Baby Gabriel's 9th month has been all about crawling. Little did I realize that most of my diaper blogs from month 1 to 8 are pretty much only applicable for a non-crawling baby that is very happy to lay down and get his diaper changed (or unhappy to be there, such that be your luck) . Once that movement happens, then this is a different ballgame.
My plans for the "optimal" cloth diaper changing station, for instance, are pretty much not working anymore, except for one thing. The mat:
Let us recollect for a minute a smaller baby that used to stay like this long enough for pictures!
The mat is a must for a crawling baby. Any sort of altitude in your setup and the baby may be crawling into the floor anyway (with less desirable results). The trick of unfolding a cloth diaper to catch a messy diaper on the mat can still help also. I cannot say that I have yet found the best way to do the changing. Grabriel is not that happy laying on his back for diaper changing anymore (except for very, very few instances like just right after he wakes up in the morning). I have used a trick now and then to give him something to play with while he is laying on his back and that has mixed results.
I think my wife has been experimenting with putting the diaper backwards so that she changes him while he is crawling. I haven't given a try yet but that will be my next one in my "things to try list" for me. And as always, I will report back to you on how my adventures go on that end. Until then, adios!
WARNING: This blog post will acknowledge the existence, consistence, and odor of poop!
Hello there! If you read the warning and are still with us, welcome! So this month, I'm going to talk about a new recent addition to our cloth diapering. Diaper liners!
Diaper liner on a flat diaper with cover
Our baby Gabriel is growing, and quite recently. He started eating solids. Before, when he was nursing for 100% of his food needs, poop was not too much of a problem. It didn't smell very bad, and my wife was pretty much OK with just throwing it in the diaper pail for washing. Now, after the solids, things changed quite a bit. The smell can be quite strong and you don't want that thing sitting in the diaper pail for too long, specially if said diaper pail is in your bedroom. Now, if said poop is just something that "plops", not much of a problem. You can just take the diaper to the toilet, plop it and move on.
You cannot rely in the poop being easy to toss in the toilet though. Sometimes it can be quite messy. If you are using our diaper service, then my wife will tell you not to worry but just put it in the pail anyway for her to take care of when she cleans the diapers. In our home, my wife still can take care of it but she will do so right away. She basically takes the diaper pail to the toilet and gives the diaper a good splash there until most of the poop is gone and the diaper is looking decent. Not a pleasant task by any means.
Now, those with disposables might say, AHA! disposables for the win, eh? Well, let me tell you, I came from a disposable world where I didn't plop anything. I just filled the Diaper Genie with every type of disgusting diaper there was until it was filled. The Diaper Genie did not contain the odor though. Those diapers still smelled awful and the whole room smelled awful. That's why the brands recommend you to dump the poop in the toilet if you can. And if you don't believe me, check their site:
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Dump any poop into the toilet if possible. Fold up the dirty diaper and put it in the dustbin or diaper pail.
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https://www.huggies.com.sg/en-sg/diaper-tips/get-the-dirt-on-diapering
Now, going back to cloth diapers though, I was changing a diaper once and there was a poop, the messy kind. Under it though, there was a diaper liner. It was magical!! I could just remove that liner and plop it in the toilet and flush! It was so great, that I'm using diaper liners pretty much almost all the time. My wife does too. And we can now hear in the house a yell of "on no! I didn't put the diaper liner this time because I thought he was done pooping!" (between you and me, that was not me ^_^).
So diapers liners 150% recommended once the poops get messy and smelly!
So on Part 1 of my "On the Go" blog I started with the "hard" mode. Of course, we are not going to expect to always rely on a t-shirt for all of the diapering on the go needs. So what do I "actually" do you say?
Well, in the picture I'm showing you what I like to use. I got an Eddie Bauer diaper bag when we first had Michael, our first baby and although a lot of its pieces are no longer with it, I really, really, like that thing. It was one of the items on the gift registry list that I could actually look forward to.
A lot of diaper bags look girly, pretty much like a big purse. The prospect of carrying one of those around for a long time was not pleasant. So when I saw the Eddie Bauer diaper bag, I was really exited about the prospect. It looks like a regular backpack, so you can still look decent carrying it. The features did not disappoint either. I don't think Eddie Bauer still sells the one I bought back in the day, but this days Amazon recommends this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Eddie-Bauer-Back-Diaper-Heather/dp/B077N4G6DW/ref=sr_1_4
If you are wanting your hubby to help with cloth diapering (or diapering in general on the go), give that idea a try. Let him choose the model too. Maybe there is one that he will like better. Also, once your kid is old enough for daycare then you will also have a bag pack you can use and, let me tell you, that thing has lasted a long time.
