Monday, May 2, 2011

More of the Cloth Diaper World

I am really enjoying cloth diapering!! It just seems like I should have always been doing this and how was there any other way to diaper?! Part of what makes cloth diapering so wonderful are some of the accessories to diapering that I have been using; Monkey Doodlez cloth wipe cubes, Mother Ease diaper pail and sprayer, and Bummis diaper liners.

The Mother Ease diaper pail wins hands down against any other diaper pail. When I was using disposable diapers with my daughter I had a Diaper Genie. Despite what the box may say her room always smelt like dirty diapers. The Mother Ease diaper pail doesn't have any smell until you open it, and even then it doesn't seem to be as bad, mostly it just smells wet, though I use this as a dry pail system over a wet pail system. Both sides lock over the top of the lid so no little ones can get into it and it has a filter on the top. The filters are really inexpensive to replace. While this pail is more costly (I paid $36CND, which is not bad when comparing it to a Diaper Genie) I find it is definitely worth the money!

For the first week of cloth diapering I was rinsing the diapers in the bathroom sink (I would only suggest that with newborn diapers, otherwise make sure to do the dunk and flush method!) because the sprayer was not connected yet. My husband found this really easy to install. It didn't take him very long at all. I find the pressure of the sprayer is great for getting the mess off the diapers. My only complaint about it is the knob to turn it on and off; the little plastic cover comes off when turning it on, it would have been better to have made it with a plastic coating over the metal. A pretty minor complaint! I had seen online tutorials for making your own diaper sprayer, which was initially the route we were going to take. Many of the tutorials had claimed that you could make your own for around $25.00 but when we went to the hardware store just the spray head alone would have been around that price for a decent one. The Mother Ease sprayer had everything altogether already and was under $50.00. It seemed worth the money to go with something that was already put together than to potentially leave our bathroom underwater.

Cloth diapering = cloth wipes. Makes sense doesn't it?! I had come across an add on kijiji for some home made cloth wipes. Now anyone who has a sewing machine and knows how to cut a square could have made these wipes. They were made from receiving blankets. While I know how to cut a straight line, I don't own, nor really know how to use a sewing machine so I bought 50 from the lady who had posted the add. For something so simple they sure made my day! She sold them for $0.50 a wipe. Much cheaper than continuing to purchase disposable wipes (not to mention filling landfills with them.) I use them all the time, and not just for cleaning bums but for wiping up spit up and even in the bath tub. I have a multitude of wipe containers and read up on how to get the "pop-up" effect with cloth wipes using a wipe container.

Now I have never been great at making anything of my own. I had heard of the Monkey Doodlez wipe cubes and decided that I wanted to give them a try versus making my own wipe solution. A local online baby shop Sweet Lil Dimples carries them and had a sale. Again this is an area where I really wonder why I wasn't doing it this way before. I find the cloth wipes with the solution works so much better than the store bought disposable wipes that I had been using. I'm using less wipes than I would have normally, which is great because I'm the one washing them! They leave my son's bottom soft and clean. The wipe solution is very easy to make. Take one wipe cube and put it into 2 cups of warm water and let it dissolve. Then you can pour it on top of your wipes or put it into a spray bottle and use. The directions say warm water but I found that warm water wasn't dissolving the cube very well. I just boil some water in my kettle and pour over the wipe cube and that seems to work.

I have been using a biodegradable and flushable diaper liner by Bummis. At the moment I'm 50/50 on them.  For a while I thought they were the perfect thing for inside of the diaper to help with clean up. It would stop a decent amount of poop from getting directly on the diaper. Just pull it out of the diaper and flush. Though now I am finding that it is just as easy to use the sprayer and rinse the diaper. This liner doesn't stop the diaper from becoming yellowed, just helps with clean up when changing. I think the liners might be something I start using just when I am out. I've also found biodegradable diaper wipes since I still use disposable wipes when we take the kids out. Far better for the environment!

Well that’s all for reviews right now.  I will be reviewing more products in the future for different companies thanks to Alchemy Communications based out of Calgary.



post written January 21 2011 moved from previous blog 

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