Cloth swim diapers are a crucial piece of equipment whether you're new to using cloth diapers, an experienced cloth diaper enthusiast or even if you don't use cloth diapers at all! Of the possible options, which include disposable swim diapers, regular diapers, reusable swim diapers or (yikes!) no diaper at all, cloth swim diapers just make the most sense for most people!
We all know how terrible disposable diapers are for the environment. While disposable swim diapers make up a much smaller percentage of the total waste produced by disposable diapers, using a cloth swim diaper just helps take another step down the road of long-term sustainability. Of course, using a regular diaper for swimming is a disaster since they're made to be as absorbent as possible. And, need we mention that using no diaper at all while swimming is not great for the environment of those swimming nearby!
While it may sound counterintuitive, cloth swim diapers can actually be more convenient than their disposable counterparts. Imagine that you're going to head out for a day at the local pool or even a week-long vacation to the beach. If you're planning on using disposable swim diapers, you'll have to make sure you have enough with you at all times. Is 2 a day enough? Probably, until it's not. Then, of course, what if you're heading out the door and go to grab a couple of disposables only to discover that you only have 1 left in the package and you didn't notice because you just don't use them that often.
For less often used items like swim diapers, having 2 or 3 reusable swim diapers on hand lets you know that they're always around, ready to go. You never need to remember to replace them. And for a week-long vacation, you can just hand wash the cloth diapers and dry the cloth diapers like usual and use them all week!
Obviously, you're going to want your little one to look fantastic, and the unique colors and patterns of reusable cloth diapers let you accomplish just that. But there's a more important reason, which is that a unique cloth swim diaper will make your baby much easier to spot than when they're wearing the same drab disposable as every other baby. Who hasn't felt the panic of turning around and not immediately seeing your baby? A colorful reusable swim diaper will give you an easy-to-spot target!
For all the reasons we outlined above, cloth swim diapers are awesome, cost-wise, they'll have paid for themselves after just a couple of outings when you don't need to keep buying disposables.
No, you do not. Reusable swim diapers are a complete unit and you don't need to put a regular diaper underneath. In fact, that would cause the diaper to absorb a lot of water making it hard for your baby to move around.
No, they do not. The same holds true for reusable or disposable swim diapers. The point is to hold in solids while liquid wastes (which are sterile) are washed away with the water.
Yes, this is the main purpose of swim diapers. They give your little one a chance to enjoy the water and move around freely without depositing any solid wastes into the water.