Answers and Questions
Let’s take a few minutes and discuss this whole “cloth diaper” thing.
First of all it’s going well, thank you.
Salem’s diaper rash* is better although he had yeast breakout yesterday. Yeast is a whole different monster and has mainly to do with Salem’s eating habits. Which consist mainly of wheat bread, potatoes and graham crackers.
Mmm!! Yeasty!!
*Salem’s normal rash is due to the disposable diapers he has been wearing.
We will be tackling that ASAP or we’re going to have one naked little boy running around!
Back to the diapers: the inconvenience of having a poopy cloth diaper while out-and-about is more annoying than I thought it would be. Mainly because I’m not fully prepared for cloth diaper outings. First of all, what the heck do you DO with the dirty diaper until you get home? Do you rinse the poop at the restaurant/store/grocer?
If so… Yuck!
If not…YUCK!
There is no win-win, is there? Everybody loses here…big time! Do you guys have any suggestions as to how I should handle out-and-about diaper issues?
As long as we stay home, I enjoy using cloth. It makes me feel homemaker-ey and like I’ve accomplished something that noone else in the whole world can do. (Except that I know that most of the world’s population uses some sort of cloth diapering- I just like to imagine that I’m greater than I really am. Geeze…maybe I do need therapy. I’m rambling.)
The number one problem for cloth diapering at home is that I don’t have enough to last for two straight days. I actually barely have enough to last one whole day, depending on how much excretion my youngest produces. Once I get a few more sewn I will be okay.
To answer a few questions that I’ve received:
1) So far I have not seen an increase in laundry. Neither the amount of clothing nor the amount of energy and water used has increase. That goes back to not having enough diapers though. Once I increase the number of diapers I am using that might go up. Right now, we have high-efficiency front loading appliances so you can’t control the amount of water anyway!
2) All-in-ones are not my favorite so far. I do like being able to remove the “soaker”, but it doesn’t necessarily keep the diaper cover from getting soiled. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t depending again on amount and propulsion. I like the diaper with the separate diaper cover. Those tend to hold it all in better. What have you found to work best?
3) Salem loves his new plaid diapers that came from the material my dad had used to cover the props of his model airplanes. (You know, the twirly things on the front of the plane.) Salem loves all things grandpa, so he’s happy to flaunt that fleece.
4) I’m still in search of a diaper company that will let me do a review on a cloth diaper. I haven’t found any that are willing so far. I think they’re afraid they might lose money if they give one away or something, but my master plan is to buy a few for myself! If they only knew!
5) Amy brought up a great website that provides a way to swap gently used diapers. Brilliant Amy, thank you!
That’s all I have for now, unless you would like to start a discussion in my blog frog. Feel free to join and discuss!
~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles
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Out in public I just carried plastic bags and would throw the dirty diaper (poop and all) in and tie it up tight. Another option for you is to get some of the g-diapers. You can use the covers with cloth diapers, but then when you are going out you can use the disposable liner in it. The liners are biodegradable so you can flush them.
I had about 12 diaper covers for each kid and would use the same cover for most of the day and just change the pre-fold until the cover started start to feel damp, or if poop got on it. The nice thing about pre-folds is you can get them at Target or Wal-Mart for pretty cheap.
Glad it’s going well. Keep up the good work! I think cloth diapering is kind of fun.
Comment left on February 3, 2010 @ 4:51 pm
I too just had a ziploc bag that I popped the diaper into — however I usually did rinse first if at all possible, depending on the age of kiddo of course sometimes the solids just go into the potty without much residue — -sorry if that sounds gross but there it is..
I would so use Cloth again!
Comment left on February 3, 2010 @ 9:38 pm
ps… don’t know what kind you’ve got but I used MotherEase cause I loved the snaps! Plus my kids tended to store their breastmilk in their thighs and I could order a cover with an extra gusset so it didn’t cut into their legs.
Blessings!
Comment left on February 3, 2010 @ 9:39 pm
I buy a roll of the cheap, small trash bags (like for the small trash cans in bathrooms). I store a few of these in my bag. They are cheap, do the trick and the roll lasts a while.
We use a mix of Bum Genius All in Ones and Kushies All in One. We have liked the Bum Genius so far, except that even with the insert, they don’t seem to do the trick for over night very well.
Believe it or not, the Kushies are from Walmart.com and they work better than the expensive ones for naptime and nighttime. They do not have pockets for inserts but they have a convenient little flap sewn on the inside of the diaper which serves as your extra “soaker.”
The Kushies work better for bigger babies….hence the name I guess!
Kelly’s Closet is the site we bought our Bum Genius from. They also have a “seconds” section to buy discounted diapers that are perfectly fine but just have minor flaws.
Comment left on February 3, 2010 @ 10:33 pm
I feel that I am close to being an expert at cloth diapering since I’ve been doing it for a year and a half, lol.
I have 14 Fuzzi Bunz for Sam and they usually get me through 2 days until I have to wash them. And I’ve been, um, resourceful lately and just replace the insert if the liner isn’t wet, so that’s stretched laundry time a bit. They are pocket diapers which I have found to be my favorite. They also have snaps which I prefer over the velcro.
When it comes to outings I keep a Wal-Mart sack stashed in my bag. When Sam was still pooping in his diaper (Yay! Half-way potty trained!) I would dump the poop in a toilet if we were near one, but other than that I’d roll that sucker up and stick it in the bag until we got home.
Some people also use a wet bag. I have a big one that lines a trash can so the pee doesn’t leak out into the can. You can buy smaller ones with a zipper to tote around with you.
Now that I think of it I have several different types of diapers you could borrow if you want to review them. I have been planning on sticking them on diaper swappers, but just haven’t gotten around to it.
I have:
5 large BumGenius AIO: I bought these used and like them alright. The reason I haven’t been using them is because of the ammonia smell that knocks me over when Sam pees in them. Wasn’t aware that they were like this when I bought them. They probably just need a really good stripping. BG are also pretty bulky, so Sam’s pants have to be a size up in order to wear them, lol.
4 medium Thirsties covers, tons of prefolds, & Snappis: I didn’t think I’d like the prefold method, but it has been one of my faves. They intimidated me at first until I gave in and tried them. I stopped using them because they don’t have anything to wick away pee, so I was changing them more frequently which resulted in more laundry.
6 medium g-diapers: I got these on super sale in their online store. I really like them…and now I can’t remember why I stopped using them. They come with a little “hammock” (that’s what it looks like to me) that you tuck a prefold in and change it out when it needs to be. These aren’t bulky and the hammock keeps everything in, so they don’t leak.
I’ve tried fitteds and do not like them. You put a cover over them, but the diaper gets wet so fast it was completely pointless.
If you’d like to try a FB’s too I’d be happy to loan you a few.
I also have 12-14 microfiber inserts that you are welcome to have. They came with my FB’s, but Sam gets diaper rash when we stuff the diapers with them. We’ve been stuffing his FB’s with prefolds. I think they probably just need severe stripping and they’ll be great.
Ok, that’s all of the knowledge I’m going to entrust to you. Unless of course you want to make this a guest post
Comment left on February 5, 2010 @ 11:08 pm