K.I. Baby Blues

After the first few months of cloth diapers a friend introduced me to WAHM diapers and covers. A WAHM is a Work At Home Mom. Most of these ladies have online stores set up with Etsy, Hyena Cart of facebook. One of the very first WAHM products I ever got my hands on were fleece covers made by K.I. Baby Blues. K.I. Baby Blues operates mostly on facebook and she makes fleece and wool covers, shorties and longies and other fleece and wool items.

Fleece covers, shorties and longies are basically a fleece diaper cover. Fleece is easy to care for, after each use just toss into the wash with your other diapers. You do not need to lanolize it the way you need to with wool. It is a synthetic material but it allows for better air circulation than the traditional PUL diaper cover.

 

This is one of her fleece soakers. It fits like a diaper cover over a fitted or a snappied prefold. I use these overnight over my Sandy's fitteds or my Little Fancy Pants fitteds. 

 

 

 



On the inside there are 2 options. She can make them as a single layer of fleece and extra reinforcement in the wet zone or she can make them like this, with a double layer of fleece. I like mine with a double layer because my son is a really heavy wetter overnight. He also sleeps about 11-13 hours. I have never had a leak with these. I love how soft they are.

 

 

Here is an example of her wool soaker. This is made out of a wool sweater and it has extra reinforcements in the wet zone.

 

 

The soaker comes to you ready to use. Because it is wool it needs special washing and lanolizing. You can't just toss this into your washer the way you can with fleece. Wool is a natural fibre, is naturally antibacterial and it can hold up to 30% of it's weight in fluids. Wool also helps control the temperature around your baby's bottom. This makes wool a great choice for summer time.

 

To order from K.I. Baby Blues check out her facebook page with all her fabric options. You select the fabric, the colour of the waist bands, the height of the waist band and the size. She provides excellent customer service and stays in touch with you through out the process. My son is really tall in the torso and not only did she make my soakers based on my sons measurements she also went above and beyond and found me specific fabric.  Her turn around is a few weeks because I am in the far north and she is in the US but these are well worth the wait. The soakers are under $10-12 plus shipping and that is a really great price, especially for the quality. I cannot say enough nice things about these.

 

Here is my little man in his custom Finding Nemo soaker, all ready for bed.

 





Cloth Diapers meet the Older Sibling

So I often hear moms on cloth diaper groups talk about "daddy friendly" diapers and getting hubby on board and all that. Well let me tell you some of my best cloth stories don't involve my husband. They involve my 11 year old daughter.

She is a big environmentalist. She organizes garbage clean up days, Earth Day projects, she advocates for animal rights (she is 1 reason Tide no longer lives here) and I dare you to say anything bad about Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherds in her presence.  She was totally into the cloth diaper idea. Now she has actually called dibs on some of her brothers diapers for when he is done with them. She has also tried to get me to buy diapers for my son because they would go well with the décor in her room....  hmm  don't know about that one.

In the beginning she was a little nervous about changing diapers in general. For her I had my trusty BumGenius 4.0 pockets and Freetimes with Velcro. Well then she got a hang of it and it was all good. She didn't do poopy diapers though. 

One day she was playing with her brother and I hoped in the shower. She comes and tells me he needs a change and that she can do it as long as it is a pee diaper. I said OK go for it.  a second or two later I hear "MOM!!!!!!!   HELP!!!!!!" I am thinking O my God the baby fell or something awful happened. So out I jump from the shower with shampoo on my head grab a towel and go running into the nursery. To find what?  Well a confused looking baby on the change table with his diaper half off with his sister looking mighty green beside him. Turns out as she was opening his diaper he was in the middle of a poop. A big one! Yup he pooped on her hand as she was wiping his bum. I can't NOT laugh... then she says in a most matter of fact manner " This child S**T on me!"  Not poop, crap, doodoo, nope s**t.  At that I lost it. I was laughing so hard I cried.

After a few more months she decided that poopies were not that bad after all. Maybe because we started solids so they were more plopable. Or because she liked the diaper sprayer. She insisted on spraying all the poopy diapers. Hey not arguing with that one. One time she was doing just that as I was getting baby dressed to go out and I hear a scream from the bathroom and we go running in. She had the head of the sprayer pointed so that when it sprayed it sprayed the wall not the diaper.  So she cleaned my bathroom wall but not the poopy diaper. 

