Week 7: Cloth Diapers

We switched to cloth diapers on Sunday! I bought 24 chinese infant prefolds and 4 whisper white bummis wraps from the www.extraordinarybabyshoppe.com
They’ve got a lot of neat stuff there besides cloth diapers – like the hotslings which come in a variety of fashionable colours and designs. tube tops to keep your tummy warm while breastfeeding that you can wear under regular shirts and a selection of fancy European wooden toys.

I wonder how many times a day babies really poo and pee. I’m going to guess countless times because there is no way to count every squirt and every pee. However, they do recommend that an baby should have 6 heavy wet diapers and 3 good loads of poo. They recommend changing a diaper before every feed for sure, and definitely as logically necessary in between. They do cry because of discomfort so… be nice but bear in mind there is no logical way to change a diaper everytime there is a squirt and I doubt it is necessary. So basic stats - we used about a pack of 40 diapers every four to five days. That would be $13.97 for a pack of Pampers from Walmart. The cloth diapers cost $30 for a pack of 12. I bought 24 diapers, plus 4 bummis wraps for $11.99 each. Knowing how easy it is now, I would’ve switched sooner.

I think using cloth diapers is an environmental solution cuz there is less waste thrown into the trash, and also the materal is made of all natural fibres so there is less irritation. People even say that potty training is easier with cloth diapers. I can see why, because they do get soaked and wet a lot faster.

I am changing her diaper more frequently because of that. There could be three explanations 1) cloth diapers don’t have that kind of technology that absorbs high volumes of liquid into the specialized synthetic materials. I remember that a really wet Pampers or Huggies feels like a hard squishy jello because the liquid has filled all the spaces in the absorbent core. 2) maybe she just pees more and that’s why. 3) I’m not wrapping the cloth diaper in the most efficient manner. Regardless, washing is pretty easy. I decided to only do laundry on Tuesday, (Thursday), and Saturday and it’s been working out!

Here are some steps
1) Fill wash bucket with HOT water
2) Grab a soiled cloth diaper and scrub away poo with brush under running COLD water
3) Toss the scrubbed cloth diaper into the hot water and soak until washing machine is available (not too long though)
4) Place cloth diapers into the washing machine for a rinse and spin cycle on SMALL and COLD/ COLD.
5) After rinse/spin cycle finishes, add detergent and run a regular wash cycle on SMALL and HOT/ COLD.6) Dry them completely in the dryer, or at halftime, hang them outside in the sun.