Changing diapers is not everyone’s favorite part of parenthood, but it is something that has to be done. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my stories about my excitement to use cloth diapers. I first heard about cloth diapers on social media and was instantly interested. I found out that babies use around 2,500-3,000 diapers in their first year and it is estimated that diapers take around 500 years to decompose! That is a lot of poopy diapers in the landfill! I was pretty disturbed by this statistic, so I was eager to look into reusable cloth diapers. I was overeager and bought a lot of different sizes and brands to try, including Grovia, Thirties, and Charlie Banana.

Fast forward to when we finally had Lex in our arms. We learnt how to change nappies at the hospital and got used to using the Huggies brand. We decided to buy a few packs to use at home since we were familiar with them. The first few weeks were chaotic and super busy so we wanted to use things that we were comfortable with. We decided to start cloth diapering once we felt a bit more secure and confident with newborn care. Once we had more of a routine and were quite the experts with disposable diapers, I was super excited to finally give the cloth diapering a go! 

Unfortunately, cloth diapering did not go as smoothly as I had hoped! Essentially, we were experiencing a lot of leaks. I had heard that cloth diapering was harder for newborns since they are so small and funny shaped, but I had bought the newborn sizes and was hoping it would fit ok. Lex has a tiny waist and chunky thighs, a difficult combination when it comes to fit. If the waistband was tight enough, the leg gussets were much too tight. If the leg gussets fit well, the waist was too loose. We kept experiencing leaks from either the waist or the leg. Once it leaked, it meant we had to wash the swaddle and the waterproof pad underneath… as if we did not already have a lot to wash!

I was quite bummed by this and reached out to the cloth diaper shop staff. They were incredibly helpful and sent me lots of tips and fitting videos. However, even after consulting the experts and going over the videos, the leaks were still happening. Jerry is the one in charge of diapering and laundry and it was difficult for me to keep forcing him to try cloth diapers when they weren’t working well. 

We decided to retire the newborn cloth diapers for a bit and to try it again when Lex would be a bit bigger. However, upon further investigation it seems like there is a big debate (another article here) on whether cloth diapering is actually better for the environment as compared to disposables. I was surprised and was pretty annoyed at myself for not doing my due diligence earlier. Our whole reason for using cloth diapers was to be eco-friendly and now I found out that they are just as bad – if not more than using disposables. This not always the case if you are able to launder them efficiently, but with Hong Kong’s humidity, we had to use the dryer for each wash and that uses up a lot of energy. We also had to do cloth diaper laundry either every day or at the very least every other day. Many people use cloth diapers for other reasons such as cost saving but since that was not our main reason, it did not make sense to put in all the extra effort in laundry when it did not result in a greener choice.

I was pretty bummed out that cloth diapering did not work out and was still hoping that it would somehow work, but after consulting with Jerry, he said that he was over the idea and that we should let someone else enjoy cloth diapering. I ended up selling all the cloth diapers at a huge discount via FB and was happy that other people are able to use the products! We also make an effort in many other areas of our lifestyle to be eco conscious so I will focus my attention on what works for us! In terms of diapering wipes, we still do a mix of disposables and cloth wipes (which can easily be tossed in the wash with other baby items).

I certainly don’t want my experience to discourage others who want to try cloth diapering (especially if you are able to launder them without a dryer), but I just want to be completely honest regarding our personal experience. Next time I must remember to do my research properly and also not commit the amateur mistake of buying too many baby things at one go!