Some of you may remember me mentioning that we tried cloth diapering again a couple of weeks ago since our stash of gift disposables from Justus' baby shower ran out around Christmas time. We had decided against cloth-diapering again because of the leaking boys (and I'll admit I just wanted to continue to have the convenience of disposables).
But then my hubby broke his wrist and our income became uncertain.
It's truly amazing to me how motivated we get when we have to be.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
I pulled out the cloth diaper bag again and decided that we WILL make it work. After all, I have successfully used them in the past, I have a whole stash of diapers I made (and some my friend Heather loaned me) and disposable diapers, even purchased on great sales with coupons, are expensive when you have two kids in them.
To fix the constant leaking problems I doubled up Justus' diapers (using one of Heather's lighter-weight cotton ones with one of my homemade all-in-ones with a waterproof shell). This works perfectly! Changing Jer's more often, using thicker pads in the pockets, and sometimes using plastic pants over the waterproof shell seems to be working great! And cloth diapers are great motivation for both mommy and child to learn to go potty sooner than if you have the convenience of disposables. We'll still use disposables at night and when traveling though!
I know that most of my friends are opposed to the ickyness that comes with cloth diapers. I myself was planning to take the easy route and not go back to it until the summer and only then for Justus. But then things changed and I realized that it is a way for us to truly stretch our dollars right now. It's especially easy to launder them now that we have facilities in our home and since water is free, we use homemade laundry detergent (very economical!), and I do lots of laundry anyway, it's no extra work. I throw the diapers in the washer and at the end of the day I run them through a rinse cycle, then when they are rinsed, I add other dirty kids clothes and run them all on a heavy cycle. The icky ones get rinsed right away in the bathroom and once rinsed well, are added to the wet ones in the washer. Simple! I bet our grandmas and those before them would have loved to have such easy cloth diapers to use! Since we haul all of our garbage it is also amazing to me how using cloth cuts down so much on how often I have to change the garbage in the bathroom and how many bags we have to haul to the dumpster.
Stay tuned for more post in the coming days on making do in times of temporary scarcity.
I love the convenience of cloth diapers when money is low. It's nice to have the option of doing either sposies or cloth. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI think your detergent may be part of your leaky problem..... I only used my homemade stuff one time on my dypes & when I did - we had leakers!
ReplyDeletethe reason for this is both Zote & Fels are made with animal fats (as are many other soaps...)and that can tend to leave an almost water resistant coating, so that the pee rolls out of the diaper before it soaks in.
I've got both girls in disposables at the moment - I didn't want anyone else having to mess with washing the cloth ~ but I miss the cloth!! Now that I am able to do more, I'm about ready to go back!!
I've had times where it seemed too much work to do cloth, and I went back to disposables. Yet it's amazing how easy it is to do something when you really WANT to do it! I'm glad you're getting use out of the diapers we loaned you!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that you wash dipes with other clothes. I've always been a bit nervous to do this, so I just soak them in vinegar water and wash every 2-4 days.
We also use disposables when we're in town or traveling.
Way to go, Lindsey!
the Momma,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip! I actually use Ivory soap, borax, and washing soda in my homemade detergent and the last batch I made didn't have any Ivory since I was out. I'm glad you're feeling better and I hope cloth works out for you!
Momma Bear,
I agree that it's nice to have the option to do either or both. Every cloth diaper you use does save money! It's nice to have that option in hard times.
Heather,
I have great success washing diapers with other things. Of course I wash all my dishtowels and kitchen linens separately from everything else and also the sawdust-covered work clothes from my husband in a separate load, but I figure diapers (that have been rinsed once on rinse cycle in the washer) and other kids clothes (sometimes covered in vomit, mud, snot, pee,food, etc.) are about the same thing.
Linds--
ReplyDeletegood point. :)