In general I have to say I am blessed with an amazing girl, after all how many sisters get pooped on and then go back for more diaper changes?

If you have any stories about older siblings with cloth diapers please share. Someday's we just need  a laugh.

If I knew what I know now... One Year of Fluff

Well I know lots of you reading this are new to cloth diapers and to you I would like to say Welcome! It has been one year since I started cloth diapering and I have learnt so much in that year. This is a bit of an if I knew what I know now type of post. These are some of the things I wish someone would have told me when I started out with cloth diapers.

First off, regardless of what you read on blogs, forums and manufacturer websites the detergent you use isn't going to make your diapers blow up into a fiery inferno. You can use what ever detergent you want to on your diapers as long as 1. your baby is not sensitive to it and 2. you are comfortable using it. While some detergents void some diaper warranties and there are many detergents with less than favourable ingredients the choice is yours. If you are using the right amount and in the right way you shouldn't have issues. Some ingredients are best avoided because they are proven to cause issues like brighteners and softeners but even so it is your personal choice. You need to be happy with the results and feel good about using it. I tried many detergents and I always make suggestions based on what my experience has shown me. I prefer natural detergents to chemical ones even if I have to source it and order it but that is my choice for my family.

Secondly, KEEP IT SIMPLE. An over complicated routine with baking soda, vinegar, bleach, oxyclean is a sure way to get in trouble. You shouldn't need any additives if you use the right detergent and have the right routine. I find that a warm rinse, a hot wash with my detergent and a cold rinse to end is all I need to keep things going. Some moms have such over complicated routines it makes my head hurt. If you use baking soda in your pre-wash, detergent and oxyclean in your main wash and then vinegar in your rinse at the end how do you know where the problem is when it arises? If your detergent alone isn't cutting it maybe you need another detergent. This being said many with hard water find that adding calgon to help soften the water is needed and that is ok. Or if you use mainly cotton and find that it is really stiff after you dry it a touch of vinegar in the last rinse is again no biggie.

Third, Please don't reach for the additives the moment you have an issue.  Really, DON'T. 99% of the time a small tweak in your wash is all that is need. You have stains... sun them before you reach for the oxy. If your overnight diapers are a bit stinky... rinse them in plain warm water before you  throw them in your pail before you think Bac Out, not totally clean diapers after the wash.... try warm rinses first. This list can go on and on but you get the point. RLR, Dawn, Vinegar and baking soda all have their place in the cloth world but not as a regular part of a routine.

Fourth, If you need to strip your diapers start with hot water washes. You don't need RLR, Dawn or whatever else people may tell you. Again these things have their place. RLR, great for removing hard water mineral deposits, don't need it to strip soap build up. Dawn, amazing if you get a non cloth safe diaper cream on your diapers, again don't need it to strip. Stripping is removing built up residues from diaper fibres so why add things in if you are trying to work them out?

Five, if you have to strip on a regular schedule there is a problem. I have not had to strip for anything other than new to me diapers or when I switched detergents. If you are stripping frequently maybe you aren't using the right detergent or the right amount.

Finally number six, diaper laundry is really just laundry so don't over think it.

In the last year I have run into issues twice. Once during my cold water experiment but as soon as I switched back to hot washes it was all good. Second more recent when I realised that I wasn't drying my prefolds thoroughly enough and they were getting a musty icky smell as a result. I was washing them and the doing one cycle in the dryer then hanging them on the line. Well my clothes rack was in the basement where there must be more humidity and less air circulation than the rest of the house. As soon as I moved the rack upstairs problem solve. So in a year no real issues, and I don't use Tide, bleach, BacOut, Dawn, RLR or anything special. Just me and my washer and the detergent. That's it.

I would like to close by saying a big thank you to all the wonderful and amazing women I met through cloth diapering in the last year. You ladies are truly an awesome bunch!

Happy Fluffy Journeys.

Clean diapers shouldn't smell like a barn

So I love everything about my fluff. One of my favourite things is smelling the diapers when they are just clean and dried. I love the smell of clean fluff. But what happens when you open the dryer door and you are hit in the face with what smells more like hay and barn animals then clean diapers?  Well you my friend have a problem. Not hard to solve but a problem non the less.

