Question: Can I cloth diaper from birth? What about the meconium?

Yes, you can absolutely cloth diaper right from birth!

Meconium is known as your baby’s first poop. It is thick, sticky and tar-like, and completely normal. Meconium will last for the first day or two and then change depending on how your baby is being fed (breastmilk or formula).

Because it is thick, sticky and dark colored, many parents think that they can’t use cloth because their diapers will be ruined. However, this isn’t true!

Believe it or not, meconium is actually water-soluble and doesn’t need to be rinsed off a diaper before being put into the wash! That being said, it often does stain. But, staining doesn’t mean that your diapers are dirty – as long as your diapers smell clean out of the wash, you’re good to go.

If you are worried about staining, there are a few things you can do:

• Use liners for the first few days like our flushable bamboo liners
• Use a stain remover like Laundry Magic – this can also be used as a detergent booster in the wash to help increase the cleaning and stain lifting power of your detergent
• Sun out any stains by laying the clean diaper out in the sun

The Stay Dry lining used in our Sandy’s Stay Dry Fitted Cloth Diaper and All in Two Wizard Duo inserts is stain resistant and makes poop easier to remove than other fabrics.

Don’t be swayed by those that will tell you that you have to use disposable diapers until the meconium passes – after all, what did parents do before disposables were available?