Farewell Cloth Diapers

I am sad to say good bye to our cloth diaper journey with Noah. As I posted earlier he was getting really bad rashes from using them. As suggested by a friend, Adriana, we used all cotton inserts in hopes that they would be more gentle on Noah's bum. Sean and I had high hopes. Then the morning after having Noah in cloth diapers those hopes were crushed. The rash was back from just one day in cloth even with the cotton inserts! This is really baffeling since I thought cloth was supposed to be great especially for sensitive skin. Appareently Noah only likes the expensive fake diapers. Well it worked out for the first months of Noah's life quite well and saved us lots of money when we really needed it. So it was a nice journey while it lasted. We are going to keep the cloth and use them for the next baby though. As long as he/she doesn't have the same reaction as Noah. Thanks Adriana for letting us use her cotton inserts so we didn't spend money to try them out first.

Stripping!

Don't worry! I haven't begun a new profession. Although I'm sure I would make more money doing that than my job. haha Dang morals. Anywho! So Stripping in the cloth diaper world has a whole different meaning. If you are a cloth diapering mom or dad you probably know what this is but if not this post is going to save your sanity. Even if you already know about stripping there might be something new for you to learn.

Stripping your cloth diapers gets rid of the extra build up that forms overtime that reduces the absorbency of your diapers. The build up is what causes, rash, leaks, repelling and stink.  So what is the build up? It can come from using the wrong detergent, too much detergent, hard water and just using them for a long period of time. Ideally you should strip your diapers every couple months.

Sean and I have been in constant battle with diaper rash on Noah. We have been going back and forth between cloth and disposables for the last two months. Every time a rash would come we would stop using the cloth and would load Noah's bum with aquaphor and the rash would be gone in 3 or 4 days. Then we would go back to using cloth diapers and a couple days later the rash would be back with a vengeance. On top of that our cloth diapers were stinky (major ammonia issues), stained and nonabsorbent. We were having leaks and Noah was getting rashes from the wet just sitting on his skin. To say the least we were pretty frustrated cloth diapering parents! We didn't want to give up cloth but we also really didn't want to see our Noah in pain. When we wiped his bum he would sometimes cry. It was getting ridiculous. We had stripped our diapers many, many, many times with no luck. They still smelled afterward and still weren't as absorbent as they were when they were new.  So Aunt Jessica came to our rescue! She showed me a youtube video of a mother stripping her diapers in a way I hadn't heard of before. This saved our cloth diapering experience and most importantly Noah's bum.

This is what our diapers were like before stripping them. See those little dots? Thats water I dumped on them. They just sat on top of the insert!! So not what is supposed to happen.

There are many ways of stripping. Here are a few:

1. Rinse, Rinse, Rinse!: Run the inserts and diapers through several hot wash and soak cycles with no detergent until there are no more soap bubbles. (we had done this before and in the beginning it worked perfectly. After a year of using cloth it was no longer enough for these diapers) 

2. Scrub: Use a small brush and some dawn dish soap to scrub each insert. I haven't tried this but it seams like entirely too much work for me to want to do. But I have seen it all over the place. Mom's are obsessed with dawn soap. If it can help ducks in oil spills it can do anything I guess! haha.

3. Detergent soak; Soak your diapers and inserts in a tub of warm water with some detergent, then rinse really well.

 Now 4 and 5 I had not heard of doing before but this is what I did just 2 days ago and I am thrilled with the results!

4. Boil
5. Additives

So what the magical youtube that Jessica saved me with said to do was to boil my inserts and then wash them with some calgon to help with hard water.

It turns out my issues were that we were using the wrong kind of detergent and that we have hard water at our house. Both of those factors made our inserts lose their absorbency because they had build up of hard water minerals and detergent and even ammonia from the pee! Gross! Thats why they still stank even after a wash. So here are the steps I took.