Barnyard smell in your diapers means that they are not clean. End of story.  Thankfully it is simple to remedy.  Whenever someone has stinky diapers I suggest that they first clean their wash machine. It is good practise to clean your wash machine periodically even if you don't cloth diaper. Think of all the stuff that the machine deals with. To clean it you can buy commercial wash machine cleaners but it is not necessary. You can do the job with either 2 cups of regular chlorine bleach or 2 cups of white vinegar. Simply run a hot wash with vinegar or bleach and no clothes added. Finish with an extra rinse and you are done.

So you cleaned your washer now what? 

Barnyard can be caused by one of two things. First the diapers are not getting clean enough because you are not using enough detergent. This is common because the cloth community seems to advertise low dosing detergent. So if a regular load uses 2 tbsp. of detergent they will tell you to use 1/4-1/2 of that... um 1/2 tbsp. of detergent to wash pee and poop?  Don't think so! I always suggest using the recommended amount for your machine. So if a regular load uses to line1 on the scoop use to line 1. Now that being said people with soft water may need to use less and people with hard water may need to use more. As a safe starting point though, go with what is instructed on your detergent.

The second common cause of barnyard stink is because either you use the right amount of detergent but it is not rinsing away or you are using a bit too much and again it is not rinsing away. if the detergent is not rinsed away it stays in the fibres along with the pee and poop residue causing the stinkies. So what do you do and where do you start? Here are my recommendations try them in the order given changing nothing else:

1. Clean your washer.
2. Swap out the cold rinse at the end of your cycle for a warm rinse or warm wash. The warm water helps remove trapped particles better.
3. Add an additional rinse to the end of your routine. Those with HE machines or front loaders may need to add water to increase the amount of water going through the diaper.
4. Increase your detergent amount slightly. ( if you have been using to line 1 go to line 2, if you use 2tbsp use 3). Keep up with the rinses from before.  If you are using the amount recommended for a large or heavy load and you are still not getting the right results maybe that isn't the right detergent for you.
5. Switch to a cleaner rinsing detergent. My favourite detergent are Country Save and Nature Clean powder. Both are super clean rinsing and very gentle.

If you are still having issues you can email me at whitehorsefluffproject@yahoo.ca and I can troubleshoot with you.

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.

When your baby grows more like a bean stalk...

So ladies and gentlemen my son is destined to great heights. I mean it. My hubby is well over six feet and at 5'6" I only have about an inch on my 11 year old. So it should be no shocker that my 11 month old son is 33.5" tall and in the 98th percentile for his height.  This does represent a tiny bit of an issue with the average one size diaper though.

As my little weed grew I soon realized that not all one size diapers are created equal. They all advertise that they fit from 8-35lbs so birth to potty training, but what happens if your 25lber is too tall for the one size diaper? Well at the ripe old age of 11 months quite a few OS diapers don't work for us anymore. My favorite AIO the BumGenius Elemental is a no go. As are Tot Bots, Bummis Bamboozles ( there goes my trusty night time option), Fuzzibuns and a few others. So what am I going to do until potty training?

Well, Charlie Banana OS, BumGenius 4.0 Pockets,  BumGenius Freetimes and Happy Heinys still fit well at this moment in time but they are on the tallest setting for the rise so I am really not sure that they will last all the way through.  I also tried Kawaii and Alva diapers but I am not a big fan of them and their fit.

I recently got introduced to hybrid fitteds like Little Fancy Pants, Diaper Donks and Gray Star Boutique.  These diapers offer a OS option that still seems to fit well but they also have a toddler size that I may need to trade up to depending on when we potty train. These are a fitted diaper with a hidden fleece layer that acts like a fleece cover. Many families can use them coverless for the most part but my little fireman can soak through them quickly so I use a cover.  That being said some covers work better over these than others. My favorites include Capris, Blueberry and Thristies covers. All three of these offer a nice tall rise that has a fair amount of room to grow still.

I also really like sized diapers. At 25lbs the medium Fuzzibuns and Charlie Bananas still fit awesome!  The size guide show mediums to fit up to 30lbs and larges to go from 25-45lbs. I have a few larges and they are still too big on my little man.

