But What About the Poop?!
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Let’s face it, babies are messy. Whether you’re cloth diapering or using disposables, you will have to deal with poop. Lots and lots of poop. There’s no getting around it!
I am going to make the argument that dealing with poop is easier with cloth diapers than it is with disposables. Yes, I said easier with cloth.
Most people think that diaper blowouts are a normal part of having a baby, but it doesn’t have to be. Disposable diapers use very thin, flimsy elastic that isn’t going to contain the most major pooplosions and maybe not even some more tame ones. Having poop leak down the leg and/or up the back doesn’t need to be your daily reality.
Cloth diapers use real elastic that is strong and will contain the poo. I’m not going to say that it will hold in every single explosion, but it will hold in the vast majority of them. I can tell you that since starting cloth when K was six months old, I have not had one explosion up the back and have had very few down the leg. As in being able to count on one hand how many poo leaks we’ve had in the past twenty months of cloth diapering. For the first six months while using disposables we had leaks and blowouts several times a week.
Great, so how do you get the poo out of a cloth diaper? Isn’t it easier to just wrap it up in a disposable and throw it away? Maybe, but did you know that you are supposed to flush solid waste before throwing a disposable diaper away? Yup. It’s right there on the package. So now I will ask you, is it easier to get a non-solid poo out of a disposable diaper or a cloth one? Cloth, and here’s why….
This, my friends, is a diaper sprayer!
When I have a poopy diaper I bring it into the bathroom and dump as much of the solid waste into the toilet as I can. This is easier with toddler poo as it’s more solid and sometimes you can get away with just a dump and flush. I still spray off most diapers to reduce staining, but it’s not always necessary.
In the sink is my wet bag so that I can make a quick and easy transfer from toilet to bag.
Dump and flush the poo then spray the diaper off (I spared you the gory details)
Then put the dirty diaper in the wet bag and zip it up for laundry day. That’s it!
So now I have to ask: Would you rather dump a neatly contained poo in the toilet or try to take poopy clothes off your baby while trying not to make more of a mess? This also probably will involve giving your baby a bath and then what to do with the clothes that are covered in poo? If you’re using disposables you probably don’t have a sprayer to use.
Even if you don’t have a diaper sprayer dealing with poo isn’t all that difficult.
You could use flushable diaper liners to make clean up easier. You lay the liner in the diaper and when baby poops, just remove the liner and flush the whole thing down the toilet.
Even the dump and swish method isn’t all that bad. If you’re squeamish you could wear rubber gloves or invest a few dollars on the Cloth Diaper Butler.
So there you have it. My argument that poop is easier to deal with in cloth! Or at least not all that bad.
I am surprised that, of all things, I’m not intimidated by this part. My husband might be though. We definitely have a diaper sprayer on our registry, so that should help. I have two questions though.
1. Do you recommend a sprayer shield to contain splatter?
And 2. If you are away from home, as the other commenter mentioned, is containing the diaper in a small wet bag and then sprating at home an option? I’d assumed that was what you were supposed to do!
The splatter shields came out after I had already been cloth diapering for several years and was nearing the end of diapers so I never tried one. For me, it seems like just another step, but other people love them. I never had a problem with splatter.
When we were away from home I used flushable liners to contain poop and dunked and swished anything that wasn’t contained on the liner. I didn’t leave a poop in a wet bag because to me, it seems like it would be harder to deal with if it started to dry. The only exception would be if I was just out shopping and would be home soon, but thankfully my son never pooped while we were running errands. I got lucky 🙂
I was wondering what brand of diaper sprayer you are showing?
The brand is Mini Shower
What about when you are not in your bathroom with the sprayer. We do not stay in our house a lot. We go shopping and try to get out as much as possible and I don’t have a sprayer in those places. Any recommendations?
In those situations I recommend flushable liners. You just dump the liner into a toilet along with most or all of the poo.
I love my diaper sprayer! Before I had that I used disposable liners for awhile and the old dunk and swish method. The sprayer works well for when my potty training toddler has accidents in his underwear as well. Pinned it for others.
That’s why we switched to cloth. With my daughter, her disposables didn’t hold in any of the poop. It was so annoying! Plus, her outfits were so cute and were getting ruined. And, it kept getting in her carseat, that was the worst.
I Agree, Very Few Blowouts Here With Cloth. If You Have Gussets, The Diapers Really Do A Superior Job Of Containing Pop. Sorry About The Wired Caps, By The Way. Something Odd On My Phone Keyboard.