The Tummy Flu vs the Fluff

So kids get sick. It is unavoidable. I have never felt as bad and helpless then when my kids were sick and beyond giving them some meds to help with their fever or whatever all I could do is try and comfort them. It is an awful experience. Another awful experience is dealing with a stomach bug when your little one is in diapers. 2 words... Blow Out. With my daughter and disposables it was a nightmare! Being that I had to go back to work early and she was in daycare full time since she was about 6 months old there was a LOT of tummy bugs. With my son I managed to avoid all that until now. I go back to work in about a week and he started daycare 2 weeks ago. After his first week we got sick!

Poor little man had the works. Fever, vomiting and runny poops. Well there was NO way I was going to use my nice hybrid fitted stash or my favourite pocket diapers while he was going through all that. I also didn't want to go and get disposables because I know how often those blow up, not kidding, blow up.  So what to do?  All I can say it thank goodness I have a healthy stash of cotton prefolds and Flour Sack Towels and covers.

While we were going through the tummy issues there was a day were we went through 11 diapers. Normal I need about 6-7.  I used prefolds with a snappi and a cover as much as I could. That helped contain the messes a lot better that any pocket would have. Once I ran out of prefolds, I only have about 6, I used a tri-folded Flour Sack Towel. That was not as great but it did the trick. I also rinsed every diaper in warm water before I tossed them into the pail.

For washing I didn't change too much in the routine other than rinsing everything in warm right away. Once B got over the bug I did add 1/4 bleach to my hot wash just to sanitize the diapers before I put them away.  I think if I stuck to my hybrids and pockets I would have been sunning a LOT. Not to mention possibly changing outfits more often.  Thankfully prefolds and FST clean up really easily and seem to be pretty stain resistant. 

Moral of the story?  Prefolds may seem simple in design and not the most attractive, but are pretty mighty in function. Don't pass them up because you never know when you are going to need a simple, not so pretty alternative.