1. Wash the diapers and inserts in the washer with hot water and detergent. We use Charley's soap. (now)

2.  Get a large stock pot and boil the inserts only! (boiling will ruin the PUL in your covers) with Arm and Hammer Washing Soda. I didn't like the idea of using one that I will use again for food so I went to Savers and bought a used one and tongs for $5. Pretty darn cheap! I fit about 10 inserts and used 1 1/2 cups of washing soda. I had to do 4 batches to get all of my inserts. When boiling the inserts puff up. That means its working. It is getting all the nasty minerals, pee, and detergent and other build up into the water and out of the inserts making the inserts absorbent again! ****Warning**** Its going to stink. Don't worry thats the stink leaving the inserts.

My Awesome Stock pot! 

3.  After each batch  use the tongs to pick up your inserts. Hold them over the pot for a couple seconds and let the excess water drip off the insert. Then I places them into a garbage bag.

This is all the yuckyness that is left after each batch. Each time you obviously start with new water. I can't believe that stuff was on Noah's bum. No wonder he kept getting such bad rashes. 

4. After all my inserts were done boiling the grosseness and all in the garbage bag I dumped them into the sink. From the sink I put the garbage bag on them and pushed down so the rest of the water would come out.

5.  Then in the washer they went, with the covers this time. In the washer I put half the amount I would normally use of detergent, and Calgon to fight the hard water.

6.After they were washed I put them through rinse cycles until all the soap bubbles were gone. It took 4 rinse cycles for the water to be clear.


All together this process took about 2 1/2 hours. I was slow because I was watching netflix haha.  It may seem long but it was totally worth it. Now our diapers are clean and as good as new. Seriously! They are white as white and so very very soft again. Also they are absorbent again. No more stink, no more build up, no more rash!! This means a happy rash free baby and happy happy cloth diapering parents again! 

Here is a before and after picture. The right one is the like new pretty beautiful smelling insert. The left is is icky insert before the magical process.

Camping with Cloth

You might think I'm crazy for this but I decided to use the cloth diapers even on our camping trip. haha Hey, a lot of you probably think its crazy we even use cloth on a regular basis. It's been awhile since I gave an update on the cloth diaper experience. Sean and I still are very pro-cloth! It has saved us so much money and they are so darn cute! Still haven't gotten tired of them, never will. Sean says they are the same as doing disposables at this point only we get to reuse and save. The cloth is so gentle on our Noah's skin so he never gets rashes.

I didn't see the point in buying a bag/box of disposables just for 2 days of camping. I didn't care how much "easier" people might think it would have been. I didn't notice a difference. It's a short post on the subject because honestly there isn't much else to say.  Cloth diapers while camping = just as easy as disposables. Only I didn't have to fork out any money on them and I didn't have to worry about extra trash. The wet bag kept all smells concealed so no worries about that either.

The Cloth Diaper Experience

We have been using cloth diapers for a couple weeks now. Here is what we think:
Noah and I love them! Even though it has added two loads a week to my laundry schedule, but I don't mind laundry. In fact its one of my favorite chores. I love how incredibly cute the diapers are. How can something a baby poops in be so darn adorable?! I don't know but they just are.

This one has giraffes on it. So fun!! So I made a post a while back about the cloth diapers we had chosen to use. Well,,, that decision has changed. The sprouts diapers are nice and we still use them sometimes but I recently found a new system of cloth diapers and bought a couple of them to try out. They are the Softbums Omni.

I love them! So now we are going to buy some more of them. They still have the elastic legs so the grow with the baby but instead of snaps it has Velcro, much easier to use at 2am. The best part is no leaks!!! With disposables and the sprouts diapers we were having a lot of leaks with our Noah bug. We have been using the new diapers for 3 days now with no blow outs or leaks. Hallelujah!  I also really like that these ones are much more slim and don't poof out as much as the others I have seen. Noah seems much more comfortable in these ones as well.

Sean's say on the diapers: Overall I like the diapers pretty well. They really aren't much more work than a disposable. My only complaints are that we have to change the diapers more often due to the fact that they are less absorbent than disposables. Also it is a little less convenient to lug the old ones around but even that isn't very bad. Overall I like them pretty well.

