Cloth Diapering The Infant

I talked before about our plans for cloth diapering our newborn.  Well, that beautiful baby girl is now 9 1/2 weeks old.  We started off with disposables.  Mostly because they were easy and my mom was there to help.  She does not do cloth diapers.  ;-)  They also proved to be helpful when my husband lost his job and we had to move.  Laundering cloth diapers would have just added to the headache and stress of that moment.

But now, we are back in our home and are cloth diapering her most of the time.  I have tried everything I bought and here are our experiences up to this point.

Fitteds....
The ease of using fitted diapers is wonderful.  They go on in a flash and we are back to doing something else much more exciting than diaper changes.  However, they take FOREVER to dry in the dryer.  In fact, I normally have to hang them for a while after being in the dryer to finish them off.  That is annoying.  Since we plan to start hanging out the diapers to dry in the back yard, I can imagine it is going to be an all day deal to get them dry.  At least it won't add to my electric bill.

Prefolds....
I really was not looking forward to using them.  But, I must admit that once I got the hang of putting them on and securing them with the Snappi's, They are my favorite.  So easy, so simple.  I do like the hemp ones a bit better than the cotton ones for laundering.  Because of how they are made, they are MUCH easier and faster to dry.  They also, after time, are more absorbent than cotton. 

However, while the unbleached cotton prefolds take longer to dry that center section, for some reason I just like them better.  Chalk it up to preference, but the cotton prefolds are the first I reach for when it is time for changing her. 

Now, we had some Gerber bleached cotton prefolds and some of the non-bleached cotton prefolds.  The non-bleached ones are much softer, much more absorbent and dry faster than the bleached ones. 

Flats...
I can't lie, we have primarily used these for burp cloths.  However, since I really hate drying the fitteds and the prefolds, I need to really practice my folds on the flats.  If we can figure them out, not only will they be the cheapest option, they will dry in a flash since they are a single layer of cotton. 

There is one pocket diaper we have been able to use so far.  It is one that was given to us as a gift.  I believe it is from Thirsties.  It has both a microfiber and a cotton insert that snap together.  It is also a size one.  I really like this one and it just reminds me that I long for the day my baby girl chunks up enough that we can use primarily pocket diapers on her.  They are still, by far, my favorite overall. 

So, wish me luck figuring out those flats.  I'll update you once we have mastered the art of flat folding.  

Sharon Underwood is a SAHM of one awesome little 2 year old boy Derrek, and a beautiful baby girl Morgan.  She and her husband live in rural town Nebraska.  Through mutual friends, Sharon and I have learned quite a bit about raising our families "naturally". 

Night Time Diapers.

Well it looks like it is time to revamp my night time solution.  *sigh*  For quite some time now (at least a year) I have been using KaWaii Goodnight Heavy Wetters.  That is a fairly bulletproof cover, by the way.  Stuffed inside were two microfiber inserts.  I thought that was the greatest thing ever!!  Can you tell I've never had a heavy wetter yet?  So, this worked great for a while.  Then we started to have leaks.  Eh, I'm no stranger to leaks so I started researching for more absorbent inserts.  I found the amazing soakability powers of hemp.  I've heard many moms swear by hemp for night time solutions.  So on the search I went.  I really didn't need to look far as I had 4 hemp microfiber combo doublers stuffed away in my closet.  Remember my last blog about the 188 diapers in my closet?  Well I found these among that pile.  I had put them away because I bought them when I was using only prefolds with my two girls.  I would put them in my prefold for their night time diaper.  And it worked awesome too; why did I ever forget them?  Oh I should mention that they were made by Blueberry, but unfortunately I can't even find them on their website.  

So after having to actually research how to properly use them (microfiber on top, hemp on bottom) I decided to give them a try in my KaWaii.  Once again, problem solved.  Now it may sound like a lot, but I used that doubler along with a microfiber insert in my pockets.  It was a fluffy bum, but not gigantic.  With my new found love for hemp I decided to find some other hemp products and came across Hemp Babies Prefolds.  I tried stuffing this into my BumGenius AIO and for my 2 year old it was magic!  She went 12+ hours in that diaper.  Unfortunately it was too big for my son, so I had to stick with the KaWaii pockets.  

