Archive for the ‘Cloth Diapering 101’ Category

The makeshift cloth diaper

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

For the first time since he was born 3.5 months ago, I ran out of clean diapers for my son.

Usually I have a pretty good system down and I know when it’s time to toss a load of diapers into the laundry and it only takes about a minute so really this should never happen. But a couple of days ago I miscalculated how many clean diapers I had remaining. I was tired and wanted to go to bed, and to wash and dry a load of diapers takes my machines almost 3.5 hrs so I definitely didn’t want to wait up. I don’t like getting up in the middle of the night to change the baby, so I needed something that would hopefully last through the night, withstand several feedings, and not end up with a wet bed in the morning since I have the baby in bed with me.

I don’t have any disposables in the house so that wasn’t an option. I thought about using  a towel…

Then I rummaged around the mess that makes up the lower shelves of the change table and this is what I came up with:

It worked! It was enough absorbency to make it through the night – no leaks :)

This made me think about the creative solutions I’ve heard from other moms who have used things such as towels or rags. And it got me wondering, have you ever been in a pinch and what did you use?

Click on the comments at the top of this post to add your thoughts!

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Cloth Diapering Overnight

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Do you want to cloth diaper full-time but are having trouble with a good night time cloth diaper solution? It IS possible, as many of our customers and myself included can assure you.

How to keep your baby leak-free overnight in cloth diapers is a very common issue that we come across a lot when talking with our customers. Some people resort to using disposables overnight because they can’t find the right cloth diaper solution. So I wanted to share with you some different tips that might work for you if you’re having this problem.

You might have to experiment with a few different things until you find what works best for you. How much your baby pees at night depends on many factors such as how big they are, how long they sleep, and whether you are feeding them during the night.

If you don’t want to change the baby’s diaper in the middle of the night, you shouldn’t have to! It’s nice to not turn the lights on and become fully awake. It’s lovely if you’re co-sleeping, you can roll over to nurse the baby and then go right back to sleep without ever having to get out of bed.

Keep in mind that the general rule for cloth diapers is that you need to change the baby about every 2 hours during the day. Once a diaper is fully saturated and can’t absorb any more, it will leak. Therefore a regular cloth diaper usually doesn’t have enough absorbency to last overnight. So you need to make the diaper more absorbent by adding extra material.

Here is a list of some different things to try:

  • Hemp Doublers: To add absorbency to a pocket diaper, use the regular insert plus add a hemp doubler. They are half the thickness of a microfibre insert but add lots of absorbency for overnight.

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  • Cotton Absorbent Inserts: Add an absorbent liner such as the Mother-ease Sandy’s liners. My favourite for overnight is the Mother-ease Stay Dry Insert because in addition to adding extra absorbency it will keep the baby feeling dry too. Or if you prefer, they also come in bamboo, organic cotton, and regular cotton. Just $2 for regular cotton or $3 for the other materials, this is a very economical option.

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  • Small Prefolds: I have found an excellent use for the “preemie” or newborn-sized prefolds that my son has outgrown. He is currently 13 lbs, so I use an infant-size prefold (meant for approx. 8-20 lbs) and then I add a preemie prefold (approx. 4-10 lbs). It doesn’t make it too bulky and we’ve never had a leak even though he’ll be in it for about 9 hours and I will breastfeed him 2-4 times during that time.

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  • Wool Soaker: Put a wool soaker over the diaper at bedtime. A wool soaker is a natural alternative to a plastic diaper cover, it is waterproof, and adds extra absorbency. Read more about how wool makes an ideal diaper cover at www.diaperpin.com

Start out with one of the above, and if your baby still leaks through, then just add more, or combine different items. For example, some parents will add a hemp doubler to a pocket diaper plus put a wool cover overtop. To keep things from getting too bulky, keep in mind that the hemp doublers are the trimmest of all the solutions that I mentioned above.

If you have come up with a leak-proof system that I haven’t mentioned, please share it with us by clicking on the comments link under the title and sharing your thoughts!

 

 

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Newborn Diaper Review: All-in-ones

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

Today I’m going to write about the newborn all-in-ones that I’ve been using on my baby Cole, which include:

  • bumGenius xs
  • Wizard Uno xs
  • Tini Fit

Cole is currently 3.5 weeks old and he’s about 10 lbs now. As I mentioned in the last post, he was 8 lb 2 oz at birth and dropped down to about 7 lb 12 oz and was back at his birth weight by about 7 days. I’m giving you these numbers so you have an idea how big he is to demonstrate the sizing of the diapers.

bumGenius xs

bumGenius all-in-one xs

I LOVE these diapers! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend having 30 of these in your stash and using these exclusively on a newborn if you can afford it. They are trim, very easy to put on, fit wonderfully, and they have a stay-dry fleece layer against baby’s skin.

