We recently got back from a trip that took us far from home for over a week. We were staying in several different locations, none of them with terribly easy (or cheap!) laundry access and not a lot of extra time to spare. We went to Disney World, clear across the country, and then on the Disney Cruise, out at sea. We knew that our cloth diapers wouldn’t be a good solution for us on this trip. It was going to be stressful enough trying to manage two toddlers far from home without having to worry about misplacing a beloved fitted diaper or fighting stains.
We purchased a package of disposables that would fit both children and the day before the trip, I did one last load of diaper laundry and then put the kids in ’sposies (as they’re so affectionately referred to in the cloth diapering community). On the plane the next day (and oh boy, we were on the plane for a loooooong time!), I noticed a smell. I wondered if it was my older son, who these days has an odor all his own. I had recently changed my daughter and surely it couldn’t be her. Maybe it was just the smell of the plane.
The next day, amidst our fun in the Magic Kingdom, I noticed the smell again. I noticed it whenever I picked up my son or daughter from their strollers or when I held them in my lap. It was… the disposable diapers. They SMELLED.
Whenever so much as drop of urine would hit that diaper, the smell would start and it was awful. I don’t know what to compare it to, other than to say that it made me think of a gas station bathroom.
I’d always heard people in the cloth diapering community say that disposables stink and I always thought they were a little nuts. After all, I used disposables on my oldest and used them for two years on my middle child. I never noticed any smell! And if they smelled as bad as people said, I would have noticed that, surely?
Apparently not.
I’m not sure what causes the stink, but my best guess is there are chemicals in the absorption gel in the disposable diapers that react and cause an odor.
I got used to the smell, best as I could, over the next week. But I was so happy to get home and put one of my daughter’s fitted diapers on her again. And my son ran to the changing table and picked out a pocket diaper, insisting I put it on him. I think he missed his cloth too!
The disposables were great as far as convenience went. After all, that is why they were first made, right? So that people would have a simple option when out of the house or traveling. They served their purpose. But I have not been sad to shelve the diapers we had leftover and doubt we’ll touch them until we next go on a vacation like this. And if we don’t go on another vacation where we need to use disposables? We’ll donate them. They’re not that great for everyday use, believe you me.
Has anyone else besides me noticed the ’sposie stink while on vacation? Isn’t it just AWFUL?
I’ve been rather dissatisfied with my laundry detergent lately. I started out using Purex Free and Clear and that was fine, if unremarkable. I tried regular Tide for a while before I switched to the “Seven Signs” Tide (the one in the orange bottle). And that worked fine too. But lately I’ve grown frustrated with stains. I don’t have stink problems, I have STAIN problems. Something is going on with my little ones, Evie mostly, and she is a little poop MACHINE these days. It must be teething. She went from pooping every two days or so to going several times a day, sometimes as often as every couple of hours! Oh the stains!
I know that sunning works wonders but we lack a decent clothesline out in our backyard and with the way the winds pick up in the afternoon around here, diapers have a way of blowing halfway around my yard if I’m not careful. Sunning, for now, is a last resort. I’d love it if I could have a detergent that gets me halfway there and is great at removing stains.
There are things you can do before you even toss a dirty diaper in the pail to help combat stains. For one, using liners helps a LOT. I have a pile of strips of fleece I’ve cut that I lay on top of the fitted soakers. Most of the mess ends up on the fleece (where it easily washes off) and less on the diaper. Another step is to spray the diaper off in the toilet. I admit to being a little lazy about doing this. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. But spraying off the bulk of the “mess” does wonders. It saturates the diaper so that messes don’t dry onto the fabrics and it removes a good majority of the mess at the same time. Another thing you can do is spray the diaper with Bac-Out or another stain fighting yet diaper solution (a simple search on Diaper Swappers yields a bevy of personal recipes for such things!). This is one thing I would really like to try and will as soon as I have time to sit down and look at my options!
Still… I’ve heard wonderful things about homemade laundry detergents. Looking around on Hyena Cart, you can find dozens of shops that sell homemade detergents to solve all your laundry woes. And a lot of these detergents are not only safe for diapers, but recommended! I’ve put off trying some for a long time, thinking there’s no way they could work as well as my Tide.
I’ve received some samples of WAHM made detergents in several of my orders lately so this last week I tried a few. And.. I’m pretty impressed! Impressed enough that I looked into the different detergents to see if there was one that was recommended above others. I found a great one on Diaper Swappers that comes highly recommended. Her shop there is called “Earthy Products”. I put an order in last week for detergent, pail deodorizer (something we DESPERATELY need these days!) and a dryer sachet that will safely and pleasantly scent the diapers while in the dryer. I’ve heard great things about her products and I can’t wait to try them out! I will be sure to give a good run down here on my experience.
In the meantime, have any of you tried homemade laundry detergent? Either for cloth diapers or for regular laundry? What are your experiences? Share with the class!
When I first started using cloth diapers when my daughter was 8 weeks old, I thought I would have hard time sticking with it. I thought I might be tempted to wimp out from time to time and use disposables. After all, I had raised my oldest on nothing but disposable diapers and had been using disposables on my younger son for nearly two years. My habits were firmly set. And anyone who knows me, knows that I have a hard time breaking habits. Especially when breaking those habits might mean more work for me.
