Diaper Stuff...Tons of Diaper Stuff

Baby Diapers deserve an entire section by itself. It is one of the biggest time sinkholes and if you get it wrong, it will haunt you 24 x 7 until you pass out, as we did.

Initially we had fanciful ideas about being eco-warriors, saving the environment by opting for cloth diapers. We heard about how they are much better for the BB's skin, preventing rashes, saves money, saves the environment (As a real fact disposable diapers takes 250 to 500 years to decompose, so the thought that the diapers you wore as a baby would outlast your next 6 or 7 generations should seriously give pause to people )

So we did our research on the best possible cloth diaper options (There's a great varierty of choices out there for cloth diapering) and settled on using prefold diapers with water proof snap-on diaper covers. Basically prefolds are normal cloth stitched for extra thickness at the center for better absorbency. You simply lay this prefold into the diaper cover, add a diaper liner on top to catch and easily remove solids and snap the cover onto the baby. It doesn't sound so bad and seems quite manageable.

Most of the solids should be caught by the liner paper and easily removed, but to remove the remnants, we use a toilet water bidet spray to dispose of it directly into the toilet bowl.

There should be enough cloth diapers available so you only need to launder every 1 to 3 days to help save your sanity. The used diapers go into a covered pail, either wet or dry and a scoop of baking soda is sprinkled over it to prevent odors. (You would probably buy a big box of laundry baking soda available at supermarkets, cold storage specifically, or from baking supply shops such as http://www.phoonhuat.com/ )

We purchased our cloth diapering package from where else? Clothdiaper.com

http://www.clothdiaper.com/PRODUCTS/Basic-Prefold-Diaper-Package-with-Thirsties/

They includes everything we should need. Seems a good deal too. Of course shipping is hell expensive to Singapore so probably end up doubling the cost.

I don't think anyone would be able to find decent cloth diapering systems in Singapore. The most we came across are normal single piece primitive cloth diapers circa 1900s which are nothing more than a sheet of cloth you need to use with safety pins which I couldn't possibly imagine anyone in modern times contemplating to buy.

There are those specialty stores which sell cloth diapers with inserts such as Charlie Banana, but they sell them as *single* pieces or at best 3-packs and charge the skies for them, easily S$20-30 for each. So based on the 60 cloth diapers the package provides, the cost of it in local retail Charlie Banana terms would be around  S$1800. Would you believe it.

I also tried to ask around my work colleges and friends if anyone had experience on using cloth diapers but without exception, everyone looks at me as if I am mad and missed my institute of mental hospital prescribed happy pills and daily electro-therapy across my temples. Several probably reported me to them already.

And of course they never heard about these eco-save-the-earth-and-environment nonsense as well. Apparently these issues are for government officials to solve otherwise they would be out of jobs. Totally out of the realm of ordinary normal folks like Singaporeans who should be focusing on how to change their next Mercedes or BMWs.

So this package includes everything we should need, save us the headache and indulge in our eco-warrior fantasy role playing.

We would explain more on our experiences, trial and tribulations on cloth diapers later.


I bought these cloth diaper fasteners without really thinking through and turns out we probably will never need them as the cloth diaper package already includes the duo wrap Thirsties covers. These fasteners are good for cases where one does not want to use covers, utilize a different cloth diaper folding method to wrap around the baby and using these fasteners to hold them in place.

Snappi Cloth Diaper Fasteners - Pack of 5 (2 Mint Green, 2 White, 1 Blue)

There are tons and tons of online articles, posts on diaper rash. Every baby will 100% have them and every parent will panic, get stressed, lose sleep and sanity over them. So to prevent all of these nonsense I decided to buy the best-reviewed glowing-experience diaper rash cream I could find on Amazon and this triple paste ointment's active ingredient is actually 12% zinc oxide.

Now, zinc oxide is one of the best possible ingredient you can put on your skin. It is actually the active ingredient in sun blocks (zinc oxide particles reflects UV rays), it is anti-bacterial...etc. I will save the marketing here and direct anyone who's more interested to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_oxide#Medicine

The weaker form of this commonly used is calamine lotion which all of us buy from guardian pharmacy and use for variety of skin conditions from rashes and itch. So this high strength cream, which comes in a generous tub and its thick creamy consistency allows it to stick on to wet skin and cling on to it like a politician and his money.

Our later experiences with it proved that it is, without doubt, probably the only diaper rash cream you would ever need.

Triple Paste Medicated Ointment for Diaper Rash, 8-Ounce