Tutorial: Handwashing Cloth Diapers

This week I was faced with yet another washing machine situation. Not having a washer can really mess up a mama. Laundry piles up, every single piece of clothing gets used and dirtied, and I run out of cloth diapers real quick. My 'stash' has really grown since we first began using cloth diapers. I remember washing diapers every day to make it work. Now I only have to wash maybe about once a week.

Note: Washing diapers in detergents not recommended by some diaper manufatureres may void their warranties. Please read your care instructions before following this tutorial.

My Dilemma
This morning I only had 2 diapers left and a well rested baby getting up soon. Thankfully I had researched with Kim Rosas from DirtyDiaperLaundry.com for her Handwashing Flats Challenge. I watched several videos on youtube and got the technique down enough to attempt to make this tutorial today. This was very much spur of the moment.

Why I'm not a big fan of CD detergents? 
Don't get me wrong, soaps like Rockin' Green (reviewed here) and  Ruby Moon
(reviewed here) are great products
designed to eliminate confusion and
frustration.

First off I have to say our washer only has cold water and can not wash and rinse out all the residues from the diapers. This is a major reason I began the flats challenge since flats (receiving blankets)  are simply made and don't have all that ultra-sensitive-wash-with-care label instructions. Flats are more economical and can be washed in the soap of your choice.

It really boils down to
personal preference
and whether or not you have the right equipment to get the job done. Now knowing what I know I can't really testify to how well the specialty soaps worked with me not having hot water. I would like to try them again using the tub and plunger method.

I've been using FLATS ONLY
since May of 2011 and had given up using all inserts and thick diapers because I couldn't get them to smell fresh.
I couldn't use diapers I loved like my MotherEase and my Sprout Change by
The Willow Store. I am happy to try using them again. I'll have to see how this method affects rashes. I'm thinking it'll be fine.

Straight to the point instructions:

Soak, plunge, and Rinse in cold water with little or no oxyclean.

Then repeat in hot water with detergent and oxyclean.

Rinse with cold water and wring them out by hand.

Throw them in the dryer and you're done.

Save electricity and hang dry when you have time. Today I did not.

Cloth diapers were really intimidating to me at first.
I even made the mistake of pledging to never use disposables again, Silly mama. My advice for those just starting out is to do what you think you can and keep a pack of disposables to transition with. Also read up on rashes. You will need to strip diapers ever so often. I found a helpful tutorial by Kim on youtube showing How to prep and strip cloth diapers. I try to do this once a month to get all the extra oils and normal buildup. I never thought I'd handwash my diapers this way, never say never .)

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ThirstiesBaby.com *Review*

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Inever quite understood the importance of having a pail liner until we began to use cloth diapers back in May 2010. Lil Dreamy was just 18months old and went through 6 or more diapers a day. We didn't have a hamper, how big the pile of clothes got next to our front door is how I judged when it was time to do laundry. I know, I know, bad mommy. It was bad and The Hubs was the first to mention we needed a better solution.

The folks atsent me this...

It's a bag, what's so special about a bag?

Let me share with you a little about the laundering process in cloth diapering. After your child has gone number 1 or number 2,
(it doesn't matter which, they both stink the same)
you've got to put the diapers somewhere. You can either choose to use the wet pail system or the dry pail system.
I'll break it down even further.

Dry Pail System:

Diapers are placed in a bag, pail, or washer until ready for the wash. You could use plastic bags, or just an empty pail but you'd have to throw the bags away or wash the pail after every use. A nylon coated bag offers a few perks. Diapers slide out when ready to wash. It will not soak up any of the nasties from the diapers, and they are reusable/rewashable/water-resistant. Once washed I simply hung our bag near the washer and it was ready for the next load in no time. It is recommended to have 2 liners for easy rotation but we worked it with one and it worked out well.

Thirsties does not recommend the wet system as soaking diapers longer than 10 minutes can compromise the lamination of the covers and break down the fibers of the absorbent diapers.

Wet Pail System:
In a container, like a 5 gallon bucket, you'd place soiled diapers in to soak. Filling the bucket a quarter full of water and then add essential oils (lavender and tea tree oil are great  at cutting out odor but also are naturally antibacterial) or Bac-Out ( an enzyme stain remover) for the smell. Detergents are said to be very harsh on diapers and can cause premature wear and breakdown. However I've recently heard by one of my lovely readers that used Dreft for years and never had a problem. If you don't wash diapers every day this helps the diapers to obtain a second wash so to speak and you don't need a liner.

