Why Cloth Can be So Good...and So bad.

Recently our Little Monkey Man had diarrhea...and by recently I mean it has been less than a week since he STOPPED having it. And he had it for over 6 weeks. We've been battling it since late October, but we think we might have it figured out.

Cloth diapers were SO bad because I don't care what liner you use (we use Imse Vimse), the BM goes EVERYWHERE in that diaper. And when you are dealing with it 5-7 times a day...ugh. Now if we had our diaper sprayer it would have been different, but we are in a rental and were not supposed to install it. So it sat in a box as we hand scraped diaper after diaper. (No, we did not use bare hands, come on people).

But in the end, cloth diapers were SO good. When we first moved into the rental the diarrhea was in progress, but we had no washer/dryer so we were using disposables. Guess what? BM up the back...out the sides. When changing the soiled clothes (which then I had to work on the stains...I'd rather have stained diapers than stained clothes!) the BM often ended up all over him and in his hair etc. We do not EVER have that problem with cloth diapers. Once in a great while some might eek out by his thighs...but never anywhere else or enough to ruin clothing.

So while cloth diapers were not a dream during this time, at least they weren't the nightmare that we had with disposables!!!!

The picture at the top is our stash being sunshined today. It was so good to get them out in the sun and make sure any lingering bacteria was DEAD. Does anyone have suggestions though for how to get them soft after hanging outside? They get so stiff!

Recycling Old Cloth To Convert New

These are the three WAHM* diapers I bought off of E-Bay a few months(?) ago. I think this must be the actual picture on their site as that is not my carpet. As you can see, they have snaps in the front to snap down to fit a much smaller baby. But notice (especially those of you who CD and use pockets/AIOs*) that the snaps on the tabs are super close together, right on the ends, and have no "female" snap on the tabs if you need to overlap. These diapers are cut generously, and even on now 22 lb 4 oz Baby J Monkey Man, he has them snapped to meet in the middle.


SO, yesterday (or was it the day before???) I sewed snaps off of an old Haute diaper that was leaking like a sieve into these. You can see it isn't beautiful, but MAN do they work great! This is what the inside tabs look like now.

And here is an outer view. With the new snap on the outside, the diapers can overlap and fit a much smaller baby...tried it on a Cabbage Patch Preemie doll :o) One old diaper fixed all three of these.

As for the Thirsties cover that I converted into a pocket...well, here is a picture of I think a Thirsites AIO* in orange. Mine looks very much like this now, but it has a thin blue thread line along the top. I'd love to take a nice picture for you, but that diaper was used today, and I mean used. No one wants to see that.

Along with those new developments, I also got my gRefills and gCloth inserts in the mail today! YEAH! This month we put some diaper money in the budget and did two things. First I went to our kids second hand shop that sells used cloth diapers. Once Upon A Child won't, but this place does. A little farther to drive, but not much. Anyway, I had picked up some newborn inserts and two newborn covers (5-10 lbs) along with this little gPant. They cost $29.99 for two, and unless I know I L O V E something, I'm not shelling out that kind of money on them, especially when they don't come with any inserts. I picked this orange one up for $3.50 and ordered the inserts and biodegradable flushable inserts from Kelly's Closet. I highly recommend this company for buying cloth. They are reliable, quick, and have competitive pricing.
I needed more cloth inserts anyway, and these are Hemp, the very best in my opinion. When the new baby is born, Baby J will still presumably be in diapers and they will both need inserts for their diapers. The disposable flushable/biodegradable inserts are a trial run. Wasn't thrilled with the price, but if they work ok, they will replace us buying disposables for church etc. They can be thrown away like a disposable and stick a new one in the little gPant. We'll see!

*WAHM Work At Home Mom made things
*AIO All In One diapers (no stuffing inserts in, just all one thing...kinda hard to get dry in my opinion)

Published!

This is an exciting day! Despite being SUPER tired (I think I've been hit by a truck) and downright cranky ("Snug, will you PLEASE stop screeching, and NO Baby J I do NOT want to have you crawl on me as I attempt to lay down for 20 second on the couch!") it is an exciting day.

