BY JESSICA WIANT

When you venture into cloth diapering, some things are a given, like less waste and more laundry. Then there are the things you count on because you’ve heard they’re true, like how odds are you may deal with less diaper rash.

Then there are the weird things.

For example, I always thought my son just had stinky pee. I had no idea until I used my first cloth diapers that it was actually the disposable diapers themselves.

Because I didn’t start with cloth diapers until my first son was about 10 months old, my experience was a bit different than it is starting out with a newborn, like I did with my second son at the end of this summer. By the time kid No. 1 had a fluffy bum, he was toddling around and eating solids. His poop was of a consistency that it could sometimes roll right out into the toilet. Ironically, we started out using cloth at night, since I was working and he was at daycare during the day. We had no problems.

With my first son, I exclusively bought one-size diapers. I had no issues with leaks, I never doubled-up on inserts and they all fit from then until the time he potty-trained a few months after he turned 2. I did struggle with laundry, trying out several different routines and dealing with ammonia more than once.

I got a short break, at least. My first finished with diapers by March and my second son was due later in August. Even though I spent that time wondering how cloth diapering an infant might be different, I had my confidence. If diapering an older baby was so easy and effective, how could doing it with a tiny one be any more difficult?

Then my baby boy got here and I learned a very important lesson: A smaller baby does NOT mean less pee. Sure, I remembered those messy poops, but this much pee? It didn’t seem possible! I’ve struggled this time to find a combination that works. Part of the challenge has been finding a good fit and part of it is the sheer volume of output. As he’s grown, the things that works have already been changing. Our FuzziBunz Elite seem to fit best at the moment on our now 3-month-old 16-pounder. Laundry this time around, has been simple – that exclusively breast-fed poop washes right out!

Despite the different challenges we’ve faced, my only regret is that I didn’t start using cloth diapers sooner. At any age, cloth diapers have their benefits, and no matter the size of your baby, they’re always cute!