What To Do with the Poo?

One of the questions that many people have about using cloth diapers is, “What do you do with the poo?”  Let me tell you – it’s not as hard as it seems!  There are several ways that you can make it easy to remove the poo from your cloth diapers.

Use a Diaper Sprayer

  I think that hands down, one of the best baby gifts we received was our diaper sprayer.  This handy gadget easily attaches to you toilet to make poo removal a cinch.  It looks much like the hose/sprayer that is part of your kitchen sink.  Just flip the lever, depress the button, and spray all of the “ick” off your diaper and straight into the toilet.  Disposable is as easy as a flush!  The diaper sprayer uses the force of the water stream to quickly and easily remove everything from your diaper.

Did you know that breast-milk poo is completely biodegradable and doesn’t necessarily need to be removed before washing?  Many moms & dads choose to simply throw everything into the wet bag or diaper pail, and let the washing machine rinse it away.  I chose to spray my diapers with the diaper sprayer, even when Elaine was solely breast-fed. 

Use Flushable Liners

A great option for is the flushable liner.  These thin papers are placed as a lining in your diaper.  When you change the diaper, just flip the liner and all of the mess on top of it into the toilet and flush.  Easy, right?

Use Biodegradable Inserts

Some cloth diapering systems, such as the Flip and the GroVia, are called “hybrids” because they can be used with cloth inserts or biodegradable disposable inserts.  I see pros and cons to this method.  One of the biggest reasons I chose to use cloth diapers is because of the money I can save.  If I am buying a lot of biodegradable inserts, then I am not saving as much money.  Those inserts are not reusable, so my money is a loss.

However, if I were going on vacation, a long car trip, or some other outing that would make using cloth diapers difficult, then I would see this as a great option.  The inserts go inside of a cover or shell, so you are still using your cloth, but you have the ease of just throwing away the insert when not at home.

Some Other Options

The three options above would be my top choices for poo removal.  However, you can always do it the “old” way such as dunking your diapers in the toilet, “swirling” them by dunking while you flush the toilet at the same time.  The force of the flush often removes more poo than a simple dunk.  You can always just shake off the “ick” if it is solid enough to roll off the diaper and into the toilet. 

I have on occasion, and in desperation, dunked and swirled my diapers.  It is not fun!  I did it when I was away from home and did not have access to my diaper sprayer.  As a matter of habit, though, I would definitely recommend investing in a diaper sprayer.  It will make your life easier and keep your hands cleaner!

Another Note about Diaper Sprayers

I have recently starting using my diaper sprayer for much more than just cleaning the poo from my diapers!  I use it to rinse the tub quickly before running bath water for my baby.  I use it to remove the cleaner after scrubbing the shower walls.  I even stuck my muddy stroller in the bath tub and sprayed all of the mud and dirt down the drain!