Now, as for to what to put in the bag. Before I became a Cloth Diaper Papi, my must have items were a Kleenex box, a box of wipes, and a good quantity of diapers. On the cloth diaper side, I now like to just have a bunch of flats and extra covers. I actually realized that, with enough flat diapers and cloth wipes, I can actually take my custom cloth diaper change setup* with me!
*(sans the mat, of course) (I talk about that in my cloth wipes article).
I'll be doing a series on cloth diapers on the go. I thought about different ways to do it and I decided on taking it to the "last" level and going down to the "easy" level at the end.
The last "hard" level is the shortest post. Back when we were using disposable diapers, in the "last' level of diapering on the go I just needed one single diaper somewhere in my car. The rest, I could manage to handle as long as that happened. It was not really "ideal" though. A disposable diaper outside its "element" doesn't really "age" well. I do remember that one time that I was in a car pool lane to drop off my kids and all the sudden that "one" diaper fell off my car. It was dusty and looked like I had just had a dirty diaper hanging around. The lady receiving the kids in the car line picked up the diaper that fell and put it back in my car with this look of disgust of the ages.
So yes, I am not missing those disposable diaper days. So, what is the "last" level of diapering on the go? Here it is:
Yep, a t-shirt. Cloth diapering takes it to the next level with a T-shirt. Specially if you use covers like I like to do, then it is even more straightforward!
Back before cloth diapers, when we had our first baby (Michael), I was very particular about my diaper changing accessories. I posted before about the kind of diapers I used, so I won't repeat myself here. Besides the diapers though, on the go I had a backpack that had to have a portable changing mat, disposable wipes, and if possible, some Kleenexes. I was really big about having Kleenexes around because they were a good way to dry after the wipes and also have a chance to do one last "cleanup" before changing to a new diaper.
When Gabriel was born, I started using the cloth diapers but I didn't necessarily give up the Kleenexes and disposable wipes. I hadn't used cloth wipes at all and was not really sure about them. I am a changed man now and I have moved to the cloth wipes camp. Let me tell you why.
The reason is very practical. If you use disposable stuff and cloth stuff at the same time then you will need two bins or receptacles. One receptacle or bin will be for your cloth diapers and the other receptacle will be for your disposable wipes or Kleenexes. I told my wife that the second receptacle could be a diaper genie, which was still hanging around on our garage, I think, but I got a hard no from my wife on that one. Instead, we used to have a small container for those and we would need to move the trash to our bathroom's bin every so often.
Cloth wipes are a much more convenient option for cloth diaper setups. Pictured is what we have for us*. Basically, we keep dry wipes around and then we have a receptacle where we put some wipes and add some water on them from time to time. The wet ones fulfill the same roll as the disposable wipes and the dry ones can work in the same way as Kleenexes did for me. The best of all? They all go into the same bin! (*I should mention that our customers have a much more convenient setup with pre-folded wipes in a cloth wipe dispenser and a special mix applied to them so that they can be stored safely).
I recently came up with a new "innovation" as well for my ultimate cloth diaper setup. You already saw it on the first picture in this post but I'll put it here again so you don't have to scroll:
If you read my previous posts about the setup, you'll recognize most of the components. If you haven't and you are reading this post without that context (if so, hello!! thank you for dropping by!), I'll fill you in: I like to use a mat on the floor as the baby cannot fall from the changing mat into the floor. It now has three main components:
I must confess that the cloth diaper pee catcher has not seen action yet (so I'm still testing it). I did start having problems with the flat diaper on that role because at 5 months the baby can already grab things and the flat diaper pee catcher was ending up in weird places:
The cloth wipe pee catcher is more out of his reach although he will still grab it if I'm not quick on the change. Again, this is a work in progress so I'll post later whether the cloth wipe pee catcher was able to shine on the moment of truth or whether I will be coming up with a new innovation towards my ultimate, "mess-free", cloth-diaper-mat setup of the ages. See you then!
I have a confession to make to you: could you keep it a secret?
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You know the main reason I didn't want to do cloth diapers for my first two kids?
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(just don't tell anyone, OK?)
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Wetness indicators. I loved wetness indicators! When you get out of the hospital with the little tiny new baby, you usually get as part at your "package" some Huggies or Pampers for newborns and they will invariably have wetness indicators. Ever since that very day when we got baby Michael, there were two diapers in my world: the ones that had wetness indicator and the ones that I didn't want to use!
