Diaper Diaries, the issues

I promise I have more interesting things to write about than cloth diapering.  Christmas, a wonderful wedding, crazy goings-on in our life, and adorable things my baby is doing, to name a few.  But seriously, how do so many mamas find the time to do this blogging thing so often?  Do they eat?  Do they sleep?  Do they leave the house?  My friends and I are good if we crank out a post a few times a week, let along a few times a day. 

Anyway, cloth diapering.  I can write quickly and I don’t have to find my cameras, cards and card readers in order to make it happen.  Cha-ching! 

I really like cloth-diapering.  My friend E told me that there was something oddly satisfying about washing a load of diapers and knowing she was saving a lot of money by doing it.  I totally feel the same way.  It’s not a lot of extra work (and that’s saying a lot for a laundry-hater) and it’s just working for me.  I like it!

That said, I am on the verge of giving up.  I am going crazy with the leaks.  I thought I had it worked out, and even took the diapers to my mom’s house to keep up with it over Christmas and washed the diapers there.  But then the leaks came back full-force, and worse.  Here are the possible problems and maybe solutions:

1.  The diapers themselves could just be cheap junk.  However, I really don’t think that’s the case.  I truly can’t see much of a difference between my diapers and a Fuzzibunz, except $15.  I did just order one All-in-One diaper from another company to see if it’s any better.

2.  They only leak at the leg casings., which still seem loose-ish. My baby is on the long and thin side, so even though she is still on the smallest settings, they are looser at the leg than a disposable.  They might just be too loose.

3.  I’m pretty sure that my baby is actually one of these so-called heavy wetters.  My friend C suggested doubling the pockets with an Indian prefold ($1.50 from www.cottonbabies.com, free shipping- thanks for the tip, C!), so I bought two to try them out.  I did try doubling her with two microfiber inserts at C's suggestion, which kept her dry with no leaks.  I also bought a hemp super-soaker ($3 from Cottonbabies) to try out.

4.  I’ve noticed that the insert in the pocket diaper doesn’t quite reach to both sides, and has a tendency to bunch up in the middle.  I found someone on Ebay selling handmade soaker inserts ($3 each, shipped) for this very issue.  They are a bit wider than a traditional insert and she added two rows of stitching down the middle to stop the bunching.

5.  I might have ruined my diapers.  You are only supposed to dry them on low heat, and without thinking I dried them on the wrong setting in my mom’s super-duper-amazing-really-hot-stainless-steel-lined dryer.  Awesome.  However, I don’t think this is really the issue either, because it only happened once, and I’ve even read somewhere that drying diapers that were leaking on a high-heat setting can re-seal the PUL by melting it a bit.

Crossing my fingers that something works!  Especially because yesterday I learned that a cloth diaper is awesome in a pinch when you’re an idiot and leave the house with no more diapers in the bag.  I just pulled out the two inserts that were already in the diaper and re-stuffed it with a clean burp cloth.  Not totally clean, of course, but totally dry!  Oddly enough, that thing lasted almost two hours (I had a million errands to run, so I just kept running and checking the diaper for wetness) and there was only the tiniest leak onto her under-onesie when I got home.  Maybe pink Target-brand burp cloths with pictures of princess castles are the way to go.  Better get on that, Cottonbabies.

Share