It's been a over a week since we brought home Baby Zane and I have had a few people ask me how our cloth diapering has been going. So, to answer a few questions, here is our cloth diapering experience so far.
We'll start at the beginning...right when Zane was born. Before I started pushing, Zac had gotten Zane's diaper (a Rumparooz Lil' Joey) ready along with a flushable liner and a small tub of Vaseline so that the nurses would have it when the time came. We informed the labor nurses that we had a cloth diaper ready and didn't want to Zane to be put into a disposable. The two nurses gave each other a look and then told us that they would let the nursery nurse take care of it once Zane was born.
After our little man arrived, the nursery nurse started to clean him up and Zac presented her with a Lil Joey diaper and the Vaseline. She admitted that she hadn't seen a diaper like that one and asked if Zac wouldn't mind putting it on Zane. Zac put the diaper on our little guy (minus the Vaseline as the nurse said that they didn't like to put anything on baby's bottom right away) and all of the nurses ooh'd and ahh'd over how cute he looked.
By the time we were taken to a recovery room it was after midnight. Having been up since 4:30 the previous morning and of course going through the process of delivering our baby boy, I was beyond exhausted. The recovery nurse who brought us to our room checked on Zane and saw that he needed a diaper change. Zac went to grab the diaper bag to pull out another diaper, but he had a hard time finding one. The lights in the room were dimmed, the bag was packed pretty full with items, and poor Zac was also pretty tired. By the time he was able to find one we realized that the nurse already had Zane diapered in a disposable and swaddled in a blanket. Though I wasn't happy about him being in a disposable, I was far too tired to put up a fight.
After this, Zane became a cloth diapered little boy. The only diapers that we've used are the Lil' Joey diapers by Rumparooz. The main reason for this is because this is the only newborn diaper we have that has a snap down for the umbilical stump. We didn't want anything rubbing up against him and causing bleeding. (A few of his onesies already had a little blood on them from rubbing up against him.)
Zac really likes the Lil' Joey diapers. Since they are all in one diapers that don't require any adding or removing of inserts, he can put them on Zane just like a disposable. The size range on these diapers is 4-12lbs so we were able to find a great fit for Zane and he should be able to fit in these diapers for a while. We have had no leaks or blowouts in these diapers which is probably due to the inner gusset.
The inner gusset is both one of my favorite things about this diaper and my only complaint. The gusset is raised slightly and leaves a red mark on Zane's bum. It doesn't seem to bother or hurt him and I'm sure that the marks are only there because his skin is still so sensitive. His clothes sometimes leave red marks on his skin as well so while this is my only complaint about the diapers, it is by no means a deal breaker. We'll still be using them exclusively until his umbilical stump falls off (and it did today).
The question that follows "How is cloth diapering going?" seems to be "How do you clean them?". The beginning process of washing cloth diapers and wipes involves some trial and error. At least that's what I got from all of the articles I've read and Youtube videos I've watched. It's quite true. Everyone has different washing machines and different types of water so finding a washing routine that works for your household can take some time.
Our cleaning process starts as soon as Zane has a clean diaper on. The pee diapers get thrown into the diaper pail right away but the poopie diapers take a trip the guest bathroom to be sprayed down. The BumGenius diaper sprayer that Zac installed is fantastic. The diapers are mostly clean by the time we're done spraying them and they then get thrown into the diaper pail with the other diapers and the wipes.
As far as a wash routine goes, I'm using the most simple method that I have found. Every 'how to' video suggests that the diapers go through a cold rinse, followed by a hot/cold wash, and finished up with another cold rinse. The pee diapers have come out of the wash looking brand new. Unfortunately, a few of the soiled diapers have had some lingering stains which have left me wondering what I'm doing wrong. (My guess is that I am not using enough detergent or perhaps the wrong detergent.) I have noticed that the diapers that have been soiled after breastfeeding come much cleaner than those that follow a formula feeding.
Sunning the diapers can naturally bleach out stains so Zac and I have hung them to dry on the line outside. For the most part it has helped to get rid of staining, however there is one stubborn diaper that has a little coloration left. I'll continue to do some research and try out different things to find the best wash routine.
After Zane got circumcised the doctor told us that we would need to make sure to coat the wound with Vaseline to help with healing. As far as we know, Vaseline is not cloth diaper safe. Though we could use the flushable diaper liners to keep the Vaseline from sticking to the diaper, we were afraid that the Vaseline would make the liner stick to Zane and cause irritation and pain. Rather than dealing with that mess, we decided to go ahead and use up the rest of the disposable diapers that the hospital gave us until we were done with the Vaseline.
Now having done both cloth and disposable diapering we are definitely glad that we made the decision to cloth diaper in the long run. While we haven't experienced any leaks or blowouts in the Lil' Joey diapers, we have had a few occasions where the disposables have leaked out on to Zane's clothes. With the amount of diapers that Zane goes through on a daily basis the garbage created from the disposable diapers is incredible. Also, we're going through the diapers pretty quickly and can see already that they would be on our shopping list quite frequently. It's clear that the cost of disposable diapers would surpass the cost of our cloth diapers pretty quickly.
We're looking forward to seeing our little guy heal pretty soon and getting his cute little tush back into cloth diapers. Since his umbilical stump fell off this afternoon, we'll be trying out the other options in our newborn stash as soon as we can. As he grows and we try out different diapers styles and brands, we're sure that our preferences will change so look for more cloth diaper posts in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment