Maggie Gyllenhaal uses cloth diapers

Jake Gyllenhaal, the brother of new celebrity mother Maggie Gyllenhaal appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show and told of his niece, Ramona, almost 5 months, and how Maggie uses cloth diapers! He changes them too; apparently they are organic tie-on cloth diapers.

Tiny Birds Organic diapers have a 100% organic cotton tie nappy ($6 each).

Green Mountain Diapers make a Disana Organic Tie Nappy which is knitted from 100% unbleached natural cotton ($6). They have a video on the site with instructions on how to use them.

While they aren’t organic, other cloth diapers to check out include ones by Green Acre Designs, Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiny’s, BumGenius, Motherese and Swaddlebees.

If you have any further questions the members at Diaper Swappers are friendly and willing to answer any questions, or also check out The Pin.

Do you use cloth diapers? What brands? Please email us or leave a comment if you are aware of any other tie-on brands we can mention.

Thanks to CBB readers Candice, Julie, and Jill.

Comments

lorien on February 28th, 2007

I used cloth diapers on my daughter (though I used mostly all-in-ones, so easy). I never thought it was a hassle, loved using them, and loved that my daughter potty learned at 22 months! With all-in-ones, the only thing you do differently than ‘sposies it you dump the diaper pail into the washing machine, rather than in the trash. We did always shake poop out of the ‘sposies when we used them.

georgia's mom on February 28th, 2007

used cloth diapers and loved them soo easy…. th covers we used were velcro

A

sdurdin on February 28th, 2007

flipping awesome!! we cloth here. i use fitteds with a wool cover (longies, shorties or soaker). I prefer wahm (work at home mom made) to the commercially produced diapers.

Julie on February 28th, 2007

Yay! Good for her! I’ve been wondering if there are any celebrity cloth diaperers out there. I, myself, cloth diaper my 16-month-old son, and plan to cloth diaper my next baby due in August. The diaper posted does seem to be the most popular tie-on diaper.
Benefits of cloth diapering in my opinion have been the comfort of my child in cloth as opposed to paper, the benefits to the environment, and of course picking out all the cute colors and prints.
The “bad” part is the extra time for laundry and spraying out the soiled diapers. But, actually, believe it or not, my husband and I both ENJOY doing diaper laundry! It’s fun to fold all the pretty fluff.

Heather on February 28th, 2007

Those are popular, but I use Fuzzi Bunz and they are great! Good for the environment and for my baby’s bottom!

MMM on February 28th, 2007

Wow, I really like Maggie now. We use cloth diapers and I find no difference in putting them on in comparison to sposies. I use AIO’s now but started off with fitteds and covers. Good for Maggie!

Oh, and I do laundry every 3rd day or so, no biggie!

Jean on February 28th, 2007

I use cloth. Have since the minute my first son was born (we brought it to the hospital with us). DS 2 is cloth bottomed as well. I love never running out. The cost savings as well as the garbage savings and the no-chemicals on their bottoms is ideal for me as well. I LOVE cloth wipes too – they do a much better job.

Kirrily on February 28th, 2007

I don’t have any babies yet, but i’ve started making cloth diapers (all-in-ones) for my sister’s one year old.
The cost was a big factor for her switching over ($100 for me to make 10 nappies that will fit her for the next year, compared to $80/month for disposables).
The reason I like them is because they create no land fill, they contain no harsh products that might be harmful for a baby, and I think they’re cuter than disposables.
I’ve started making a stash for myself, and have bought quite a few online as well – Swaddlebees, Bubblebubs, Greenkids, Fruitsalad and BabyBeehinds.
Bubblebubs are definitely my favourite!
Obviously the bad part is the washing, but it really isn’t that hard – my sister puts on a load at night, in the morning she hangs them on the line and that afternoon she takes them off, and puts on the next load etc – 10 mins a day tops!

PSB on February 28th, 2007

I saw Jake on Conan too. When he said Ramona wore cloth diapers, my husband and I both went “WHAT? NO!” I know they are better for the environment, but I just can’t understand how they don’t leak through and I can’t imagine having to save them up in a bag until I had enough for a separate wash (because who wants to wash other clothes with them). Also, I cannot imagine having to wash them myself. I think it’s great if other people want to take on that endeavor, but I just could never ever do it.

tory on February 28th, 2007

I have a few of the tie-nappies as well, but I wasn’t familiar with the brand that you mentioned. I got mine from Thumbelina Diapers -link- https://web12.3essentials.com/thumbelinadiapers_net/oscommerce/

I love her products and they are really easy to use.

