Cloth Diapers are Best!

First things first: you’ll need some diapers. Some moms prefer cloth, and others prefer plastic, so make sure you know the choice of the mom-to-be ahead of time. Regardless, you’ll probably want diapers with some color (pink or blue, or yellow for those who don’t yet know the sex of the baby) and cute designs (teddy bears, bows, building blocks, etc.). Just peruse the aisles of your local grocery (for plastic) or baby (for cloth) store, and pick out the cutest ones you can find!

You’ll want to buy at least two or three packs, and try to get diapers of various sizes (he or she won’t stay in size 2’s for long)! Some other goodies you’ll want to purchase include ribbons and bows, colored cellophane, a piece of cardboard for the base, rubber bands, and dowels. Oh, and it is also fun to buy some small gifts to hide among the layers, such as small trial sized baby bath or lotion, coupons or gift certificates, and small baubles and toys.

To roll a diaper, start at the top and roll up tightly. Hold it together with a rubber band. Roll about six diapers, and then take a second, bigger, rubber band, and insert them all into it so that they form a cylinder. You will now have a single “layer.” Repeat with about fifteen diapers, and then again with about thirty. This will form the middle and bottom layers (you can use different numbers of diapers to make different sized cakes or a different number of layers).

Now comes the fun part. To assemble your diaper cake, place the biggest layer on the round piece of cardboard. Place the middle layer on top, using wooden dowels to secure it. Repeat with the top layer. Make sure to hide your small gifts inside the layers of the diaper cake!

To finalize the “cake,” wrap up the whole creation with colored cellophane and ribbons. Decorate in any additional way you choose. Some people like to top the “cake” with a larger gift, such as a soft doll or stuffed animal. However you choose to complete your diaper cake, you can be sure it will be the most talked-about gift at the baby shower!

About the Author

Leefe Poche is the founder of http://www.cakes-you-can-bake.com

I washed them and put them on my baby. They worked beautifully! I could tell they are truly adjustable for size. I had a little bit of trouble determining the best setting for my baby, and it turns out that it is the smallest setting. I have a fairly large baby (14 pounds at 2 months), so I’m not sure these would work well on a newborn. But I think that means they will last us a long time…into the toddler years.

There were no leaks with the first wash and I was in heaven! Each of the diapers comes with two inserts, a large and a small. These snap together so you can really double them up for extra absorption.  I think I may have a laundry problem though, the second time we washed them we had a couple of leaks out of the leg holes.  My husband found a stray dryer sheet, so that might have been the culprit.  We’re on wash # 3, so we’ll see if we fixed the laundry problem or not.  I really think I like these diapers though-better than BumGenius 2.0 diapers.

There was a time when moms used cloth diapers and that was it. There was no question about it, they were going to have diaper laundry on top of everything else they had to do. Then someone had the great idea to make diapers that you can throw away! How wonderful! Doesn’t that solve our problems?

I can see why people want to use disposable diapers. They absorb well, they are stamped with cute designs, and better yet, you can fold them up and throw them away, never to be seen again! The only problem is that they don’t just *go away*. They go to our landfills where they sit and have an awfully hard time disintegrating.

I don’t want to pretend that I’m a great environmental activist. I am very guilty of not recycling like I should. But for some reason I felt the draw to cloth diaper my baby ever since I knew I was pregnant. I don’t even remember when it happened…I was in *sposies* when I was a baby so it wasn’t due to sentimentality.

I was probably drawn to the cuteness of the cloth diapers to tell you the truth. They are made of fleece (the ones I use) and come in beautiful colors and patterns. The best part? They are now as easy to use as disposables (i.e. no pins) and close with velcro or snaps. If you had the choice, wouldn’t you want your butt wrapped in cozy fleece rather than what is essentially a paper bag filled with chemicals?

And there is that environmental aspect as well. My son goes through at least 12 diapers a day-more if we’re really unlucky. Instead of those 12 diapers going into a landfill and the waste rolling off into the oceans, they are washed and reused right at home. They come out smelling fresh and clean and good as new.

My favorites are Fuzzi Bunz

and Happy Heinys

Aren’t you convinced?