The Best Cloth Backups for Elimination Communication

Welcome to the First Annual Freedom of Cloth Carnival


This post was written for inclusion in the Freedom of Cloth Carnival hosted at Natural Parents Network by Melissa of The New Mommy Files and Shannon of The Artful Mama. This year’s carnival will run from Sunday, July 3rd through Saturday, July 9th. Participants are sharing everything they know and love about cloth diapering, including how cloth has inspired them.

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Because we practice elimination communication, the "must have" items in our diapering stash are a bit different from what other families may need. The diapers and trainers we purchase are all designed to help us with a few basic goals:

• Avoid mess and discomfort, while still allowing for quick access and easy use of the toilet.
• Allow for bodily awareness by avoiding fabrics that wick moisture away from the skin, making it difficult for the child to know s/he is wet.
• Facilitate awareness on the part of the caregiver/parent, so that wet or soiled clothes can be changed promptly.

In order to satisfy these goals, we have tried out a number of diapering systems with widely varied success. There is no one solution that works perfectly for us all the time, but we have finally found a groove and discovered a cloth back-up that works for us in every situation on our EC journey.

The Prefold

Since they're so absorbent, prefolds make it easy to avoid mess. If we miss a signal and our daughter pees, the prefold will easily soak it all up. Using a prefold belt makes for especially easy potty access at home, and avoiding a cover makes it easy for us to see when she is wet. A prefold sans cover also allows for air flow which is great for the skin since the prefold does not wick moisture away.

This cost effective solution is great during the day at home, but we don't like to use it at night, for naps or when out and about. Our daughter moves quite a bit in her sleep, and a belted prefold doesn't stay in place particularly well through this squirming. Since a prefold with no cover is not waterproof, we can end up with a wet car seat if we go out while using this system. Attaching the prefold with a snappi and using a cover solves both of these problems, but it takes time to remove and put on again which is not ideal for quick potty trips, especially with our wiggly, diaper change averse baby. Our favorite prefolds are Bummis' organic unbleached Indian.

Some well-loved fitteds

The Fitted Diaper

Fitted diapers go on like a disposable, but require a cover to make them waterproof. Much like prefolds, they can easily absorb an entire miss, but many brands are designed to wick moisture away from the skin, which does not help with our goal of bodily awareness. Using them without a cover does allow air flow for comfort, and allows caregivers to see immediately when the diaper becomes wet. They're fairly easy to put on and take off for quick bathroom trips, particularly if you use velcro closures instead of snaps. Because they have their own closure and stay in place so well thanks to elastic around the legs, they have an edge on prefolds in the early months when a baby is exclusively breastfed and tends to have particularly, er, explosive eliminations of the (not so) solid variety. 

Unfortunately, fitted diapers are also considerably more expensive than prefolds and not a whole lot more functional for our purposes, so we have not used them much. We tend to use the few that we have at home when we're preparing for a long car trip or a nap. This way we can quickly add a cover to make the diaper waterproof before leaving or putting our daughter in bed. Our favorite fitteds were custom made by a mama who doesn't sell them, unfortunately, but we also love our Linah Sora and have had success with Thirsties Fab Fitteds as well.

Two nighttime favorites: An all in one and a pocket diaper.

The Pocket or All in One Diaper

All in one and pocket diapers are both waterproof options. The primary difference is that an all in one has several absorbent layers sewn in, and a pocket requires "stuffing" with an absorbent insert. Once stuffed, they both work more or less in the same way. These are not ideal for our goals of either caregiver or bodily awareness, so we don't use them during the day, but they are our preferred option at night. Our daughter is a heavy wetter, and nighttime misses are rare, but they almost always ended in wet sheets before we started using AIOs and pockets at night. Because they are so absorbent, they keep our sheets dry when there is a nighttime miss, and they can be snapped loosely so that they pull up and down for quick bathroom visits during the night. 

These tend to be the most expensive diapering option our there, but that's fine since we only need them at night and they seldom become wet, so we only have a few. We put one on just before bed and switch to something else in the morning. Diapers with side snaps tend to be the easiest to pull up and down. Our favorite pocket is a Linah Sora and our (only) AIOs are GroVia.

