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Beth asks:
I’m expecting my first baby any day now. I’ve read so much about cloth diapering, thanks to bloggers and moms like you. But I haven’t quite figured out the logistics of spraying or dunking a poopy diaper in the one bathroom in our city apartment (down the hall from my nursery). Do people do it right after a diaper change? Where is Baby during this process? Do they keep diaper pails or wet bags in the bathroom as well as by the changing table? I’d love to know!
Hi Beth! When your baby is 100% breastfed (sometimes with formula too, mixed responses on that but I don’t have experience) you can throw diapers right into the wash. When your child is older, you can plop solids in the toilet & then wash. It’s that in-between stage that can be tricky! I’ve never owned a diaper sprayer, and have rarely dunked a diaper (here’s my demo of how to dunk & swish without getting your hands dirty.) I have just used a square of TP to scrape what I can & the rest goes in the wash!
When I have dunked, I’ve brought the wet bag in the bathroom with me. Many families just keep a wet bag in the bathroom closest to where they change the majority of their diapers!
What do you do?
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. 
My little guy is breastfed and I still like to spray his diapers. I keep a large wet bag in the bathroom closest to the washer and dryer. Once he has a poop diaper I either spray it right away (as long as he’s playing toys or sometimes he’s in the bathroom with me) or put it on the back of the toilet to spray later when he’s down for a nap or when he’s playing with his toys. After I spray it, I put it in the wet bag. I know everyone says there is no need to spray a breastfed diaper out, but I like to just because I don’t like the idea of having a diaper filled with poop in the wet bag. Especially if I forget which ones are pooped in, I don’t want to accidentally have a hand full of poop. LOL! We stopped changing him on the changing table when he could roll around, so now we change him wherever we can get him to stay still. This is why we just keep our wet bag in the bathroom. It works for us, but everyone has their own routine. I’ve changed my routine a few times to find what worked perfectly for us.
Here is how I do it: breastfed or formula fed – take off baby and put directly into diaper pail. Once solids are introduced, I keep a “poop bucket” on the floor by the pail (it’s just a bucket I used to use for soapy water when we washed the car, nothing fancy). Poopy diapers go into the bucket while I finish changing the baby (poopy cloth wipes go directly into the pail). When I’m done, I put the baby down to play someplace safe, take the bucket to the bathroom, use a Spray Pal and a diaper sprayer to clean up the poop, then put the wet diaper back in the bucket, carry it back to the room and dump in the pail! If for some reason I can’t go spray it off right away, the diaper can just wait in the bucket until I have time (though I try to leave it on a counter or someplace the baby can’t get to it and make a mess!) 🙂 I have Clorox wipes in the bathroom and in a high cupboard in the bedroom so I can wipe it down every once in a while (though it doesn’t usually get much poop on it).
When my oldest started solids, I just laid her on the floor in the hall while I dunked her diaper. With my youngest, I had discovered flushable liners and just picked up the liner and tossed it in the toilet. Then, I found fleece liners (just regular fleece from the fabric store) and the poop just rolls off that. Whenever I had to do that, I either held my baby or laid her in a safe place while I took care of the diaper.
Until we started solids, we kept the diaper pail in the nursery. When we started solids and had to dispose of the poop, we started keeping the diaper pail in the bathroom.
I think so. Just like her am not sure about the exact logistics , as in the baby is left on its own while dunk n swish happens. Sorry for being a noob, but yet to experience life with a newborn.
Oh gotcha. Just toss them in the pail like you would for a disposable. Once baby is eating solids you’d just carry baby & diaper to the bathroom, shake the diaper off & done. On the occasion that I had to scrape the diaper & needed both hands, I’d just set baby down at my feet for a minute!
I think Beth’s question is still unanswered. She is asking right after you take out the soiled diaper, does it go directly into the pail before going into the wash?
Breastfed baby: change diaper, put in pail. Older baby: change diaper, dump solids (or swish/spray if you like), put in pail. Is that what you mean?
This was something that really worried me too, when I was researching cloth diapers. But a friend of mine suggested buying a garden sprayer from Menards or even just Walmart and keeping it in the bathroom just in case. That way, I didn’t have to spend the money on a fancy diaper sprayer.
Honestly, I’m really glad I listened to her. I threw my diapers right into the wash up until my Ginny switched to solids. Now all I have to do is carefully shake the diaper over the toilet and everything falls in without a problem. I barely ever use the sprayer. Occasionally it has come in handy though, and I like knowing it’s there, just in case. So if you’re like me and you take a boy scout approach to these things (always being prepared and all that jazz), I’d suggest that.