A few weeks back I wrote a blog post about washing wool longies or wool covers for a popular blog "The Cloth Diaper Whisperer". I had to do a few edits (because even though some of the things I wrote work fine for me, they didn't recommend them), but it was published today. I won't swear to it, but I think they did some tweeking of their own. BUT I DON"T CARE! I WAS PUBLISHED :O)

Ahem.

If you'd like to read my post, click here: http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/2009/09/no-need-to-be-sheepish-about-washing.html

Thanks to Serena over at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer for giving me this opportunity! I am very excited :o)

*And a special thanks to my mom for giving me all my first cloth diapering supplies...without her I would have never ventured on this journey!

Haute

I recently bought 3 used Haute diapers from The Cloth Diaperin' Mama. She was selling off some used ones that she no longer needed/wanted. I had bought some pocket diapers (Swaddlebees and WAHM*) that had worked ok up until the last month or so. Baby J has grown so much they didn't fit as well as they needed to. Although my last try with pocket diapers had been...ok...I decided to give it another try. Not that it had been terrible, but we definitely had more leaks than we did with flats and covers.

Well, these diapers worked really well! We use them mostly if we are going out, as it is easier to pull a whole diaper off and put a whole new one on in public than to use the flats/snappi/cover method. This is especially true if we are in a place that has no changing area. Anyway, I simply use my bamboo inserts that my mom made and away we go. Because I bought three from her, I have enough for an afternoon or morning out, no problem! Check out her site at http://clothdiaperdiary.blogspot.com/

*Work At Home Mom

****Great Cloth Diaper Store**** I have never personal;ly ordered from them, but their prices are fantastic.

These Are A Few Couple Of My Favorite Things

These are a few couple of my favorite things....about cloth diapering!

Baby J napping in his nappie.
Birdseye flat under Thirsties cover

Snug refuses to wear a sposie to bed, but he is ok with a CD (or an occasional pull-up which we haven't had much success with). Lucky for us he is using his same CD for 2-3 days in a row as he's been dry 99% of the time at nap time and 50% of the time overnight!

Birdseye flat with bamboo insert under Thirsties cover

I realize this is not such the great shot with my little tree in the way, but freshly laundered diapers on the line always make me happy!

THE BEST BLOG ON CLOTH

Ok, today I read the BEST blog post on cloth diapers EVER. It was similar to the one I did here, but of course way better. To discover it for yourself, click here! YOU WANT TO! Trust me!
I am so glad to be back to using cloth diapers after Baby J's hospital stay. You may think I am crazy...but that is why this blog is called "cloth crazy". I just love those cloth diapers.

Still Learning...Still Loving

So I am still learning so much about cloth diapering...or as I see it abbreviated often CDing. I made the decision to temporarily put Snug in a disposable for a couple of days after dealing with diarrhea. A liner can only do so much in that case. We are also potty training him, but we can pull a diaper off his bum as fast as his little underoos...enough said.
I also have decided perhaps I am not going to make it with only two diaper covers for Baby J. Poor guy is in his big bro's rubber pants for potty training. Well, another load of laundry and I'll him out in a jiffy. I normally don't dry them, but once in awhile isn't supposed to hurt. Anyway here's some pics of him today.

My view as I nurse...lucky me! Look at those yummy little toes.

National Baby Wearing Week

Go wear your babies!

Couldn't help but put that in there. Baby J loves to be in his sling(s). It frees up both of my hands. Although I did start this blog to write about cloth diapers, I love cloth of all kinds. I dabble here and there in sewing. I made my own ring slings (see picture above). If you are in the market for one, I am willing to make them-leave me a comment and I can contact you. Anywho, this was supposed to be an entry to tell you about another cloth site that I love.
www.cottonbabies.com
Go wear your baby!

How-To-Where-To

How do you put them on? Where do you get your stuff? What is that?
First I'll show you what I use and where I got it.

These are my diaper liners. I got mine at http://www.imsevimse.us/
I like them because they are machine washable/dryable. Unless they have been pooed on I just throw them with the diaper into my diaper pail. I usually just hang them dry too. Oh yeah, and flushable.

Because I use tri-fold or Birdseye flat diapers I use a diaper cover. I got mine at http://www.thirstiesstore.com/ They were recommended to me by several people I talked to who use cloth.