The Non-Waterproof Trainer

Gerber training pants

There are a variety of options for non-waterproof trainers. While most are designed for potty learning aged children, there are a few that are specially designed with ECing families in mind. These are usually just like ordinary underwear, with a few extra layers of absorbency sewn in to catch a miss. They meet our awareness goals extremely well, and are quite easy for quick potty trips, but most of the options we've tried have failed to fully contain mess. Because we have all tile floors, this hasn't been an issue. We don't mind soaking up a puddle here and there, but I don't use this option while out and about unless I'm feeling especially confident and brave and I never use them at bed time. 

These don't have any significant advantage over the prefold and diaper belt option until the child gets a bit older and will benefit from practice with pulling their own pants up and down. Types we have tried include Eco Nix, Under the Nile, the "Potty Praiser¹", and the plain ol' Gerber cloth training pants that can be found in the baby section of most any big box store. Hanna Andersson makes a similar style that friends have had good success with. Among these, only Eco Nix are made in an infant size, but the 18 months size of Gerber pants have fit fairly well since our daughter was about twelve months, despite the fact that she is on the smile side for her age. I only bought one pair of Eco Nix because I found them to be very tight around my daughter's legs and loose around her waist.

The Waterproof Trainer

Waterproof trainers have been our favorite back-up option overall from the start, simply because they're so versatile. They meet the goal of bodily awareness and they also contain mess both in and outside the house. The only goal they don't meet perfectly well is that of caregiver awareness, but I still find that it's fairly easy to tell when they're wet because they're so much thinner than diapers. They are ideal for use out and about since the waterproof layer protects the car seat, baby's clothes, and friends' laps and furniture if there is an undetected miss. 

Types we have used include EcaPants, WhyMommy, and Bikini Britches. All three come in smaller sizes for ECing infants, and I can recommend them all more or less equally. EcaPants definitely win for adjustability, durability, and as such cost effectiveness, but I love that the Why Mommy and Bikini Britches can be pulled up and down by the child.

Split Pants

Splint pants are open-crotch pants that may or may not come with a coordinating cover. They can be used alone, or with any diaper or trainer. They would be fantastic for use in colder climates where diaper free time is not feasible, but here in the tropics they're a little superfluous. We have recently tried our first pair and they work just great, but they don't fill a need for us. 

Cloth diapering has changed dramatically in our lifetime and there is now an almost overwhelming number of options. Our family's cloth diapering style has been dictated by our goals in connection with our practice of Elimination Communication and so far we have found that prefolds and trainers during the day, plus pocket or AIO diapers at night are the best options for meeting those needs.

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^1. Love the pants, but the training concept doesn't jive with my style at all. We don't color on them.

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Visit Natural Parents Network for the most up-to-date news on the Freedom of Cloth Carnival!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants on the following themes. Articles will go live on the scheduled theme day:

• Sunday, July 3rd, 2011: Cloth Related Recipes — Writers share their best cloth-related recipes and tutorials.
• Monday, July 4th, 2011: Choosing Your Cloth Style — Today’s posts discuss parents' individual journeys to finding the cloth diapering "style" that best suits their families.
• Tuesday, July 5th, 2011: Cloth Diapering Must Haves — Parents talk about the most important items in their diapering “stash” and why they love them.
• Wednesday, July 6th, 2011: Wordless Wednesday, Inspired by Cloth — We asked parents to share their favorite cloth-related photo with us and turned them into a fluffy Wordless Wednesday photo montage on Natural Parents Network. Link up your own Wordless Wednesday post there!
• Thursday, July 7th, 2011: Cloth Through the Stages: From Infancy to Potty Independence — Today’s participants explain how cloth diapering has served their families throughout one or more stages of their children’s lives.
• Friday, July 8th, 2011: Cloth Troubleshooting and Laundry Day — Seasoned cloth diapering parents share their best tips and tricks for handling common cloth problems and tackling the diaper laundry.
• Saturday, July 9th, 2011: Inspired by Cloth — For today’s theme, we’ve asked writers to explore the ways cloth diapering has inspired them to become "greener" overall.