Sunshine

My whole life I have loved drying my clothes on the clothesline.  I've always, with the exception of 2 years, lived in the country in a house with a nice long clothesline outside.  Nothing ever feels or smells better than getting into a bed made with line dried sheets- NOTHING.  In the spring and summer once it warms up, I still hang just about everything outside to dry, including and especially cloth diapers.  The sun and cloth diapers are a perfect pair, if you think about it.  The sun's rays not only dry them without the wear and tear and electricity of a dryer, but it also kills germs and removes stains.  Like I said, it's perfect for diapers.  In the spring and summer, my diapers are always fresh and stain free.

Since it's winter, I haven't been able to make it out to my clothesline at all.  Even if I could, it's just too cold.  There's no point in trying to dry anything outside in the winter, but even though it's cold, you can still use the sun to remove stains in the winter time.  It doesn't work as well as direct sunlight, but putting a damp diaper near a sunny window will give you a similar effect.  Adding lemon juice is supposed to help, but I've never tried that.  

It's almost 50 degrees outside today, so I figured that I would use the opportunity to put some prefolds and pocket inserts out on the line.  Everything was in various stages of dingy to stained from a winter of no sun and I was getting sick of looking at it, honestly.  I'm going to have to take it down before I go to work, but I'm hoping that a few hours in the sun will brighten everything up at least a little bit.  It'll be spring soon enough.  We've had a weird winter in Maine this year, and I'm ready for it to be over.

Favorite Things Friday: Prefolds (part 1)

This is something new that I'm going to try out.  Every Friday (ummm maybe every other Friday) I'm going to pick one (probably diaper related) product that I really really like and write about it.  I'm hoping that this will keep me focused and give me something to write about each week.

For my first post, I'm going to talk about prefolds.  Not Gerber prefolds, but nice, high quality cotton ones.  These are the backbone of my stash, and if I had to choose only one type of diaper to have, it would be prefolds.  I'm actually going to have to break this up over a few entries, because I have a lot to say.

The main benefits of prefolds are:
- Low cost.  They're the cheapest cloth diaper option, aside from flats.  They typically cost somewhere around $2/diaper, compared to all in one styles that can cost over $20 each.  That's why prefolds are the most commonly recommended diaper for the newborn stage.  Newborns go through a ton of diapers every day, so you really want to have as many on hand as possible (generally 36 diapers, if you are planning on washing every other day) and prefolds are a perfect, inexpensive way to do that.
- Versatility.  They can be used in diaper form in a variety of ways- folded and snappi-d/pinned/boingo-ed, trifolded in a cover, or used as a pocket insert instead of microfiber.
- Longevity.  Prefolds can be used and stored for decades and still work perfectly.  You don't have to worry about elastic or PUL degrading like with a fitted or pocket diaper, since they're just cotton.  When you're done using them as diapers, you can use them around the house for cleaning rags or crafts.  Buying prefolds will give you the most bang for your buck, especially compared to disposable diapers.

But, of course, there are a few downsides:
- Learning curve.  If you aren't trifolding and putting the diaper in a cover, then you will need to learn how to fold the prefold onto your baby and how to fasten it to keep it on.  I recommend practicing on a doll before your baby.  Youtube is full of how-to videos, so definitely look there for some guidance.  In the same vein, people who watch your baby might not want to "hassle" with prefolds.  This is easily remedied by having a small stash of pockets or all in one diapers for them to use.
-   Prepping.  Any diaper that is made with natural fibers (cotton, hemp, bamboo) needs to be prepped before you can use it.  That's because there are plant oils coating the fabric, and until you get all of those oils off, your diapers won't be absorbent.  To reach full absorbency, it usually takes 4 or 5 full wash/dry cycles, with hot water.  This is time consuming and uses a lot of resources.  You can also boil them in a big pot on the stove, but that is still time consuming but at least it saves you some hot water.  If you want to, you could just wash/dry them one time and then start using them.  The only thing is they won't be quite as absorbent right off the bat, but as long as you keep that in mind and change your baby more frequently they will get more absorbent with each use.  Honestly, the best way to get prefolds is to find them used and take advantage of someone else doing the work for you.

The next time that I talk about prefolds, I'll discuss different cover types and different ways to fold and fasten them.  Like I said, prefolds are very versatile and can be used a ton of different ways, so that gives me way too much content for a single post.

Naptime Adventures: The Anatomy of a Gerber Prefold

If you go into a Wal Mart, Target, or Babies R Us in search of cloth diapers, the only thing that you are going to find are Gerber prefolds.  Unfortunately, these don't make good diapers, not even in the slightest, and yet these are the diapers that are widely available for people to use.  It's no wonder people think that cloth diapering is ridiculous and doesn't work when these are the diapers that they have to work with!