I also use BumGenius! all-in-ones made by Cottonbabies and I use prefold diapers as well. It was very exciting to read that Maggie uses cloth and I hope to hear more celebs using it.

Carrie on February 28th, 2007

We use them and love them There’s lots of different types and it’s been fun to experiment to find what works best. The only downside for us has been when the baby starts solids. The result is a bit messy and smelly so I use disposables when we go out.

Marie on February 28th, 2007

I switched from Huggies to Pampers. After too many blow-outs and so much money continually wasted on disposables, I’ve switched to cloth diapers. I have a few Fuzzi Bunz, but I do not like them because each diaper is irregularly cut and snaps are often out of place which doesn’t make for a good fit on my 7 month old son. There doesn’t seem to be a regulation on their diapers’ manufacturing. So I’m using pocket diapers made by a friend of mine and I’m in the process of making my own.
The ones that Maggie’s using seem very nice, but still require a cover and I prefer pockets over covers. Bum Genius! is supposed to be very highly recommended because their diapers are one size; they go from 5 pounds to 30+ pounds. I have yet to try them.

sara on February 28th, 2007

my little one is due in April. So I have been building a stash for him. I have kissluvs and bummis wraps. I have a handfull of Wahm made All in ones.

Emm on February 28th, 2007

Cloth diapers don’t leak through because you put a cover over them. They acutally leak LESS than disposables, because the cloth is more abosrbant.

We do cloth and have a trashcan with a lid on it, with a nylon bag inside. All dirty diapers go in there, and every 2-3 days I pull teh bag out and dump the whole thing in the laundry. i don’t have to touch a thing, and the can doesn’t get dirty.

I don’t wash my diapers, my washing machine does! I just dump them all in like any other laundry.

Really you don’t mess with body fluids any more than you do with disposables. You will have to change diapers and dispose of them no matter what. You can put them in a pail and wash them and reuse them, or you can spend tons of money every week and send non biodegradable chemicals to a landfill.

But either way you are going to have to deal with poo if you have kids!

Shannon on February 28th, 2007

I’m not horribly surpised, Maggie is awsome and I know she waited until she was well into labor to even venture out…so I wouldn’t be surprised if she went au natural (i’m not positive if she did or not, but it makes sense she would!)

I have a 3yr old boy we cloth diapered from about 2m on because I wasn’t sure buying newborn cloth diapers made sense as both my husband and I were larger babies (8lbs 14oz me, 8lbs 5oz him) and my first baby was 9lbs 5oz. Most newborn sized diapers would have been too small!!
We used mostly pockets as I work full time, and he’s working on potty training right now, but we still use diapers occasionally like at night.
My newest little guy is 2.5m old and he’s never touched a disposable diaper! I use fitteds and wool covers at home mostly, and he uses a combo of velcro pockets and AIO diapers for daycare because i’ve found that most daycares (oldest used 5 daycares over the last few years…incl a relative for a few months) struggle with diapers that snap for some reason. Right now I have a large collection of Haute Pockets from mtdiaperstore.com, bumgenious diapers from cottonbabies.com (I really like their AIO diaper, eventho they take awhile to dry) and some other random diapers. At home we have a couple of pocket change diapers, also from mtdiaperstore.com and snap-ez diapers from http://www.snap-ez.com which are my favorite snap pocket diaper.

Tie on diapers always seemed like a bit more troublesome since babies often don’t like sitting still for a fitted and wool with snaps, let alone Tying on…but I think it’s awsome they are using cloth!!

Katey on February 28th, 2007

One of my baby gifts was 4 months of diaper service. (A great gift, in my mind) I wonder if Maggie is using a service?

MS on February 28th, 2007

My friend uses this service in Los Angeles and thinks they are great. They come and pick up the dirty diapers and leave her fresh clean new ones. http://www.dy-dee.com

Nique on February 28th, 2007

We’ve been cloth diapering our 1 year old twins since birth. It’s no more difficult than disposable diapers and so much better for the baby and the environment.

We use primarily pocket diapers, mostly Fuzzi Bunz, Happy Heiny’s, and BumGenius. We do use some fitted and prefolds with covers or wool.

It’s so great to see a celebrity Cloth Diapering!

Autumn on February 28th, 2007

I’m he oldest in my family, so I can remember my mom cloth diapering my brothers and sister (and vaguely even myself bc I didn’t get fully potty trained until I was 3.5 yrs, because of my disabilities) in the late 70s and 80s.

