Cloth diapering: Photos!

Thanks for all the comments and saying hi! Its nice to be in touch with old friends as well as make new ones!

 

Here are some cloth diaper updates.

She outgrew the smallest setting on her Fuzzi Bunz small sized pocket diaper pretty fast! I hope they last till she’s 8 kg as the diaper claims it will..

When she’s in her cloth diaper I need to make sure I’m using bigger, or at least longer rompers. How the pocket  cloth diaper works is that you can adjust the absorbency by stuffing the pocket in the diaper with “inserts”. You can adjust the absorbency of the diaper by putting multiple and different thickness inserts according to your needs. I find with the thinner inserts that the Fuzzi Bunz came in, I had to change her after I’m guessing 1 pee which means a change every 1-2 hours depending on how much she feeds in that time. I use the Bumwear thicker inserts and they seem to last longer perhaps 3-4 hours.

The China diaper! They seem ok.

They’re just waaay too big for her so I’ve gotten loads of leaks! I’ll have to wait for her to grow into it. This is NOT a one size diaper as it claims. My Bumwear one size diapers fit her as they have so many buttons and ways to adjust its size. My only issue with the BUmwear dipes are that they’re still not absorbent! When I called the store, they said use adult detergent without fabric softeners as the Pigeon baby laundry detergent is not suitable for cloth diapers.

I’m confused, aren’t babies supposed to use clothes/dipes washed with only baby detergent ??

Things I’ve learnt

-its much easier to cloth diaper a 1 month old than when she was younger. When she was younger she wet small amounts and often. Now that she’s bigger she wets a larger amount but not as often so her diaper is dry in between pees. This means less diaper changes

-I wrote off prefolds too early. I’m actually using mainly prefolds in the morning when I’m more energetic and up to diaper changes. I realize that prefolds are the key to early potty training. I’ve also deviced better ways to wear a prefold and it seems to work for me. I will post more about this with photos.

-I figured out my diaper laundering system. I use the wet pail method because Hana is still young and there is no drowning risk like that with crawling babies and toddlers. This is what I do and works for me. I bathe Hana in her tub in the morning and keep her bath water. I then use the bath water throughout the day to rinse out her wet diapers. I then put the rinsed out diaper in a pail which has water and detergent for a presoak. If the diaper has poo in it I use a diaper sprayer or bidet (the hose by the toilet bowl) to spray off her poo and then give the diaper a good rinse. I rub detergent on any stains if there are any remaining and put it in the wet pail. I then run the whole load in the machine with her clothes and swaddle blankets, towels, sheets etc. every other day. I’ve presoaked and prerinsed the dipes so I think its ok to run it with her other stuff (Some may not agree with me here). My machine has 3 rinse cycles so my dipes end up really clean. I hang them out on a rack in my balcony to dry. So far I’ve not had any stink or stain issues. With only 10 pocket diapers I’m forced to use my prefolds and practice elimination communication with Hana. So far I ration my pocket diapers to be used only towards the evening when I’m really tired. I’ve never actually run out of pocket diapers this way. The other thing is that they dry really really fast. So after just a couple of hours on the rack they are ready for use. The inserts take longer though, thats why its advised to buy 2-3 inserts for every 1 pocket diaper.

- I’m still using disposables when I go out and at night. When I go out I don’t want to be bothered with diaper changes, its already a lot trying to handle her with everything else going on. I use disposables at night because H does the diaper change and its too many buttons to button up if we use the pocket diapers. There is a long row of buttons from her feet up to her diapers of her sleep suit which H takes some time to unbutton and do up. If I were to cloth diaper at night I would buy velcro tabbed pocket diapers rather than snap closures.

-so far my disposable usage has remained at about 1 pack (about 50 dipes) lasting 18 days thats about 3 dipes per day.