Archive for the ‘diaper covers’ Category

Cloth Diapering Myths!

I was thinking about all the misconceptions and myths about cloth diapersing and came up with 10 that I think are the most popular ones we have heard.  Maybe some of you all have heard others?

1. In order to Cloth Diaper you must use pins. Yes I do know some parents that use them and wouldn’t do it any differently, but there are so many alternatives for those of us that aren’t that coordinated.  For those that want to secure a flat or prefold with more than a cover, there are snappis- additionally there are so many other types of diaper that velcro and snap closed just as easily as a sposie.

2. Cloth diapers cause diaper rash.  I think if you have a child that is prone to rash then it probably doesn’t matter what type of diaper you use, you have to be sure and change them as often as you can.  Urine and feces both can break down skin and cause irritation…that is a fact.  More often I have heard of babies that are allergic to the things used to make disposable diapers, the chemicals, the gel, the rough paper, the plastics, etc.

3. Once you calculate utilities, there is no cost savings.  This simply is not true.  Most mom’s and dad’s will agree that its only 1-2 extra loads of laundry per week to cloth diaper.  Utility costs vary from region to region but there is just no way this one is true.  I have estimated this myself and it costs me mere cents per load to wash and just a bit more to dry.  Additionally, if this issue bothers you, use a clothes line or a drying rack – that will save over 50% of the utility cost of cloth diapering and also help your diapers last longer.

4. Cloth diapering is so time consuming that in order to be successful you must be a sahm.  Although I personally am a sahm/wahm - I do not agree with this statement and know many, many families of 2 working parents or a single working parent that have successfully cd’ed all of their children.  Like I mentioned above, its generally 1-2 extra loads of laundry a week – so what is that, 5 mins to load, 5 mins to switch over and then 10 to fold or stuff and put on the shelf? Going to the store to buy sposies, taking out extra bags of trash and/or swapping out those diaper genie refills has got to cancel that all out, right?

5. Poopy cloth diapers must be dunked in the toilet before putting in the pail to wash.  EWW – do people really do that?  It is so not necessary, really it isn’t.  Even the nastiest of poops can be scraped or sprayed off and then put into the washing machine.  Our washer never smells like poop or has any residue left in it after washing even the worse load of diapers.  If I ever feel the need to rinse out a really bad diaper, I use the bathroom sink rather than the toilet, then I spray and wipe out the sink…NOT the toilet!

6. You cannot travel or camp with cloth.  We have a previous blog articleabout this and it simply is not the case.  I usually bring 2 large wet bags with me, first half of the trip in one, second half in the other.  Its that simple.  If you are washing dirty diapers that are more than 3-4 days old, do a soak first, then an extra wash or use some biokleen disinfectant if you think you need it.

7. You must have your own washer/dryer.  I can personally attest to this as a myth!  Although it sure makes it easier, cloth diapering while using shared machines or a laundromat it completely do-able.  When I was washing only once a week at the laundromat I used a splash of biokleen disinfectant in the wash just to ward off unwanted bacteria (both from having the diapers sitting around for longer and the fact that other people use the machines) – the only other thing I had to do was strip more often as the shared machines seemed to have more detergent build-up that would end up on my diapers too.

8. Cloth diapers are too bulky and you need to buy larger clothes to fit over them.  I won’t completely disagree with this- I think it all depends on the type of diaper you use and the build of your child.  Some cloth diapers are bulky and if that is what your child is used to then it probably doesn’t bother them at all.  In that case, I would say you probably would need to either size up on bottoms or just buy materials that are stretchy….no big deal.  On the other hand, lots of cloth diapers are known for their trimness, these don’t add anymore bulk than a sposie if they are the correct size and are fastened snugly.

9.  The added bulk between a baby’s legs can damage leg and hip development and it takes longer for a cloth diapered child to learn to walk.  All these things are a definite myth!  Only in the past century have there even been disposable diapers.  Does that mean that humans up until the last 100 years have had messed up legs and hips?  Especially in a time when people were forced to do more physical work to survive?  That is just a silly, made-up misconception.  Also there is no data that supports that cloth diapered children walk later, my daughter certainly didn’t have any issues!

10. Nobody uses cloth anymore.  WRONG!  What a relief that this is so incredibly off too, huh?  Just writing this blog has given me more energy to spread the word about cloth…go on out and do so yourself too!  Pass this blog URL along to your non cloth diapering friends and relatives, lets make it our jobs to help others stop filling the landfills of the world with disposable diaper and dangerous biological waste!