I remember what my mom used back then were cloth diapers, some pre-folded some not, safety pins, and plastic/rubber pants. I don’t know if anyone else in their 30s, whose moms cloth diapered back then, can remember rubber pants, but they were little plastic semi-translucent pants with elastic around the legs and waist that fit over the diaper, but that’s what they used back then.

(I can still remember one of my brothers as a toddler, taking off his diaper, pulling up the rubber pants, and then peeing in them! lol! I guess they were pretty leak proof, until they wore out. I also remember my mom’s method of disposing of the poop, holding the diaper in the toilet and flushing it away, although I’d imagine you’d have to hold on tight or the diaper might get partially flushed down the toilet.)

I do remember my mom got a package of pre-folded cloth diapers with velcro tabs back when my sister was born over 20 yrs ago. I thought they were pretty cool, although the velcro diaper covers you all probably use weren’t perfected yet, so my mom still used rubber pants over the velcro diapers.

As far as potty-training, imho it’s probably easier w/cloth because when your child wets, he or she really feel it and know when they have to go.

If I ever have kids, I’ll probably use some cloth diapers, especially if I’m a stay-at-home-mom (like my mom was). Those tie-on diapers look interesting, although a little 19th century/1800s, which is still cool. How well do hand-knit soakers work as leakage protection?

It’s cool too that Maggie G. uses cloth diapers on her baby. I wonder now if her mom did too, on her and Jake back in the day? lol.

mama k on February 28th, 2007

I’ve been using cloth on my baby for 6 months now (basically since birth). I agree that they contain messes better and are rather easy to use. The washing machine does all the work!
We have tried a bunch of different kinds, but settled on chinese prefolds and covers for day and bumGenius or WHAM pocket for nighttime. We also have a selection of pocket diapers for outings.
Both DH and I are happy with our decision!

mc on February 28th, 2007

That is great!

CLOTH IS AWESOME!

Alexandra on February 28th, 2007

What a great conversation! I also use cloth diapers but we subscribe to a diaper service that picks up the dirty diapers and delivers clean ones every week. The cost is $15/week, which I think is reasonable, especially because I’m a working mother and we don’t have the time to wash them ourselves–but we would if we could. We have NEVER had any trouble with leaks, diaper rash, etc. In fact, we have such a hard time with disposables whenever we travel because they always leak and are rather abrasive on our daughter’s legs. I understand if parents try both cloth and disposables and decide that disposables work better for their family. However, many people don’t even try because they hear that it’s too difficult. Everyone told me I was crazy and that I’d switch to disposables shortly. But my daughter is almost a year old and we have no intention of switching. It’s a gross over-generalization to say that they are too difficult because cloth diapers work for many people.

Heather on February 28th, 2007

Great post Emm, I was about to say the same thing. My daughter is 14 months, and we’ve been using cloth for 10 months (switched because of my daughter’s sensitive skin). My daughter was always having rashes and irritated, itchy skin with disposables, and since we’ve switched to cloth, not one! It’s been great. We use fitted diapers (like the ones Maggie uses, except ours have snaps) at night and during naps, and Diasy Doodles (www.daisydoodles.com) and Lucy’s Hope Chest AIOs during the day. We’ve never had leak issues, and washing them isn’t “gross” at all. Seriously, they are SO EASY, way cuter than disposables, better for my daughter and the environment, and more cost-efficient.

Gwen Stefani and her babywearing used to be my favorite celb mama, but now she’s almost eclipsed! Go Maggie!

halifaxhoney on February 28th, 2007

Very cool, I do not have children yet but I do think that cloth diapering is the way to go, the only question that I have for the cloth mommies is, how often do you have to wash your washing machine? If you do wash your machine do you just run an empty cycle? I’m ttc right now and I would like to cloth diaper but I live in apartment right now and share machines with the rest of the tenents.

Nisha, CBB Senior Contributor on February 28th, 2007

I don’t have any kids yet and everyone around me has always used plastic disposable diapers, but they bother me, having several kids around me and having worked at a daycare, because of how irritating they can be to a baby’s bottom/skin. I just never even thought of using cloth diapers, but after reading these comments I think I am converted and when I do have babies, I will use cloth diapers. I mean just imagine walking around with plastic on your bottom all day? How horrible!

MilaCole on February 28th, 2007

I absolutely LOVE cloth diapers!!! I have used them on both of my children and have never experienced extreme diaper rash. And also my 2 years old daughter is already out of diapers which is awesome. LOVE maggie for using them!

amelie on February 28th, 2007

I used cloth nappies on my kids waaaay before it was trendy (they’re 10 and 7 now). Back then it was just a plain white square flannel cloth which you folded and pinned together.

