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Cloth Diapering
ATLdesi
member
5 weeks in: reflections on CDing a NB
ATLdesi
member
Hi everyone!
I've so wanted to participate on this board more, ask questions, join in conversations, etc. but since giving birth to my DS 5 weeks ago, and being the primary care provider/EBF mom, I hardly have 5 minutes to myself most days with both hands free! Just wanted to offer some reflections on exclusively CDing my 5 week old son and things I wish I'd known and/or anticipated while still pregnant. Sorry this is long - but I was a huge planner while still pregnant and I imagine some others around here might benefit from these thoughts.
1) Obviously one of the most discussed aspects of CDing (and rightly so) is laundry. I did a LOT of research on this topic while pregnant, esp. because I live in an urban environment (small condo) and don't have a full-size laundry in my unit. I have a portable washer that connects to my kitchen sink (bought used on Craigslist, $75), and I ended up buying a portable dryer in the final weeks of my pregnancy in anticipation of diaper laundry (bought new on Amazon, about $300). I can already tell you that having both of these appliances (but especially the washer) is priceless to me. Apartment-dwellers, I'd strongly consider buying a portable washer if you're interested in CDing. Totally makes life easier than doing common laundry and/or laundromats.
My laundry routine, by the way: I pretreat all poop diapers with Bac-Out once I remove them from DS and before putting them in our pail liner. Then every morning, I do my laundry - a cold soak (10 mins) and rinse with a half-scoop of regular Tide, followed by a hot wash and hot rinse with another scoop of regular Tide. I do laundry every day, only b/c my portable machine is much smaller than a normal machine and I would rather not have a backlog of laundry. So far it's working fine for me and I don't mind doing it.
2) An aspect of CDing that I didn't anticipate is how frequently you end up changing your LO. Obviously, this is a good thing - the idea of my son sitting in a wet/dirty diaper for longer than necessary is just gross to me. That being said, I did use sposies while still in the hospital (only 48 hours) and while he wasn't yet nursing at full capacity and my milk also hadn't come in yet - I do remember that we changed him only maybe around 10 times a day or so - maybe even fewer than that in those early days. However, now that we're home, I'm EBFing successfully, and using cloth - the truth is, I end up having to change my DS somewhere in the ballpark of 18-22 times a day. This might be a stupid sounding thing to say, but when a (cotton) CD gets wet, it is VERY wet. This is different than sposies, which have all those gels and chemicals in them to "lock away" moisture - so sometimes a baby can pee more than once, but the moisture wicks down into the core of the diaper and gets "locked away," so maybe the baby doesn't feel it so profoundly and therefore doesn't need to be changed as often. I don't know if all babies are as sensitive to wet diapers as my son is - but my DS is VERY sensitive to being in a wet diaper (and we're using unbleached cotton prefolds and cotton fitteds, for the most part). Anyway, the instant my DS wets himself, he starts squirming and crying, so its pretty much a fact of life that I absolutely have to change him everytime he pees - and this translates into a LOOOOT of changes. I'm glad I was prepared with a ton of dipes - I had purchased 3 dozen newborn prefolds and 12 fitteds, plus I'm doing laundry everyday - so I have more than enough diapers. But still - its a damn lot of changing!!!
3) Along with that - because these diapers feel so wet on the skin, its SUPER important to use whatever diaper rash prevention you want, with EVERY change. I use coconut oil, and recently noticed his bum getting red because I stupidly had only been applying the oil after poopy diaper changes - - but now I do it with every change. And I have a Grovia stick for if/when he's looking red (not a problem of late - but its good to have for the diaper bag too as it's very portable)
4) I find CDing incredibly easy, and am loving it thus far. I won't lie, its extra work as compared to sposies I'm sure (although to be honest, we only used sposies those 48 hours in the hospital, so almost all I've ever known is CDing and therefore it's my "baseline" - I can't compare it to the "ease" of anything else!) - but I do find it pretty easy. I was concerned about how my DH would feel about all this while still pregnant - and to my delight, he's completely on board and going along with it without a single word. Granted, both of us have never really cared for a baby before, so this is his first go-round and therefore CDing is all he knows too! But still. He hasn't once suggested we switch to sposies - he's just going with the flow, and hasn't seemed to think twice about it.
5) My friends DEFINITELY think I'm crazy. I don't really talk about CDing with them that much (yet), but I can sense that they think I'm nuts and there's a chance they also think that all of this is really gross. I am sure the day is coming where I'll rally for the cause and start preaching the "good word" of CDing - - the reason I haven't thus far is just b/c of being only 5 weeks in, not socializing much yet, and also just not wanting to go blow my horn on this issue while we're still so new in the process and figuring things out. But just wanted to offer that social observation that it still isn't all that commonplace among my (very diverse) group of friends, even living in a very big, liberal city like Boston. Strange. That being said, I inspired jealousy the other day when I told my friends that in 5 weeks I've not had a single diaper blowout, even with the liquid BF poops - they were in disbelief and accused me jokingly of being a liar, ha! But it's true. Not a single blowout. I love doing newspaper fold on a prefold b/c it creates these awesome gussets that hold everything in - plus I sewed my own diaper covers, each with double elastic gussets, and they have been great to keep all matters contained!
6) I had no idea how quickly my DS would start to outgrow the NB prefolds! Kinda makes me nostalgic 
He's a little guy too, so it's really caught me off guard. My son was born at 6 lbs. 1 oz., and he's now in the ballpark of 7 lbs. 12 oz. I use the newspaper fold primarily and swear by it - and the NB prefolds are already getting a little too short in the rise, and there isn't much "wing" to wrap around in the waist area and Snappi. I'm very quickly having to scramble and find a stash of infant prefolds for him (I'm trying to buy used!)
7) I am VERY glad I bought so many used diapers to begin with - - they've honestly been great and I don't feel like I'm using "old" or "bad" goods with CD's. The unbleached prefolds I purchased from someone were in fabulous shape, and now 5 weeks in, if I were to turn around and sell these to someone else or keep them for a second child, they're STILL in great shape and look no different than the day I purchased them. Zero stains! Plus, it was AWESOME not having to prep all the darn cotton prefolds - loved just washing them a few times in really hot water, and having them ready to go. If by chance I have to buy new prefolds in the next size up, I'm going to be grumpy while prepping them
8) Something I wish I had bought prior to DS's arrival: some sort of container/warmer for cloth wipes. I made my own cloth wipes out of flannel, and had planned to use the spray bottle technique for wetting the wipes prior to use. But we live in a cold climate, and personally I just felt bad using a cold wipe on such a teeny newborn. My husband bought a Munchkin wipe warmer off of Amazon, and now I fold/pre-wet a day's worth of wipes each night, and put them in the warmer - it works out fabulously.
Anyway - sorry this was long again, but for now just wanted to jot these thoughts down in case any other OCD planning pregger gals out there might benefit!
DS born February 5, 2013
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Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!
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Re: 5 weeks in: reflections on CDing a NB
Nice to hear from you. I wanted to add that I agree with others that you may be using too much detergent. When I started CDing I was using 1/4 cup of detergent, I started getting some stink (ammonia smell) when baby peed on the cloth, I rea
Hi all - thanks for the comments! To the poster who asked about the tutorials I used to make my own diaper covers - I downloaded some patterns online and followed them (the Darling Diapers website has a free NB pattern which includes a snap-down
Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!
Great feedback - glad cloth is going so well for you!
Just a thought - you might want to try fleece liners to wick wetness away from LO's bum.
Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!