I have so many posts rattling around in my brain, but nary a moment to post.
And I'm running out of time. Yikes.
So, my current dilemma.
With KB, we tried cloth diapering. Or at least, we had the very best intentions.
We started by using a diaper service. It seemed simple enough. The diaper service would bring us stacks of clean cloth diapers. We would use them and toss them into the disposal bag said service provided each week. No rinsing required. Then, the night before our next delivery date, we would set the bag of soiled diapers on the porch and the lovely diaper fairies would replace this with a bag of fresh diapers.
Simple, right?
Except. Except that our parents, each of whom had cloth diapered us, suddenly grew fumble-fingered when trying to use the cloth diapers. Was it the absence of old-fashioned safety pins? Had they become spoiled by the disposables used by the other grandkids?
S also seemed bumfuzzled with the whole cloth diaper thing.
We tried Fuzzi Bunz but S didn't like the way they made KB seem uncomfortable at the waist. "Too bulky," he proclaimed.
So we gave up.
I'd like to try again. S is still adamant that the cloth diapers we've tried thus far are "too bulky" and not the "form-fitting" cloth diapers of his youth. He definitely doesn't want to use the diaper service again, which frankly, sucks. That method of cloth diapering will be much less work for me, as I'll be the one doing the laundry.
Please help. What cloth diapering system do you use? How much work is it on a daily or weekly basis to keep up with the diaper laundry? How do I soak/wash diapers? Do BF poopy diapers need to be swished in the toilet, or soaked, before washing? Is my washing machine going to be yucky and dirty after washing poopy diapers?
Don't laugh. I seriously need all the advice I can get.
And if I do go back to the diaper service, what diaper covers should I get? I pretty much gave everything away and am starting from scratch.
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3 comments:
My bro and SIL used cloth for nephew #1, which they purchased from weebees.com, which seems to not be in service anymore. Drat. With Sophie, we bought a bunch of cloth chinese-fold diapers and were all set to use them, and she peed through them LITERALLY every 15 minutes. She could NOT stay dry and she could NOT stay comfortable, and she got diaper rash, and as we had been gifted with a lot of disposables, we tried them, and guess what? We had a Luvs baby.
I figure, you do what works for you. Sure, I would have liked to used cloth, and I spent like $100 on cloth diapers and covers I barely used. But I would have had to WASH all those diapers too, and that's a lot of water.
If we ever have another child, I'll try cloth again, but I'm not going to beat myself up over using disposables for two and a half years. And, ironically, my mom could never figure out disposables. Huh!
And again, congratulations! Be sure to send photos when baby comes.
You know I do cloth. I've used just about everything. My favorite are pocket diapers which take a little bit to grow into. Yes, they are bulkier. There really is no such thing as a trim cloth diaper. At least not one that holds the pee in. They're all going to have a slight bit of bulk. I really don't think babies care.
Washing is simple. BF poop needs no dunking. Have a dry pail. Toss all the diapers in as you use them. Wash every 2-3 days. When I wash, I do a cold soak/prewash sometimes with vinegar. Hot wash with a small amount of soap. The type of soap is important. No dyes, no perfumes. Fabric softener and dryer sheets make liquids repel so you don't want to use either of those. Do an extra rinse or two until all the soap is gone. Soap residue causes repelling and stink issues.
Drying depends on the diaper. If it has PUL, either line dry or tumble dry on low for a short time. Prefolds and inserts can be dried on high.
Hmmm, it might sound difficult or time consuming, but it's not. The machine does most of the work.
Look up a site called the diaper pin. That's where I learned all the basics. If you have any questions, email me.
Oh, and cloth diapering doesn't have to be 100%. You don't have to start at birth. I know plenty of people who didn't start until after their baby was a year old. I know people that do cloth at home and sposies out or at night. We do them 95% of the time just because we have them and it's the system we're used to.
We tried a diaper service with baby #1. We liked the diaper service fine. We didn't like the bulky look of baby in diapers, though that was secondary to his constant *REALLY* bad diaper rashes. We even needed special diaper rash medicine from the doc. Maybe we just didn't change him often enough, don't know. After about 3 months, we gave up and switched to disposables. We've been using disposables ever since.
My friend uses cloth diapers exclusively. She keeps a pail for dirty diapers in her bathroom (or where ever she changes diapers), maybe two. I know she has a wet pail with oxyclean and water in it, and I presume a dry pail for pee. I don't know more than that.
My friend and I both tried letting our babies learn to go on the potty soon after birth. It worked well! I would hold the potty under my naked bottomed baby while nursing, he'd always poop then. Eventually we went at other times, too. There are a couple of good books on the subject - Diaper Free and Infant Potty Training (I think). If you are interested, it isn't hard, I'll give you more info.
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