Since I’m a stay at home mom, he told me I would be changing all the diapers and doing all the laundry, I kind of figured this already with a few surprise occasion. Our LO came out a little small so we used up our disposables while we had family visiting. Once he hit the suggested start weight we began cloth at night, and since it was mostly me waking up to feed him I got use to the fit and getting my soiled diaper disposal routine figured out. Since my husband slowly saw the routine and ease of the cloth, he stepped in one night changed him and handed him over to me without any questions. I’m so excited that we have transitioned completely in under a month of our LO’s birth!
Congratulations on winning him over! The idea of cloth is often far more intimidating than the reality 🙂
Sorry about all the typos…. I’m still having my morning coffee.
My husband want really interested in using cloth either! I did basically the same thing, no pressure on him to use them. We had four boxes of dissoluble when I bought our fluff anyway.
Having him take off the cloth diapers helped a lot. My husband got to see how they felt, worked and how they fit baby. I also made him clean up ALL the disposable related blow outs lol! Once the disposables ran out, he was on board! (I also told him if he wanted them, he could run out and buy them, as I was not making a special trip for them at 11pm.)