That actually gets hard as the babies grow older because most brands will remove wetness indicators eventually. And generic brands or cheaper brands won't usually have them. Hence reinforcing my view that wetness indicators were "premium" and the distinguishable feature for a "good" diaper.
Now, as you know, constant reader, I'm the cloth diaper Papi. So what about my wetness indicator? Well, I figured out, I was born with it. Let me fill you in in the secret:
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(just don't tell anyone, OK?)
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The index finger!
Alright, alright, here I probably lost most of the mommas that are reading my blog. So I might be now writing for the one cloth diaper dad that is not intimidated by the idea or some moms that are willing to get their hands "dirty" when it comes to cloth diapering (bad pun, I'm sorry, it will be the last one, I promise, don't go away!).
I saw some really "bizarre" recommendations to avoid touching your baby's cloth diaper to see if it is wet. Some recommended checking every so often, others touching the outside to see if it is cold or "squishy". For me, the index finger inside the front part of the cover to see if it feels dry is the most effective way. If you are checking for a "poopy" diaper then a wetness indicator is not needed but your nose should be sufficient (and the older the baby gets, the farther away you'll need to check!).
Now, I actually thought twice about posting this and adding this "tip" to the conversation. Mostly I did wonder about the argument that it is not a "pleasant" thing and that you do get your finger "dirty". The realization I had recently was this: you are basically doing the same thing to your finger as what the diaper is doing to your baby's bottom and front on all his places. If it doesn't feel good for your index finger, you very well bet your baby is not feeling good about it too! Do this experiment: wet a small area of your T-Shirt and wear it for a few minutes. I'll bet you will be wanting to change that thing pronto.
Of course, wash your hands afterwards. I'm writing at the tail end of "COVID times" so having an extra reason to wash your hands regularly will actually be a good thing. Now, a final thought is this tip might be better for boys since the wet stuff happens in the front so there is less of a chance that the finger catches "something else". So if you have a baby girl and you have tried a "natural" approach, let me know if you can. Not sure if this cloth Papi will get to try that tip with a new baby girl in his lifetime. And good luck!!
Edit: My wife read this one and asked, is this really a post saying that disposable diapers are better? Not really. I was going to talk a bit about that but then I removed it from my original post. Basically, using the "natural" way is not necessarily worse that a wetness indicator. It is faster for sure as you don't need to remove all the clothes. Also, the wetness indicator is not reliable sometimes as diaper may be wet or dirty elsewhere. If you don't want to get your hands dirty then do almost the same as you would do with a wetness indicator, remove all the clothes around the diaper and then look at it. And if you are reading this far (I'm very impressed), then I assume that you know that we are doing cloth diapers for other reasons as well, right?
Hello there constant reader! It is good to be back. I haven't been writing as much because things were pretty much the same and I also went back to work after getting a few weeks off with baby Gabriel.
Baby Gabriel is growing and we are now in that nice month where he start laughing
It is so funny to realize how many things are "learned". There was one particular moment with one of my sons that was wanting to grab some water in the shower and I said he could use his hands and I realized, wait... he doesn't know he can cup his hands to grab water! And there are so many other things in the world that we take for granted but sometime, somewhere, a mommy, a daddy, a grandparent, or a caretaker first told us about it when we were little.
Okay, back to cloth diapers. Today, I wanted to write about my constant journey to a "big-mess-free" diaper change. There has been a new step on that evolution:
I talked on my previous blogs about my changing mat and how I like to change diapers in the floor because babies cannot fall from it (unless your house is really, really, weird, that is). I recently had issues with poopies staining the new covers I had under him, which resulted in another poopie cover and poopie flat.
So there is a new hack with the flat that is so simple, I don't know why it took me so many years to realize it. A flat diaper can also be a mat cover! So now, we have three flats with different hacks:
So with the flat diaper mat cover, if the poopie leaks somewhere, that is just one flat that goes to the bin and not another cover. It is also helpful for drying after all is wiped and clean. Once things look good, then we insert the new diaper. And on that, I have another tip (just don't tell my wife): I use the covers that I like the least because after a poopie, sometimes there is another one!
There are many articles out there with tips to get your hubby to help with cloth diapers. There is something I find pretty common on all of them. They are written from the point of view of the wife, which makes sense, because how many cloth diaper papi bloggers are out there, really?