*ATTENTION*

It is always expressed and with great reason,

that if you are using the wet pail system in your home

that you have a container with a lid that seals.

Curious children can fall in head first and drown. 

Each systems has it's perks but both are stinky. We're dealing with Pee and Poo.

(my girls would so be giggling right now)

What I love about this company is they are 100% convinced reusable is the way to go, and I agree. Did you know...

Less than one half of 1% of people follow the fine print guidelines on their disposable diaper package: "IMPORTANT: Shake baby soil into toilet." Raw sewage that is tossed into our landfills contaminates our water supply and breeds viruses and bacteria that are then spread to humans by insects.

ThirstiesBaby.com

Hands down one of my favorite diaper covers is our thirsties cover in aqua. I love it! I received one from a friend who was very helpful financially in our initial jump to cloth. It was used and still kicking. PUL and plastics are not the only covers out there for cloth diaper but they are super helpful with containing messies and smells.


Interested in learning more about Thirsties or cloth diapering? Visit ThirstiesBaby.com to request a catalog.

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Keeping the Cloth & Ditching the Rash

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Cloth Diapers (CDs) for the rest of us. Disposables vs. Cloth Diapers, looking at what is best for everyone, the environment, the economy and oh so economical on your wallet. Cloth wins hands down. However the initial jump can be an extremely expensive one. The kind of jump that can make or break your bank. I was fortunate enough to have a great gal sale me some of her stash on the cheap but not everyone has that privilege. Since that time I've blogged here (in the beginning) and here (2 months in before the rash). Once lil turkey was born back in November my Moms, (my mom in law and aunt in law?) stocked us up pretty good with disposables. I had vowed I would not go back and was a bit saddened with the thought of failing CDs. I wasn't so sure at the time but I think the cause of lil dreamy's rash was soap build up on the diapers.

The first few months were great! I couldn't believe how easy diapering with cloth was. It most definitely was helping with our budget, eliminating the then $40 a month we allotted to spend on disposables. The hard part then became not knowing what to do with the rash issue, I really freaked at how severe it had gotten and so fast. There was serious wound on my baby's bottom and I had no clue how to remedy it.

My hubby and I are big supports of holistic medicines. They are the medicines that aid your body in to doing what it does best, healing itself. I don't believe in masking symptoms, but that's another story. So we tried things like lavender, coconut, and tea tree oils. We tried baking soda sprinkled in with baby powder. They helped but did not eradicate, so we used the butt pastes and creams and I was sure that stuff didn't help the diaper buildup either. This rash was serious and was not getting the time and air it needed to breathe and heal. I made CD detergents, I used several CD specific brands even and nothing seemed to work. With the suggestive but non forceful help of my Moms we went back to disposables.

Now here we are. I have 2 in diapers. I can still fit dreamy in size three and turkey is chunky so he fits them too. I've needed a bit of motivation getting back to CDs and the timing could not have been any better. I'm wondering about all the things I can do different this time. I got an email informing me of The Flats & Handwashing Challenge from DirtyDiaperLaundry.com. I was elated since rash problem seemed to manifest itself overnight with the AIO (all in one) type system.

Want to get in on this challenge? Stay tuned for more details. Not only will I change how I wash my Cloth Diapers, I will also try and use Target's flour sack towels, they run about $3.99 for a 4 pack. CDing moms are choosing these because they are absorbent cotton, have a trim fit, and are easy on the wallet. Using prefolds and flats are the best way to go for moms with little startup. You will need to use a cover as these are not waterproof. When we are at home we don't use a cover anyways. It helps me see stay on top of changing wetts and messies. Hubby bought the
"last box of diapers", he saw the savings cloth caused. Plus he's right!


Since we are on the last pack of diapers, by the end of this week I will be trying out more upcycled versions and hopping back on this wagon. After learning about what goes in the making of diapers and how they fill up our landfills I'm excited to go cloth once again.

UPDATE: Join here!

Helpful Resources:
The No Sew T-shirt Diaper
Tee Shirt Tie Diaper
Then to find some thrifted wool sweaters to make some upcycled wool diaper covers.
Also try Start Diapering at Home for Only $20 (no sewing required)

I will update later after I've tried boiling the diapers. Thinking a huge cause of the buildup was due lack of hot water in our wash room.

