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Posts Tagged ‘washing cloth diapers’Stripping Recap…Monday, March 1st, 2010I know the title sounds a bit suggestive – but here in cloth diaper world it means something completely different!! As a seasoned cloth diaperer will tell you, it’s almost impossible to keep your diapers 100% build-up free no matter what laundry detergent you use. The more additives and chemicals in your detergent, the more you will probably have to strip them, that is the general rule. Ways to know that you might need to strip your diapers -
The best and easiest way is to use a good squirt of the original Dawn dish liquid in your SUPER hot wash. This probably means you might have to turn up your hot water heater’s mixing valve for a little while – depending on the size of your water tank, doing this an hr before you wash should do the trick. After the hot wash (or 2 if you want) make sure to run the rinse cycle until there are no bubbles as it is agitating. The other way that I have found will really kill the nasties especially if you think you might have reoccuring yeast or something else (or you just cannot find the original Dawn liquid) is to boil. It sounds daunting, but trust me it really does the trick. I use my largest lobster pot and a big pair of tongs and do them in batches. Be careful with any diaper with PUL in it, I usually only boil those for a few mins and I stir the whole time (you probably don’t have to bother with your covers if you don’t want to), but other diapers especially my prefolds and inserts, I just boil the crap out of them. Next I take them from the boiling water with the tongs, put them straight into a sink full of cold water and then wring them out well. You can also put them into the washer and run a spin cycle if you don’t want to wring by hand. Follow either of these methods with a good hot dry and voila – clean, build up and nasty-free diapers. They will be like new. If anyone has questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments! Happy stripping everyone! Cloth Diapering Myths!Sunday, October 4th, 2009I 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 |
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