items in bag
Cooper at the Beach in 2013
Being at the beach today with my parents and my three kids made me think of when they were much littler, sand-eating, cloth-diaper-wearing cuties. Cooper made made tracks in the sand with his Monster Trucks and brought them a little too close to the water (RIP to the the two trucks who were washed out to sea), Kate never left the water where she jumped the incoming waves and Lauren split her time between hunting for shells and and playing in the surf.
Cooper was the only baby of mine who had the chance to wear Thirsties Cloth Diapers and I pretty much took them everywhere--including to Florida to visit my parents and even on the plane to get here. Click here to read my blog about bringing my Thirsties while flying to Florida). I can’t however, remember if I took them to the beach. Disposable swim diapers actually aren’t absorbent at all. They are only designed to prevent solid waste from escaping into the water. The fact that babies can, will and do pee in the pool seems to be a universally accepted exception to the “Ool Rule” (as in, Please keep the “P” out our of pool). I do seem to remember having a simple little cloth diaper, which like disposable diapers, wasn’t designed to absorb urine but just catch potential floaters. I also remember being frustrated at the pools in Boulder who required disposable swim diapers be worn by all children under the age of three. Cloth swim diapers were not allowed unless a disposable was worn under them. I always thought this was extremely silly as the cloth swim diapers had much tighter leg gussets and the disposable didn’t. I knew which diaper would do it’s job better alone–and it wasn’t the wide-legged disposable swim diaper–but rules, even foolish one, have to be obeyed.
Now that my kids are three, six and nine, I don’t have to worry about anyone eating sea shells or changing diapers in the sand. I’m just stand in the middle of the surf like a mother hen, counting her chicks every few moments to make sure they are all in reach lest they get knocked over by a wave or get distracted and chase a sea gull too far down the beach. Today was a great day and I was glad to be far from the snowy cold in Colorado that we’ll be returning to on Tuesday. But I did leave feeling just a bit wistful and missing the days of holding hands with a chunky toddler who was walking in wet sand for the first time and pointing at every shell and bit of seaweed like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
What does your baby wear when you go to the beach? Do you bring your cloth diapers? Do you have a cloth swim diaper?
I have some cloth swim diapers I got for free, but on the extremely rare occasion we go to bodies of water, I’m not sure if I’d pay for reusables. I guess I’m grateful for the free ones!
My plan is to do 100% reusable diapers, that includes swimming and such. I will find out shortly how well that plan works. 🙂
I love travelling with cloth and swim diapers are so much cuter than disposable ones.
We do use cloth swim diapers when we swim and I take cloth diapers everywhere. We don’t travel to far from home usually so I haven’t been intimidated by taking them on long trips yet
We do cloth, for sure! I think it’s so silly when pools require a disposable diaper!
That’s so strange about the swim diaper rules in Boulder. I live elsewhere in CO and am really glad my little lady could wear her cloth swim diaper to her swim lessons. (And I love our swim diapers!!)
I just use a pocket without an insert and it works great!
I love swim diapers and need to get a newborn size for a pool party coming up. The cloth are so much cuter than the disposables.
I’ve used the disposable swim diapers with my first 2 children. I’ve just wandered into the cloth diaper world with my 3rd, who is 6 1/2 months old. I’m hoping to know what works for the water for him by the time it gets warm enough. 🙂 I’ve seen the cloth swim diapers a lot though, in stores and online. I just haven’t looked into them yet.
We use a pocket no insert and it’s perfect!
I haven’t taken my little one swimming yet but will next month. If I use cloth, I just need to make sure there are tight leg gussets and it’s tightish at the top?
we love our swim diapers and just using old pocket diapers for swim. disposable ones are icky
We use cloth swim diapers for our son. He’s been in swim lessons since he was 9 months old, and he’s two now. He was born in Hawaii and we lived there for 6 months after he was born. Trips to the beach were also in cloth, and dips in the water were done with an empty pocket because we hadn’t invested in a cloth swim diaper yet.
I did look at disposable diapers once before buying a cloth swim diaper, and wondering how it would hold anything in since my son was on the small side and still way under the weight range for the small disposable swim diapers. Luckily cloth swim diapers come in a much larger range of fits, for all the babies out there.
I think cloth diapers are adorable and cloth swim diapers are a must have for beach days! 🙂
We do not live near the beach and the couple times we went to the pool this past summer, we used a cloth diaper. It was a china Cheepie that I made the mistake of buying, since it didn’t work a diaper I wasn’t worried about the chlorine ruining the water proofing. It worked great as as swim diaper.
Cloth all the way!!!”
We love using cloth diapers at the beach and pool! So easy!
Good info for our upcoming trip- first time with the kiddo!
I use a cloth diaper where the PUL detached!
I have a cloth swim diaper (although a plain diaper cover would do the trick)- we’ve never been to a beach with her (oh, the SAND) but we’ve been to a pool. Maybe a ppppppool, there was probably a lot of “p” in it. :-\
Being new to cloth diapering I have been wondering about the whole bodies of water and cloth diapers! I am glad I read this post!
I have a cloth swim diaper that I love. Took me a long time to fine just the right fit. Of course, this was before I discovered Thristies! I’d totally use a cover 🙂
I was given a pack of swim diapers that fit both my boys. But once we go through them it is a cloth covers all the way. I had them swim once in a diaper cover, but it has always been in a pool. I wonder how the salt water would affect cloth diapers, if any? We’re moving close to a beach so I’ll get to find out soon! YEAH!
By submitting a comment you grant Thirsties Baby a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.