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January 2017 Moms
LastMango
member
Ask a STM+ Week of 9/5
LastMango
member
Sorry this is late! Getting back in the bump grind after a long holiday weekend. What questions can the BTDT moms help with this week?
Re: Ask a STM+ Week of 9/5
I got a question! We are doing cloth diapers and so far we've bought 30 of the ones that have snaps and grows with your child from newborn through potty training. I'm trying to figure out how many would be a good amount. One friend keeps saying I'll be going through 20+ diapers a day while Baby is a newborn (that is so intimidating), which means we'll be washing every. single. day.
Guess my question is how many diapers did you go through the first few weeks/months and what would be a good amount so I can do laundry every other day (maybe even less! I hate laundry...)
Me: 33 DH: 38 Married: 1/10/15
1st Pregnancy EDD: 1/1/17 Born 1/10/17 Team Green turned Blue!
2nd Pregnancy EDD: 11/6/18 Born 11/09/18 Baby Boy!
3rd Pregnancy EDD: 12/?/21
Children are like casseroles; it takes a lot to mess them up.
Team Blue ~ Jan. 20
DS born 9/4/12
MMC July 2015
MMC January 2016
Follow up cloth question: so we have to wash each diaper at least 5 times before they can be used - prefolds need to be dried each time, and all-in-ones/pockets don't need to be. Can I wash/dry my cloth wipes with my prefolds?
I know a ton of people who use disposables right away and then switch over to cloth. They say the fit is better with disposables when they are teeny tiny as well.
Another tip on the bedding (more so when they are sleeping in the crib or pack n play on a regular basis). Double up. Waterproof pad, sheet then another pad and another sheet. Changing bedding middle of the night if there is a big spit up, leak or blow out is really obnoxious. This way you can just pull off the top two layers and you're done until morning!
In regards to the crib sheets we did double up like PP said for middle of the night bedding changes. Mattress Pad-sheet-matteess pad- sheet. This way if you need to change bedding, you peel the top 2 layers and have a clean bed ready to go without all the hassle in the middle of the night .
BFP#5 5/22/17 EDD:1/27/17 It's a GIRL!!!!
Married: 8/11/2007
DD: Born 2/3/17
BFP#2: 5/3, EDD 1/10/19
I found covers to be easiest for us, because you could reuse the cover as long as it wasn't poopy or dirty, and just change the insert for a few diapers changes at least. We also have some pocket diapers, my husband thought those were easier to use when we were out of the house.
If the diaper was bought new by me, I would only wash it once before using. If I buy it used I would probably wash it a couple of times. I've always thrown everything in the dryer together, and never had an issue with the diapers.
We we are using disposables until baby fits the OS diapers since we already have them from DS I didn't want to invest in a newborn stash.
Jan17 Sept Sig: Pumpkin Spice gone too far
Team Blue ~ Jan. 20
DS born 9/4/12
MMC July 2015
MMC January 2016
(Not my kid, just a google image search)
i didnt start cloth until my son was about 9 months old because I couldn't afford the upfront cost in the beginning. We have 31 AppleCheeks diapers with bamboo prefolds that we use during the day and 6 SBish fitted diapers and 3 blueberry OS shells that we use for nighttime (i used to use wool soakers but the upkeep was too much for my lazy self); the day diapers weren't absorbent enough for nighttime.
When your baby is older, diaper changes are not as frequent, we go through 5 diapers during the day typically. An additional cost I didn't foresee is as your baby grows, you'll need to buy more absorbency if they are heavy wetters during the day. I have to use 2 prefolds in every day diaper now, boosters weren't enough. We use diaper inserts for poop catchers and not a diaper sprayer and it works great for us.
(Only my AppleCheeks are pictured here)
i love the amount we have. 30 diapers allows me to keep a handful in the diaper bag and have enough on hand so that I never run out for 4 days (we don't wait to wash all at the same time). Sometimes I don't get around to prepping diapers right away so it's nice to have some leeway in the laundry cycle.
i miss my cloth. I haven't been able to cloth since I became pregnant because the cloth diaper pail smell is too much for me to handle right now. It's not a poop smell, but a strong pee smell. We've found an open pail is the least stinky, if you try to put a lid on it or zip it up, the smell brews and gets really freaking strong, like singe your nose hairs strong. We use open wet bags (just basically a huge sack) in an open laundry basket that we store in the bathroom. You'll want that bathroom fan for smell reasons and it makes it convenient for poop flushing and hand washing after anyway.
do you plan to use cloth wipes as well?
OMG @wholesome, you rock! you've given more information in one post than what I've been able to find through weeks of googling. It gets so overwhelming. What are cloth wipes? I haven't really thought much about wipes. I got some diapers second hand and they came with inserts and the lady gave us great advice on washing them and what creams worked best but nothing about wipes.
