Some Diapering Solutions

For those of you searching for some cloth diaper help, I wanted to post some things that are working very well for us and seem to be cost saving. (1) has to do with wipes (2) wipes solutions and (3) washing instruction help (4) a diaper bin solution

CLOTH WIPES:
I wanted to switch but since I'm in my last year of diapering babies, didn't want to keep spending too much money. You can sew some cheaply, if that is your thing. But, for me, what worked GREAT is Gerber Baby Wash Cloths. You can get a 6 pack at Walmart for just about $3. I bought 4 packs for a total of 24 wipes. When you are wiping the baby, you just throw these in with the diaper and wash them with the diapers. Once clean, just fold them in 1/2 and store in an old disposable wipes container.

WIPE SOLUTION:
Oh! I fretted over this one. I wanted to purchase a solution. It's so easy. You mix a bit with water and you're set to go. BUT, again, I was getting all antsy about the amount of money being spent. So I searched for a homemade solution and there are many out there to choose from. Here is what I settled on this time and it's working out wonderfully:
2 1/2 cups of filtered water
1/2 cup Witch Hazel
1 TBSP of Olive Oil
3 to 5 drops of Tea Tree Oil
3 to 4 drops of Lavender
Stir together and microwave for 30 seconds if you want. The oil does not mix, but you can get it into small beads in less than 1 minute of stirring.
Immediately pour over the wipes in the wipe box and squeeze it through all the wipes. The entire process took less than 5 minutes.

WASHING INSTRUCTIONS:
I use this on Hemp diapers, Thirsties AIO, Primm's AIO and prefolds.
Again, I wanted an inexpensive, non-mail ordered, effective detergent. I settled on and very much like Arm & Hammer Essientials FREE. It works and I am happy with it! It's about $8 for an 80oz bottle. I have washed daily for 6 weeks and it's still half full.

*Turn soiled diapers upside down over the toilet and flush the loose particals.
*Keep a large baking soda by the diaper bin and sprinkle a little baking soda in the soiled dipes.

Express/Short Wash (rinses the dirties off)
-Largest Load Water Setting
-Cold Water Only
-Fill detergent lid to the #3
-Sprinkle about 1/4 to 1/2 cup baking soda in with the detergent

Gentlest Cycle Wash with a 2nd rinse
-Largest Load Water Setting
-Water Temp on my washer is Hot/Cold
-No detergent or baking soda, just the water
(This will wash them in Hot and rinse them in cold. If you do not have the option like this, then simply wash on HOT or WARM. Then do another very short cycle or a rinse cycle on cold.) You can put a squirt of Lime Juice in this cycle if you think you need it but a month later, I still don't.

I like to dry mine in the dryer most times. But I also love the bleaching effect of the sun. So if there is any stains at all, no matter how small, I leave them out in the sun all day. And from time to time I put them all out in the sun. I want them to stay as clean, fresh and new as possible. Then I soften them up with a short dryer cycle.

DIAPER BIN
Another big thanks to Courtney for telling me about this cost saving solution.
*I bought a $5 (blue) LAUNDRY BAG at Walmart (in the ironing board aisle.)(I wash the laundry bag right side out, in the wash with the dipes.)
*I also bought (in the trash can aisle) a white $8 trash bin, that has a lid with handles that fold over on both sides to tightly close the lid. I put the bag in the bin so the stinkies of the diaper do not filtrate into the plastic of the bin. I don't pull the draw string. I just fold the laundry bag over and close the bin up.
*And, finally, in the air freshner isle, I bought a stick-on round disk from Arm & Hammer that is supposed to be used in the fridge but I placed it in my diaper bin.
*In addition, I have always had a wall hanging Lysol air freshner in the laundry room, so I push the spray button whenever I open the lid to the pail, just to get an odor out of the air. I don't know if this is necessary but I don't have any odor in the laundry room.

Again, I hope this helps someone with FRUGAL DIAPERING. :-)

Be Blessed.

Diaper Days Update

It's been over a month since we switched to cloth diapers. The switch was slow because I didn't want to order a bunch at once and not like them. But now I have all the diapers we need for 2 babies, to last for 2 days. I must say, cloth diapering is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy!!!! There is not much to it at all and I don't know why I didn't switch a long time ago.

We are officially 100% on cloth diapers but the night time diapering was tough. The first several weeks both babies leaked at night and it seemed to be getting worse, not better. So for a few weeks we used disposables at night. And, my friend Kimberly, had told me once to use 2 disposable diapers at night on heavy wetters. So Aaron was doubled up and that worked great. No leaks. So if you are suffering from night time leaks, this method works very well.

A great big THANK YOU to my friend Courtney!!! She blessed us hugely with some diapers she was not using. She gave us a bag full of prefolds and I had not ever tried them before. They are GREAT! Lily is mostly wearing those full time now. But, they are our Nighttime Solution!!! Woo Hoo!!!! If you have a heavy night wetter, here is what's working. I take a Thirsies brand AIO dipe, lay a prefold down on it and Wa-La! Niether of my babies has leaked through. THANK YOU COURTNEY!!!



