Category — Cloth Diapers

Front-snapping  or side-snapping cloth diapers?  I’ve googled it many times in the past looking for pros and cons for each type of diaper.

When my daughter was really small, we used mostly front-snapping diapers with a single row of snaps.  Then as she grew, I found that front-snapping diapers with two rows of snaps in the front fit better.  As she became more active, I’ve started liking side-snapping diapers because I could put them on my daughter while she was standing.  I’ve also started using my bamboo side-snapping AI2 diapers (without soakers) as trainers.  So, lately I’ve been concentrating on making side-snapping diapers :-)

Which type of diaper do you prefer and why?

Zorb(TM) is one of Wazoodle’s DiaperMaker fabrics.  According to the manufacturer, “Zorb absorbs 10x its weight in less than half a second — that’s 20x faster than cotton, bamboo or hemp. Zorb has incredible holding power too, a single layer holds up to 3 times the moisture of the best absorbing knits”.  How could that not make you want to try this new fabric?

The popularity of Zorb has been on the rise.  A lot of cloth diapering moms think it’s a solution to their night-time cloth diapering problems.  Some think it’s miracle cloth… at least until they try it.

As a lot of you know, I make Zorb doublers.  The doublers are actually made of two layers of OekoTex certified bamboo fleece and one layer of Zorb.  I think a lot of people forget about the bamboo fleece part of the doubler.  They forget that bamboo fleece itself is very absorbent (after several washes of course), that Zorb alone does not do all the hard work.

Zorb(TM) and Bamboo Fleece Doubler

Here are some pros and cons of using Zorb that I’ve experienced:

PROS:

• Quite absorbent
• Does not retain odours
• More cushy than bamboo fleece by itself
• Cheaper than bamboo, hemp and organic cotton.

CONS:

• I hate sewing with it.  I find that I’m spending more time serging Zorb doublers than bamboo fleece only doublers.  I also tend to make more mistakes when sewing with Zorb than without.
• I find the absorbency of one layer to be comparable to that of two layers of the thinner bamboo fleece.  Note that 1 layer of Zorb is approximately as thick as 2 layers of my thinner bamboo fleece.
• It’s not made of natural fibres only.  Might not bother most cloth diapering people out there, but it does bother me a little.  If you looked at my diaper stash, you’d see that most of my diapers are made of natural fibres only.

So, what do you think about Zorb?  What has been your experience with it?

2. Storing the Dirty Diapers

If you’re just trying out cloth diapers, you probably don’t want to purchase a diaper pail – a good wetbag or any other waterproof bag will do the job.  Then when you decide to buy more diapers, you can buy a diaper pail or continue using a wetbag.

Some people will put dirty diapers in a wet pail which is just a container partly filled with water.  Others will place the diapers in a wetbag once the waste has been rinsed off .  Diaper sprayers are quite popular for diaper rinsing.

3. Washing Cloth Diapers

The information on cloth diaper washing is of course the same for those who are switching to cloth diapers and those who are planning to cloth diaper from the beginning.

Probably the most important part of washing your diapers is detergent.  Always check the ingredients to make sure there are no optical brighteners, fragrances and dyes added.  Enzymes should also be avoided since they get activated when wet and start digesting organic matter, including your baby’s bum!  Tide Free & Clear or President’s Choice (PC) Ultra Free are two examples of detergents that include enzymes.  For cloth diaper safe detergents please see Diaper Jungle’s chart.  Diaper Jungle has a separate chart for front load washer which you can find here.  Please note that Nature Clean detergent in powder form is safe for cloth diapers and nowadays is available in a lot of supermarket stores.  Recently, a new detergent has been gaining popularity in the cloth diapering world.  It’s called Rockin’ Green Soap and it has been specifically made for cloth diapers.  For now the detergent is available in the US only, but don’t be surprised if you see it in Canada very soon.

Once you think you have the right detergent, here are the steps most people follow:

(1) Cold rinse (or short cold wash with no detergent).

(2) Hot wash with 1/4 – 1/2 of recommended detergent followed by a cold rinse.  It might be a good idea to start with less detergent and if that doesn’t get your diapers clean, add a little bit more.

(3) Smell the diapers, if they smell clean, run another rinse.  If they do not smell clean, run another wash cycle with some detergent.

(4) Tumble or line dry.  Please note that the sun is great for bleaching poop stains.

Remember not to wash too many diapers at once, especially if you have a front loader.  We recently purchased a front load washer and after a couple of unsuccessful washes, I finally figured out that I need to set the machine on a “whites” wash with a pre-wash (it’s always cold).  I also set the water on hot,  the soil level on “heavy” and I choose “extra rinse”.  This is what works for me, but it might not work for everyone.  After a few washes, you’ll find out what works best for you.

4. Detergent Build-Up

Once in a while, something happens and you end up with stinky diapers.  Sometimes you’ll get stinky diapers because they haven’t been washed properly, but a lot of the time the reason for stinky diapers is detergent build-up.

To remove detergent build-up, wash the diapers on hot (without detergent) a couple of times.  Keep washing until you see no more bubbles.  I think I’ve only had to do two hot washes at the most.

There’s a lot of information out there on the subject of how to get started with cloth diapering.  However, I haven’t seen a lot of good information for people who want to switch from disposables to cloth diapers.  I think those who switch from disposables need slightly different information than those who are planning to cloth diaper from the beginning.   So, let’s begin with the initial purchase of cloth diapers meant for those who are switching.

