Can't believe I'm considering CD- kinda strange questions

[ElizabethB]

Here is my 'deal' - I don't do laundry my dh does, its just his chore. Anyway..when I had ds (he is now 9) I was so organized and did laundry once a day as you know with babies :)
I am due Oct 29th and because the pregnancy was a 'surprise' in that I had unexplained infertility for years, I finally had quit my job, bought a smaller house and went back to school and wham- pregnant. ( we are thrilled!!) but I need to save anywhere I can. So I will be attempting breastfeeding and now reading this board considering CD.
I want to do the laundry on the baby stuff so dh doesn't have to do that too but was wondering - do you just throw the 'stuff' in with the diaper? I have a whitest white cycle that is very very hot wash and was wondering if this is what I'd wash them on? Also is there a lot of smell involved? If grandma was to take baby what would she do with the dirty diapers? (I wouldn't want her to have to wash too). Do you occassionally use the disposables? I get the opinion to get used to BF'ing then goto cloth, am I right?
tia,
Liz

[Melaniee]

First of all congratulations! Second, breastfeeding is the best for your baby and it is wonderful that you are going to be this time around, but don't be surprised if it isn't so easy so you might want to line up a Lactation Consultant ahead of time, it is worth it in the end.

Now, on to what you really asked.

I wash diapers in their own load on hot with two cold rinse cycles. If there is poop, I remove as much into the toilet before hand. If there's quite a bit left I spray some Bac-Out on it, let it sit a while then do a cold pre-rinse. I started CDing after my son was partially on solids, I think I'd get one of those sprayer attachments for the toilet if I was CDing a newborn, though.

The only smell is when you go to put them in the wash. I can't explain it, perhaps because we wash more often than when we emptied a pail of dirty diapers, but the disposables smelled TERRIBLY.

I do not use disposables at all, but that is really because I do not like them, they caused health problems for my son, etc. etc.

If anyone else were to watch our son, I'd just have them put the dirty diaper in a dirty diaper bag and I'd wash it at home. I suppose if you leave your baby for long periods of time, you might need to have them learn to wash them.

[lizajane]

here is my 2 cents on how to use cloth diapers to save money-
start with disposables.
buy 8 prorap brand covers in size small, 9-14 lbs, later get 6 of the 13-25 lbs, and so on...
buy 3 dozen infant sized chinese prefolds (what you think of when you think of a cloth diaper-most economical and websites show you how to fold them)
use a diaper champ (not a diaper genie!) to hold the wet diapers so that you can't smell them.
wash every three days. yes, use the super duper hot wash. use a "free" detergent and baking soda. (i use fabricare because it has baking soda in it, but i have read that some babies are super sensitive to it. mine isn't, so it works great for us.
i wash clothes, etc. separate from diapers. but i wash diaper covers with clothes after rinsing poop off them. i air dry covers.
when i am out with schuyler, i use ziploc bags to bring diapers home.
when i travel with him, i use a bummies brand bag that is waterproof and made to hold cloth diapers so that i can bring them home to wash if i can't wash them on the trip.
when you breastfeed and use cloth, you get lots of poop on the covers (which is why i recommend getting 8 of them) BUT cloth diapers do not leak out onto clothes like disposables do! (at least WAY less often) so i think they save time and energy by not changing baby's outfit and sheets all the time.
finally, i use fleece remnants from the fabric store as liners so that baby doesn't feel wet. i just cut them to the right size and lay them on top of the diaper.
for night, we use fuzzibunz and i am CRAZY about them. we only own four, because they are expensive.

check out naturalbabies.com and earthbaby.com for super stuff and great info!