Happy diapering everyone

Tags: camping with cloth diapers, cloth diapering damage hips, cloth diapering is time consuming, cloth diapering misconceptions, cloth diapering myths, cloth diapers and diaper rash, diaper pins, diaper rash, dunking cloth diapers in the toilet, only stay at home mothers cloth diaper, washing and drying cloth diapers, washing cloth diapers
Posted in Uncategorized, basic cloth diapering, cloth diapering, cloth vs disposable, conservation, diaper covers, diaper pins, diaper sprayer, diapers in landfills, environment, frugal, green living, prefold diapers, prefolds, snappies, toddler clothing, traveling with cloth, trim diapers | 1 Comment »

Traveling with Cloth

This is a big decision for some families with youngsters. You really want to buy sposies, but that voice in the back of your head is telling you not too. Think of all that trash, the extra cash etc etc. Well as a person who has been there and done that I can tell you, its totally possible! We went and stayed at a resort at the Cape for about a week when Amelia was about 4 mos old. At that time we were strictly prefolds and covers. She still was only wearing the infant size but for the trip I decided to break out the 2 dozen premiums I had waiting in the closet. I believe I had around 4-5 dozen all total and I took 2 large wet bags. Once the first was full (about 3 days) I sprinkled it with a bit of baking soda and put it out in the trunk of the car. Then we filled the second. The most annoying thing for me was rinsing the covers in the sink so often as I believe we only had 4 at the time. In hindsight, more covers is what I would have done differently.

Last summer, we went to the beach in RI for about a week. Being older now, we were using mostly pocket diapers but only had about 18 of them and were washing every other day. I had a couple dozen toddler prefolds that we had received as a gift and I broke those out and splurged on a couple Lg Thirsties wraps to accompany them. Being that we were going to be at the beach a lot, I had planned to let her go diaperless a lot and hope for the best. We realized a few days before the end of the trip that we were going to indeed run out and when I realized there were no stores nearby that sold chlorine free sposies, I decided to stop in at a local laundromat, purchased a small box of tide (which I used about half of) and washed the whole lot of them in a super sized washer – we dried and were on our way about an hour later.

Perhaps my kid doesn’t have the stinkiest diapers, but I really was surprised that the smell of the older wet bag wasn’t that offending! We have just always done cloth and don’t know much different. We have yet to fly with her, so I cannot comment, but my instinct is that I would probably attempt to do cloth either way. Most hotels have laundry service and there are always laundromats, right?? I dunno, call me hardcore Happy diapering!

Tags: cloth diapering, cloth diapering on vacation, traveling with cloth, vacationing with kids
Posted in cloth diapering, cloth vs disposable, diaper covers, diapers in landfills, green living, pocket diaper, prefold diapers, prefolds, save money, thirsties wraps, traveling with cloth | 3 Comments »

Folding A Prefold…

Yes it sounds redundant, right?  But, those of us that know the difference between a flat and a prefold, realize that although so much of the folding has been done for us with the prefold there really still is some important work to be done!

Personally, I take the easy route, somewhat of a lazier version of the basic angel wing fold that we have on our Diaper Folds page.  I just lay the prefold in the cover lengthwise, fold it in a little on either side in the middle/crotch area, wrap it up and around to the front, fan the wings back out and then Velcro it all in place with whatever wrap I happen to grab first! Voila….

Well after some discussions in person and online with other prefold users I discovered that there are SO MANY cool folds!  Some for the use of just covers, some for snappies and others meant for pinning.

I wanted to give all our readers the opportunity to share their favorite folds and hopefully help others that might not have found their “perfect” fold yet.  Leave a comment with yours, either a brief explanation or a link (or both).  I will look back to my notes and come back with a few that I think are cool as well.

Happy folding!

Tags: diaper covers, diaper pins, diaper wraps, flat diapers, folding cloth diapers, prefolds, snappies
Posted in Uncategorized, basic cloth diapering, cloth diapering, diaper covers, diaper pins, folding diapers, prefolds, snappies | 2 Comments »

Super Soakers!

Yes, I have one too….and I am not talking about squirt guns either!  I am talking about those kids that can fill a diaper so quickly that it seems like no matter what you use, you need a new pair of pants or shorts with every change!  My 2 yr old can drain a Nalgene sippy in 5 seconds flat and overflow her diaper before you even realize it - I swear sometimes the kid pees more than me.   The inserts/doublers that we can’t be without in our house are pretty much anything hemp.  The combos that work best for us are a Happy Heiny hemp stuffins or a Thirsties hemp insert with a microfiber insert on top stuffed in a pocket diaper, or a fitted diaper(we love bamboo fitteds for the added absorbency) with either a thick microfiber insert between the fitted and the cover or a hemp insert laid right inside the fitted and then a good, tight cover. 

For night time, I have found that something with a nice tight elastic around the leg really ensures the liquid isn’t going to escape and soak everything.  This all depends on your child’s build of course, which brand is going to do the job but our new Hugga Buns Ultra Pocket have really great elastic in the legs and would be a great, economical choice when it comes to curbing leakage.