Well, now we are back to square one (sort of).  The KaWaii are no longer working for either one of my little ones.  My daughter is 2 and my son is 1 and they are peeing right through it.  My son is a tummy sleeper, and I try to keep the inserts up front, but even still, the front of the cover is soaked.  I know part of the problem is that the Blueberry doubler is only a medium and I need a large.  That may fix it but they don't make them anymore, or at least I can't find them.  I need another solution, so to my diverse stash I go.  My son is big enough that the AIO are starting to fit him, so my AIO are now my go to night time diapers.  

The hardest decision was to decide what to stuff in them.  I only have two Hemp Babies, so that will work for one night, but I don't wash every day.  In my own store I have Thirsties Hemp Prefolds.  Wow, these things are just awesome.  I had grabbed one from the store so I could simply see how well it worked.  I was skeptical at first.  This prefold looked like some cotton jersey sewn together.  Well it sort of is.  It is made from hemp jersey and it is one of the softest hemps I have ever felt.  My only complaint is that it is not very big so it really can't be used like a normal prefold where you can snappi or pin around your baby.  Well I should clarify that.  If you have skinny or smaller babies, they could be used that way, but for my big babies I can't.  However that is not a problem.  I think these diapers were made primarily for trifolding use.  So that is exactly what I did.  I stuffed it into my BG AIO and put it on my 2 year old.  Once again, I was not disappointed.  In fact I was very happy in that it is slightly a trimmer option than a regular prefold in an AIO.  I was equally surprised to find that this prefold works wonders in a flat even for night!

My final solution that I came up with is simply using a prefold.  I have some Green Mountain Diaper brown edge, Econobums, and one OsoCozy from my store.  The GMD are too big to stuff so I don't use those.  The Econobums are too small to pin or snappi on my son so they work very well to stuff with.  However they are a bit narrow when trifolded, so when I trifold it in the AIO, it makes it a bit bulky.  My favorite prefold for stuffing is the OsoCozy Indian Unbleached prefold.  These can seem a bit deceiving in that they don't look very thick, but they are.  Once they have been prepped enough and they are used in your stash, they fluff up nicely and absorb well.  

My night time stash has had to evolve over the last few months.  With growing babies, and yes let's face it, growing bladders, things have to change.  Here then is the running list of my favorite night time solutions.  

BG AIO with Thirsties Duo Hemp Prefold
Birdseye Unbleached Flat with Thirsties Duo Hemp Prefold
BG AIO with Hemp Babies Prefold
BG AIO with OsoCozy Prefold
BG AIO with Econobum Prefold

Now the BG AIO does get substituted once in a while with flats on those rare occasions of, "oops I didn't wash diapers today."  

Flats Challenge Part 4

Day 6

Well I still didn’t wash diapers, so I guess I failed.  I still used my flat and covers today; well that’s not entirely true.  I used some of my prefolds too.  I like diversity.  I was honestly starting to get bored with using just flats.  If I had just flats in my stash, I’d have to get more covers to spice things up a bit.  Anyway, we were so busy from the minute we got up trying to get this house in order for the family BBQ.  We had 19 people here and with all the last minute cleaning and cooking, I was doing good just to make sure the kids were in dry diapers.  However, I did get the chance again to show them all my diapers in stock for my store and we talked about the business and cloth diapers for a while. 

Day 7

Well I’m done.  I threw my pail of dirty flats and used covers into the washer.  Now I know the challenge doesn’t end until this evening, but after yesterday I’m done.  It was nice to be able to shove all that into the machine and let it do its own thing.  I still have a few more that will need to be re-washed from this week.  Over all it was a good experience.  It made me realize that though I may be a cloth diaper fanatic, I must have my washer to make it happen.  However, if circumstances change and I am without my machine, I will be sure to have some sort of tool to help me with it.  I enjoy hanging my diapers.  It’s nicer to have the sun out to do that, but seeing them on the racks in the house is nice too.      

Flats Challenge Part 3

Day 4

I just about threw the towel in last night.  It was not a good one.  Mary was crying most of the night with an ear ache and the thought of taking care of a sick toddler while hand washing diapers was not high on my list.  We also have about 20 people coming over on Saturday and my husband is planning to smoke some meat and have a BBQ.  Anyway, since I am literally hand washing my diapers, I wanted to quit.  It didn’t seem worth it to me.  However this morning my tune has changed a bit.  I really felt like I couldn’t quit; almost like morally I couldn’t quit.  I have been cloth diapering for so long that giving up is not an option.  Plus, we are planning to take a family vacation this summer and we will be gone for about 5 days at a camp where there are no laundry facilities.  I refuse to buy a box of diapers when I already have diapers.  So the plan today is to go to the local hardware store and get me a plunger and bucket for my bucket washer.  I need a washing tool.  The diapers that I washed last night were okay.  They didn’t smell strongly, but there was still a faint lake water smell.  I will continue to wash every night, but this time I will use the bucket.  If that works, then I know I will be able to take all my flats and covers with me on vacation.

