Here is an oldie but goodie! I dug it out of the depths of my blog posts! I hope you enjoy learning about how I cloth diaper the Stink Bug. Oh, and yes, this may be old but, this is STILL how I do it!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Cloth Diapering: Stink Bug Style
Even before I became pregnant I thought cloth diapering was a nifty idea. I think my interest stemmed from some experiments that I did in high school. In these experiments, I can remember taking disposable diapers, tearing open the insides, and shaking out the absorbing "crystals" that are impregnated within the interior bleached cotton. From there I messed with the absorbency of the crystals and did some other experiments with the chemical properties that it had. I thought that this was the coolest substance ever! Cool, and very impressive chemically. It kind of made me wonder why it was in a diaper, next to a baby skin all day long.
I also was interested in lessening the garbage I made. I have always tended to steer away from plastic water bottles, soda cans, and those sorts of things in general. That is not to say that I don't EVER use them, I just try to lessen the amount I use. Why would I not try to do this with diapers?
Ok so, I could go on and on about the reasons why but, that is not what this post is about. This is not about selling cloth diapering. It is not the right choice for everyone. This is about telling my experience thus far, and what I used to cloth diaper the Stink Bug for those who are curious.
Before I had her I decided that I would follow other cloth diapering advice and not take cloth diapers to the hospital with me when she was born. This was because I had heard that meconium (the baby's first poop) can stain your diapers and is difficult to wash out. Plus, how in the heck was I going to wash all of those diapers at the hospital? Nope, not going to do it. Not worth it to me. Not to mention, the hospital provides them, and they are "free." (well free right then...)
It was a good decision, and a decision that I continued with after I got home due to my "difficult" recovery. I was not in any shape to do laundry and quite frankly, that was the last thing on my mind. Then, we ended up at Childrens hospital, and I was not going to take cloth there either. Another good choice.
So, after things had calmed down some, we made the switch. Now, I am not going to lie. We did not do it cold turkey. We switched over to cloth diapers and cloth wipes during the day, and disposables at night. Some of this decision was based on the fact that hubby has night diaper duty, and we try not to turn on any bright lights at night to help make going back to sleep easier. We did this just until we had run out of the disposables that we had. I would say about two weeks.
Once we ran out, that was that. With hubby having been laid off, there was no way I wanted to continue to spend precious money on things that were going to be thrown away. Diapers are crazy expensive. Especially when your baby is little and using 15 a day.
On to the diapers we use!!!We use a variety of new, used and homemade.
Diapers:
We mainly use a bunch of used (and a few new) Bum Genius "one size fits all" diapers that have absorbent inserts, velcro tabs, and snaps in the rise (to change the rise size). We like these because we find them to be the most like disposables in ease of use. We have a few other random brands that are used, and similar to the Bum Genius. I also have a bunch of homemade diapers that I sewed to be similar to the Bum Genius diapers. They do not have snaps though, just velcro. Then, we have three one size Thirsty diaper covers, and about 12 or so prefold inserts to go in them. I use some Snappies with the Thirsty covers occasionally but, I don't find them necessary. My hubby wont use the prefolds and covers since they involve a bit more work, I don't blaime him. It is easier to grab an all-in-one.
Wipes:
The wipes we use are all homemade. I sewed an 8x8 square (the size of a disposable wipe) made out of one layer of cotton flannel and one layer of microfiber. I stitched them wrong sides together, turned them and top stitched. I think we have around 40-50 of them. Enough to have at least one or two with every diaper.
When we first brought the Stink Bug home from the hospital we did not use disposable wipes. We took a paper towel roll, sawed it in half with a bread knife, and used a little plain with with each square. Very cheap, and no chemicals.
Now that we use cloth wipes, we don't just use water like we did with the paper towel wipes. We use a spray bottle of water with a Baby Bit in it. Baby Bits are small squares of mild glycerin soap made with olive oil infused with plantain and chickweed herbs to help clear skin irritations. Tea tree oil is added for its antifungal and antibacterial properties, keeping wipes water clean. Relaxing lavender essential oil calms your baby and gives your nursery a floral scent. (Yeah, I took that from their web site. You can find them here: --> http://www.soapsbydenise.com/babybits.htm). We LOOOOOOOVE them. The nursery really does smell great! They smell much better than the disposables. They also make the diaper laundry smell nice. Oh and since we have been using them, and the cloth diapers, the Stink Bug has not had any diaper rash whatsoever.
Laundry:
Speaking of diaper laundry, I know you are probably wondering how it is done around my house! Back in the day, moms used to rinse diapers in toilets and use "wet" diaper pails. They would have to haul a big bucket of nasty diapers steeping in gross water to their washing machine. My mom has memories of trying not to dump the water on the way, or gag in the process. Empty the water out....ugh. This is not what we do. If I had to do it this way I probably would not cloth diaper. EVER.
This is how I do it. Right, or wrong, it works for us. I am also going to be honest here. I am lazy. I don't want to have to do any more work than I have to so, this is the easiest process that I could come up with. (Note: This is for all-in-ones, not prefolds. Prefolds are this easy though.)
Step one: The baby.
Take diaper off of baby (with new diaper underneath).
Pull out absorbent insert and throw both into diaper laundry bag (a fabric bag made with PUL).(Update: Now that she eats "people food" we have to dump the contents in the toilet. Easy.)
Use spray bottle of water and Baby bits to get a wipe wet.
Wipe baby.
Throw wipe into diaper laundry bag.
Velro new diaper on baby.
Done.
Step two: The laundry.
Take diaper laundry bag to washing machine.
Open and dump diapers into washer, along with the bag itself. (I am not touching the diapers...YUCK!)
Rinse on cold with no detergent.
Wash on hot with a scoop of Allens detergent. Set machine to rinse in cold and extra rinse in cold.
Move to dryer.
Dry.
Step three: Folding.
Take diapers, inserts and bag out of the dryer.
Stick nose in diapers and inhale clean smell (optional).
Stuff inserts back in and "fold" (I recruit hubby here).
Done.
Repeat.
Easy.
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