A common excuse I hear when talking to people about cloth diapers is “I don’t have time!” I say excuse, because it’s just that. And it also is mildly insulting because does this mean I do nothing but sit around and eat bon bons all day long? I have oodles of time so that must be why I use cloth diapers. Whatever. I would ask then how it is that I know so many women who work full time and yet also cloth diaper their children. Are they not busy? The only conclusion to be drawn is that: cloth diapers don’t take a lot of time. They don’t! They don’t even add a lot of chaos to the routine. It’s hard to swallow because it goes against everything we’ve pretty much been raised to believe about cloth diapering. In all honesty (and I do consider myself to be something of an expert on the issue since I have spent a good deal of time using both disposables AND cloth), cloth diapering does not add time or frustration to diapering. Not. At. All. Diaper changes don’t have to take any longer unless you want them to. Diaper laundry is as simple as dumping a load in the machine and turning it on. That takes, what, two minutes? Some people don’t even fold diapers as they come out of the wash. They’ll simply put the laundry basket full of clean diapers near their changing station and grab from there. Me, I’m a little disturbed and I actually don’t mind folding diapers and getting them ready to stack neatly on the changing table. It’s therapeutic and something I do while watching television. Gee, much like how people fold regular laundry while watching TV.
Another excuse is from women who work and send their children to day care. I can understand the hesitation here. But MANY day cares DO allow cloth diapers these days! A general rule of thumb with day care centers is you bring your own wetbag and the diapers needed. Generally, the bigger centers dont’ care to fiddle with fitteds or prefolds and wool, so this is where you use pockets and all in ones. The day care provider tosses the soiled diaper, yes poop and all, in the wet bag. You deal with it when you get home. And it’s not all that bad. If the diaper has been rolled up, it can be easy to dump solids in the wet bag or spray them off without getting too messy in the meantime. Some day care centers do not allow cloth for “health reasons”, this is true. So it pays to do a little research. I know a gal who provides day care out of her home, and she cloth diapers her own children. Not only that, but she cloth diapers her day care children as well! Regardless if the parents use cloth or not! She has extra diapers in her stash to account for numbers and from her account, doesn’t bother in the least. And think of how many less diapers going into the landfills that is! This woman deserves a medal.
It’s always easy to find excuses not to cloth diaper. But at the end of the day, it comes down to motivation. If you want to, you make it work. If you don’t, then you don’t. Simple enough. That said, I do respect people’s choices and decisions for their families. And at the same time, hope the same courtesy to be extended towards me. If I don’t assume you’re an earth-hating person, then don’t assume that my diapers are “gross”, okay? Deal!
In lieu of having something else to talk about (I’m still kicking around my nighttime diaper post… it’s coming!), I wanted to do a Dave Letterman-style top ten list of why I love cloth diapering. Surely, I have more than ten reasons, but these are a few notable notions.
10. It’s good for the environment. Naysayers will try to bring up the whole electricity/gas/water thing when it comes to washing the diapers. But when you take into account the resources, gas, chemicals etc that go into make disposables, just to have the end result end up in a landfill for 500 years? NO CONTEST. Not even a WASH. Cloth diapers FTW! (that’s “for the win” to the rest of y’all)
9. It saves money. Sorta. If you really want to and need to save money? You can do it EASY with cloth diapers. Now, the avenue I’ve chosen with the fancy fitteds is probably not as cost efficient as I could be. And if this were my first child instead of my last, I’m sure the savings would add up quick. Still, I imagine I’ll come out ahead in the end after I’ve sold the diapers post-potty-training.
8. They’re darned cute. It’s a lot of fun to get into different fabric prints and styles and such.
7. They’re a gateway to other handmade goodies. I wouldn’t have been exposed to the wonders of shippers (shoes and slippers in one, yo!), swing dresses, Kahootz and other wonderful items were it not for cloth diapering.
6. WOOL! Cloth diapering opened my eyes to wool pants and from there to knitting myself. I love to knit! I knit ALL the time! I never would have even thought of it if it weren’t for the diapers. And that’s the truth.
5. They’re leak proof! If you use them right and know what styles work best with your kid, then it’s possible to NEVER experience a leak with cloth diapers. I can’t remember the last time we had any sort of leak. Try THAT with disposables!
4. The kids love them! As mine are both getting older, they enjoy picking out their own diapers and even have favorites! It becomes a fashion accessory, if you will. A precursor to special underwear too!
3. They make changing time FUN. Yes, you heard me. Changing diapers is rarely fun, I know. And the really messy ones are never a blast and a half. But cute cloth diapers do make diaper changes a lot more interesting. I’ve actually come to enjoy diaper changing. It provides a great bonding moment for me and the kids.
2. I hear tell that cloth diapering eases the transition through potty training. I’m too skeered to try this myself, but I’m counting on it to be true!
and last but not least….
1. It has introduced me to a wonderful community of women who love to talk about cloth diapers, wool, crafts and LIFE. I love finding a new group of people to share my life with and I need the interaction too!
So if you cloth diaper, what are your favorite parts? Do share!
While my daughter wears primarily fitted diapers, my son lives in pocket diapers. It has just worked out that way for us. And when I recently had an opportunity to try some new pocket diapers out on my kids and review them? Well I jumped at the chance! I love to try new diapers and quite frankly, my son could use a new diaper or two in his well-worn stash.
You can check out the entirety of my review over on my review blog, but the long and short of it is: these are great diapers. If you’re looking for a new diaper to try out and like to support a WAHM, check out Happy Baby. She does quality work!
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Soon, I’m going to be talking about nighttime diaper solutions. Do you have any questions about cloth diapering overnight that you’d like to ask? If so, just leave a comment below and I’ll try my best to answer it (or get it answered by someone else) in the post. Also, if you have any tips to share, leave those in the comments as well! I’d love to have a few to use in the post, to help share the information!
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Also, if you like to write or blog and have experience with cloth diapering, let me know! I’m always looking for other mamas to join the site here and post their experiences with cloth diapering. Just leave a comment or drop me a line or whatever else works for you. Thanks for reading!