The older a child gets, the harder it is to keep it all in.  I remember back to the days that my daughter would just lay there cooing with her cute little fluffy bum, no wiggling away during a change, no trying to remove her own diaper or squatting down in a droopy diaper and peeing out the leg….ah the nostalgia.  We know its challenging at times and we are here to help.   Have a great day and happy diapering

Posted in cloth diapering, diaper covers, fitted diapers, hugga buns ultra pocket diapers, pocket diaper, thirsties hemp insert | 2 Comments »

Clothing your Cloth Diapered Child

No matter how trim your cloth diapers are, there is little chance they will ever be as trim as a disposable – close, but a bit bulkier. The trimest options that come to mind would probably be a pocket diaper stuffed with hemp – of our selection I would say the Hugga Buns Ultra pocket diaper and the Thirsties hemp insert, either that or maybe the BumGenius AIO without a doubler. Those of us that use extra doublers, or large prefolds and covers are used to that cute padded bum! I have gotten questions about the development of a baby’s hips with that added bulk between the legs pushing them apart more, this is a myth and there is simply no truth to it. Your baby’s hips will develop just fine! What do you think babies wore before the invention of the disposable diaper anyway?

People often ask us if the added bulk under clothing makes shopping more challenging. With my daughter, I don’t really think its been that much of an issue, except maybe with onesies which we really only used for the first few months given that she was born in January and I was trying to keep her warm! I don’t think she ever wore the 0-3 month and only wore the 3-6 month for a very short time – I learned quickly to size up. They also make a snap extender for onesies since its really the crotch and bum area that needs the extra room when your babe wears cloth. I don’t have personal experience using them, but have heard rave reviews. With sleepers and other stretchy cotton items usually worn by newborns, there is usually plenty of extra room for the cloth.

Now that my daughter is older (2 1/2) and in the 80-90th percentile for both height and weight, I generally only buy pants with some element of stretch – there are actually few things I have founds that don’t stretch to some degree. If your child is very slender it probably won’t even be an issue as I have plenty of friends with slender children that wear jeans and cords over their cloth with no problem. There is such a large variety of options available for children’s clothes these days – I find Target carries the best fitting stretch bottoms with great variety of colors and prints. Our family has been using cloth from day one, so for us its a no-brainer. We do have to remind people around birthdays and holidays that gifts of bottoms do need to be stretchy as we do have a little extra padding in that area! If you are changing over from disposable to cloth, there is a chance you may find a few of your child’s tighter items with no give to be too snug – a small price to pay – you will definitely save more money in the long run!

I love to see a cute little padded cloth bum – there is nothing wrong with a little added “booty”!

Have a great week everyone and happy diapering!

Posted in baby clothing, cloth diapering, diaper covers, hugga buns ultra pocket diapers, prefold diapers, target kids clothes, thirsties hemp insert, toddler clothing, trim diapers | 3 Comments »

Not Your Mother’s Cloth Diapers!

Often we get mother/daughter customers coming into the store asking for info and exploring possibilities. The opinions vary – some are all for it, telling stories of their own experiences, others are more negative, giving examples of why the new mother will need that extra time (all what, 20 mins a week?) that it takes to do the extra washes. Back about 25-30 yrs ago, when disposable diapers were really beginning to enter the mainstream, they were thought of as a new “freedom” for women, somewhat comparable the bra burning era!

Most mothers’ impressions of cloth are that of diaper pins, pull on pants and wet pails and while some of us still employ these things, we know there are more modern, easy ways to CD as well as safer alternatives to the wet pail. Most cloth diaper manufacturers these days actually specify that a DRY pail be used, explaining that keeping diapers in a wet pail is not only dangerous for children (as a drowning hazard) but also not good for the diapers, they break down faster and the elastics and snaps wear out sooner as well. It often takes quite some discussions to explain to grandmothers-to-be that cloth diapering is a great option and there are so many new ways that things have been made easier and quicker for the modern – often more so than the parents themselves. They are amazed at the different types available – AIOs, pockets, fitteds, one-size diaper, the modern side fastening cover…..too many to remember! We just try and keep it as simple as possible to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed. Its easy we tell them, and for those of you that love to cloth diaper, you know its true.

So at this time of year where we have just honored our mothers, old and new – try and laugh about those small disagreements! I am reminded of some of the struggles of differing opinions that I have had with my own mother on the subject of child rearing – so funny to think about and great memories I will carry with me.

Posted in aio, basic cloth diapering, cloth vs disposable, diaper covers, fitted diapers, grandparents, mothers day, pocket diaper | 2 Comments »