Wear and Tear

 I have been using my cloth diapers for over two and a half years, and for ten months I have been using them on two kiddos.  So this is 3 years of constant use, washing every few days, lots of pee and poop touching the diapers.  And although I love cloth diapers, all this use is hard on them.  If you had a shirt that you wore once every 3 days, and washed every time you wore it, it probably wouldn't stand up for 3 years.

So then why do I get so sad when my diapers start to wear out?  Plus, I can't forget that half of them were bought used.  When I think about all this it's actually amazing that they haven't completely fallen apart.

The diapers that I bought used, which the above two were part of, had the elastics replaced when I bought them.  Well those elastics have stretched out a bit over time.  They really needed replaced awhile ago again, but although it's not a difficult process, it's a time consuming one.  And ain't nobody got time for that.  Well now I'm trying to find the time.  The diaper on the left is before I changed the elastics and the diaper on the right is afterwards.  Look at the difference!  It makes me so happy when the legs are tight again and poor little Parker's pee won't run down his leg anymore!  (Cooper doesn't have this problem cause he has thunder thighs.)

So the process is just starting but I'm really hoping that over time I can get all of these elastics replaced.  The photo below (although blurry) is an elastic that I pulled out of the diaper, and a new elastic that I cut to the right size to put into the diaper.  What a difference!

So here's hoping that this prolongs the life of my diapers! 

A Cloth Diapering Update - 2 in Cloth

I have had a request for a post on cloth diapering.  I was actually planning on doing one about how I'm now cloth diapering 2 kiddos at once, so I will just make this more thorough and give all of the details!

I have been cloth diapering Parker since he was just wee.  I've never exclusively cloth diapered and always have some disposables on hand.  I have never cloth diapered at night as I never wanted to deal with figuring out what worked for this, and to me it's not a big deal to throw on a disposable at night.  I also tend to use disposables if we are on extended holidays because washing is an issue, if Parker has a diaper rash that won't go away (he's my sensitive kid and often has rashes, Cooper hasn't had a rash yet), or sometimes if I'm just not feeling the cloth.

Type of Diapers

I have probably over 30 diapers for the two kids plus about 12 cheapies that I really hate because they leak, but will use sometimes around the house if I'm not worried about leaks and having to change Cooper.  I just recently bought about 10 more diapers to help since I have both kids in cloth, so I probably had around 20 before.

I would recommend about 24 diapers to start if you are cloth diapering a young child as babies pee and poop a lot.  You have to change them about every 2 hours.

The diapers I now have are:
-Bumgenius
-Kawaii
-Kawaii bamboo
-Fuzzibunz

I only use pocket diapers.

Bumgenius are the most expensive.  They look nice and are fairly trim.  I find that the elastics don't hold up great though.  You can replace them yourself but they are a bit of work.  

Kawaii are cheap.  They are a bit bulkier but they work really well for the price.  I like that the material is more fleecy because when you get to the point of having to spray poop off it seems to come off a lot easier.  I bought some Bamboo Kawaii as well.  They are more absorbent but take a lot longer to dry because of that, so you wouldn't want all bamboo or else you would be waiting days for them to dry properly.

I just bought the Fuzzibunz used and really like them.  They are my trimmest diapers because they adjust by elastics rather than snaps.  It's not as easy to do, but they do fit nice and it's nice to have a less bulky option.

I highly recommend buying used diapers because you can get some great deals on them.  The more diapers you have the less they are used and the longer they last of course.  You can also go longer without washing.