We love the concept of cloth diapers, but are open to having the disposable as well for size reasons and traveling (I can't imagine going on a plane ride with cloth diapers and we are seriously considering visiting my family in Sept next year in England).
Me: 33 DH: 38 Married: 1/10/15
1st Pregnancy EDD: 1/1/17 Born 1/10/17 Team Green turned Blue!
2nd Pregnancy EDD: 11/6/18 Born 11/09/18 Baby Boy!
3rd Pregnancy EDD: 12/?/21
Children are like casseroles; it takes a lot to mess them up.
some people use them dry, some people use them with water. You can buy wipes solution to spray on your baby's butt or do what I do, make a solution and pour it over the wipes in the container. When they are pop-folded in a Huggies disposable wipes container (we've tried a Pampers container and it didn't work well at all) you can essentially use them as conveniently as disposable wipes. Here's a video of someone pop-folding wipes:
I also have have a tiny wet bag for the diaper bag to hold ready to use wipes, in addition to the diaper bag zip wet bags to toss dirty diapers on the go (I have 5 of these).
I also have only 2 large wet bags for the diaper pail (only has elastic around the top to keep it around the rim), one to use and one to have ready when the other is in the wash. You just dump the dirty diapers in the machine and push the bag in with it, turning it inside out while shoving - no need to touch the diapers.
I have Thirsties wipes but am wanting to upgrade to something with more natural fibers. I'm hoping to learn how to sew and make a bunch instead of paying the price for pre-made ones. The reason I want natural fibers, like cotton, hemp or bamboo, is because they tend to not smell as much as synthetic fibers. Many call it "microfiber stink" - the microfiber absorbent diapers are fantastic but can get a chemically stink and need to be "stripped" more frequently than diapers made of mostly natural fibers (AppleCheeks have synthetic liner to keep the wetness from sitting on the baby's skin but it is not absorbent so it doesn't hold the stink). My Thirsties wipes get this stinky smell but my diapers don't.
for the amount of wipes to buy, I like to budget 2 wipes per diaper. I pop-fold 12 wipes per container so have multiple containers. Sometimes you'll use one, sometimes seems like 20 so it kind of evens out. I know I use a lot less cloth wipes than I do disposable wipes, easily at least twice as much because they seem so flimsy to me, especially after using big two-ply cloth wipes.
we always had a few disposables on hand because well, life. Sometimes we didn't get to the laundry in time and we ran out. Even though diaper rashes were very rare, sometimes my son would get a food diaper rash that wasn't going away quickly enough for us with the cloth safe butt paste (like my son gets what I call "banana butt" when he eats too many bananas) - so we used the good cloth-killer paste and put him in disposables until it was gone.
it takes a lot of commitment to cloth while on vacation. We did it when we went to Florida this January/February but only because we were gone for over a month and rented a house so had our own washer/dryer and didn't have to play guests to hosts. I think we might just do disposables next time because taking the time to do diaper laundry took beach/pool/fun time away.
when visiting my family, my dad actually didn't want me to cloth and volunteered to buy us disposables while there - people seem to think we throw chunks of poop in their washer, haha. I hated it because it seemed like we always had so many leaks and my son thought they were uncomfortable and tried taking them off whenever he could. we had our first "that's not chocolate" picture opportunity after my son took off a dirty diaper and got interested in its contents.
also, I can't speak from experience but it seems like many think babies who use cloth tend to potty train sooner because they can feel the wetness more. My son was indoor naked trained for a couple weeks at 2 (?) but decided he didn't want to do it anymore so went back to diapers (I didn't want to push it). So, that may not be a given for every family.
while I giving out tips, we found tide original detergent to be the most effective for us and it is cloth safe, no need to splurge on the "made for cloth" stuff. Also, if your dryer runs super hot and your water is also super hot, you can kill your elastics. I had to have mine replaced because my water is scolding and my dryer is too. We now air dry our covers, which doesn take too long because there is no absorbency in them. We do a super duper power extra soiled "clean it good" kind of wash with built in soak time on WARM twice before drying. Works great.
okay, I feel like I'm rambling now.
Me: 33 DH: 38 Married: 1/10/15
1st Pregnancy EDD: 1/1/17 Born 1/10/17 Team Green turned Blue!
2nd Pregnancy EDD: 11/6/18 Born 11/09/18 Baby Boy!
3rd Pregnancy EDD: 12/?/21
Children are like casseroles; it takes a lot to mess them up.
