I have to say upfront that cloth diapering has come with it's challenges, definitely some that I didn't forsee. I'm still so glad we switched and I can't imagine going back to disposable diapers now. But you'll get a good idea of the road bumps I've run into in my next blog. Sorry. For now, I'll just let you know how they are working on my kids.
They are quite absorbant and they fit great. It took 2 - 3 diaper changes for me to get the fit just right on my kids, but once we got it right it was perfect (though I did just have to re-size all of Elena's diapers - she is growing so fast!). We have had no daytime leaking at all, not even Elena's exploding poop - in disposables it often makes it all the way up her back but the cloth diapers keep the mess very contained. We ordered the Softbums diapers with the SUPER dry-touch inserts (instead of the regular dry touch) and I am so glad we did. Both my kids are heavy wetters and they can really soak up that insert within a few hours. But the covers stay nice and dry! I just hang a cover to air out a little (it does tend to retain that lovely baby urine smell if I don't let it air out first) and grab a different one. I tend to rotate between two covers during the day for each kid until a diaper gets pooped in (even if the cover stays clean there is just no getting rid of that poop smell until it's washed) or the cover gets wet.
Our leaking issue is overnight. Elena has done just fine (so far anyway), it's Gabe who pees out of his diaper. For overnight we add one of the mini-pod doublers to both of their diapers to increase absorbancy. It's just a smaller insert that gets placed on top of the larger one. This makes their diapers very absorbant and absorbancy is not the problem. Unfortunately the doubler makes the diaper so bulky that I can't get the fit tight enough around Gabe's legs without making the rise of the diaper too low. We had a good first couple nights and then the 3rd night Gabe peed right out of the side of his diaper. The insert itself was wet, but hardly soaked. The urine had wicked onto his clothing and spread all up his side. The poor kid really could have used a bath, but it was 3am. I put Gabe back in disposables at night after that because I couldn't bear another 3am full clothing change + changing the crib sheets. But leaking out of dispoables happens pretty frequently as well...I'd say he leaks out the front of the diaper probably every other night or so. It just tends to happen in the morning when the diaper gets completely full, instead of at 3am.
I ordered more cloth diapers after doing some googling on the best cloth diapers for overnight. Seems most people like pocket diapers + hemp inserts for overnights, so I'm going to give that a try. I finally recieved my pocket diapers tonight and will get them prepped tomorrow. I decided to order some very cheepy - and I do mean VERY cheepy - ebay pocket diapers. I just couldn't bear to spend a lot of money on diapers to use just for overnights. I hope they work. If they don't, at least I won't feel like I wasted my money. I recieved my hemp inserts over a week ago and those are all ready prepped and ready to go.
Prepping you ask? What is that? Apparently natural fibers need to be 'prepped' before they can become fully absorbant. For hemp they usually need to be washed and dryed 4 - 6 times. I skipped some of those washings by boiling them in hot water for 30 minutes, though and I like that much better.
I decided to be brave and try the hemp inserts on Gabe tonight, in one of the Softbums diapers instead of the regular insert. It's supposed to be much more absorbant than microfiber, so fingers crossed it works.
Next blog - laundry issues. It's a doozy. Stay tuned.
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