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JitterBum is Alive!

Ido not know how to sew...but I have a dream to make all my babies cloth diapers and possibly work from home selling them. So how do I begin? I did today and made a diaper upcycled out of an old t-shirt. My vision was for it to just be perfect but dreams aren't real are they? I think i did decent for my first ever diaper, first ever practical project.

1st diaper cover attempt

the diaper cover hat ;) such a great model

i snipped my finger

functionality is what counts

3ply rag as the insert for extra absorbency

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How we do cloth

I've been cding for almost 2 months. I shared that story here. Since then I've grown 14 prefolds larger and gained 2 more covers. My aunt made the one pictured below. My main concern starting out was just to start, so now I have the diapers and next to get are the cool accessories. I need a diaper sprayer, the lawn hose just isn't cutting it anymore. It works but having to go outside might be a hassle when winter comes around. Walmart bags are plentiful in our house but do very little for smell, a wetbag and or pail liner would be awesome especially once my stash grows.

Our system is working pretty well so far, I keep the diapers in a 3 drawer organizer and once they are washed and dried I try to stuff and fold right away. Lil dreamy has had zero rashes (even when I thought them to be inevitable). I cut up an old fleece blanket and keep a layer of that between him and his diaper. Not only is it super absorbent but it acts as a liner and can be thrown away if I ever need to. I'm not too big a fan of velcro since lil dreamy can pull it off so I use a pair of big boy underwear as his cover's cover. It a bit redundant but it works and I don't have to worry. One day soon I'll start my own WAHM diaper store for fam and friends.

Do you use cloth diapres, how do you do it?

Link up with some really neat ladies and share your story here.

~ Christy

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The Cloth

Dear mamas who want to know more about my cloth diaper journey -

I started using cloth diapers again with my 15-month old son. Before I started with my daughter when she was around 14-months so and that was not a pleasant experience. I used the flats, they look like a piece of cheese cloth almost. Not really but they were not absorbent at all. This time with my son we are doing pretty well. My son wears cloth 5 days out of the week and we use disposables on the weekends for outings. First off the biggest thing you'll notice is your trash. We're a big family and our trash can fill up quickly but taking out the smelly poopy and peepee diapers has helped tremendously. I would never have thunk it but peepee diapers can smell just as bad if not worse than poopoo ones.

So what am I working with, what's my stash?
I started out using 6 diapers a day.
2 aios for nap and bedtime
AIO all in one (the convinience like a disposable no folding just stuffing before hand)
4 prefolds with covers. (using 2 i wiped one to dry and used the other until the next diaper change)
My stash was pretty minimal so laundry is a must everyday, its not hard but when the weekend comes its nice to revert to the stash of disposables I had just bought before the cloth. I get tons of questions mainly about the poop. There really isn't a big difference.

How messy is the poo?
Its pretty much the same. There are some really great tools to help get the poo into the toilet. Imagine a kitchen sprayer hooked to your toilet and this helps spray poo right into the toilett. The diaper needs to go directly into a wet bag and can be there up to 3 days. Since I don't have either of these nifty gadgets I use our garden hose and spray diaper poo into the garden (free fertilizer) and I just put all wet diapers into a walmart bag to be washed later that evening.
I'm a mom meaning there is a lot of things I can handle that I never knew would be possible. My kids poo really is not a big deal, is def nothing new after 3 kids.

Why did I decide to choose the cloth?
There are several heartfelt videos out there that explain why cloth is better environmentally and financially and both these reasons played a role in my family's decision. Once I heard about all the chemicals that go into the diapers and that that will be in contact with my kids for the first 2-3 years of their life really jarred me. Now granted some things are a bit uncontrollable but I can control this. I'm even venturing out and will begin making diapers from home. I'll be saving money, making money, and cutting down my carbon foot print.

Resources:
Cloth diaper basics - CottonBabies
How many cloth diapers does my baby need?
Not gonna lie these can get expensive, Want to make your own?
I love finding things on About.com


This is my son in a homemade fitted diaper his great aunt made for him, this diaper birthed the JitterBum wahm diaper idea. With her help I'll be on my way ;)

What do you think about cloth? If you do what's in your stash?

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