I didn’t get my bucket washer yet; however I do have a plunger and a 13 gallon trash can so I made my own wash bucket.  The plunger makes a huge difference.  When I put my diapers in (10 flats 2 hemp flats and a handful of wash rags) I could see the soap residue.  Argh!  No wonder my diapers stank.  So, I did a soak with some vinegar and plunged it for a while.  I did a hot wash with detergent and let that soak as well.  Then it was all followed by three cold water rinses.  With each fill I plunged and hand wrung out the diapers.  At the end, there was just a slight (ever so slight) cloudiness to the water and so I called it good.  I’ve been using the diapers from the first wash and though they smelled while drying, after being peed on they don’t have a stench to them.  Ahh, the beauty of flats.  HA!

Day 5
I’m losing steam.  I really enjoy using flats, but I really do not like washing them by hand.  I’m not sure I will be making it to Sunday before quitting.  Here it is at the end of the day and I haven’t washed the diapers.  I have plenty of diapers to get me through Saturday, but then I will be trying to wash 35+ diapers again.  So I’m just tempted to say I’ve tried it and throw all my diapers into the washer Saturday evening.  With all our family coming over I will be wiped and not in the mood to wash diapers by hand.  I will definitely be keeping my flats in my diaper rotation and they are nice to use. 

Flats Challenge Part 2

Day 3

This morning it was time to wash the load of diapers.  I soaked them in the pail in cold water with about a tablespoon of detergent.  I’m thinking next time to use a bit more detergent, or even maybe some vinegar and baking soda.  The soak water was pretty icky.  I drained out the bin and rang out the diapers and wipes.  I then filled the tub with hot water and detergent and swished all of them around.  Then with running cool water I began rinsing them all.  The whole process probably took an hour.  My hands were very sore, but I did it.  One thing I have to do the rest of the week is to make sure all diapers are rinsed after use.  Poop needs to be completely rinsed out and give the pee diapers a quick rinse.  This will really help minimize the buildup in the tub and make it easier to get them clean.  Some of my diapers do have stains though.  Most of it is from Michael’s poop.  I have two drying racks in the house for hanging.  I’m really bummed that the sun isn’t out.  So for now I had to fold them in half and hang three per bar.  I’m down to only 8 diapers for the two babies for right now until my diapers dry.  I’m not sure how fast they are going to dry.  So we may have to get creative.  I do have a few prefolds which could be used.  Not sure if that is against the “rules” but I will have to figure something out if they don’t dry in time.  I do have a stand up fan blowing on the bigger rack trying to help them along.  In total, I washed 35 diapers and 13 wash rags.  Okay so that math may not add up, but I must confess that I didn’t use a rag at every diaper change.  So the biggest question remains, “Do I wash every day or stick to every other day.”  I have night diapers for two nights, but as it is now, two of them are in the pail from last night.  I guess I should have washed them this morning.  Hm, I could still wash them this afternoon so that they will be ready for tomorrow.  

I am very upset; my diapers have that lake water fish smell which means only one thing: I failed.  Yup, I failed at washing my diapers.  They did not get clean enough.  The receiving blankets are fine, but the unbleached cotton flats are funky.  I’m not re-washing 33 diapers again at this moment, so maybe I will have to wash every day.  I’m thinking I may wash again tonight to let them dry overnight too.  It was like watching a pot of water boil.  I was so antsy to have those things dry because I was running so low on diapers.    I ended up spreading the diapers apart and had to take some off of the racks.  I took 13 diapers off so that I could open the rest up.  So I had some hanging in the bathroom and on the clothes lines above my washer and dryer.

 

I put the kids in their night diapers (which hemp does not line dry very well, pretty stiff) then tossed everything into the tub.  I did a hot soak (no cold rinse because I had been rinsing out all the diapers as I changed them) with detergent.  I gave it all a good swish and let it soak.  I’m not really sure how long I let it set; enough time to cuddle the babies in hopes of putting them to bed (yeah didn’t happen).  I went back to the diapers and gave them another good swishing, drained tub and rung out the diapers, wipes and tossed the two covers into the sink.  I filled tub with cold water to rinse, swish and ring again.  Then I had a final cold rinse and tossed the covers back in too. 