Here is my take. Of course, every situation is different but I will tell you my thoughts from experience from 1) having 4 kids and telling you what my wife tried on the first 3 and why it didn't work and 2) actually running a diaper service and hearing our customer's personal stories.
So first, a few dont's:
Ok, so what to do instead?
So pick a reasonable number of days and a reasonable reward and then present the challenge to your hubby: I challenge you to use only cloth diapers for x days for y reward. The reward is optional, by the way (most of will just be happy to know we accepted and completed a challenge). The response will likely be:
And there you go, off to the races. I'm telling you that it works because my wife challenge me and I accepted the challenge. We actually failed the challenge (but that may be a story for another day) but after the challenge, my opinion of cloth diapers changed.
Now, as I said, mileage may vary and our customers are a good example for this. We have customers where the husband was the one asking for the service and even self-promoting the service. His reason? he believed that cloth diapers would help with the sensitive skin of his baby and he would tell anyone in his radius to do the same. I was skeptical about this but after a month of changing piles of cloth diapers I haven't needed to use a diaper rash cream once. Of course we had other customers where the husband is not supportive at all. There is hope though: sometimes we are indeed stubborn beings but we can eventually change our minds. So best of luck!
I wrote on my previous entries about how we were using flat diapers initially for our baby. Lately, we have been using fitted diapers some more (as pictured) and I was not sure how I felt about it until very recently, hence me writing this article.
The featured image shows the fitted diaper. My wife is preferring those because they tend to wrap better around and then we don't have to be too worried about not putting the cover snug enough. It is also nice to take the cover out and do an initial check, without getting immediately sprayed sometimes by a high-pressure cannon.
Above is my current setup for changing diapers. After going through three other kids, the floor is my personal friend as the baby cannot topple over and there is one thing less for me to worry about. The careful observer will also see that I am using a flat diaper as a "pillow" so that the baby doesn't lie in a "colder" surface. That flat diaper is also my backup whenever the previously mentioned indoor shower happens.
I place the flat inside the pocket of the cover, but that is pretty much only to make sure is placed correctly. My wife and I have found it better overall to remove it from the pocket once we actually place the diaper. So let's look at the flat diaper once it is in place:
Putting the flat diaper on and getting snug is the hardest part (if you don't want leaks, that is). Above, you can see my workmanship. It definitely doesn't look as neat as it would if it had a fitted diaper under and I need to work with the baby to get the back right.
Here is my beef with the fitted diapers though: First, they use snaps instead of Velcro. They are a bit of a paint to snap and it sort of feels that you are doing the work to put two diapers on instead of just one. And that last thing, was the deal breaker for me because, guess what, I sometimes forgot to put the cover because in my mind I was done. The first time it was a good natured "oh he only has the fitted on he might leak..." remark from the wife but then there was another one "arrgggg... you forgot to put the cover on and he peed all over me!".
With a flat diaper, you will not make that mistake. It will be more of a struggle snuggle but in the end the baby is with a cover and a diaper. I haven't had problems with leaks and we have a giant amount of flat diapers so that will be my "default" unless it doesn't work anymore, or if, of course, I need material for the blog!
I promised you I was going to write some more about Velcro cloth diapers. Boy o boy, what excitement today! I don't know if you notice in the pic right away, but there is something quite remarkable...
A belly button! This was the music that queued in my head:
(You don't have to watch the whole video unless you really want, it was the only one that I could find that started with the song in my head*)
Why such excitement? Let me tell you, diapering is a pain without the belly button like that. We have sizes that are small enough to make sure that the belly button is not covered but during the nighttime those may not be quite enough. Some other arrangements sorta worked but I will not go into more detail on them (instead, follow your medical professional's recommendations on how to take care of the umbilical cord).
So, going back to Velcro. Velcro covers turned out to be what helped most with leaks. The diapers can be adjusted very minutely so that all the sides are smug. The problem for me, though, is that there are many ways to get it wrong. One time I adjusted the diaper too much and baby complained (he is a very calm baby so I was able to tell right away). Other times I messed up the angle and the Velcro part was rubbing against the belly some. And some other times I just got everything wrong and it leaked anyway.
Overall though, I'm getting less leaks with Velcro so on that it is the clear winner. I'll just need to keep practicing!
* The Ode to Joy by Beethoven is part of a much larger composition (Beethoven's 9th Symphony) and most of the time the videos you will find will be of the whole thing.
Simply Clean Diaper Service is located in Shreveport, LA.
Contact us directly for local pickup address.