Other items you need for cloth diapering:
-Diaper bag or pail - I have the Ubbi Pail - It's expensive but I love it
-Pail liners x2 - one will be in the wash and one in the pail
-Small wet bags - at least 2 of these - these are for when you are out and need somewhere to put dirty diapers
-Larger wet bag - for travelling or daycare when you need to fit a whole day or weekends worth of diapers in a bag
-Diaper sprayer - This could be optional but it's really not...you are going to want one of these - I have the Bumkins one and bought it from Babyrama online

My Routine

• I wash diapers every other or every 3rd day
• When I take the diaper off Parker I dump whatever poop I can into the toilet and then put the diaper into the pail with the rest of the poop on it.  I used to spray it off right away but a wet diaper sitting for 3 days can be hard on the elastic, plus it's easier to just have to spray diapers all at once when I go to do the wash, and sometimes the poop comes off easier if you wait a bit
• On wash day I go through the diapers and throw them in the wash, pulling the inserts out as I go.  Coopers exclusively breastfed poop goes straight into the wash.  This is actually ok, I didn't believe it at first!  Any of Parker's poopy diapers I set aside and then take them to spray down
• Spray the poop off Parker's diapers
• Update: The wash routine that I used to have was what I basically had researched when I started.  Now when I look, everything that I thought I knew was wrong.  Obviously what I was doing worked to a certain degree, but I have had leaking issues.  I will show my old routine and new routine.
• Old routine: Regardless of number of diapers, do a large load.  Cold rinse, hot wash with small amount of Nature Clean detergent, Warm cycle
• New Routine:
• Short hot wash with small amount of detergent (Tide Original or Tide Free & Clear)
• Hot wash with about level 4 of detergent
• Water level based on size of load because you want the diapers to agitate
• I have slightly hard water so I don't want to do a lot of extra rinses without detergent because that's just adding minerals to my diapers, which I think was causing the leaks.  Apparently you can use detergents with scent now, you just don't want anything with fabric softener.  However, these diapers are going to spend a lot of time on your baby's bottom so having scent free detergent probably isn't a bad thing
• Hang diapers to dry - inserts can be put in the dryer if needed but shells can't - if possible hang outside, I find they dry nicer, quicker and are nice and white when they are done!
• Stuff diapers, or if you are like me, wait until you need one and stuff it because you have two kids and don't have time to sit around stuffing diapers

Other things to mention

• You can't use regular bum cream with cloth diapers so I either use disposables or make sure I'm using a cream that won't hurt my diapers
• Once in awhile if you have leak or stink build up you may have to strip your diapers - I have only done this once but RLR works amazing.  If you are in my area, Remedy RX in Fergus sells it as well as many other cloth diapering accessories!
• You can buy used diapers off Kijiji or there are cloth diaper Facebook groups as well where people often sell off some of their used diapers

Cloth diapering seems like a big expense when you are starting out but buying boxes of diapers adds up really quickly!  The extra laundry isn't a huge deal.  I find it a bit worse now with two because I just have so much laundry as it is with both of the boys clothes, but when it was just one and I was on maternity leave it was easy!

The Fluff Love website is a great resource.  It breaks down different detergent options and has instructions on how to strip diapers and has any other information you might need.

It takes a fair bit of research, and this is just what works for me.  So you really have to look at all of the information and see what works best for you and your family!  Good luck!

And Then The Worst Happened

About 3 weeks ago we started Parker on solids.  He did ok his first few rounds with rice cereal and then he just wasn't really interested in it.  Of course he spit out a lot of it, but I thought we were making progress until we weren't. 

So then I thought, maybe he just doesn't like the rice cereal.  So I whipped him up some peas in the baby bullet.  (I'm so domestic, I know.  But seriously making your own baby food is super easy.)  The first few days he wasn't real interested and then all of a sudden he was.  The past 2 days he ate those peas right up!  It was a slow process, he definitely doesn't eat fast, but he was opening his mouth and actually eating the peas!  

It's a messy ordeal.  Yes, those are peas on his forehead.

And then this morning he pooped.

For those of you who don't know, breast milk poop is lovely as far as poop goes.  It looks weird, is a yellow mustard colour and super runny, but it doesn't smell bad and when cloth diapering you can throw those diapers straight into the wash without even rinsing!  And this mornings poop was not that lovely poop that I'm so used to.  I knew it was coming, but I wasn't looking forward to it!  I will spare you any more details about poop....

So anyways, that's what's new with us these days!