This thing is awesome! It is a Snappi. I got mine new on E-bay. You can also buy them on various cloth diaper sites.

HOW TO

Here is the part of the show when Jenney comes out and tells us how to.

In this illustration I will be using my favorite-tri fold. You can get these at Wal-Mart (yes, IN the store, amazing you don't have to go online).

Lay the diaper flat on the floor...see this is so hard.

Fold the bottom part of the diaper in as shown. Leave "wings" at the top.

I am so sorry about this view. If I knew how to edit it, I would. Lay the liner on the diaper and lay the baby in it with the "wings" a little higher than the hips.

Bring the front of the diaper up and the "wings" in. Hold with your non-dominant hand.

Stretch the Snappi from one side to another and then pull the middle tab down and hook. (Snappi fasteners have little teeth things that grab the cloth...they are really flexible little rubber band things)

Put the diaper cover on snugly using the Velcro. Baby J loves it!

Why Cloth Crazy?

I am a recent 'convert' to cloth diapers. Although I was a bit nervous at first, I love using cloth. Although many people may think it is a bit weird, I truly believe that it is a great option for my kids. I get lots and lots of questions from people...this blog is to answer those questions and hopefully help anyone who is thinking of trying cloth.
Why the name cloth crazy? Well, I am told all the time I am "crazy" for using cloth and I guess I am "crazy about" using cloth!

Q: Why did I start using cloth?
A: It started with environmental reasons. I read several places about how they estimate a single disposable diaper will take over 200 years to decompose. We were throwing away at least one 'Wal-Mart' shopping bag a day at our house-ouch!
Next it moved to financial. My family is trying very hard to be debt free and use the money God has entrusted us with wisely. Cloth diapers are re-usable and durable. We save approx. $55 a month using cloth. (2 kids in diapers)
Finally I read some convincing articles online about the chemicals used to 'absorb' the moisture in disposable diapers...not sure I want my kids sitting in that stuff 24 hours a day.
SODIUM POLYACRYLATE, TBT (TRIBULYTIN), and DIOXIN are 3 chemicals used. Do an online search on them and see what you think. Other sites that talk about this are:
http://www.borntolove.com/
http://www.mothering.com/
http://www.ecobaby.com/cloth.htm
I noticed when I was changing my kids a gel like stuff stuck to them-and if the diapers had been in a pool there was TONS of it all over them.

Q: Doesn't it cost more in utility bills?
A: I only have to do a load of diapers once every other day. I line dry the diapers outside when it is nice, and on a drying rack when it isn't.

Q: How much did it cost you to start using cloth?
A: This was a concern of mine when we started...I looked at hundreds of websites looking at cost. In the end I was blessed because my mom still had all the cloths from when my brother and I were babies. I also bought 3 diaper covers (approx $12 each) and some Snappi fasteners (approx $10 for 5 of them). Last but defiantly not least I got diaper liners so that I don't have to flush and swirl-eeeewwwww. (Ok, I still do this, but not as bad as it could be)

Q: What do you do with the dirty diapers when you are out?
A: Due to my two loves of recycling and saving money. I put them in plastic bags that zip that were otherwise destined for the trash. Currently I am using the re-closable plastic bags that my baby wipes came in (I get them in bulk). You can buy special bags for your diaper bag, but I don't have the $$ for that yet.

Q: What do you do with the dirty diapers when you are at home?
A: I have a mesh laundry bag that I put down in a simple flip top garbage can. The lid is closed so it is not stinky (I add baking soda if it does start to smell) and all I have to do is pull out the mesh bag and wash it with the diapers when I do laundry.

Q: Do you ever use disposable?
A: Yeah. I use them overnight right now until I figure out something more absorbent to put in the diapers. I also use them if I am leaving my kids in a church nursery and I won't be the one changing them.
****Update...I now use fleece liners I've made to help with overnight absorbency so I do not use disposable overnight. Also I've trained a couple of teen nursery workers on how to use cloth and so I am taking disposables less and less.

I don't have all the answers, and even though I am loving cloth, it isn't perfect. Have questions for me? I'll try to answer them. I had tons of questions and had to do lots of investigating. Hopefully this will save you some time!