1. Buying Cloth Diapers

I recommend doing some research first to find out which type of diaper you might be interested in trying.  There’s a lot of styles out there and the prices vary from a couple of bucks to $200+ (I heard the most popular fitted diaper sold for at least that much at a Hyena Cart auction).  Just google some cloth diapers and you’ll find a ton of information.  Remember not to panic – you’re not buying a house after all :-)

If you’re switching from disposables to cloth diapers, I do NOT recommend buying a huge number of cloth diapers.  We had very few cloth diapers in the beginning and we started off slow.  The diapers we had back then were quite inexpensive compared to the popular brands.  I wasn’t a fan of those diapers, but thanks to my research, I decided to stick to cloth diapering because I knew there were better cloth diapers out there.  The first cloth diaper I bought myself was a bumGenius 2.0 pocket diaper.  I was amazed how nice the diaper looked compared to what I’ve seen before.  I couldn’t believe how easy this diaper was to use.  It’s as easy to put on as a disposable!  With this diaper though, you do have to stuff the pocket with an insert before use.  The AIO/AI2 diapers do not require any stuffing.

There’s a chart on The Diaper Jungle website that describes the four major types of cloth diapers used today.  Most people who want to switch to cloth, would probably be most comfortable using AIO/AI2 or pocket diapers.  Those diapers will cost you a bit though, but remember that you’d be paying a lot more for disposables in the long run.  I’ve probably spent no more than $400-500 on my 21 month-old daughter’s cloth diapers and I have A LOT of diapers.  I actually sold some of my used diapers online, so I probably got at least $150-180 back.  I’ll have more on the subject of selling used diapers in a later post.

So, once you’ve decided which type of cloth diapers you’d like to try, it’s time to find out where to buy those diapers.  If you want to go with mass produced diapers then your local baby store might have those.  If your local baby stores do not carry cloth diapers, then use a search engine to find online cloth diaper stores.   If you’d rather buy WAHM (Work At Home Mom)-made diapers then you might want to check out the following sites:

Hyena Cart

Etsy

Remember to try different diapers and not to buy too many the first time you purchase them.  I also recommend trying different doublers and/or inserts.  You want to find out which diapers and doublers/inserts work best for you.

In the next post, I’ll talk about washing cloth diapers.  It’s not as hard as you think!

For those of you who don’t know, I use cloth diapers.  I make them as well :-)  When nothing goes wrong, I use them 100% of the time.  A handful of times I’ve had to deal with detergent residue thanks to switching detergents and/or using different washers.  I usually know it’s a detergent residue issue because our sensitive monkey gets a diaper rash.  Normally, she does not get one with cloth diapers, so I know what’s wrong immediately.

We recently moved and had no washer for 5 weeks.  During that time, I hand washed the diapers 3 times, my mom washed some in her washer a couple of times, and I went to the laundromat once.  The visit to the laundromat did not end well since my daughter ended up having a rash.  I suspect it was detergent or fabric softener residue in the washer from previous users.  So, whenever I need to re-wash the diapers, my daughter wears disposables (which isn’t very frequently).  Because I worry about what’s in disposables, I usually go with the “eco-friendly” ones.  Over the next couple of posts, I will write about the following disposable diapers:

• Nature Babycare
• Moltex OKO
• gDiapers
• Seventh Generation
• PC GREEN

1. Nature Babycare

This Swedish award-winning diaper is said to be more breathable because of a corn-based biodegradable outer film.  The Nature Babycare diaper and packaging are chlorine free and are potentially compostable (however you need specific conditions for that to occur).  The diaper does contain some SAP (Super Absorbent Polymer), but less than other disposables because of a unique, patented channel construction.

I chose this diaper because it has corn-based materials rather than plastic.  I’m also cautious about SAP, so the less of it, the better.  I do wish the diaper was a little softer on the outside and that the tabs could stick to anywhere on the diaper, but these are not major issues.

We only had one leak with this diaper and I think it might have been because the diaper has been getting a bit small.

2. Moltex OKO

Another compostable diaper made with corn-based material.  This one is made in Germany.  I only used one Moltex diaper which I received in a free trial pack.  The first thing I noticed was how much softer the diaper was as compared to the Nature Babycare diaper.  The diaper also seemed a little bigger, but it fit my daughter very well leaving no gaps.  She wore this sample diaper overnight and we had no leaks even though the diaper was quite heavy in the morning.

The one thing that I don’t like about this disposable is that it seems to have more SAP than Northern Babycare.

In part 2 of “Eco-Friendly Disposable Diapers”: My experience with gDiapers, Seventh Generation and PC GREEN diapers.

Organic Bamboo Velour

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been making bamboo cloth diapers, doublers, inserts and cloth wipes for a few months now.  I fell in love with bamboo fabric, when my daughter became a heavy wetter and cotton diapers failed to hold the HUGE amounts of pee that came out of this little baby at night.  We actually ended up using disposables for a couple of months until I discovered bamboo fleece.  Around that time I started making diapers, so I decided to play a bit with different fabrics and try to find out which one would work best for us.  After doing some online research, I decided to order some bamboo velour, bamboo fleece, bamboo loop terry, and bamboo french terry.  I also tried hemp fleece, but never got hooked on that stuff.  I found it too rough after a few washes and it stained more easily.  It also has a tendency to get a bit more stinky than bamboo.  That’s my experience though.  I know a lot of people out there LOVE hemp fleece.

After some extensive testing courtesy of my daughter, I decided to go with bamboo fleece because of its absorbency and softness.  Bamboo velour felt softer than bamboo fleece, but it just wasn’t absorbent enough.  Although velour is a a great fabric to have as the inside layer of a diaper, right against baby’s skin.  I also love the fabric for cloth wipes / washcloths.

If you’d like to read about the benefits of bamboo, check out the following article:

http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/benefits-of-bamboo-fabric-547961.html

I just love that bamboo does not require pesticides to grow and that it’s anti-bacterial.