The Cloth Mama Spotlight: Issue #15

A Monthly Newsletter Celebrating All Cloth Diapering Mamas in Singapore

November 2022

Meet The Mama

Having been in Singapore since 2008, Ferninda finally celebrates her first National Day as a citizen this year. Originally from Indonesia, the 32-year-old Singaporean has been a childcare teacher for 7 years and is a proud mother of 3 young boys, Luis (3.5 years old), Mario (2 years old), and Jose (2 months old).

Ferninda met her husband, Paul, through a Church group in university. She smiles, “Our group met weekly so we were friends for a few years before we started noticing each other.” Both of them loved to rock-climb when they were dating and she dreamed of the day where she could go on a rock-climbing trip with her husband again. She muses, “This is possible if we can find someone to babysit all our 3 boys as we haven’t climbed in 4 years.” That’s something that we all parents can relate to.

On her children, Ferninda cherishes all the snuggles in the morning after they have all woken up. She says, “The 2 older boys will come into my room where my newborn sleeps to snuggle with me, they may ‘poke’ or just watch their baby brother.” She continues, “Luis is into animals and loves spotting them. We were hanging out after Mass one day and when the priest was speaking to him, he suddenly spotted a tiny lizard on the stained glass and started to talk about it non-stop.”

“Mario is currently into excavators and cats! This means spotting excavators on his way to school. As for the little one, Jose, he’s only into mama’s milk now.”

The Cloth Diapering Journey

Ferninda started cloth diapering her firstborn when he was around 4 months old on a part-time basis. She began using them more actively when Luis was 10 months old. This was also the pandemic period in Singapore in 2020. She recalled, “Circuit breaker was a turning point for me because I became more confident in my washing routine and started to enjoy cloth diapering.”

As for Mario and Jose, she started them at a few weeks’ old and 1-week old respectively. Ferninda’s husband is the one who wants to give cloth diapering a try because he believes that it is more sustainable and saves money in the long run. She recounted their first experience shopping for cloth diapers, “As first-time-parents, we just walked around the baby fair and visited some CD booths. We had no idea about washing routine, the different systems and brands. We ended up buying a stash from one brand!” Thinking back, she wished she could try other brands first before her first big investment.

Challenges of Cloth Diapering

Washing routine is definitely the hardest for a newbie! Ferninda was using pocket diapers and was not sure if she could re-use the cover as the salesperson told her, “oh so easy, just change the inserts and reuse.”

Thinking back now, she says, “I didn’t know about pre-wash and main wash until I joined the CDSG group! So yup, all the cloth diapers went through a strip and sanitise after that.” Her husband has been very supportive though he could only wear All-in-Ones or All-in-Twos on the children. Flats were still no-go as he needs further training. She laughs, “He’s also very ‘on’ in spraying the children’s poop from the diaper.”

Initially, there were some doubts about the absorbency of the diapers. Before heading outdoors, her husband would often question if the diapers might leak. She says, “I would need to explain about the boosters and different inserts or systems that I used for outing and show him how to check the fitting. My husband also sleeps with the 2 older boys so it’s important to teach him how to handle leaks so as to make life easier for him.”

However, she admits that her choice of system depends on the phase that the child is going through. For example, before toilet training, one-size flat and cover work wonders for outdoor trips. After toilet training starts, Ferninda has to rent pull-ups from The Nappy Nook to find the next best combo that suits her children.

Her mother-in-law is quite fascinated with the variety of cloth diapers now as compared to earlier days when she was using muslin flats on her own children. She elaborates, “I explain and show my MIL how easy it is to use them. However, my husband and I agree that we stay with disposables if the children are sick and need to stay with in-laws. We just keep using it during our visit to their place on Sundays. I would also try to share more knowledge of absorbency so that he learns how to mix and match the inserts for the Ai2 diapers.”

Favourite Diaper Systems & Brands

Even with part-time cloth diapering, the savings are substantial. The eldest boy, Luis, is transiting from night diapers and disposables to trainers. Mario uses cloth diapers during outings and naps, wears disposables in childcare and is usually in trainers during the day at home. As for baby Jose, he’s in a mix of cloth and disposables.

Ferninda mainly uses AI2, flats and pull-ups. She explains, “I use Ai2 most of the time because I can adjust the absorbency and it’s something my husband is confident of using too. For the newborn stage, I prefer flats because I would know that Jose cried because he has just peed. If not, it’s hard to tell from the inserts hidden under a waterproof cover. Before the toilet learning process, I also like using flats and a cover for outings. Once the child starts toilet learning, I prefer pull-ups but I didn’t invest much to change the entire collection.”

Ferninda has a modest collection of 29 day diapers, 7 night diapers and 2 swim diapers and these are her personal favourites:

“Petite Crown — somehow I just like the fitting and the basic absorbency provided by their standard insert.”

“Motherease bedwetter pants- oh I love love love this so much because even if the boy resists sleeping or wearing of diaper, it’s so easy to put it on! My #2 is finally chunky enough to wear XS and I’m so happy! My #1 wore it for a long time during nights since he’s off diapers during the day.”

“Tiny warriors co. — I love the stretchy flats from them! I don’t invest much in flats but I love the two that I bought from them. It’s so useful for long outing and night diapering until the child is toilet-trained.”

Advice to Newbies

Ferninda believes that even if it’s part-time cloth diapering, it still helps with the environment. “I’m a strong advocate of sustainability, using one cloth diaper is one less disposable in the bin. It’s really worth the try!”

Coping with laundry is another challenge.

She advises, “Ask the CDSG community, and really try out a set from The Nappy Nook Cloth Diaper Library! For example, you may be like me who buys random diapers at the baby fair to realize that it may not be the best solution for your baby’s stage, but they could still work with a bit of “twist” such as changing out or adding other inserts!”

Ferninda also thinks that as much as diapers are marketed to be one-size, it may not always work to take the child from the newborn stage to toilet-training stage. It requires some level of observations and experimentation as the child may drink and pee more during certain phases. She offers what works for her, “Stick to a routine and a system. This means when I’m overwhelmed and could not prepare the diapers beforehand, by separating the diapers from inserts in different laundry baskets, I can just pick one of each up to use!”

Ferninda also likes how using cloth part-time is wallet-friendly because one pack of disposables can usually last for 1.5 months. This makes her pause and reflect about her choices over more sustainable options such as tissues instead of face towels.

On the future of cloth diapering, she admits that though everyone is attracted to live more sustainably, the fact is in some families, there is a constant struggle to juggle work and family, let alone having to deal with normal household chores such as laundry.

In such cases, Ferninda thinks that we could always switch our mindsets to re-adopt cloth from disposables at a different time instead of giving it all up. “Perhaps it could be when the baby starts solids or when he’s learning to stand up”. One thing is clear- the choice is always yours.