Since I last posted on cloth diapers, I have been using them about 3/4 of the time. I never used them in the morning, and didn't use them while we were out of town.
I didn't really have too much of a problem with the poop, or the mess of the diapers. The washing wasn't making me crazy (although each load took about 4 hours after the boys were in bed). The boys were doing fine in them. I was preparing to buy our own diapers (and quit mooching off our generous friends). I had narrowed down to 2 types, and had actually bought more laundry detergent (which is not cheap).
Until.
Until they got blisters in a place no little boy should have blisters. OUCH.
Upon research, most likely they have an "ammonia burn". Their rooms reeked of pee in the morning, so that was a big clue for me. This could be because of a detergent buildup (I need to rinse the diapers more), an ammonia build up (I need vinegar, I think?), or something else. And I could have done some troubleshooting...changing detergents, rinsing better, trying any number of other "helpful" things in the cloth diaper world...a fleece liner, a wool liner, etc, etc.
But Nate was done (the blisters made him cringe!). And I was on the fence. So he pushed me off the cloth diaper train.
Since it wasn't going to be super cost effetive for the daytime diapers (about equal), I could ditch those easily. But the nighttime diapers were why I wanted to do this in the first place, but sitting in a wet diaper for 12 hours was probably the cause of the burn, so....why bother?
So I'm off. Not green and crunchy anymore. Nate says I didn't fail, that I gave it a good shot. And I think he is right. I just don't have the time/effort/desire to experiment with what "might" be the problem, or to spend more time washing and rinsing them.
Good try, though.
Showing posts with label diapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diapers. Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Going cloth?
This might be nuts, but we are seriously considering switching to cloth diapering the boys. Acutally, we have borrowed some cloth diapers for a trial run, and we have committed to using them for a week and a half to give ourselves a taste of it, then we will assess.
Reasoning? Because there has to be some, right?
All of the things I have been doing and working towards over the past year around our house (gardening, more cooking, meal planning, couponing, compost pile, buying part of a cow, now this) have boiled down to one thing...finances. I am not a green, granola, hug-a-tree kind of girl. But I am a girl who has 4 boys, a teacher's salary, and a desire to stay home and raise my boys. And, as it turns out, often times, green EQUALS finances. More work and time on my part, but at a cheaper output.
So, diapers. How did this even cross my mind?
I have several friends and acquaintances who cloth diaper, and after Z, I thought, "Hm. Maybe for my next baby I will consider cloth." Then my "next" baby was three, so I tossed that idea, because I'm not nuts.
Then, we were blessed enough to have the first year of diapers covered by generous gifts and money people gave us for the boys. But they are all gone, and now, even with me finding uber-good diaper sales, we will still be looking at at LEAST $60+/month for diapers and supplies. We plan on potty training the boys next summer (the same age Z was when we potty trained him). But since Z is still in a pullup at night, I will be having to buy nighttime diapers for probably at least another 3 years. So that got me thinking...what if I just did cloth at night? I found a diaper that would fit the boys from 25 pounds - 45 pounds (now until then). So if I bought 6 of them, around $120 (and that is if I can't find them gently used), then just washed them....that would be a HUGE savings on nighttime diapers over the next several years.
So I started researching and asking friends about their experiences. Two generous friends (Laura and Kayla) loaned me some of theirs to use as a trial run, which is such an amazing blessing...that way I can just test them out and not fork over a few hundred dollars to "see" if I liked them.
We did the first night a few nights ago, and it was a total bust. But I did some reassessing and some more researching and some more talking, and last night went wonderfully...I didn't fall over due to the smell of pee in the boys room like I did the first morning!
Nate and I talked, and since we have enough diapers loaned to us, we figured we might as well just try it all out for the next week and a half. That will give us enough time to consider all the options, and see if it is a huge pain or not. We can decide if we want to go full time or just night time...I can weigh costs and benefits. Then, if we're happy, I can start searching out good deals on diapers.
Will keep you posted :)
Reasoning? Because there has to be some, right?
All of the things I have been doing and working towards over the past year around our house (gardening, more cooking, meal planning, couponing, compost pile, buying part of a cow, now this) have boiled down to one thing...finances. I am not a green, granola, hug-a-tree kind of girl. But I am a girl who has 4 boys, a teacher's salary, and a desire to stay home and raise my boys. And, as it turns out, often times, green EQUALS finances. More work and time on my part, but at a cheaper output.
So, diapers. How did this even cross my mind?
I have several friends and acquaintances who cloth diaper, and after Z, I thought, "Hm. Maybe for my next baby I will consider cloth." Then my "next" baby was three, so I tossed that idea, because I'm not nuts.
Then, we were blessed enough to have the first year of diapers covered by generous gifts and money people gave us for the boys. But they are all gone, and now, even with me finding uber-good diaper sales, we will still be looking at at LEAST $60+/month for diapers and supplies. We plan on potty training the boys next summer (the same age Z was when we potty trained him). But since Z is still in a pullup at night, I will be having to buy nighttime diapers for probably at least another 3 years. So that got me thinking...what if I just did cloth at night? I found a diaper that would fit the boys from 25 pounds - 45 pounds (now until then). So if I bought 6 of them, around $120 (and that is if I can't find them gently used), then just washed them....that would be a HUGE savings on nighttime diapers over the next several years.
So I started researching and asking friends about their experiences. Two generous friends (Laura and Kayla) loaned me some of theirs to use as a trial run, which is such an amazing blessing...that way I can just test them out and not fork over a few hundred dollars to "see" if I liked them.
We did the first night a few nights ago, and it was a total bust. But I did some reassessing and some more researching and some more talking, and last night went wonderfully...I didn't fall over due to the smell of pee in the boys room like I did the first morning!
Nate and I talked, and since we have enough diapers loaned to us, we figured we might as well just try it all out for the next week and a half. That will give us enough time to consider all the options, and see if it is a huge pain or not. We can decide if we want to go full time or just night time...I can weigh costs and benefits. Then, if we're happy, I can start searching out good deals on diapers.
Will keep you posted :)
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