These were the perfect fit for a newborn, and they are unbelievably cute. Out of these 3 diapers I’m writing about today, they fit the smallest. They did sit a little bit high on the tummy and caused some rubbing on the umbilical cord stump, but it didn’t seem to be an issue and I did have my baby wearing these diapers at 1 day old. Their size chart says they should fit 6-12 lbs. I think they would in fact fit as small as 6 lbs, however it would sit up higher on the tummy and cover the umbilical cord on a baby that small. Cole was 8 lb 2 oz at birth, dropped down to 7 lb 12 oz, and was up to 9 lb at 2 weeks old. Today he is 3 weeks old and just shy of 10 lbs, and he has almost outgrown them. I think I only have another week at the most before these diapers are too small. Read more about the bumGenius all-in-one here.

Wizard Uno xs

Wizard Uno xs

The sizing for this diaper says 7-12 lbs but it was too big for about the first week. It fits a bit larger than the bumGenius xs and came up too high onto the umbilical cord stump at first. This picture was taken when Cole was 5 days old, the first day that the diaper started to fit (he was back up to about 8 lbs). Because it is a bit larger, it still fits well now at 3 weeks old, and I will probably be able to get another couple of weeks out of it before he’s outgrown it. This diaper is just as absorbent as the others, but dries quicker! Excellent quality as usual from Mother-ease. Read more about the Wizard Uno here.

Tini Fit

Tini Fit

This diaper says it fits 5-12 lbs, but it is in fact the largest of all three diapers. I had to wait until Cole was over 8 lbs before it wasn’t too big for him. He wore it for the first time at 7 days old. Other than it fitting larger than it says, this is a great diaper too. It is SO soft! It is the bamboo (combined with microfibre) that makes it so fluffy. Beware though that it also may stain a bit. I have found with my diapers so far that the only ones that have showed any stains are the ones that contain bamboo (I am not rinsing any of my diapers, I’m throwing them with the poop straight into the diaper pail. Isn’t it amazing that none of my other diapers have any stains at all?! The wonders of breastfed poop :) ) The Tini Fit also comes with an extra insert to stuff into the pocket. I’ve used it at night so that I can breastfeed the baby throughout the night and not have to get up to change him as frequently. Read more about the Tini Fit here.

 

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How To Wash and Care for Your Cloth Diapers

Friday, January 28th, 2011

We just revamped our “diaper care” page along with adding some useful tips.

If you have any questions about how to wash your cloth diapers, this page should answer all of your questions so be sure to check it out!

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CD Tips – How To Choose?

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
The following is borrowed from our friends at FuzziBunz:
How to Choose Which Cloth Diaper to Use

Choosing a cloth diaper brand or type can be difficult. There are so many options of companies you can work with, but there are also so many types, one-size vs. perfect-size, Velcro vs. snaps. The options can be intimidating to a newbie cloth diaperer. Here are some tips to help guide you in your decision-making process:

• Try a Few Styles: See if a friend or a company would let you try a few brands before you commit to one or any.

•    Attend a Diaper Workshop: Many cloth diaper retailers hold workshops so you can learn the basics and get a feel for what different brands offer.

•    Research Online: Surf the internet to learn as much as possible (just take some of what you read with a grain of salt – Google is not the end all be all in cloth diapering!)

•    Ask Your Friends: Your friends who cloth diaper won’t be shy about sharing tips and tricks with you!

•    Trust Your Gut: Look for a diaper company that stands behind its products (solid warranty) and has been in business a long time (this way you know they’ll be there to honor your warranty). 

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How To Use The Easy Fit Diaper

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Check out this video on how to use the new Easy Fit diaper!

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Cloth Diapering Today

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Many people hear the words “cloth diapers” and they envision their mothers’ and grandmothers’ descriptions: folding a huge piece of fabric, fastening it with pins (don’t prick the baby!), covering the diaper with bulky rubber pants that crack and yellow with wear, and soaking the dirty diapers in huge pails of bleach-water (what a mess!). Well, erase all those images and thoughts from your mind, because modern cloth diapering has come a long way!

Today there are many wonderful cloth diapers on the market. They have been designed with modern, busy moms in mind, and make it easy for EVERYONE to use cloth diapers, (not just the hippies)!

We have come to a point as a society where we need to figure out ways to reduce our garbage and cut back on spending. It is estimated that a household that uses cloth diapers reduces their amount of garbage by 1 TONNE per baby, compared to a household that uses disposable diapers.

I like to compare diapers to dishes:

Disposable dishes are convenient for use at parties, but we don’t use them on a daily basis in our homes. Washing dishes takes a lot of time and energy, but we do it every day. The disposable dishes are the exception. Likewise, disposable diapers can also be the exception. They can be used occasionally for convenience, but they are a very wasteful product to use on a daily basis. And doing a couple extra loads of laundry per week isn’t a big deal!

Even if you don’t care about all the garbage that disposables produce, consider this: It is estimated that a family that uses cloth diapers saves about $2000 compared to a family that uses disposable diapers. Imagine what you could do with all that extra money!

Cloth diapering has made a huge comeback in recent years and the trend continues to rise. If you are unsure about cloth diapering, I encourage you to at least take a look at the products that are out there. Once you see how cute, colourful, and easy to use they are, you might feel less intimidated!

Let’s make cloth diapering become the norm again, not the exception!

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