So, during my first rinse/ring out session, my husband and I began talking.  He saw me knelt down and bent over the tub with my hands in this mass of diapers and he asked me how I was doing.  It was actually going well.  It was easier than the first time.  Before I had 35 diapers this time it was only 13 diapers, 2 prefolds for night, 2 covers, and 1 fleece liner.  I continued to swish and ring and he asked if I would recommend this to someone who didn’t have a machine and honestly I wouldn’t.  I can’t honestly suggest to someone to hand wash diapers the way I’m doing it.  I have no equipment to aid me.  Already I’m struggling with stink issues.  If you take a look at the progression of washing (and I haven’t done any deep historical background check so take me with a grain of salt) women always had some sort of tool to aid them in cleaning their laundry.  Before running water they used a free flowing river or lake where they never had to replenish their water and used a rock to scrub on.  Then there were washboards and then hand cranked washing machines and ringers which later had motors or some sort of electrical power added on to it.  Then the rest is history.  I was trying to keep it simple, but in fact it is actually making things harder.  So, the only way I can honestly recommend cloth diapering to a family who doesn’t have machines or can’t afford the laundry mat is that along with the diapers they need to have some sort of washing tool whether it be a camping bucket with plunger or a hand cranked machine.

I’m really looking forward to hopefully seeing the sun the rest of the week.  Not only has the rain cancelled the kids’ baseball/softball games, but I have not been able to sun my diapers.

Flats Challenge Part 1

I had decided to participate in the flats hand washing challenge, so through the week, I wrote about my experiences.  Here is how it all went.  

Day 1

It was an easy day for sure.  I had everything prepped and ready to go.  I did have to wash what was sitting in the pail at the time, but I just threw that all in the washer.  I wasn’t about to start washing about 12 pockets by hand, plus inserts.  Anyway, since I only have 6 covers for day and 2 for night I decided to try the coverless on Veronica.  She’s such a busy-body toddler that I figured it would be easy just to keep an eye on her and if she is wet to change her right away.  With covers I tend to go a little too long between changes and then have stinky covers.  So I use the covers on Michael (8 months) all day and let Veronica go coverless.  So it was a really nice day of simple changes.  I use one fold for the both of them.  It maximizes the layers and makes them nice and absorbent.  The receiving blankets are awesome; so totally cute coverless.  Since she is coverless I have pulled out my pins.  Yes, I love those pins.  It really does complete the whole system when coverless.  I don’t trust the snappi especially on the blankets.  The teeth don’t grab the tighter weave.  For night I used a hemp babies flat tri-folded in a flat (and honestly I don’t remember which fold I used for that).

Day 2

It was another easy going day.  Flats really are easy to use.  I’m starting to wonder that I should be using my fleece liners to help catch the toddler poo.  Michael is still breastfeeding so his poop is not hard to clean.  Oh, which reminds me, I really miss my sprayer.  I love my sprayer.  It works so well with the toddler “peanut butter” poop.  All I’ve done has been swishing them in the toilet and I’m not sure that will be enough when it comes time to wash the diapers.  Speaking of which, I haven’t really thought of how I am going to wash them.  I’m thinking of soaking them in the pail (13 gallon trash can) overnight then washing in the bathtub. 

Bleached or Unbleached.

The modern cloth diaper allows for so many choices.  You can chose from what style you want to use: all-in-one, hybrid (all-in-two), pockets, prefolds (Chinese or Indian), flats, and fitteds.  Then you can chose what kind of fabric you want to use: cotton, bamboo, hemp, microfiber, microfleece, suedecloth, and organic cotton or hemp.  With the prefolds and flats you also have the choice of bleached or unbleached cotton.  Wow, makes your head spin right?  You thought a diaper was a diaper right?  Nope, we mommas like to have a choice!  HA!

 When I first ventured back into the world of cloth diapers, I wanted to go with the cheapest option which was prefolds and covers.  Previously I had used Gerber prefolds with pins and the pull up pants.  I really didn't mind them, and they never bothered the kids even in the hot Florida summer weather.  As I began searching I had to choose between Chinese or Indian cotton and bleached and unbleached.  I didn't look into it too much, but from surface value, choosing between bleached and unbleached didn't seem too tough; choose between a cotton fabric that has or has not been through the bleaching process.  Since no chemicals have stripped the unbleached threads, I decided to go with that.  So, what is the difference?  

