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Ever wished you could throw a diaper away?

>To attempt to make a long(er) story short(er), a few weeks ago, I was totally there.  My son had been drinking some juice (side note: before you worry that your child’s dark urine is because of dehydration or a UTI, remember the red food coloring he managed to ingest a few days earlier.)

I was standing over the toilet, diaper in one hand, toilet paper in the other, attempting to scrape the massive, ahem, deposit off of the diaper.  Just for a second, my eyes glazed over, and I drifted away…

I was spinning through a field of daisies, pack of disposables in my arms, “So Happy Together” playing in the background.  With a smug smile on my face, I tossed the offending diaper in the pail.

Then, the record screeched, and I remembered what it was really like to use disposables.  Remember that we used disposable diapers/pull-ups on my daughter for almost 2 1/2 years, and on my son for about 4 months.  The terms “fitteds and pockets and snappis” weren’t in my diaper vocabulary, but “blowout” sure was.

We have one single photo of my daughter in her cute baptism gown, and in the photo, my husband is holding her with a horrified look on his face, since the blowout was in process at that very moment.  Even when the diapers were on properly, and in the proper size, blowouts were a regular occurrence.

Much of the time, it came right out the back of the diaper, while the diaper itself remained relatively unscathed.  I looked down at the diaper in my hand, covered with poop from front to back and side to side, nearly to the edges of the elastic and I knew. I knew there was no way this would have stayed in a disposable diaper.

I may be scraping and washing this diaper, but if it had been a disposable, I would instead be washing a shirt, pants, socks, probably my clothing, any surface nearby, the changing pad, and quite possibly, giving the kid a bath.  I saw a post in the cafemom babies group where a Mom cut a onesie off of her daughter after a blowout, knowing there was no way to get it off of her without making a bigger mess!

With cloth, I had one incident where I didn’t have the diaper snug around his leg and breastfed baby poop came out of the leg gap, but other than that, no blowouts.  So, yeah.  I gladly washed that diaper!  I think having used disposables in the past makes me appreciate cloth more!

Aside from the occasional horrifying story of the forgotten poopy cloth diaper that was beyond saving, have you ever wished you could pitch a diaper?


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Maria
Maria is an aspiring "fit mom" of 3 children, writing about cloth diapers, going green, and her life as a single mom. Maria works with many companies within the cloth diaper industry and beyond, providing social media management, product development, and other services.
15 Comments
  • November 6, 2010 at 7:05 pm
    Reply

    >such a perfect post! so hilarious and so true. i think we've one blow-out in the ten months we've been using cloth. i can't even count the times we've had blow-outs with disposables!

  • November 4, 2010 at 1:21 am
    Reply

    >No problem! I just sent it again.

  • November 3, 2010 at 9:38 pm
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    >Edie, I didn't get your email yet, the way my post is laid out on the screen, I'm afraid you may have missed the "-" in change-diapers.com! I hate to ask, but could you send it again? *sheepish look*

  • November 3, 2010 at 7:40 pm
    Reply

    >I sent you an email Maria! Been there with cutting the onesie off the baby. My daughter had a major blow-out while waiting FOREVER in a drive-thru. Poop up to her armpits by the time we were able to change her. Thank goodness it was only an almost too small well-worn onesie so I didn't have any qualms with my husband cutting it off of her while I held her still. If only I had been using cloth then!

  • November 3, 2010 at 6:42 pm
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    >Stacie and Edie both, I do not have an email address for you, but if you email me (maria @ change-diapers.com) I'd love to help you figure things out! If you tell me what your wash routine is, what detergent (and diapers!) you're using, if you use diaper creams etc. and what you've tried so far, I'll help you!

  • November 3, 2010 at 6:40 pm
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    >WOW!! $10! Awesome deal!!For you ladies with stink/repelling issues, what have you tried?

  • November 3, 2010 at 6:29 pm
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    >I'm with you Stacey. I'm having such stink issues that I've been using disposables since the weekend. I've got to get this figured out!

  • November 3, 2010 at 5:11 pm
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    >Well, with the repelling issues I'm having now I'm sort of dreaming about dumping the whole stash and starting over again:(

  • November 3, 2010 at 4:50 pm
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    >I agree with every momma on here. My sister called me in tears a few weeks ago to tell me that she didn't know what else to do. Her son is 15 months old and has blowouts multiple times a day! I told her that she would not regret moving to cloth diapers. After purchasing a pack of 15 dipes from a women on craigslist for $20 (a STEAL, I know!) she is convinced. Now she is shopping for newborn dipes for her little girl who is due in January!

  • November 3, 2010 at 4:20 pm
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    >When my daughter had a stomach virus for 2 weeks this summer, nothing held it, but the bum genius w/velcro did the best. I had that daisies in the sunshine moment that you did.. until I realized what the 'sposies' would have NOT held. I still had to wash sheets and clothes, but not nearly as many as I would have using sposies.

  • November 3, 2010 at 3:14 pm
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    >Oh Hannah, I totally forgot about the car seat, that's such a pain!! Blech!

  • November 3, 2010 at 3:14 pm
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    >I can't say for certain what it was, but I think it was a bumgenius. My PLUMP diaper (that I just reviewed) suffered a similar fate, and contained it as well. I remember thinking that it sure was getting thorough testing, LOL!!

  • November 3, 2010 at 2:57 pm
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    >We took all our gift disposable diapers on a road trip when my son was 2 weeks old. Big Regret. My mother in law spent time every day scrubbing and sunning outfits and the carseat from all the leaks. We had pampers and huggies along and neither worked. We have never taken a disposables-only trip after that. I use them for the day of airplane rides and that is it.

  • November 3, 2010 at 2:41 pm
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    >Here's a question- do you remember what kind/brand of diaper he was wearing that contained ALL the poop?! I'm sure we'd all love to know! 🙂

  • November 3, 2010 at 1:05 pm
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    >totally there with you, I rode the sposie train for almost 2 years with my oldest.

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