See good reviews all around :)  

Cloth Diapering: The Prologue

Yes we are in fact using cloth diapers. I know, I know, poop is gross why do we want to handle it? Well the obvious answer is we don't, but no matter what diapers we use we have to deal with poop. I think what scares most people from cloth diapering is that they are thinking of old cloth diapers and don't know much or anything at all about modern cloth diapers.

This might be the image that comes to mind when someone says cloth diapers. A rectangular piece of cloth folded up and pined with safety pins. Well if that was what cloth diapering was now I wouldn't be using them either. Luckily cloth diapering has come a long way! Modern cloth diapers are much easier to use and look much more cute (This is obviously a big factor right? I mean just wait until you see them!) Even before getting pregnant I knew I wanted to use cloth diapers. My friend Jessica told me about her interest in cloth diapering and got me hooked on a blog where the writer started using them and loved them. Reading her blog convinced me even more of my choice. Sean was on board right away when I told him about the savings. My family on the other hand was much more work to convince. Actually to be honest most of them are still in the process of being convinced of the greatness of cloth. They see the pro's but mostly they focus on the con's. Meaning they don't like that it is more work. The most important thing is that we have my mom on board as well. This was most important person besides Sean and I because she is going to be watching Noah whilst Sean is at school and I am at work during the day. We realize that cloth diapers will be more work than disposables but the pro's out weight that one con. I'll keep you all updated on our adventure in cloth diapering.

There are many reasons to use cloth diapers. Don't believe me? Well here is the complied list.
Reasons to Cloth Diaper:

1. Save money rather than use disposables. Depending on which cloth diapering system you decide to use, you can save approximately $1,500 per child
2. Cloth diapers are better for the environment
3. Modern cloth diapers actually leak less than disposables. They are fitted better to the baby. 
4. Babies potty train earlier. Because of the cloth babies are more aware of their wet diapers
5. Less diaper rash. The rate of diaper rash has increased from 7% to over 78% since 1955 (when cloth diapers were used)
6. Cloth diapers are just so darn cute!

Want proof that using cloth diapers really does save you money? Here is a chart comparing cost of disposables to cost of cloth.This is based off the diapers we bought. The savings vary depending on which diapers you chose to get and which accessories you buy as well. The accessories we bought were: diaper sprayer, two wet bags.

Cost of Cloth Diapers	$246
Cost of Accessories	$99.95
Cost of Washing	$423
Total Cloth Diapering	$768.95
Cost of Disposables	$2,839
SAVINGS	$2070.05

Details:

Cost of washing and drying 1 load (water & electric cost) is estimated to be $0.50 Plus detergent (Tide bought in bulk) costs $0.08/load.  Total cost of laundry is based on washing one load every 1.5 days for 3 years.

Disposable Diaper Details: Number of diapers needed based off of 12 diapers per day for the first 3 months, then 8 diapers per day until 3 years old.  This gives 9,000 total disposable diapers for one baby.  Average cost of a disposable according to Consumer Reports is 26.5 cents, giving $2,385. Diaper genie inserts cost 3 cents/diaper, adding $226.80.  1 disposable wipe/diaper at 3 cents/wipe adds another $226.80.  Total cost, excluding gas, extra diaper rash cream, washing baby's clothes more often due to poop leaking, extra trash collection fees, etc.: $2,838.60  

There are so many choices of which cloth diapers to use. Some families use exclusively one type while others use many types. Sean and I have decided that we would like to stick with just one type to begin with and then when we get used to the one we might branch out to one other type that we liked as well.  There are many brands of cloth diapers, just google it and you will come up with a plethora of results. All have their pro's and con's just like disposables. The brand we are using is Sprout Change.

See how cute! They are reversible so it's like two in one. The other thing I love about these diapers is they are one size fits all. They can be used from newborn all the way up to potty training. How in the world does one diaper do that? I'll tell you! It has elastic on the sides and the top so you can adjust them to fit perfectly to the baby. The elastic has small button holes so you can adjust them accordingly.

This is another image of the diaper opened.