Cloth Diaper Update

Overnight:  When I did the cloth diaper series, I told you I put LJ in disposables for overnight.  I didn't like the leaking I seemed to get with cloth (12 hours is a long time!) and I was also worried about her sitting in that much pee for so long (12 hours is a long time!).  But then I got to thinking about it and I decided to try again.  I did some research on Jillian's Drawers and they have some great information about what they recommend for overnight cloth diapering.  But I couldn't stomach the price without first giving my prefolds a second chance at this.  (Actually, My Love couldn't stomach the price without giving my prefolds a second chance!)  :o)

So, I took the idea of the pocket diapers and cut up an old fleece blankie to use as a fleece liner.  Fleece wicks the moisture away from baby's skin.  YAY!  Also, I double-diapered Lily.  Poor girl had such a big butt... but no leaks in the morning!  DOUBLE YAY!  I also tried the same technique on SJ... same result.  No leaks, no rash.  Sweet.  After some more experimentin', I discovered that neither of them are actually heavy overnight wetters, so they've both graduated to only one prefold and the fleece liner.  Ta-da! (Sam was especially glad to be in only one prefold, as two made her diaper so bulky that her poor little legs stuck straight out!  She didn't complain, though, cause she's the favorite!)

So we're officially cloth diapering now for everything except church on Sunday.  And babysitters.  And "Momma didn't wash the diapers in time and we're out of covers" kind of days ;o)

Wipe Spray:  I use a simple wipe solution to spay on cloth wipes, or directly onto baby's hiney.  Just a squirt of baby shampoo and baby oil in some water in a big water bottle under the sink.  Then I refill three little squirt bottles as needed.  (Squirt bottles are kept where ever I need to change the little squirts' diapers!)  Problem was, I was getting a stinky, maybe moldy?, smell.  And that wasn't making Momma happy... who wants to spray icky water down there?  Thankfully, Bonnie showed me the light of Tea Tree Oil and hip-hip-hurray for it's antiseptic properties!

So, revised cloth diaper wipe solution spray = water, squirt of baby shampoo, squirt of baby oil, and a few drops of Tea Tree Oil.  Bye-bye icky water, hello happy tushies.

Side note:  It's on my list of things to do someday to research this more, but apparently parabans and fragrance are shady things to find in the ingredient list of your personal care products (among other things).  I'm kind of procrastinating looking into this more because a) I'm busy b) I love the smell of the baby shampoo and baby oil (both of which contain parabans and fragrance) c) the alternatives are usually expensive and d) I'm not convinced the small amount of bad ingredients in our products are really that much of a health concern.  Hence the needing to look into this more.  Stay tuned.

So the moral of this whole story is:  Cloth diapers take a bit of experimenting.  If it's not working for you a certain way, don't give up!  Try something else and it just might work!