Stripping Cloth Diapers

April 25, 2013

I haven’t been as focused on the garden this week because of the cool down and because I have been trying to figure out this whole cloth diapering thing. I got the diapers really cheap off of craigslist. All but one looked brand new.

With disposables, I would change baby’s diaper once every feeding (4hrs) but with cloth diapers, I was having to put two inserts in AND double one up. So, baby would have triple padding on the front and even with that, he would soak through in two hours.

A friend of mine said they needed to be stripped. I did not think that was it because they smelled fine and were not stained. She also told me how to strip them, which took many washings and LOTS of hot water. The point of switching to cloth was to SAVE money! Needless to say, I was not excited about doing this, especially when I did not think this was what was needed.

Just for the sake of being thorough, however, I went ahead and did what she said:

• presoaked diapers & inserts in hot water
• washed in hot water & detergent/bleach
• washed in hot water with NO detergent 3-7x, checking to see if the suds were gone.

They came out smelling, looking, and feeling the same but the real test was, would they work?

I put just one insert in the diaper to see if he would make it two hours (remember, it normally takes 3 inserts to keep him dry 2 hrs). It worked! I did it through a nap and it worked again! With one insert! Yay! Color me (pleasantly) surprised! 🙂

Tomorrow will be a better test since I was only able to use two diapers this afternoon but I am very optimistic that this may have fixed our issues! Yay for knowledgeable friends 🙂

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Two More Money Saving Ideas – Cloth Diapers and Soap Nuts

April 12, 2013

I was listening to some of the speakers from the Healthy Life Summit. It ran for free a coulpe of weeks ago. Now if you want to listen, you have to pay. SORRY! I didn’t know it was going to be so good or I would have told you! I’ll keep you in the loop from now on!

Anyway, I listened mostly to the sustainable farming people (Joel Salatin and the like) but for some reason, I decided to listen to a podcast about “Cloth Diapers Made Easy”. She went in depth about all the different types, the pros and cons of each type, how many you need, how frequently you will need to wash them, etc. It was very informative. She definitely made it sound a lot less intimidating!

Next step was to look on Craigslist. I found a lady who was selling pocket diapers for $5 each and inserts for $1. This is incredibly cheap! They typically run $10-24 each. I bought 13 because that is all she had and because the speaker said get enough diapers for about 3 days (we go through about 4 diapers/day and I am not going to cloth diaper at night to start off). You don’t want to go much longer between washings (because of the smell). With all of the dirty clothes seven people produce, I wash every 3-4 days anyway so this is not a problem for me.

I paid so little that if I only cloth diaper for FOUR MONTHS, I will have broken even! Now that is a no brainer! Of course, I hope it is as easy as she says and I can save about $200+ for the rest of my child’s diapering life and if I have another child, save even more! But, we’ll see. One step at a time.

I used them today and he kept wetting through. When using disposable, I would only change him after each nap, after I fed him (every 3-4 hours). Yesterday, day 1 of cloth diapering, after the first nap, he had soaked through. So, I decided to change him before and after naps (every 1.5/2hrs). He was still soaking through. So, I decided to fold the pad in the front for double protection since he’s a boy. That may have worked…had he not pooped. That ended up on my shirt…with company over. yay. Any ideas? I can put two pads in but I thought people only did that at night. Any pros give me some pointers?

The second new thing I am going to try this week is Soap Nuts.

I have seen many wonderful reviews about them…

• they are sustainable
• all natural (no chemicals)
• CHEAP (pennies/load)
• compostable
• leave no smell on your clothes (even though they smell vinegary in the bag)
• wash cloth diapers really well

I just received mine in the mail and have not used them yet but I will let you know when I do! Admittedly, the biggest draw for me was the price but all of the other things are WONDERFUL as well! 😀

What new things are you doing? Are you actively saving money?

I am linking to Simple Lives Thursday. This is where I get most of my money-saving ideas. Check it out!