Foray into Solids

Dec 23,2009 / By Maria / 4 Comments

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My son has started a little bit of solid food so far. I bid a fond farewell to exclusively breastfed poop, which washes right out and does not need to be rinsed.

When babies are older, you can just flip solids into the potty and wash the diaper as usual.

However, if you have been through solids, whether your baby was cloth or disposable diapered, you will feel my pain here. Sweet potatoes go in and, well, sweet potatoes come out. Only with an even less pleasant consistency.

So what the heck do you do in that gross, in between stage? Well, I’ve heard of quite a few methods. Some people keep a scraper handy and scrape solids into the toilet and/or “dunk and swish” the diaper in the toilet. This makes me shudder for many reasons. One is because of the tablets I use in our toilet tanks to prevent the lovely stain at the water line that reappears hours after I’ve scrubbed the toilet. I don’t want that junk on my toilet! Not to mention putting my hand and his diaper in a cesspool of germs. YUCK! No offense to those who use this method, it’s not for me.

Some people use a diaper sprayer. It’s like a hand held bidet, looks like a hand held shower head kind of. You have to have a flexible hose on your toilet’s water line to attach it. You then hold the diaper in/over the toilet bowl and use the sprayer to blast the poo off.

This works for lots of people. They’re a little spendy, but if you google you can find instructions to make one with parts from a hardware store for about half as much.

I have a lot of concerns about this though. I believe it takes some practice to be able to spray without making a big mess. There is an interesting invention to get around this, but it wouldn’t fit in our tiny half bath.

Which brings me to my next concern. Whatever solution I use, it needs to be on the first floor, since that’s where I change most of my diapers. Our half bath is the bathroom we (including my 4-year old) use most, and the bathroom our guests use. So I am concerned about there being anything smelly, weird looking, or too tempting in there. By that I mean, I don’t want a curious preschool-age guest flooding my house in a “what’s this do” moment. Then there’s always the concern of it failing, since sprayers we have in sinks are not usually under constant pressure.

Which now leads me to my current arrangement. I have a utility sink in my laundry room.

The sink has a pull out sprayer.

It has normal water flow

That turns into a spray when you push the button on top.

We have kind of lame water pressure overall, but it seems to do OK.

Is spraying my dirties off in here gross? It’s not like we’ll be preparing food in here or anything, and doesn’t it all end up in the same place? *shrug* For now, It’s working! Of course this is with my son eating a tablespoon or two of food, when it gets even grosser, I’m sure I’ll have to do some pre-scraping, even if I continue to spray in here!

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Cloth Diapers Detergents

Lil Outlaws Detergent

Dec 6,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>One of the moms from one of my cloth diaper groups owns lil’ outlaws. She makes/sells diaper safe laundry detergent, cloth wipe solution concentrate, cloth safe diaper cream and more.

She honored my special request and packed my order with smaller portions of five different scents of detergent! I chose baby bee, butt naked, baby powder fresh, laundromat and midsummer’s night.

My order got here today and the package made my house deliciously smelly before I’d even opened it. The scents all smell great, though they are very strong smelling in their bags. They smell heavenly in the washer & after washing though (the smell makes my whole laundry room smell great). I got the normal strength scent but she also offers heavy, extra heavy, light & extra light. I’ve had a bit of a headache this evening from all the new smells, but from my experience with the last bag, the scent will mellow a bit after the bag has been open a while. I actually suggest that if you “stock up” when you order, store the bags in a closet or drawer that needs some freshening, the bag will do duty as an air freshener until you’re ready to use it!

I used the butt naked on diapers tonight, it is fruity & clean smelling. I don’t know what it reminds me of.

She recommends 1/2-1T for a load in an HE washer. I washed my hubby’s coats in the midsummer’s night & used more than I needed to make them smell extra good. There is no soap or suds so there’s no risk to your laundry or your washer by using more! It smells just like the Yankee Candle scent.

The last detergent I bought (Giggles, smells just like Johnson’s buddies body wash) is actually only maybe half finished and I’ve been using it for about 6 weeks. I just couldn’t resist some new scents! I also would like to switch over to using lil’ outlaws on ALL of my laundry. I want to see how it does, but I think it would be much better for our clothes, our skin, our washer and our septic system than the sudsy, chemical laden, gummy liquid kind!

The scent on clothing is very faint after washing/drying (we have soft water AND a water softener) but to me that is good, since you can enjoy the scent you like without worrying about smelling like you bathed in muffins, hee. I did notice that some scents are stronger than others.

When I put a more in with my hubby’s coats though, the smell was noticeable & wonderful, though everything gets clean with much less. If you want the smell to stick around more, choose heavy or extra heavy scent. I would, but I don’t know if my nose could take the initial smelliness!**

I’m already making my list of scents for my next order. Lemon, Amazing Grace, Rice Flower & Shea and Winter Candy Apple. This yummy detergent sure makes laundry more enjoyable! Once I find a favorite scent, I plan to figure out what strength works best for that particular scent and stick with it. However, the scents are so tempting, I probably will keep wanting to try them all!!

