CDing with Fleece Liners

[csa12]

I must have read every post on CDing in the last two months and have learned so much from everyone. Thank you! I just ordered a variety of things for my "stash" today and now completely understand how you could get so excited about cloth diapers. I have a quick question about fleece liners. Do you pre-treat when liners contain poop from BFing? If so what do you do? Swish and rinse liner in toilet before placing in dry-pail? BF poop I hear is so runny, so I was curious how people dealt with that and liners made out of fleece. I'd like to try out fleece liners first, but if flushable liners work best with BF poop then I will consider that option.

Again, thanks so much for whatever info you can share,
Cheryl
Due with #1 on 1/23/03

[sparkeze]

I haven't CD a newborn so others may have better advice, but I would think that the poop would just run right through the fleece and flushable liners. They hold the solid stuff well, but anything watery goes through, in my experience anyways. My DS is still mostly BF and although his poop got a lot more solid after starting solids, some days he doesn't eat any solids and his poop is back to runny. If he happens to poop in a Fuzzi Bunz, the poop runs through the microfleece all over the stuff inside, and my experience was the same with flushable liners. The solid parts were still on the liner, but everything else was on the diaper.

When DS was a newborn we used disposables and the poop ALWAYS came up the back onto his clothes so i washed a lot of poopy clothes! If I ran cold water over it within an hour afterwards to get the seedy stuff off, then left it to soak in cold water for about 30 minutes or so, it all came off very easily. If I had time to handwash the clothes soon after it had been pooped on, you would never even know there had been poop on it. So I'm thinking that maybe you can throw the poopy diapers in a bucket with cold water throughout the day and when you wash the diapers just throw out the poopy water before you put them in the machine. And not use any liners. Another thing you could do that I've heard other people do is get the seedy stuff off, then squirt or spray Bac-Out on the rest of the poop, then throw it in a diaper pail until you machine wash them with no stains.

What does everyone else think?

[egoldber]

Again, I did not diaper a newborn. But many people just through newborn poops into the dry pail and just wash as is. I would make sure that when I did laundry to add a long soak to the cycle.

I must admit when Sarah had diarrhea, I NEVER even touch the fleece liner. I just dump the whole mess in the pail, wash in cold with a two hour soak. Then I do a hot wash and add a half capful of Biz. This has worked great for me.

HTH,

[nohomama]

We used a service when Lola was little but I have several friends who did their own diapers from the beginning. They all just tossed soiled diapers in a dry pail and added extra soaks and rinses when they laundered everything. However, all of their diapers are uniformly yellow/brown. If you want to avoid stains, I'd recommend pretreating the diaper in some way.

I'm a fanatic about stains, so I've used a wet & dry bucket since I started laundering my own diapers . As Lola's poop has become more consistenly firm, I haven't needed to use the wet bucket as much.

I use a square five gallon tofu bucket to soak the dirty dipes. Someone else suggested using a bucket that kitty litter comes in. It should have a handle or be easy to cart around and be small enough that you can lift it when its filled 1/2 to 3/4 full with water. I keep mine in the bathroom. When I do laundry I dump out the water in the tub and wring out the dipes.

I'm not certain whether either the fleece of flushable liners will be of much help or whether they'll be just one more thing to deal with. I've used the flushable kind and they work well for soft and firm messes but my guess is that a newborn's poop will just run right through. If you decide to try out flushable liners, don't go for the rice paper kind. I love them because they're incredibly durable (I've washed the ones I don't flush as many as 4-5x and still have yet to see a hole of tear) but they're also VERY thin and most sites will tell you they won't work for newborns.

Have fun with your cloth diapers.

[joodyjr]

I am diapering a breastfed newborn! Yay! I use the fleece liners mostly in things that don't feel that soft. Or, if I want to avoid stains on white diapers. I don't swish diapers in the toilet on a routine basis. I have before and the results were not any different so I skip it. I wash diapers on a cold rinse with laundry soda, a hot wash with a bit of detergent and a downey ball filled halfway with vinegar and then I run another cold cycle with nothing to rinse well. I've got some very minor stains that happened before I began washing in this manner. I haven't noticed any new stains.

I have started spraying diapers (not liners) with Zout stain spray before throwing them in the diaper pail.

I also bought a yard of Malden Mills microfleece to make my own. The ones I purchased are a bit larger than I'd prefer.. so I'll just make my own. I ordered a dark blue so stains aren't an issue.

[csa12]

Thanks! I appreciate everyone's input. Jennifer, any advice or tips you'd like to give to new moms tackling CDing with a newborn?

Also, where did you find the Malden Mills fleece? I guess I can do a search on google, but just curious.

Thanks again,
Cheryl :)

[egoldber]

You can buy it at many on-line fabric stores. You can occasionally find it at local Joanns or Hancock stores. If you have an independent fabric store in your area, they often carry it.

But personally, I wouldn't spend the money on MM fleece for liners. For a cover or something like that, yes. I used cheap microfleece from Joanns and it works fine.

HTH,

[mama2be]

Sarah,

Are you saying don't use these...or just don't use them for newborns??? I think your saying just not for newborns but want to make sure...:)

Thanks guys for sharing your experience!!!

[Melanie]

Is the vinegar for stains, softness or smell?



Mommy to Jonah

[AngelaS]

I started cding dd when she was about 10 days old. She was exclusively bf. When she pooped or wet, I threw the diaper into the dry pail in her room--no rinsing, no water, nothing. :)

On wash day, I dumped the whole pail into the washer and ran a hot wash cycle with a bit of detergent. While that's washing, I dump a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar into the diaper pail/garbage can. I swirl it around and then wipe with a rag. When the washer's done, I start a cold wash after I throw in the vinegar rag. I don't add any more detergent.

I don't do any extra soaks or add anything fancy. If you do a soak in your washer, make sure you fill the washer, then spin it out before filling it again for the soak. Otherwise you'll eventually get 'scum' inside your washer because of your diapers soaking in poopy water.

My sister freaked when she heard that I just put breastmilk poop in my washer. She's doesn't understand that there's no filter catching the chunks and that the waste from you washer runs down into the same line as the poop from the toilet. LOL

I have never had a stinky diaper problem washing this way and dd is now 8 months old. Using too much detergent and not rinsing well will make diapers stinky.

I use fleece liners frequently and I bought dark colored cheap fleece from the local fabric store. The dark colors don't show stains. Also,some Malden Mills is water resistant and you'll have leaks because the urine will roll off to the sides instead of soaking thru. Cheap microfleece will work just fine or cheap regular fleece.

When dd started on solids her poops got more solid. Most of the time there's a fleece liner in her diaper, so I just grab a dry corner of the fleece and dip the fleece into the toilet. Using a good sized piece of fleece really protects your diapers from stains. My liners I think are about 12X5 inches. Now that dd is bigger ones that were a bit longer would be nice, but not totally necessary.

Very few of my diapers have stains. Those that do have very faint stains that lighten with each wash. To remove stains, take the wet diapers and lay them in the sun. Hanging them out on a clothesline will help or just on the floor in a sunbeam also works. I don't worry too much about stains until I get ready to sell my diapers. :) As long as they're clean, that's really all I care about. :)

Um, I guess I just wrote a book. I guess you probably knew most of that info, but when I was a newbie, getting advice from veteran cders was SO helpful. :)