I know now some people only use lavender essential oils too (keep the same total amount of drops though) and they say that works just fine for them. I like the Roman chamomile for extra soothing and the melaleuca for extra clean power. I've never had this concoction mold over in my wipes containers, I prep all my wipes at once. DoTERRA, my go to brand, had quality control issues with their Roman chamomile so got rid of their stock and haven't replenished t in forever, everything works just fine without it. I even checked Young Living and they had the same problem (makes me wonder if they get from the same source...)
ive tried to use the Castile soap that has essential oils in it and it was absolutely horrid smelling. I have basically a whole jug of lavender that I'll never use now.
Now i work full time in the schools (though I'm a speech therapist, not a teacher so schools aren't the only place I would work) and I DO get summers and holiday breaks off. But this is stressful and exhausting being pregnant and working full time. I am seriously worried about how to swing this with a newborn (and two other kids) energy-wise. anybody BTDT? Say something encouraging!
Im definitely not leaving the schools anytime soon because of our financial goals. And it works SO well to be in the same place as my girls.
Almost always mobile bumping--forgive my typos.
I have 2 large planet wise wet bags and a thin garbage can i use as a diaper pail behind my bathroom door. It id a vreat size. Ill have tk get a picture. When that is full or 2 or 3 days goes by (whatever comes first) that load goes in, I dump all the diapers and that bag in the wash, then I put the clean one in the pail, so I always have one clean, and one in the pail. I also carry all my clean diapers upstairs in the clean wet bag as a laundry bag lol. We have 2 wet bags for going out. I prefer the bumgenius ones because they are super thin and small, could hold a satchel of water, and they have a strap so you can strap and snap it to whatever. I would strap mine on the outside of my diaper bag when it got full while out so it didn't take up more room in my diaper bag.
I don't like to do cloth on vacation because I don't know the water content, if it's hard or soft, etc. And also we don't always travel where there is laundry, so we just use Huggies snugglers for a week, then go back to business as usual.
My wash routine is precast on warm with a small bit of tide powder, then regular hot wash with full scoop of tide, then after that whole wash and rinse cycle done like normal laundry would be, do an extra cold rinse to eliminate any residual soap. Soap left behind is the number one cause of diapers becoming stinker faster because that residue will hold into your diapers and then hold onto the yuck.
We use a cloth diaper sprayer, again bum genius brand, and I love it!! I couldn't live without it. My daughters poops are never very solid because she eats so much fruit (she's 2) so liners never worked for us. The pressure is also good to blast the poop off. I then just drag the can over, loft out the wet diaper and plop straight into my wet bag.
I echo @Wholesome about the not seeing costs for extra absorbency. I got all my diapers at my shower, so it wasn't a big expense for me, but if you go that route also register for hemp and bamboo doublers. Any brand will work but I like moraki. I can take pics of all of this after my daughter wakes up.
Lastly, so that over think cloth. The basics are I stuff some diapers, throw it in my kid with coconut oil and a wet wash cloth for wipes. Go spray off the poop or dump into wet bag. Done. Wash every 2 or 3 days. It isn't complicated, I promise! Don't overthink it! Use tide powder, don't use anything petroleum based, wash with that routine we all described, and you are golden.
Oh!! And if you're breastfeeding, you don't have to spray off the poop! It washes right out without spraying it off because it is thinner than formula fed poop! Save yourself a step if you can!
Me: 33 DH: 38 Married: 1/10/15
1st Pregnancy EDD: 1/1/17 Born 1/10/17 Team Green turned Blue!
2nd Pregnancy EDD: 11/6/18 Born 11/09/18 Baby Boy!
3rd Pregnancy EDD: 12/?/21
Children are like casseroles; it takes a lot to mess them up.
These are what MIL got for us:
ETA to add link for the ones I got from amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Fizz-13-Piece-Baby-Gift/dp/B017HKMNPU/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1473347170&sr=8-1&keywords=ocean+fizz+diaper
Me: 33 DH: 38 Married: 1/10/15
1st Pregnancy EDD: 1/1/17 Born 1/10/17 Team Green turned Blue!
2nd Pregnancy EDD: 11/6/18 Born 11/09/18 Baby Boy!
3rd Pregnancy EDD: 12/?/21
Children are like casseroles; it takes a lot to mess them up.
i know my wipes solution looks complicated but it's essentially just water with a little coconut oil and extremely mild soap - topped off with 8 drops of essential oil. It smells like heaven too.
looking into cloth can be really overwhelming, when I first started looking, I found these videos to be extremely helpful in helping me zero in on what would work for our family (it's a little dated but the basics haven't really changed):
luckily my girls are school age so they'll be gone during the day regardless. Other than getting out of the house in the morning (post maternity leave) I'm not *too* worried about the transition with the girls. But I am SO worried about being able to both do my job well and be a decent mom.
its started turning into....not panic attacks persay, but just feeling totally paralyzed when it's time to leave in the morning
Almost always mobile bumping--forgive my typos.