The Cloth Mama Spotlight: Issue #12

A Monthly Newsletter Celebrating All Cloth Diapering Mamas in Singapore

August 2022

Meet The Mama

Jia Hui has always been passionate about cloth diapering. She confesses, “I joined CDSG even before I was pregnant, that was how certain I knew that I would be a cloth mama.”

The 36 year-old mother of 2 young children, Carla, 3, and Enzo, 1, is a preschool educator for 15 years. “I enjoy my job because it is very people-oriented. It also allows me to see myself and others from various lenses. I used to be my teacher’s pet as I often spend time studying. Growing up, I love reading and drawing so it seems like those were similar traits to teaching!”

To some, Jia Hui is also known to be the ‘Piggie’ or ‘Totoro’ fan girl. She admits that coordination of the outfits and cloth diapers is important to her.

She smiles, “95% of my diapers have matchy togs and both of my children wear similar ensembles as well.” This means both children share the same wardrobe though the children are 2 years apart.

So how are the children like?

She continues, “Carla is rather strong willed. She refuses to take milk from her milk bottle since infancy. Her grandparents used a spoon and straw to feed her but she still refuses the milk. For 3 weeks after I started work, her total milk intake during daytime was only 150ml each day. It seems that she prefers to latch on me. There’s no drinking issues with Enzo. In other words, Carla drinks like a kitten sipping milk and Enzo drinks like a German man gulping down beer.”

A vegetarian for 23 years, Jia Hui is far from a being a choosy eater. In fact, she “loves everything and anything”!

She was only 17 years old when she met her husband, Han, in secondary school where they started dating. She recalled fondly, “I was a xiao mei mei (young girl) and true enough, both my parents were very pissed.” The lovebirds tied the knots after dating for 13 years.

The Cloth Diapering Journey

Interestingly, Jia Hui was inspired to try cloth diapering because of her positive experience with using cloth pads. She elaborates, “I started using cloth pads myself when I was young and I felt the comfort level matters a lot to me. I didn’t have any skin irritation as these pads are made of natural materials. Hence, I decided to find out, read up and research into cloth diapers and ended up discovering the Cloth Diapering Singapore (CDSG) Facebook Group.”

For her first child, Carla, Jia Hui started cloth diapering in the 3rd month. “I gave myself a month of break to figure out breastfeeding and my new role and routines as a new mother. For Enzo, I started after finishing the 60-pack disposables. We were having confinement nanny and my hubby and I agreed not to stress her too much into using cloth nappies.”

Both children are full-time in cloth. Carla is only in cloth during day naps and at night since she has been potty-trained.

Fortunately for Jiahui, her family is 200% supportive of cloth diapering. It helps that the family is living on their own and that she has full control over the use of the washing machine. She says, “I can imagine the washing routine may be tedious and challenging if too many people are users of the machine.”

It wasn’t hard for her to convince the family to come onboard. She explained that she wanted to cloth diaper on the children to save money and it was as simple as that! In fact, the whole family was very keen to learn all the steps on how to handle cloth diapers. She beams, “I am really grateful to my parents, in laws and Han for being on this cloth journey together with my children right from the beginning!”

Challenges of Cloth Diapering

Overall, the journey to switch to cloth has been rather smooth-sailing! Jia Hui reveals that her hubby and her prefer the prefolds and cover system but things change when the “cheeky little monkeys” started flipping. She sighs, “We became alligator wrestlers.”

In the beginning, her adoption towards cloth diapers was met with a fair bit of skepticism from her husband’s uncle. She recalled this funny anecdote where this uncle remarked that no one in the 21st century living in Singapore uses cloth nappies because only people who live in the village do so. Villagers have all the free time and can take their own sweet time to change and hand-wash diapers. She giggles, “My parents-in-law and husband then pointed at me and said, ‘There, this one loh, everyday needs to wash diapers!’”

Favourite Diaper Systems & Brands

When Jia Hui first started cloth diapers, she tried all the systems except for flats. After using various types of cloth diapers, she admitted that she preferred to stick to similar types. She explained, “Having similar diapers do help us during the sorting and preparing process. I also think it smoothen the wearing process for caregivers be it the grandparents or teachers.”

Her favourite systems are pockets stuffed with prefolds and fitted diapers. “Pockets with prefold as inserts are weekday stash for Enzo which is favoured by the grandparent. My personal preference is fitted diapers for night time and weekends.”

These are her Top 2 go-to cloth diaper brands- Twinkie Tush and Green Mountain. She reasons, “Twinkietush — I like how versatile it is — beautiful enough to take OOTD and head out, bulletproof enough to use for nights when I paired with wool, and thick enough to be a bum padding for my stumbing bub as they learn to walk.

“Green mountain — I use their prefolds paired with snappis and covers during infancy stage (covers can be rotated so the bulk for washing is just the prefolds). The same prefolds stash became the inserts for my pocket shells when the grandparents took over once I went back to work.”

How many cloth diapers does she have for 2 in cloth?

She exclaims, “A mountain pile! It became my makeshift Christmas tree in the month of December. There are usually 3 stashes- the first fitted stash fill up 2 big drawers. Then the second pocket stash is meant to be sent over to the grandparents’ place every Monday. The last lone stash sits at the corner of the house, meant for re-sales (though the pile still remains).”

Potty Training & Cloth Diapering In School

To get the child to be potty-trained, a routine is important. Jia Hui advises, “Bring them to the potty after their sleep or naps. Set up the potty in the room near the bathroom to make it accessible. Having toys and books on a low stool that double-ups as a table encourages the child to sit and stay engaged instead of getting up. Lastly, show your baby what happens when one uses the toilet literally. The mind has to understand first before it hands the work over to the muscles.”

As for cloth diapering in school, Jia Hui counts herself lucky. She shares, “The Principal agreed immediately. When I wanted to show her my sample diaper and demonstrate the changing process, she reassured me that the team has handled cloth diapers before and told me not to worry about it!” Carla has been in a side-snapping diaper from Blueberry when she enrolled in childcare at the age of 18 months.

Advice to Newbies

Jia Hui thinks that overbuying can be an issue when there are so many prints to choose from! She laughs, “I would say 90% was how much one may mad-love-cannot-live-without this particular print. Some complained about making crazy or duplicated buys from USA in the middle of the night while nursing or pumping! All of us worry about our wallets during our confinement period.”

She offers these tips to stay within the budget, “Be realistic and count how many diapers you need in the space allocated in your current set-up. Do consider some space for related items such as matching tog or wool items. When the space gets filled up, consider selling a couple of less-used or pre-loved diapers before you buy more. I forced myself to use my drawer to store nappies instead of trolleys, otherwise I might end up visiting Ikea every now and then (for more trolleys)!”

To Jia Hui, the support network from spouse and family members is very important in order for everyone to stick to the routine. Whether the family is able to successfully cloth diaper part-time or full-time depends on the care-giving arrangements because this determines if they are supportive of the using cloth diapers. This would then impact on number of diapers needed for a regular wash routine.

For now, she agrees that the future looks good for the cloth diapering community, “More and more people would look into using cloth diapers and more preschools would agree to take that onboard.”