Are you having cloth diaper problems? Each week, I answer a question in my Mailbox Mondays post!
Questions don’t have to be cloth diaper related, just email maria at change-diapers.com with “Mailbox Mondays” in the subject, or fill out my contact form for readers, which you will always be able to find on my Contact Page.
Daniele says::
Some ladies started cloth diapering a 4 month baby girl and a 2 year old boy. They insist on washing and marking boy/girl diapers. Should the diapers be separated?. Is there any gender related hygiene guidelines?
A somewhat similar question was asked about cloth diapering twins. I haven’t cloth diapered a boy and a girl, but I’ve cloth diapered two at a time. I kept a separate stash for each boy, solely so I didn’t have to adjust the sizes each time. They both used the same diaper bag diapers, and I washed them all together. Of course, if you were dealing with a yeast rash you would need to treat all the diapers.
I wash the whole family’s underwear together, and while I realize we don’t use our undies as diapers, they do contain our germs and body fluids. I wash my son’s undies with our laundry even if he’s had an accident (I just rinse them first if it was a #2 accident!) and I don’t have any concerns about it.
Now the other thing to consider is that sometimes boys need more absorbency up front (as do girls who are belly sleepers sometimes) while girls may need more absorbency in the middle. If your children are very heavy wetters, you may want to adjust where you put the bulk of the absorbency to make the diapers work better for each child!
Do you diaper more than 1 child? Do you keep their diapers separate?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
I don’t have separate diapers for each kid. As long as you are certain your diapers are getting clean, I can’t see the “hygiene” reason being needed. I do have preferred diapers for each kid though. The diapers that work great on my toddler girl aren’t necessarily my go-to’s for my infant boy.
I have two boys and they, generally speaking, share the same diapers. They are only 8 lbs difference although one is over half a foot taller than the other. Some of the diapers fit one better than the other, but some diapers they use the same size setting.
I wash them all at once and as for the arrangement, I have my diapers divided out by type rather than what diaper goes to what boy. It just makes my life easier.
When I had 2 in diapers, I just used the same diapers for both and adjusted them to fit as needed. The older onewas almost out of diapers by that point though. He used the potty and wore diaper for backup until he got more reliable at using potty
I had separate diapers for my kid when I had 2 in diapers but it was more a sizing and absorbency thing. I washed them all together but rarely shared diapers between them (although I would in a pinch).
I do not separate my son and daughter’s diapers. My son just turned 2 and my daughter is almost 9months. They actually fit the same size diaper so I don’t need to do any adjusting. As for washing we wash them all together also.
I keep my two year old boy and five month old girl diapers seperate. Nothing to do with genders, but sizing and washing. I don’t want to sift through and figure out which ones are sized for which kid. Also my toddler’s diapers need a more rigorous washing routine since he eats solid food and we don’t have a diaper sprayer. I don’t want to wear out the younger one’s diapers in an unnecessary wash routine.