As far as my favorite AOI dipe , it is the Primm N Proper Baby dipe, from Meaghan. She is a WAHM in Spokane and she does great quality work. I was able to get Thirsties on sale twice and so I have a nice stock of them and suppliment with those when all the Primm's are used up. To me they both work equally well but the Primm's are better made, have better velcro and are much trimmer than the other dipes we have. So they get a 5 star and Thirsties gets a 4 star simply because they are not as trim and the velcro is not as strong.

I hope this helps somebody out there trying to decide which cloth diapers to buy and if you can do it or not.
If you need to contact me with questions, you can leave a comment by clicking on the subject line of each post and the comment section will be at the bottom of that page.

Lily Models

Here is Lily in her new Thirsties Cloth Diapers. We think these are really cute and so is the model.

More Cloth Diaper Shopping

Okay, I figured out how to purchase the dipes from Primmnproperbaby.com. Thanks to the owner and to Courtney. Email the owner, Meghan, for help on sizing. Then what Courtney ordered was the '2 mil PUL outer', with microfeece outer, $1 extra for Hemp soaker, touch tape closures and any leg gathering. I ordered yellow and green. Here is a picture she has on the site of these cute dipes.

Going What? Yes, Cloth! I think!

Before the babies came home, I had considered and researched a bit about cloth diapers. We have a fantastic lady at our Church that uses them and she shared TONS of information with me. Thank you Kelli! I was excited and ready to go and then, the inevitable happened, I chickened out. The research is really what overwhelmed me at a very emotional time in my life and I just could not think about it. I couldn't think about the products, the stuff I needed, what do you do with the DO? (the pooh?!), what about MORE laundry? All those things consumed me and I ran to Walmart and bought my standard LUVS.

And, then I thought it's too late. I have used LUVS for so long now that the initial investment for cloth will be too much. But I was still interested. The more I read, the more convicted I became and it had nothing to do with cost. It has everything, for me, to do with 2 things (1) I hold the LUVS in my hand and they are scratchy and harsh. This may be sharing too much for some, but I think would I really want to wear a maxi pad all day, every day? NO! And then (2) was the bigger factor, honestly, the mounds of diapers I dispose of every week. 2 LARGE STUFFED 13 gallon trash bags full!!!! Every Tuesday night and every Friday night. Multiply that times 52. Every year I am putting 104 stuffed full 13 gallon trash bags into the local city dump.

So, for the earth and for my babies, NOT FOR ME, I am going to try it. My DH is oh so hesitant but on board if I think it's important.

I spent some time researching and I will most more as I go on this trial journey. But so far, here is what I am trying for step 1.

I bought 2 of these lovely little dipes. They are so very cute and they are called All In Ones (AIO). I bought this exact color, Celery, because it's unisex. You treat it as a normal disposable diaper, nothing special except washing it.



For night time, I bought these to go with it, called "doublers", meaning they double the absorbency.


These THIRSTIES brands are all over the Internet. I found the best sale yesterday at Mom and Baby Naturally.

And, then while researching I was also convicted that I wanted to buy the best material possible, at the most affordable rate. From everything I read, HEMP, seems to be the best material for Cloth Diapers. So, after researching the brands, I decided on what's called a Fitted Diaper from Cricketts. They are made of a Hemp blend, have the best reviews of any CD I read about so far and I have high hopes for them. The reason they are called a Fitted instead of an AIO is because fitted requires that you put on a diaper cover over them. A diaper cover is waterproof and there are tons to choose from. I bought both from Crickett.
Here is the Hemp fitted diaper. Looks comfy. She sells each of them with a snap in insert for extra absorbency. (I bought 4 of these.)

This is the diaper cover she recommends and sells on her site. It's the Bummis Snap. I bought 2 of these, 1 for each baby. As, you do not need 1 cover per dipe. I read you can sometimes use the same cover for up to 4 diapers.


For more on the other products you will need, check out Kelli's information. She has now posted it on her web. She really is the original person who inspired me and she has used them for 3 babies now. So she knows the routine well and is a trusted source. Plus, I have cared for her babies in the nursery at Church and am familiar with her products. But, she likes Fuzzi Bums and they were a bit out of my pocket book range. I would have bought them though had I started with child 1 or 2 instead of the last year with children 3 and 4.

You can also read up on my friend, Courtney's, blog. She is the one I read up on the Thirsties from. She also recommends another one from Primm N Proper, that I researched but was confused on how to order, so I might try to those when I can figure it out (they are made custom and I'm not familiar enough with all the terms to know what I would want in a custom diaper).

And, if you are considering cloth, remember the MOST important 2 things are (1) the quality and fit of the diaper you are buying and (2) the washing instructions. If you care for them wrong, they will not work. Things like perfumes in detergent and fabric softener will basically ruin them, making them non-absorbent.

So, wish me LUCK. I will update more when I get them in and actually try them.