Michelle Huber on February 28th, 2007

I love seeing celebrities using cloth. I know there are several of the. It would be great to see a bunch of pictures from those supporting the green movement.
I have used cloth diapers for nearly 5 yrs and my absolute FAVORITE is HAPPY HEINY’S http://www.happyheinys.com
They are available everywhere through a lot of retailers. They have the best selection of colors and prints. Plus they have the best customer service if you ever need anything.
If you email the company you actually email the owner. This is unheard of with most larger companies, but Happy Heiny’s IS different. They really care about their customers and will help anyone who needs help with their cloth diapering choices.
I have used just about all of the available brands and the one that I always feel comfortable recommending is Happy Heiny’s.

Michelle Huber

Kate on February 28th, 2007

I don’t have a baby, but like the idea of using cloth nappies. I was always under the impression though that you would have to scrape the poo off a bit before you wash them? Is this not the case? So you just chuck the nappy in the washing machine, poo and all? Thanks!

Trish on February 28th, 2007

halifaxhoney, there is no need to wash the washing machine once the diapers are washed. They are clean when they come out of the washer.

I am also thrilled to hear of a celebrity using cloth. I’ve been cloth diapering for over 5 years straight now but I look forward to being done with diapers altogether in the next year or so.

Candice on February 28th, 2007

No kiddies of my own yet, but I cannot wait to cloth diaper! I tried to convince my sister to do it with my nieces, but she wasn’t keen on the idea. I guess I’ll just have to wait my turn!

I am not at all surprised that Maggie is using cloth. She’s awesome!

Kirrily on March 1st, 2007

Kate – no you don’t put the diaper into the washing machine with the poo on it – just like you shouldn’t be putting a disposable into the bin with poo in it.
Whatever diaper you use you should be putting the poo into the toilet – there are a few systems – I like the biodegradeable wipes that you can flush down the toilet – and you can use them with both disposable and cloth.

Candice on March 1st, 2007

I saw the interview with Jake on Conan last night and I was SO excited!

We started using cloth when my first child was 6weeks old because I was SO sick of the leaky diapers and blowouts. Then I realized how bad disposables are for our environment, not to mention the chemicals used to manufacture them are really scary. We’ve used them ever since (almost 3 years now) and would never ever look back. My second child is 8 months now and he’s been wearing cloth since the hour he was born

Cloth diapering is so much easier than our previous generations would make it out to be, because it’s changed so much. It’s a piece of cake in my opinion. Not to mention, the diapers are just too cute!

Kristin on March 1st, 2007

I was so excited to see a celeb using cloth!! I hope it makes more moms consider using them. They are so much better in my opinion than disposables. I was a cloth baby due to serious sensitive skin and that was in the early ’80s. My babies will all be cloth babies too. I love all the money I can save as well!!

There’s also a flushable insert brand called gdipes. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but maybe worth checking out for parents not ready for a diaper pail just yet.

Ilona on March 1st, 2007

That’s so cool! It would be great if other high profile people would publicise this and inspire more ppl to using cloth. Wasn’t there a photo of Mariska Hargitay and August in cloth in a mag somewhere?

We’ve used cloth since my baby boy was born and I’m still pleasantly surprised at how easy it is. I use Baby Beehinds and terry cloth squares at home then BumGenius and Drybees pockets when we go out – the pocket nappies dry really fast which I had to consider for our damp winters in Australia.

sarcastic journalist on March 1st, 2007

To PSB: We’ve had enough leaks with disposable diapers, so it isn’t that cloth leaks more. They are better smelling (less chemical smell when they pee) and better for the environment and you can make most of you $$ back when you sell them once finished.

As for saving them to wash, they’re in a diaper pail in our son’s room, which is just like any regular diaper pail. The smell or anything like that is no different.

And I hate hate hate doing laundry but, like many other cloth-using parents, don’t mind washing the diapers. It really doesn’t take much time.

melissa on March 1st, 2007

i’m so surprised to see all of the support for cloth diapers. i also love using them — have for 3 years now. we use fitteds made by work at home moms (www.fussybutt.com; http://www.peenutpants.com). in addition to being easy, they’re absolutely adorable.

Shellie on March 2nd, 2007

We use them and we love them.

Kathie on March 2nd, 2007

It’s great to see so many other cloth diaper useers! We use the BumGenius diapers for my 14 month old daughter and love them; they are so easy to use, are great for her sensitive skin and wahing them is so easy.

We also use diaposable recycled paper liners for the solids…these are inexpensive and effecctive and it eliminates the single down side of CDing, IMHO: rinsing the poopy diapers…..