In other news, we spent the weekend at the cottage.  It was a really quiet cottage weekend for us and we only had a few people up.  We had some friends come for a day with their 2 month old who is bigger than Parker!  Don't let the pink life jacket deceive you, it's a boy.  Poor little guy was stuck with a pink life jacket because it's all we had.  It was nice to spend some time with good friends and to get these 2 little guys together!

Just a couple babies chewing on their life jackets.

 

Cloth Diapering 101

Half of my pregnancy was spent reading about cloth diapering, trying to decide whether I wanted to do it and trying to figure out what diapers were best. So I thought a little update on our experience with it might be helpful.

I started out with about 15 used BumGenius diapers, 6 new bumgenius, 2 Kawaii microfibre, 2 Kawaii bamboo and 2 Kawaii heavy wetters.  They are all pocket diapers.

Because Parker was so tiny, I ended up buying 12 used Kawaii newborns (6-22lbs) for $25.

I also bought the Ubbi diaper pail and 2 Ubbi cloth pail bags, and a small wet bag for when we go out.  I also want to buy a large wet bag for when we go away, when Parker is with grandparents for the night or for future babysitters.

As it turned out, the diapers I bought used needed the elastics replaced.  Bumgenius diapers are fairly simple to do this for, but I'm still in the process of doing it.  I find that each diaper takes me about an hour to replace the elastic, so although I can do it, actually finding an hour where I'm not doing anything else has been tricky.  If you are buying used diapers, this is something to be cautious of if you have no interest in replacing the elastics.  

Anyways, so far I'm really liking cloth diapering.  Obviously, it has already saved me lots of money!  Buying diapers when Parker didn't fit into the cloth was so frustrating!  I do have some leaking issues (especially with the used Kawaiis I bought, they may have to be stripped.)  A lot of my leaking issues are just caused by not changing his diaper quickly enough.  You really have to change them every 2 hours.  I ended up buying 12 bamboo inserts from Kawaii.  Bamboo is more absorbent than microfibre and I find it makes a big difference.  However, when stocking up on diapers, bamboo takes a lot longer to dry, so I'm glad I don't only have bamboo or else I would be waiting 3 days for dry diapers!  

My routine:

• Every 2-3 days I wash diapers
• Throw diapers in wash and remove inserts.  Make sure any velcro tabs are attached so they don't stick to inserts.
• Cold rinse
• Hot wash using a small amount of Nature Clean detergent so that there is no build up
• Warm rinse (my machine doesn't rinse in warm so I run a short wash with no soap)
• You need to keep rinsing until all the soap is gone, I find with the one extra rinse it works for me as long as I don't use too much detergent
• Hang to dry in laundry room, or even better on the line as they dry faster and the sun bleaches the stains
• Sometimes I will throw inserts only in the dryer if they aren't drying quickly enough
• Once dry, I stuff the diapers with inserts so that they are ready to go

I don't find the extra laundry a big deal at all!  So far Parker is exclusively breast fed which makes it super easy as there is no pre-rinse required, I can throw the diaper straight in the wash without removing any poop!  Let's just say I'm not in a rush to get him on solids because of this!  I have purchased a diaper sprayer for when that day comes.

I find I like the Bumgenius diapers because they are trim and I actually think they are super cute.  The Kawaii diapers are a bit bulkier but they are nice diapers as well and besides the newborn ones (which have probably already been through a few kids) I don't seem to have leaking issues.  I bought the BumGenius when they were buy 5 get one free so I got a bit of a deal.  Kawaii diapers are much cheaper, so it's definitely nice to get some of those to save money.

I haven't even attempted overnight yet and always put Parker in disposables.  I also sometimes put him in disposables if we are going out as they can typically last longer than 2 hours and I know that I likely won't have any leaks. 

Parker rarely gets any sort of rash with the cloth diapers, and when he was just in disposables I found that he often had a bit of a red bum.

I would definitely recommend cloth diapering to people.  It's not as difficult as you might think it is and they are pretty dang cute, even if they give your baby a big booty.