Cloth Wipes

Nov 18,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>So, I keep catching myself wrapping the diapers around the disosable wipe, and it’s only a matter of time before I wash one & have a big mess on my hand. I also learned that the “sensitive, alcohol free” wipes I was using weren’t so much.

I’d read about homemade disposable wipes on frugal living blogs. I didn’t want disposable and I was concerned about all the ingredients in the “recipes” because of cloth diaper safety, bum sensitivity and so forth.

I researched and found that the stars and cubes of wipe solution concentrate that WAHMs make would work best for me.

I had trouble finding affordable spray bottles, but my hubby ended up finding some for .97 at my most favoritest place ever (not), Wal-Mart. I picked up some distilled water, and ordered a sample pack of cubes.

I researched cloth wipes and even though I’d only have to use each wipe maybe 40 times for it to pay for itself, I again couldn’t bring myself to spend the money.

Instead, I grabbed some soft burp cloths that were a little too thin for my heavy spitter. I cut them in half, folded them in half, then zigzagged the edges to form two fray-free, double thickness cloths, each 1/4 the size of the original cloth. They fit perfectly in a wipes container, but I did choose to use a squirt bottle instead of pre-moistening them.

The solution smelled great, was easy to mix up and cleaned my baby’s bottom without irritating it. 1 cube made 8 oz of solution, and I am sure you could stretch it much further. 8 oz lasted about a week, putting the price per hiney wipe at rock bottom (pun intended).

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Cloth Diapers Diaper Rash

Chugging along

Nov 18,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>We’ve been using 6 bumgenius per day, which means we have to use 2-4 disposables per day. Sometimes more.

I’ve got a good system & washing routine down and I’m loving them. I do wish I had enough for at least a day and a half though. I end up having to stay up late waiting for the washing machine so i can hang them to dry in order to be able to use them in the morning.

It’s very apparent that the cloth is helping his rash, though he is always red after a night in sposies, even when slathered with diaper cream.

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Cloth Diapers

OMG how are we going to pay for a wedding!

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / 2 Comments

>I, the overplanner that I am, have a hard time living in the moment, and tend to freak myself out over stuff that may or may not happen in the very, very distant future. e.g. Going from worrying about pregnancy and childbirth (while pregnant with my first child) to hyperventilating over potty training techniques, school choice, dating, drugs and *thud*.

So, after I made an amazon wishlist of the different diapers I’d like to try, I started obsessing over diaper pails, liners, wet bags, diaper liners and OMG-I’m going to have to clean solid foods poop off of these things-hysteria. This would be followed shortly thereafter with an obsession over cloth wipes and then diaper sprayers, stay tuned.

Now, I needed to figure out how to get said diapers. I sure as heck didn’t want to pay for any more disposables, and even though 1 cloth diaper cost the same as two packs of sposies at a good price or 2.567 packs at a really good price, the cost was hard to swallow.

Due to some new and unexciting financial woes, we really didn’t have the funds to pay for necessities, not even disposable diapers.

My hubby decided that since he had time between work & class (for his Master’s Degree, yes I’m proud of him), he’d donate plasma. The first week, he made $60. $25 for each donation, and $10 for doing it twice the first week. He gave it to me and told me to order three more BG 3.0s! Yay!!

He chose clementine, ribbit and moonlight (I think, I get the two blue colors confused).

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Cloth Diapers

The verdict

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>I was so psyched to try the diapers, they arrived so fast and were adorable. I chose the grasshopper, butternut and twilight colors. They are soft green, yellow & blue, though a little brighter than they had looked on my computer screen.

The instructions said I only had to wash them once, though some other materials become more absorbent with each wash.

I dried the inserts in the dryer, laid the diapers flat to dry and waited impatiently.

While I was waiting for them, I had figured out how long it would take for one diaper to pay for itself with full time use, for those 3 to pay for themselves with once daily use, and how long it would take to recoup the cost of a full stash with full time use.

Finally, they were dry, and within the first diaper change, I was hooked. They were a cinch to put on and were adorable to boot. Hubby called him a bubble butt but I thought the fluffy but was too stinkin’ cute (get it? stinking? ’cause it’s a diap…oh never mind).

It didn’t take long to see how much less irritated his bottom was during the hours he was wearing cloth. But, since we only had 3, we had to put him in disposables the rest of the day, and slather him with diaper cream.

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Cloth Diapers Detergents

Detergent Drama

Nov 16,2009 / By Maria / No Comment

>Since I can’t leave well enough alone, I kept researching and found more, conflicting information on the safety of the detergents we found locally.

I also found an awesome group of cloth diapering mamas on cafemom and asked a barrage of questions, including what their washing routines were, and what detergents they used.

The general consensus was that everyone loved a cafemommy made product called lil outlaws. Cloth safe, none of the no-no ingredients and smelled great. No one had any problems with buildup, smelly diapers or hiney irritation, even for those moms whose babies had sensitive skin. The best part was that a bag was $15 postage paid, and would do 140 loads in my HE washer!

I sent my poor hubby to return the detergent he’d purchased and impatiently waited for my detergent to arrive.

Long story short, I’m happy to see a conclusion to the diaper detergent drama!