I still really want to try her wipes solution, rump rub and pail pardner. I’m not sure what the pail pardner comes packaged in. I guess you could put it in a baby powder shaker? I could definitely see that turning into a giant mess with little ones around though! I do think I’ll wait until I find a favorite scent before I order that, although I will probably end up choosing baby powder for upstairs and lemon or midsummer’s night for downstairs!

P.S. Jacklen also offers Gift Certificates! If you are having buildup, repelling or stink issues, or if you have sensitivity issues and have tried other “green” or “homemade” products, to no avail, please give lil’ outlaws a try! You won’t regret it!!

Edit August 2010: This stopped working for me for some reason, I don’t know if the makeup of my water changed or what!

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Grandma El’s + Happy Heiny’s=Happy Heiny

Nov 18,2009 / By Maria / 1 Comment

>My kiddo usually ends up in sposies in the evenings & overnight, but I had a clean one at bedtime last night & put him in it.

Before I did, I used a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of the cloth safe diaper cream I’d bought. It had a very mild but pleasant scent that reminded me of something I couldn’t put my finger on. It warmed up and spread very easily and didn’t leave a disgusting, gloppy mess on my hands. In fact, my hands felt soft after.

Usually my son is very red in the morning. This morning was the first time in a long time I have seen him look completely normal. Not a trace of redness. I am sure part of that was from being in a cloth diaper all night, but that cream is a miracle! Huge, huge difference. I’m planning to keep it right by the diapers & just put a tiny bit on at each change.

His second diaper of the day was the Happy Heiny’s. I did look on their site and the 4th snap is a newborn/extra small setting. However, the medium setting seemed much larger than the medium setting on the bumgenius. Even my daughter commented that the diaper looked big. Not a problem, it still fit him great. I imagine that it would fit him longer than the BGs if it is a bit bigger.

The diaper is soft, flexible and really easy to put on. It has large, overlapping velcro tabs. The insert was really easy to put in, though I had to be sure not to put it too close to the front or back of the diaper so it wouldn’t wick onto his clothing.

Overall it is trimmer than the BG. The print is flipping adorable!

When it was time to change it, we had no poop blowout and no leaks. Usually after a poopy diaper, even if I change it within seconds of the poop actually occurring, he has redness where it touched his skin. The breathable barrier of the diaper cream certainly works because there was no redness at all.

Edit August 2010: We still love Grandma El’s but I’m just not able to get a good fit with my Happy Heiny’s. They always end up leaking, so they’ve been relegated to the “laundry day” drawer. I’m hoping they might work in the future when my son is older.

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Fluff Mail!

Nov 18,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>I was very excited to get my package today (yesterday by the time I got around to finishing & publishing this). The colors are lighter than I’d expected, which is the opposite of what I’d experienced with the bumgenius.

The monkey print I chose for the Happy Heiny’s diaper is adorable!! It confuses me a bit though because it has 4 rows of snaps. Most one size diapers have 3 rows. All open for large, 1st to second for medium and third for small. I’m guessing it must be an extra small setting?

The Blueberry Minky diaper is super soft and very cute.

My initial instinct is that the Bumgenius are nicer than all of these others.

The BG pockets are kind of hidden, rather than just open at the top of the diaper, and it has additional waterproof material at the front and back to prevent wicking onto baby’s clothing if the insert were near the front or back.

The BG inserts also seem much larger, which makes me think they would be more absorbent & would be more likely to work with the single insert alone on the larger settings, rather than having to use the doublers.

Lastly, as much as I’ve heard people say the BG laundry tabs stop working over time, these other diapers’ laundry tabs seem useless already. I had a heck of a time getting them to stick when getting them ready to wash the first time. After I’ve washed the BGs, I actually struggle to get the velcro OFF the laundry tabs!

I had a bit of a diaper chain when I got them out of the wash. They are hanging to dry and I am starting the process of washing the blueberry diaper’s insert multiple times. It is made of hemp and it comes with natural oils on it that need to be washed off. It has to be washed separately to avoid causing absorbency issues on other items, and it will not reach it’s maximum absorbency until after 6-10 washes.

I will with hold judgment until I have seen them in action, but if I had to pick RIGHT NOW which diapers I would prefer more of based on just this initial assessment (and price aside) I would choose more BG 3.0s.

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Oh Poop

Nov 18,2009 / By Maria / 1 Comment

>Right now, poop on a cloth diaper ain’t no thang. Breastfed baby poo is water soluble, so you can just throw em in the washer. As baby gets older, you can just flip it in the potty & be on your way.

That in between stage is much more hazy. I have memories of peanut butter consistency poo in rainbows of colors. I’ll tell you, I am simply not interested in the ol dunk & swish method.

There are a couple brands of biodegradable/flushable/disposable diaper liners, some of which claim to be septic safe. Reviews for one brand even claim they can be washed a few times if they are just wet. In the end I’m not sure that solution is for me.

On the flip side, you can get a diaper sprayer that attches to your toilet & allows you to hose them in your toilet. There are downsides to that too, and some people have come up with really clever solutions. You can even find instructions for a homemade sprayer made with items you can find at your local home improvement store.

In the end, I think we will go with the bumgenius sprayer in our 1/2 bath, along with a large wet bag stored there as well. They are expensive though, so I’m not sure if we will manage to get one before we start solids!

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