The top picture is a Gerber prefold, the middle is a premium ("large") sized cotton prefold, and the bottom is a comparison shot of the two.  You can see that the Gerber diaper is flimsy and thin, compared to the thick "quilted" cotton one.  But the sizing is what these pictures are really about.  Gerber prefolds only come in one size, and that size is awkward.  It is way too big for a newborn- as you can see, the length is almost the same as the length of a large sized cotton prefold.  My son is 30 pounds and (I think) 32 inches long, just to give you an idea of what sized kid fits into a diaper of that length.  

These diapers are not absorbent.  By the time your baby is the right size to wear these, they will most likely be able to pee straight through in one pee.  This is not true with a cotton prefold.  The difference is that a cotton prefold will have anywhere from 4-8 layers of nice, absorbent cotton in the middle panel.  A Gerber one will have...

a nice wad of polyester batting sandwiched between two layers of very very thin cotton.  Obviously that isn't going to absorb any significant amount of urine from your baby.  Maybe that level of absorption would work for a newborn, but as I said- these are way too big for a newborn to wear.  Back in the old days, Gerbers were made with 100% cotton and worked a lot better than the ones that they make now.

If you have somehow acquired a stack of these, don't worry.  You can still use them.  In an absolute pinch you can use them as a diaper- just don't expect it to hold very much and plan on changing your baby every hour or so.  These make awesome burp cloths, spit up rags, changing pads, and eco friendly replacements for paper towels.

Frustrations For The Day

First of all, this is what my washer looks like, thanks to my detergent switch.

I usually use Gain, but the store closest to me doesn't carry Apple Mango Tango.  I've used original Tide in the past and it worked fine, so I picked up some of the "Free and Gentle". BIG MISTAKE.  You see, when you wash cloth diapers it's important for all of the detergent to get rinsed out, or it can irritate your baby's skin.  This usually involves doing at least one extra rinse, sometimes two.  Ideally, the water in your final rinse will look pretty close to this-

Nice and clear!  No bubbles!  Colors enhanced!  This stuff is getting demoted to clothes detergent, and I guess that I'm going to have to suck it up and choose a new Gain scent.  And spend the rest of my day resetting my washer to "rinse".  Fun fun.  Please, learn from my mistake and once you figure out what kind of detergent works for your diapers, DON'T CHANGE IT.  EVER.


Another thing that is going on and driving me nuts right now is chafing.  For the past few weeks, Arthur has been getting a little red and rough on his thighs.  As far as I can tell it wasn't bothering him, but I didn't like seeing it.  He would be fine when he woke up in the morning, but it would get progressively worse as the day went on.  I was starting to wonder if his legs were getting chafed from rubbing against the material that the diaper covers are made out of (PUL), so this morning I put him in a prefold and fleece pants to see if that would keep his legs clear.  After 2 changes, his legs were not chafed and he also didn't have any red marks that he usually gets from the elastic in the PUL covers.  This is honestly kind of a pain in the butt.  Fleece is not a waterproof material, but as long as the diaper underneath is not completely soaked then it won't leak.  The outside does get damp sometimes though, which is my issue with it.  Arthur is a moderate/heavy wetter, so unless I change him very often, the fleece usually gets damp.  I've been adding a bamboo insert inside of his prefolds today and they seem to be helping.  My husband will still use pockets on him while I'm at work, so he might still get some irritation on his skin, but it won't be as bad anymore.  Hopefully this is just a temporary thing due to try cold, dry air.  Plus, he is very active and gets around by scooting on his butt, so that has got to make the diaper rub his legs quite a bit throughout the day.  I guess sometimes it's a good thing that I have a bunch of different types of diapers to use, because you never know when you're going to have to switch it up a bit.

Stash pictures

I think that a good way to start out this blog is with some pictures.  When I was pregnant and learning about cloth diapers, it was all about the visuals.  Descriptions and lists are nice, but it's really important to actually *SEE* these kinds of things.

This is the top of my diaper organizer.  In the left corner, you will see cloth wipes.  Going clockwise, next are my Thirsties hemp prefolds, a stack of stay dry and bamboo inserts, Boingo diaper fasteners, a Thirsties fitted, and most of my PUL covers and fleece soakers.

That's a lot of jargon, and I apologize for that.  As time goes on, I'm going to go into a detailed description of everything and I will update this post and add links.

The top drawer contains all of our pocket diapers.

The second drawer has our cotton prefolds.  

We have a little bit of variety, and that works for us.  Some people like to have all of one type of diaper, but that would drive me a little bit crazy.  I'm definitely a "variety is the spice of life" type of person.  I've found that different diapers work in different situations- fitteds are a must for overnights, prefolds are super versatile and can be used many different ways, pockets are Daddy proof and are easy to have in the diaper bag.