Tammy's Recipes

I love cloth diapers. I really do. I love having my babies in cloth....I love being able to change them and not worrying that I'm "wasting" a diaper...I love holding them in cloth. But I *HATE* poopies!! How do you handle it?!? I gag and almost throw up when I have to deal with them. Help! Any advice?!?

Thanks~Kelly

Those are great pictures! Making the diapers this way looks really easy.

Laura

I have bought receiving blankets at the thriftshop for making fitted cloth diapers. They often have so many and in great condition too. ~Tanya

This is great! I've never CD'd before but with the next one/ones I certainly plan to. I'm going to start scouring yard sales & thrift stores for these & make most the dipes myself.

Thanks!
~Tara~

I read that the flat fold diapers (just a plain cloth where you have to do all the fancy folding yourself)get cleaner than prefolds since all of the surfaces are exposed to get clean. Have you ever had any trouble getting prefold diapers nice and clean? I think prefolds sound more convenient, but wasn't sure about the cleaning issue. I just wondered about your experience.

Thanks!

I think prefolds get really clean if you make sure that you unfold them before putting them in the washer, so that there aren't any hidden pockets or creases with bf baby poop or concentrated urine in it. Also a good wash routine including not too much detergent and a thorough rinse cycle will get 'em nice and fresh too. Line drying helps but, isn't mandatory.

God bless!

Kelly, for babies who are exclusively breastfed, you don't need to rinse out the poopies before laundering. I never did with Yehoshua, but I did end up doing that with Eliyahu when he had blow-out diapers every couple days! ;)

But you're probably talking about babies who are on solid foods... in which case, fleece liners help a lot (the solids just fall off and not much sticks!)

Yeah, poopy diapers are an unpleasant fact of life. If every diaper were poopy, I wouldn't like using cloth diapers so well! ;)

However, I don't feel like I'm exposed to that much more smell when using a cloth diaper. The changing part takes the same amount of time, whether using cloth or disposables. Rinsing the poopy diaper in the toilet literally takes less than a minute. Maybe try a nose plug? :)

Tanya, I want to see your homemade diapers sometime! I've never used fitted ones. :)

Tara, good for you! :) I love cloth diapering. And it's so much better for the baby and the environment! :)

Anonymous #2, good advice! I've never had trouble with my prefolds not getting clean. I usually do a pre-rinse, a wash, and an extra rinse. :)

Thanks for the answers about cleaning prefolds.
I am working on making our own baby wipes right now. So far, I like them. Maybe cloth diapers will be the next step. :)

I just wanted to comment that my husband did make a homemade diaper sprayer for me. THe only thing is that after buying all the parts etc. it really didn't cost any less than the ones you see online. However, he also made a bucket thing that could 'hold' the diaper for me while spraying and let it drain before putting it in the pail. For some reason my computer isn't working with me so you can go to greenmountaindiapers.com and then click on accessories I think and they have a link showing the bucket/sprayer combo.

I had two in cloth for awhile and I used a combo of prefolds and fitted diapers, then shelled out for the Fuzzi bunz pocket diapers. They are on my third child now and have held up beautifully. Poopies still aren't fun, especially with my kids cuz the poop a lot!
However my baby is about to grow out of them, so i'm going to try flats and pins for the first time. (my dryer takes a long time to dry and no clothesline outside yet)

Thank you for this article, those look so easy to make! And who doesn't end up with way more receiving blankets than necessary? =) After three children, I've got a good stack of them and was trying to think up a good use for them.

I also make my own wool covers. You can find 100% wool knit sweaters for very cheap at places like Goodwill and so on. There are all kinds of instructions on the web for making "bum fuzzies" out of these. I really prefer wool covers at night because my boys have sensitive skin (reason we starting using cloth in the first place)and they need something that breathes through the night since that's when they are in them the longest.

I am loving your blog!

I have done cloth when I had 2 in diapers for cost efficency. I had to buy expensive diaper soap because my son was sensitive even to All free and clear. When my daughter potty trained I quit since the soap and the store brand diapers were the same amount per month. I am now pregnant with #4 and will have 2 in diapers again in August. I am using cloth again, and I love it again. Also, I'm going to try your homemade laundry detergent to cut out the cost of diaper soap. All the store brands seem to have too much build up.

PS I use rubber kitchen gloves when rinsing out the poopy diapers in the toilet. I have used a diaper spayer and it was wonderful, but I'll have to wait a month or so to get one again. This is day 2 of cloth diapering:)

I have been cd'ing for the last 4 years and I have used kissaluvs, motherease and chinese prefolds. I have been having a hard time with the amonia smell that comes with my son urinating. The problem mainly is with the kissaluvs. I have boiled them, I have ran them through numerous rinse cycles to get the detergent build-up off and still they seem to smell AWFUL when peed in! I actually had to put the cloth diapers away and I started using disposables...that bad! Do any of you have any advice?

Blessings,
Annette