How to Get Dad to Use Cloth Diapers
A "Cloth Papa" Inteview with Ryan

Wondering how to get dad to use cloth diapers? Well, we thought it would be best to answer that question by talking to a few dad's that are "pro cloth" to get their take on using cloth diapers.

Here he gives his thoughts on how to get dad to use cloth diapers by sharing about his experiences...

How many children do you have and what are their ages?

2 – ages 4 and 6

How long did your family use cloth diapers?

Roughly 5 years - from Delilah’s birth to when Quinn graduated from Diapers around age 3.

So, who came up with the idea to use cloth diapers - you or Laura?

Laura.

Did you jump on board right away?

Yes.

What had your family choose cloth diapers over disposables?

For me, the initial interest was environmental – the thought of so many disposal diapers in landfills was difficult for me to accept. After research on the $ savings from using cloth, I was sold.

[Note from Lisa: This is a great selling point for how to get dad to use cloth diapers. Check out our cost savings chart for more about just how much you can save.]

Do you talk about cloth diapers with other people? What do they think?

Absolutely – I’ve advocated cloth diapers to many of our friends. Most are hesitant to use them.

So how do you handle objections from people that think using cloth is gross or weird?

I agree with them: it is not the norm, and it can certainly be gross at times. However, I try to emphasize the benefits over the gross aspects.

What are your favorite brands and why?

Mother-Ease (specifically the Sandy’s model). Those are the one’s we initially chose, they worked very well, and lasted us five years of near continual use.

Laura and I both changed the diapers - although I managed more of the changing on the weekends due to Laura doing most of the changing during the week while I was at work.

We tweaked our diaper storage system a bit over the years but largely it worked like this: just wet diapers were stored in a diaper pail next to the changing table while poopy ones were “emptied” as well as possible (not dunked/rinsed) then put into a bucket filled with water in the laundry room.

About every 7-10 days I would wash the diapers (in five years Laura never once did the washing of the diapers).

The very first thing I would do is turn the water heater up to full blast so the water for the wash would be super hot. I would next dump the yucky water out of the “poopy pail” into the toilet leaving just the half dozen or so yucky diapers in the pail. I would then remove the lid to the toilet basin and unhook the plunger/stopper thing so that the toilet would “run” continuously.

I would then take the yucky diapers one by one with a big pair of kitchen tongs and rinse them out as well as possible in the toilet – as each became mostly free of poo I would quickly transfer into the washing machine that was now filling with water.

I would put all the other covers and diapers in the machine and start with just a cold rinse cycle.

When that is done I would add the detergent (we used Arm and Hammer “free” powder) - I would generally use roughly 60-75% of what the directions on the box call for so not to have the detergent absorbed in the diaper. I would also add about a 1/4 cup of Arm & Hammer baking soda.

Every couple months I would also add a bit (maybe a 1/4 cup at most) of some Borax. I would then set the washer on hot (using the super hot water from the maxed out water heater) to do a cycle with the extra rinse at the end.

When that was done, I’d be sure to turn the water heater back down, then transfer the diapers to the dryer for a standard cycle – much of the time we’d have to add a bit extra time on the end to get them fully dry.

I’d remove the covers and let them air dry as over time we learned that the heat from the dry reduced their functionality.

Tell us a funny cloth diaper story.

There were a few times that really nasty diapers were put in a bag and forgotten until weeks later (the “mess” was made out somewhere instead of at home). We probably threw out 3 or 4 diapers instead of me trying to deal with the old, rotten, yuckiness.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Not much – maybe treat our covers a little more gently from the start. We also used disposal diapers at night for both kids as we felt that they slept better in them due to: less bulk, and keeping the skin drier. I wish would could have come up with a better solution as we still had to buy disposables ever couple months… or I guess maybe I wish our kids could have slept better in cloth.

I have alot of Mom's ask me how to get Dad to use cloth diapers. What advice could you give to a father that is not so sure?

Borrow a few from a friend and give it a try.

Any other tips for how to get dad to use cloth diapers?

There are some websites that calculate the $ savings over time by using cloth… that was a big factor for me.

Anything else you want to share about your cloth diaper experiences?

I feel really good about our choice… I can truthfully say that I am proud of our decision to use cloth diapers. Oh yeah, we also sold our used diapers when we were done and got back some decent cash at the end… that was nice too.

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