I found a great explanation from the OsoCozy website at alltogetherdiaper.com.  For bleached cotton, the cotton yarn goes through a bleaching process to strip the natural oils from the thread before it is woven.  In doing so, the thread is less durable and the strength of the thread is reduced.  Unbleached woven cotton has not been through the bleaching process.  Unbleached cotton threads retain their natural oils and remain durable.  However, because they still have their natural oils on them, they have to go through 2-3 washes (for flats) and about 6-8 (for prefolds) to remove their oils and be at their maximum absorbency.  

I like using unbleached because you are using the natural fabric/material against baby's skin.  Many times little one's have such sensitive skin, so keeping it natural reduces exposure to any remaining chemical residue left on the fabric.  Also, unbleached cotton weave is so super soft.  My Indian unbleached prefolds (which you can find on my website) are the softest prefolds I have ever used. 

Challenge starts tomorrow!

Well tomorrow is the day.  The Flats and Handwashing challenge starts tomorrow.  Now it will sound very silly, but I do have a bit of anxiety.  I think my biggest "fear" is not being able to get the diapers clean enough and having smelly diapers.  However, I will be worrying over nothing since flats are made up of just a single layer of woven cotton.  I'm really hoping the weather will cooperate and that I will have plenty of sunshine to dry my diapers with.  If not, I may just have to pull out the fan to help speed up the process.  Oh, the biggest thing will be to not be tempted to use my pockets and prefolds.  Hmm, to remedy this, I will have to put all my pockets and prefolds away.  Out of sight out of ... uh... mind?  Nah, that little thought will still be dancing around my head that they are still in the house, but if I put them away they will not be readily available to use.  I'm totally not expecting my husband to participate.  I've never sat down and shown him how to fold flats.  We did use prefolds for about a year when I got back into cloth diapering when Mary was a baby.  So, he does know how to use a snappi and cover. 

I frequent a diaper forums called DiaperSwappers and I came across a thread about a new fold for flat diapers.  This fold (some have called it the Airplane Fold) is good for boys because it created the most layers in the front.  I love this fold; it works wonders with my receiving blankets.  There is really no need to add any doubler (unless using this fold for naps or night) because there are lots of layers.  I just need to find a good one like this for girls. 

Hand Washing Diapers.

Using cloth diapers has always been a bit of a no brainer decision.  I just can't argue against all of the benefits for my baby, finances, and environment.  The one thing that made it such an easy decision for me, though, is that I have all of the modern conveniences to make it possible and easy.  Yes, easy.  I wholeheartedly feel that cloth diapering is easy.  Whether you have one, two or even three in diapers.  After all, I've done it.  A washer and dryer has really made life easy for a cloth diapering mom.

Now I believe there are some moms (and maybe even dads) who would love to use cloth diapers, but just can't seem to make it work because of the lack of proper facilities/equipment.  So I'm sure you have heard now (especially if you are active in the cloth diapering circle) there is a Flats and Handwashing Challenge going on right now.  [click on the link and you can read all the details about it]

At first I wasn't too interested.  As I read more through all of my favorite blogs, I began to ponder it.  Honestly considering joining this challenge.  One reason is that coming up in July we have a family reunion where we will be gone for about 5 days and I decided to use flats and covers.  My decision for this is because I normally use pockets and a few AIO at home and there is no way I felt that I could get them clean by washing by hand.  That's right, I will be on vacation and willingly decided to hand wash my flats.  We will be at a camp and I'm pretty sure there will not be any laundry facilities there.  Anyway, since I was so willing to hand wash them there, why can't I try this at home?  This made me think of a friend of mine who has four kids and lives in an apartment.  She has flats and covers but has not been using them because she has a hard time keeping up with them.  So, here I have a chance to see what it's like.  Plus, as a cloth diaper advocate I want to be confident when I tell some one, "Even if you don't have a washer/dryer, it is still very possible to cloth diaper your baby full time!  After all, I've done it myself."

So, beginning May 23rd, I will be joining moms all over the country (and I'm sure all over the world) in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge.  I will blog and journal about my experiences, and I hope it will encourage you to honestly look into the benefits of cloth diapering.