I’m participating in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. This is the third annual flats challenge, designed to bring awareness to diaper need and how cloth diapers can solve the problem. Last year I had a 5 1/2 month old, breastfed baby, and an almost 3 year old wearing diapers at night. This year I have a 17 1/2 month old, and I wondered if it would be a lot worse than last year!
I don’t think there’s any way to write this without being a little gross; I’m talking about p-o-o-p! Last year, my son was 100% breastfed, so while the dirty diapers were easy to clean, nearly every one was dirty! I actually enjoy folding flats (my favorite is the origami fold) and folding them gave me a better chance of keeping the covers clean vs. pad folding. He was (and is) wiggly, and it is a whole lot faster & easier to just pad fold the flats.
I was a little worried about the grossness that is toddler poop, and hand washing the diapers. Before the flats challenge started, I joked that I wasn’t going to let my son eat fruit during the challenge, hee hee. The funny thing is that he had an “11th hour” dirty diaper on Sunday night, and he had eaten mandarin oranges. (Say it with me…”ewwww!”) It was literally 11 at night, I am changing this diaper, and thanking him for doing it before midnight. 😉
He generally only has 1-2 dirty diapers per day, and the next one I changed was totally “ploppable.” I’m using fleece liners to make the flats stay dry (he has sensitive skin) and it made clean up very easy. There was more to wash off the wipe than the liner or diaper, and the cover stayed clean.
Pad folding makes it super easy for anyone to change a diaper too. I have my covers stacked up, pre “stuffed” with a pad folded flat & liner. I have another stack of pad folded flats/liners so I can just swap out the flat, or change the whole thing and air out the cover. With this method, I’m really not finding it more difficult than my pocket diapers (aside from a little extra assembly!)
The nice thing about hand washing/covers is how quickly and easily you can hand wash & air dry a cover if you are in a pinch & running low! As I’m writing this, I’ve only done this for two days, so I may feel different by the end of the week, but I am feeling pretty good about the flats challenge. Particularly if you have access to a washing machine even just once a week.
Are you participating? How is it going?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
The 11th hour comment made me laugh!
I asked if he was pooping (he was still awake) and DH was like Yeah son, get it all in while you still have the good diapers, LMAO!
Hi there! Can you tell me what kind of flats your using and what your washing everything with? Thanks!! I applaud you for trying this!!
Click flats challenge at the top (under the title) to see all my flats challenge posts…I posted yesterday about what I’m using! Mostly flour sack towels with hemp flats at night & using eco nuts liquid to wash! 🙂
Thank you! I find your hole website so informative!! Thanks for helping newbie cloth diaper’s!!