Amanda on March 2nd, 2007

We use cloth and love it! I’m thrilled to see celebs promoting them!

Kari on March 2nd, 2007

We cloth diaper our 7 month old and LOVE it. We only wash diapers every 2-3 days and I never touch poop as it all gets flushed. Besides all the benefits (good for baby’s skin, huge cost savings, better for the environment, can support WAHMs) they are seriously the cutest things on your baby’s bottom. A cloth diapered tush is adorable. And once you start you’ll be hooked. Give it a try!

Christy on March 2nd, 2007

Hooray for Jake in getting the word out & to Maggie for doing cloth diapers!!! I’d love to see more celebs letting people know they use cloth diapers! I don’t see why not, since so many of them are super enviro conscious. The general public is so uneducated about the ease of use, cleanliness, etc as is evidenced by the difficulty cloth diapering parents have in using them at most day care facilities (even easy all-in-ones or pockets like Fuzzi Bunz) & also the recent ban of used cloth diapers on eBay a couple weeks ago, which a huge number of cloth diapering parents relied on to resell ones their child grew out of in order to afford ones in the next size.
I second my love for Happy Heiny’s diapers http://www.HappyHeinyStore.com The owner Linda is a great mom who personally handles every order, hires only moms & pays nearly double minimum wage to her seamstresses, & has all operations local to her home in So Cal. She also answers emails personally.

misa on March 3rd, 2007

Of course she uses cloth diapers, she is not the one changing them every 20 minutes, her nanny is. Thats what she should have mentioned.

Tiffany on March 5th, 2007

Regarding dealing with the poop–yes with either cloth or paper diapers you need to dump the solid poos in the toilet. If you wrap up the poop and just put it in the trash, then it can (and has been shown to) leach into the groundwater, and what is more gross than live bacteria and viruses from human waste contaminating our water supply?

Poop goes in the potty, people!

Linda on March 12th, 2007

We used disposable diapers on our first child (who is 5 now) and we used cloth diapers on our quads. (who are 2 and long since potty trained now) The reason we started the cloth was because two of the quads were allegic to disposable diapers…even dye free ones.

I would NEVER go back to pampers or huggies again. Cloth rocks. To those who think they leak…buy plastic pants to cover them. The price is much cheaper too. I bought the cheaper flat diapers that you have to fold though. Some parents don’t know how or don’t want to take the time.

I personally think disposable diapers are made for lazy parents.

Megan on March 14th, 2007

One of the greatest reasons to use cloth is to protect the environment. Please don’t forget that using a cloth service is not an eco-friendly way to wash your diapers. They typically wash the diapers 10 times to make them so white!! That is a lot of waste just to save a little time.

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angela price on March 16th, 2007

So good to see other mommas using cloth! I agree that wham dipes are the best over the commerically produced ones. I personally have sewn my own. A great Wham to check out would be the Chloe Toes diapers…found at Chloestoes boutique online. I haven’t bought them before, but own her pattern and LOVE LOVE LOVE the fit of them!

Betsy on July 13th, 2007

Hurray for cloth diapers!
We use FuzziBunz on my 4 month old and love them. They are so easy to use and better for not only the environment but for his precious little tooshie too! FuzziBunz are so easy to clean and come in all sorts of fun colors, we get so mnay compliments. and…they don’t leak or give him diaper rash like the disposables. I can’t even start to talk about the money we save, especially since we can use these for all of our future children too. My friends are converts once they see how easy to use and fashionable the FuzziBunz are!!

I am glad that some of these celebrity mommies are earth conscious moms too!

myola on March 3rd, 2008

Great article! I would love to see more celeb moms setting a good exaple by using cloth diapers and not hiding to breast feed. We need these to be normal images so more moms not only know a green baby in possible, but actually come to see it as “normal”. Kudo’s to all the parents making this choice!

I grew up with “hippy Parents”, so we were pretty much all in cloth cotton Diapers and rubber pants. And the memories of these diapers almost had my sister (Set to give birth in may)choose diposable.
But after she researched the issue she realized new cloth diapers are not your mamma’s diapers! The new styles and fabric choices (bamboo, hemp, organic cotton) make it easy. It is Bacteria that causes diaper rash more than anything else, disposables keep more heat locked in, letting bacteria breed easily. Disposables definately hold more, but is that really a good thing? My sister agreed it is better to change the babies bottom more often, and only use dispoables occasionally, (and even still the bleach free, Biodegradable ones when she must). I am proud of my sister and all other parents making this wonderful choice!
xoMyola