So recently I was singing the praises of cloth diapers and told someone I had it all on my blog - what I use and the links and all. Well, as I came back to my blog to tell where I realized that was not quite true. It is all here - in various places (comments sometimes) but kinda difficult to find, so here is it all compiled together with specific emphasis on the night-time part.
Cloth diapers are wonderful and have many many perks. Hmmm. . .while I'm on the topic I might as well first share a list of why I like cloth diapers so much (in no particular order).
1. less waste
2. less money
3. cute covers
4. fewer leaks
a. I have only had one wet leak in cloth diapers and that was because the cover was cracked on the inside and I did not realize it - this is in all my time so far with cloth - going on the fourth kid.
b. I have had a few poop explosions, but far less than when we used paper full-time.
5. they make me feel good - who knows, they just do :)
So, with that said, on to the main point of this post, to talk about using cloth diapers at night. The trouble I have run into is that I cannot fit enough cloth on the child for them not to be TOTALLY soaked by morning. (as many kids sleep 10-12 hours a night - yep, mine do too!) I struggled from one option to the next for a long time, but now I have found a solution that works pretty well for us. I fell on it somewhat by accident and somewhat by being creative.
I use an all-in-one starbunz and cover it with Nikky all-night-pants. Then I cover that with either a fleece cover or an ecco fleece cover. In place of the all-in-one starbunze I sometimes use
a sustainablebabyish fitted diaper or a Baby BeeHinds fitted diaper. (But the sustainableabyish does not keep baby as dry as starbunz - the baby beehinds is a little better but starbunz is really the best - and it is soo cute! - too bad I have to cover it up.) I use a fitted diaper at night because trying to put more than two prefolds on a baby gets really tough to cover - too much bulk.
I had originally bought all these components either on-sale or one at a time thinking the individual one might be the solution I was looking for. As it ended up I just needed to combine them. Creativity is worth so much.
*Warning, this combination does give baby quite a nice-sized behind (although I think it is cute) but my kids don't seem to mind so much - hopefully yours won't either!
[btw - in case you were curious, we usually use prefolds (toddler size) during the day with a basic cover like thirsties or bummis or kissaluvs.]
So that's the story - Stacy - this is just for you - but I expect you to comment and share what
"God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." -Romans 5:5
wow! you have a lot of different kinds of diapers. do your kids ever get rashy? i had to give up on night time cloth and another friend agreed that her kids got rashy too once they got older-we named it toxic toddler pee. that was with ben and honestly, with max i've been to lazy to try to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteHehe, Mary - having kids in diapers for five years straight (usually two at a time). . . well lets just say we have accumulated quite a stash. But I belive we are still coming out ahead money-wise, than if we had been using paper these last 5 years.
ReplyDeleteWe have only had rash trouble with Jacob (our 2nd youngest). After much frustration I have come to the conclusion that he is just a bit more sensetive to different foods - not necessarily allergic, just more sensetive. He would even get rashes in paper. It really depends what you use to sanitize I think. We generally just hang them out in the summer and let the sun do it. In the winter if they get a little more "ripe" than usual I will put some vinegar in the second wash, but not for Jacob - for Jacob we just do a pre-wash or a third wash sometimes. There are lots of other sanatizing agents, out there, though - I might have to look into them if I can't get Jacob potty trained by this winter.
Oh and once the kids get older I agree it gets worse. I think of it as encouragement to potty train. Unfortunately, the only one encouraged is me. I just put them in underwear a lot more cause it is very breathable - even if they wet it every couple of hours. I'm doing laundry anyway -my hope is that eventually they will realize being wet is not as fun as peeing in the potty.
At night, as they get older. . . well Rebekah has outgrown my cloth diapers so we have her in a regular (generic) paper pull-up. Expensive, but not so bad since she is the only one. If I had a bit more sewing skill I would make a diaper big enough for her (as I do have a cover I could use) but I don't have the skill now or the time to learn. Samuel just wears a pair of the Nikky all-night-pants as he does not pee much at night. Jacob is the only one in the five tons of diaper cloth :) Well, and Paul is beginning to need more cloth at night. I have started putting a prefold in a fitted diaper for him.
Ok, I have talked about this way too long. But I really need to escape reality for a few minutes (it is CRAZY here) and I'll even take talking about diapers as an excuse.
thanks for taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly. you just may have inspired me to try nighttime cloth again. hope you get to have a peaceful day today.
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