sunny days, chasing the stinks away!

now that we've been having some lovely sunny weather instead of monsoons & flooding, i wanted to try giving our cloth diapers some sun. i've read that it helps bleach out discoloring (wink wink) and improves their smell. ours were getting a bit rank, so this seemed like an easy way to try to fix that.

pretty & fresh smelling. mmmmm.

andy also recalled that we may need to play with the amount of detergent we need, where the microfiber liners are so absorbent, perhaps they weren't getting clean enough? (ick!) they smell & look good now at least so we're trying a little bit more soap. 

(guarding the hole the clothesline goes in. )

more about the cloth

I have had a few people asking about our cloth experiences so I wanted to do a follow up blog about how it's going.

really- i *swore* i'd never cloth diaper. so gross, and think of the water, and eeeew! but, really it's not as gross as i expected. i mean, with a baby you're dealing with poop all the time anyway, so what's one extra step.  as far as the water goes- while I was pregnant with Cecelia, we were able to get a high efficiency washer & dryer (well, as efficient as a dryer can be) and that has helped me feel better about the water usage, because it doesn't use much.

anyway! here is a bit more about the process that works for us:

(click on photo to enlarge)

(ok, so the washcloths aren't really relevant to cloth diapering, sorry, neither is the laundry bin)

really the poopy diaper transport bin is KEY. the pee diapers can just get tossed in that white bin (which has a waterproof bag liner in it) the poopy ones need to be rinsed, because she's eating solids now. if we had started while she was just breastfed they could have been tossed strait in the wash, because that poop is water soluble- i have no idea if formula poops need to be rinsed or not.

so one the poopy diaper is removed from the baby's bottom and she's rediapered and placed somewhere safe- we bring the offending diaper to the bathroom where we have this brilliant thing:

it's like the dish sprayer for your sink, only on the john! and this is another thing without which i doubt we'd be cloth diapering. GET THIS. here, here's a link!

see, it attaches to your toilet, and even has a shut off valve:

i'll be honest, andrew installed it and he's clever when it comes to that sort of thing, so i have no idea how difficult it would be for those of us NOT plumbingly inclined, but it's totally worth it to find someone who is to have this.

once they are sprayed down, toss them in the bin and you're all set. we have enough of a stash that we do a load of diapers every 2 or 3 days.

ce is fussing, so i guess that's all for now!

cutie bum

 

so this is our stash. we went with the flips, and a few drybees- although, those have ended up being our laundry day diapers, it seems :) it's been a few weeks & it's going very well! we've invested in a sprayer, which andy hooked up to the toilet (for spraying out those icky diapers) we still wear gloves at this point, lol, but maybe someday we'll be brave enough to bare hand it.  

Day. um. 7?

Cece is currently wearing the Flip diaper, with the organic insert. She's been in the Flip system since last night around 7-8 pm. I think we're currently looking at the winner for daily wear, for the time being at least.

We were liking the flip, but only had the one Stay dry and one organic insert, so we threw a couple more stay dry inserts into an online order we were making, so we've got three of those now. (we figured for $5 each, it wouldn't cost any more than buying them later, and if we didn't go with flips we could use them as inserts or doublers in any pocket diapers we went with.)

So last night, we put her in the Flip with two inserts (as recommended by the manufacturer for overnight use). She had a heck of a big butt, but other than that she made through the night just fine, it worked as well as anything else we've tried! she's now on her second change since then, having used the other stay-dry liner, and on to the organic liner. The shell is doing just fine, with a quick wipe with the baby wipe during the changing process. Best of all, the diaper pail is practically empty, and the stay dry inserts are always among the first things to dry (the shell air dries, and usually actually beats the rest of the diaper load that's in the dryer!)

more thoughts

I finally put Cece in one of the fitted diapers this morning (the bamboo one, I think). That DID NOT last long. before I even got the cover on, she filled it with poop. AWESOME. The good news is it wasn't really that terrible to deal with. Alas, we still haven't managed to get her into a fitted diaper, we were planning to tonight, but she fell asleep in the drybees AIO (with a doubler, so hopefully it'll make it through the night!)

We're still liking the Flip diapers concept, but we were thinking we would like a better test, since she always seems to pee the minute we button that one on... so we ended up ordering a couple more inserts online, we'll be able to use them as doublers in any pocket style diaper we end up going with, if the flip doesn't work out, and it cost $10, seems worthwhile to get a better test before we buy in.

I did a little math this evening, and estimated that we'll spend $700+ on diapers for this poop machine kid before she's potty trained, and estimated $500 give or take for the flip system, followed by a pocket diaper (fuzzi bunz) or hybrid all in one (drybees) sized (large) for after she outgrows the Flips. a couple hundred dollars savings now, and being able to re-use them for the next kid? I call win on that one! (though of course this doesn't take into account the cost of laundry, but on the other hand I also didn't take into account the cost of disposing of the disposable ones @ $1 per town trash bag, nor does it take into account the environmental impact)

mumma's first impressions

andrew is very much not your average 'hesitant dad' when it comes to the cloth diapering, in fact he did it all on sunday.  so the past two days while being the solo squid wrangler, i've dabbled a little. my thoughts will not be nearly as organized as his were.

i like the fuzzibunz- she didn't wear it terribly long, as she soiled it pretty promptly. the second one i used was the flip with the non-organic insert, again, worked fine, no complaints other than her prompt soiling of it. i then gave up for the evening & went back to the disposables.

as far as washing goes, i'm with A, the all in ones, while i like the concept, are a PITA to dry. but, other than that, it's not as icky as i expected, although A has had the two poos so far ;)

other thoughts- i don't like that i can't tell when she's wet, other than rooting around in there, which equals hands covered in pee.  she seems to feel the wetness quicker and that makes for fussyness. which you would THINK would mean i could TELL she was wet, but it hasn't quite worked out that way yet- learning curve i suppose.

i think i'm going to put a notebook next to the changing table, i think i need some more hard evidence about length of wear, and notes about what we put her in.