HTH!!!

liza

[blnony]

Liz-
Here my answers to some of your questions-

There is some smell involved; but it isn't impossible and it isn't nearly as gross as I had imagined. Cloth diapering has really come a long way. :) Once you get over being squimish about it, it becomes very ordinary. Even my DH will wash off a poopy diaper now.
I have a mini-shower, which is a little sprayer that you can attach to your comode to wash off poop. I then spray Zout onto the stain and place in my diaper pail. I use a dry pail method.
I wash every other day. I put all the diapers into the wash. First I do a cold wash or warm wash with detergent and a small amount of baking soda. They I do a hot wash with either one capful of Calgon water softener or 1/4 capful of detergent again, with small amount of baking soda again and a Downey Ball of white vinegar. Even this sometimes get changed and tweeked as I try other things.

My husband is a toxicologist and he is very comfortable with cloth diapering and any health problems posed by it. I get the idea from your post that might be a concern for you. If you use hot water and a good detergent, they are getting clean.

If I have stains, I usually put a dab of lemon juice on them and set them in the sun for a couple of hours, or I don't worry about them!:)
Then I put them into the dryer and let them dry completely.

I do sometimes use disposables. Not very often though. If we are taking a long car trip, or if my DD stays with my mom a few days. My mom, bless her heart, used cloth on me but for some reason the thought of it now scares her! If she is here, she will do it, but she gets very flustered by all of it. Which is fine.

Also, one thing to note about cloth, you really need to be vigilant about diaper changing. This is true whether you use disposables or cloth, but it really does make a huge difference in cloth diapers. I don't let my DD go longer than two hours without a diaper change, except at night.

I think its a great idea to get to breastfeeding first, get over your delivery, get into baby mode before you cloth diaper. When I have my next baby, I probably won't use cloth until the baby is about 8 -9 weeks or around 12 lbs or so. This is just my thought, I may change my mind later, but I understand about the transition time you are talking about.

HTH-

[srlarsen]

Ah, breastfeeding and cloth diapering - my major money savers!

First of all, breastfeeding poops are very runny and don't even need to be rinsed off the diaper. I didn't "rinse" until the poops started to get solid and could be plopped off into the toilet. No touching toilet water for me - ewww! We would just stick the diaper into the dry diaper pail until wash day. Initially, we had 2 dozen prefolds and maybe 6 covers. This involved doing diapers on a daily basis, however, so I bought another dozen prefolds. I also had an assortment of fuzzi bunz, mother ease, and some kushies, I think. I usually saved the fitted diapers or all-in-ones for my husband or grandma, because they are a bit easier to figure out than using a snappi or pins on a prefold.

My wash system involves doing one cold water rinse (this sort of replaces you having to dunk the diapers in the toilet) without detergent, followed by your "whitest whites" cycle using just 1/2 of your regular detergent. I use Amway's SA-8, but I think most of the posters here use free & clear detergents. Your whitest whites cycle should include a cold water rinse after the hot water wash. That's all that should need to be done. You can experiment with using some baking soda along with your detergent, and vinegar in the final rinse (your washer probably has a fabric softener dispenser - that's where I put the vinegar). A great web site to check out for really good washing instructions is http://www.weebees.com

Lots of my friends think I am some sort of martyr for using cloth, but it is sooooo not a big deal. You have to do a ton of laundry anyway with a baby, as you know. My husband does the diapers or I do them, whatever. He even thinks disposables are nasty, although we have been using them at night and we do use them when go on vacation, it's just much easier that way. Oh, if you leave the baby at grandma's for the afternoon, just have her put the soiled diapers in a plastic grocery sack or some other plastic bag until you can wash them. If you're going to be gone for a week or so, I'd consider leaving her with disposables or having her wash the diapers. You can go about 3 days, without creating a terrible stink.

As far as waiting, I think we waited a few weeks to start with cloth. The small prefolds will swim on your baby for awhile, and disposables are a lot easier while you are getting settled into a breastfeeding routine. Regarding breastfeeding, the first two weeks are the most painful. But you will get to the point where there is no pain at all and you wonder why you would ever consider formula, breastfeeding is so nice and so easy.

Good luck to you!

Stacie - mom to Cooper 6/10/01 and #2 due 11/27/03