So if you are faced with a bean stalk instead of a little weed give these a try:

BumGenius 4.0 pockets
Happy Heinys pockets
Charlie Banana sized pockets
Fuzzibuns sized pockets
Bummis sized prefolds and covers
Little Fancy Pants hybrid fitteds
Diaper Donks hybrid fitteds
Sandy's sized fitteds

Mama, It's Time to Strip!

So stripping diapers is a topic that you hear lots about. Everyone seems to be an expert at when and how to do it. So what is a rookie to do?

Well lets talk about the when to strip first. If you have a good wash routine you shouldn't need to strip as a regular thing. I repeat... Stripping is not a routine thing with cloth diapers.
How do you know that it is that special time?  If you are having issues like ammonia stink or leaks, it is time to strip. If you are switching detergents, it is time to strip. If you got second hand diapers it is time to strip.  So why would you need to strip in these situations?

Ammonia stink and leaks can be caused by a build up of detergent in your diaper fibres. These trapped detergent particles make it that pee and poop gets trapped in those fibres and don't wash away. This buildup causes stinkies and makes the diapers less absorbent over time. Stripping your diapers removes the buildup and in most cases fixes your smell and leak issues. 

The same principle is true when you switch detergents. You may have your old detergent trapped in the fibres and this can cause issues if you just start using a new one. In some cases the two detergents don't react well together and cause stink issues and/or rashes on your baby. Stripping the old detergent out of your diapers before starting the new one makes sure that your diapers are at a nice clean starting point.

The third reason to strip is when you get new to you diapers. Because you don't know what type of water and detergent the other family had you want to make sure to remove anything that may be in the diaper before using it on your baby. A good strip and a sanitize is needed. I always treat new to me diapers like they have the plague.

Ok so how do you strip?  Well there are a tons of methods out there advertised by cloth diaper retailers, manufacturers and bloggers. It is mind blowing! The most common ones are bleach, blue dawn, RLR and hot water.  Let's break these down.

Bleach is a great disinfectant, but it is harsh on your baby and the environment. You do not need bleach in your everyday routine. I do use bleach if I am dealing with a yeast diaper rash or new to me diapers. I always assume the worst with used diapers. Once any buildup is removed I wash them with my regular detergent on hot water with 1/4 cup of bleach. I double up the rinse to make sure all the bleach is out. Use regular chlorine bleach. While regular bleach is simple enough if you really don't want to use it you can use Oxygen Bleach. Add the full recommended amount to your hot wash cycle and let it agitate for a few minutes and then pause the cycle for about an hour to let things soak in. Then finish the cycle and double the rinse.

Blue Dawn is often suggested for stripping diapers. It is even recommended by diaper manufacturers and I find that so unbelievable. Here is the thing with dawn... it is dish soap and first and foremost it can void the warranty on your washer. Here is the second thing... it is a degreaser. A degreaser is great if you got a non cloth friendly cream on your diapers but really pointless to remove build up. Adding soap to fix soap build up really doesn't make much sense does it? Now if you got diaper cream on your diapers that you shouldn't have, use a bit of dawn and a toothbrush to scrub it out and rinse well in hot water before washing the diaper but for anything else keep dawn in the kitchen to wash dishes with.

RLR is a laundry additive to remove buildup.  Great right?  Well yeah but it is made to remove build up from minerals in hard water. According to the package it is supposed to help loosen up detergent residue but again you are adding soap to soap. It suds up like mad so you are going to be rinsing forever! No joke. I used 1/2 pack on a load of really dingy inserts once and it took 10 rinses to get the suds out. I suggest RLR if you suspect you have mineral build up from hard water but not for anything else.

Hot water.  Sound simple right? It is. Hot water helps break up soap better than cold water. So if you suspect soap build up or want to remove anything stuck in the fibres of your diapers wash in hot water without anything added and keep checking for suds. It will work out any built up soap and anything else that may be trapped in your diapers.

Any idea what my preferred method of stripping is?  Yup plain old hot water!  You don't need to use any special additive to strip diapers. In most cases 3-5 hot washes will do the trick. After you do your hot washes and have clear water in your rinse cycle you are done. In most cases this alone will fix your issues.

So now that you are a pro ... dare you to tell your partner that you are spending your afternoon stripping and make sure you take a pic of their face.