Day one thoughts

So far, so good. Cloth diapers definitely have some downsides (I suspect we haven't even seen the real downsides yet, since she hasn't had a poop since she's been in them.)

So far, she's worn the following:

Fuzzi Bunz - a pocket style diaper, an outer shell with a pocket for an absorbent insert, with a wicking liner to keep her dry. works pretty well, but both the liner and shell have to be washed between uses. This is a sized diaper.

Flip - an outer shell with replicable liners, because the absorbent liner is all that touches the baby, the majority of changes the shell can be wiped out and re-used with another liner (we used the organic cotton liner (with a piece of felt to keep her feeling dry) as well as the stay-dry liner, seemed to work well, though I can see how the liner could shift around. the changeable liner, reusable shell, and overall cost make this an attractive option. This diaper is one-size fits all up to about 35 lbs (maybe).

BumGenius 3.0 - This is an all-in-one pocket diaper - there's absorbency built in, a shell built in, and a pocket between them to add additional absorbency ("doublers") for heavy wetters or overnight use. works as advertised, but this particular diaper got an extra ride through the dryer with the next load of laundry, since it was the only one that wasn't dry after a normal cycle plus a little extra for a few other items. the pocket and insert style diapers win for drying efficiency for sure. This diaper is sized.

GroBaby - This is the diaper she's currently in. I started the BumGenius the same way, but things change fast around here! Like the Flip diaper system, this uses a shell that can, if all goes well, be re-used with multiple liners, this one has the advantage that the lines snap in so they won't move around or bunch up as much on an active baby. This is also supposed to be a one-size fits all system, allegedly 8-35 lbs, but I had trouble getting it on our 20+ lb baby due mostly to the fact that insert is incredibly thick.

Still to try:

DryBees Hybrid AIO - Like the BumGenius, this is an all-in-one with a pocket to add extra absorbency. This one seems to have less absorbency built in, which I'm currently seeing as a good thing, seeing as how it dried far faster than the BumGenius one. Also, it's got monkeys on it. How cool is that? and we didn't even ask for monkeys! This is a sized diaper.

HappyHeinys Onesize - This is another pocket diaper, much like the FuzziBunz above, only one size fits all. (again, allegedly up to 35 lbs). So far the part I don't like about this one is the velcro closure, velcro closed diapers usually have "laundry tabs" to connect the velcro to for laundering, so that they don't stick to each other or pick up too much lint. These have the tabs, but they don't cover all of the velcro, so they end up sticking to other diapers in the wash.

Two "fitted" diapers, and a shell. This and this diaper, and this cover. These diapers are made completely from absorbent materials, and require a water-proof cover. These are normally used for bed-time, since they have far more absorbency than other options normally do. These are sized diapers.

Overall, we're still leaning towards the one-sized diapers, the good side of them being that while Cece will probably outgrow them before long, she'd probably outgrow anything before long, and we'd be able to use one-sized diapers through many months for the next child (or two?) when he/she/they come along. Having found that flush-able liners are available to help deal with solids, the whole thing seems slightly less scary. If the Flip system works out, we might even be looking at a pretty reasonable startup cost, and flexibility to add to and or replace parts of the system as we go along, as well as saving on the amount that needs to be laundered.

It's too early to call this one, though I suspect the GroBaby and BumGenius are looking like long-shots, and unless we figure out something on the Happy Heinys, they may well be too. (it's bad when they look bad before they make it out of the laundry and onto the baby!)

Edit: we've had our first poop, and it wasn't too bad. she was in the GroBaby at the time, and there's no way a new insert would have been enough (we don't actually have a second insert for that one, so not a worry), the insert did not catch it all. Thankfully, this was the first diaper we actually put one of the flushable liners in!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering. Part 1.

Let the games begin.
In the first corner, trusty disposables from BJ's. Relatively reliable & affordable, but woah,

bags & bags & BAGS

of diapers going in the trash. we're going at a clip of about 150 diapers a month.  so yikes, the eco-minded part of my brain is cringing as i see them pile up. also, our teeny peanut is wearing size 4 diapers, which have for example, 50 less diapers than 1-2's for the same price. so, bigger bum=more expensive diapers. le sigh

Yesterday, Andrew, Cecelia & I headed into   The Diaper Lab in Somerville, Ma. yeah, kind of a haul, but they had a diapering consultation, which after much scouring of the internet, we decided would be key if we were going to make this thing work.

The consultation was very helpful, Laura, the owner went through a variety of diapers we didn't even know existed and the pros & cons of the different styles. she also helped us pick out some styles that would fit our chubby monkey baby, and we signed up for the two week trial period, with 8 diapers to take home and test drive.

learning about diapers

ohmygoodness how cute are they?

browsing the options.

this is a MUCH cuter pile- points for for cloth diapers ;)

more squee worthy options.

so we've washed them all, and cecelia has tried out two diapers so far. we shall see how it goes!