Diapers, wipes and Poop-Be-Gone

Bevin prompted in a recent comment that I should post about our cloth wipes and I found this whole post about cloth diapers that I wrote before Etta was born.

We decided to use cloth diapers for the baby. We're doing this not only to be cost-effective, but also because we have more control about the chemicals that come into contact with our baby's skin. Cree also made a bunch of diapers early on with some really fun designs and patterns, so we've been using a combination of those with covers, as well as FuzziBuns and MotherEase. Here's some of the ones she made:






Yes, that's an Eagles diaper.


There appears to be some interest on how this whole thing works, how to wash them, etc., so here's the overview.

You shouldn't wash more than 24 diapers at once, in order to maximize cleanliness. This is about 2 days worth of diapers. We've got a pail and a fabric liner for it. Infants who exclusively breastfeed will have poop that is completely water-soluble, so you can just toss them in the bin until you're ready to roll. To prevent any errant odors, I put a box of baking soda in there.

Put the load in the washer and do an initial wash in cold water, with a a cold rinse. It can be useful to put in 1/2 cup of baking soda, or some vinegar to this cycle to help with stains and extra cleaning. Then, wash again in hot/cold with detergent. The diapers can be line dried, or thrown in the dryer.

It's pretty simple, just like doing laundry, and I feel better about knowing exactly what's involved in the process. We've been using Charlie's Soap for the laundry, and I'd be willing to try this out. It's less expensive than Dreft or whatever, and seems like a more environmentally friendly alternative.

We also use some fabric wipes, for the same reason. Here's the "recipe" for the wipe liquid, and I can just wash them right along with the diapers. We have a bunch of fabric squares cut from T-shirts for this purpose, and we have the solution to the side and wet the fabric on demand.





There are tons of sites for information on washing diapers, if you're super interested in the details.

Finally, I found that when there were diaper leaks, I was having to wet the stains with detergent and let them sit a bit before the wash, which made the process sort of drawn out. So, I made Poop Be Gone (a solution of Charlie's Soap and water) and put it in a spray bottle, so that we can spray the stains and then let the clothes just sit until the next load of laundry.