diapers part 2

With child number 2 we made the move to cloth diapers.  Using the gdiaper system we already had, we simply purchased cloth inserts from CottonWood Baby.  I ordered these from the USA and my parents brought them to us when they visited after the birth.  I'm sure we could have made our own, but I didn't know the first thing about which type of material to use.  These inserts have a microfleece side touching the skin with organic hemp/cotton layers underneath for absorption.  We have had no diaper rashes at all, few leaks onto the outer cover, and they are quite absorbent.  The leaks were all due to using those old liners that I had handwashed.  This is how I learned that not following the exact washing instructions causes the elastic to break down prematurely, therefore not providing an effective edge barrier at all.

Note all the cracks along the elastic

Replacement was a little bit difficult, but achievable.  Perhaps the most complicated component of using this system is the fact that gdiaper products are not available in Australia.  Of course this means huge shipping costs from the US, if you can find a supplier that is willing to ship to Australia.  Fortunately, the Australian eenee system is completely interchangeable.  I bought a few new covers from them and they have lasted very well.  The gdiaper brand liners and much more cheap than the ones from eenee, so it was more cost-effective to have those sent from the USA.  I had to have them sent to a friend who could mail them to me, but they weigh next to nothing so shipping was very cheap.

System with cloth insert, eenee diaper covers

I admit that we have not used this system overnight.  We tried once, by putting two inserts in, and it was successful.  However the diaper was so bulky that bubs didn't seem comfortable.  Instead we have used Naty (Nature Babycare) biodegradable disposables and not had any issue with them.  They are not 100% biodegradable, but they are definitely a step in the right direction.  I'm hoping to invest in some all-in-one cloth diapers specifically for overnight.

But I know what you really want to hear about--the laundry and cleaning up!  After looking at the options, I picked a dry pail system.  We have a bucket in our laundry room and everything just gets thrown in there until washing time.  I wash every other day.  When we had breast milk-only poo (read=sloppy, unformed), I didn't bother trying to get the poo off the insert.  Once bubs hit 6 months and started having formed poo, I started flushing it down the toilet before throwing the insert in the bucket.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes the poo isn't a nice little nugget.  Usually just folding the insert a bit molds it into something easier to get into the toilet.  Think play dough...  Yuck?  Yes.  But honestly it's not that bad.  If there's little hope I'll get it into the toilet easily, I don't bother.  I've found out that it's amazing what a washing machine can do.  First I do either a short wash cycle, or just the rinse cycle, depending on how soiled the inserts are.  Then I run the full wash on hot, using about half as much soap as you would normally need for clothes washing.  I let everything air dry: if outside then it's done in a few hours, if inside in winter then the covers dry overnight but the inserts take closer to 24 hours.

It's never too late to switch to a cloth system, and I would recommend it.  It's definitely nowhere near as scary or smelly as I had expected it to be!

diapers part 1

I'm going to tell you about my adventures with trying to make eco-conscious decisions in diapering my children.  It's not going to be pretty because we are basically going to be talking about poop.  I will cover everything else, but I think the unknown of "what happens when they poop" is what can hold a lot of people back from using non-disposables.

When I was living in the USA and pregnant with child number 1, preparing for the impending arrival included choosing a diapering system.  Before doing any research, I had a couple preconceived ideas about diapers:
1. Cloth= I could remember from my childhood the cloth diaper service that my parents used for my brother.  I only have memories of a very stinky diaper pail and pointy diaper pins.  I don't really remember the service coming to collect the diapers, only that the pail was huge and smelly.
2. Disposables= The first thing that came to mind was an image of the diapers stacking all the way to the moon and back, never to degrade.  I think that picture was one of the first things they showed us in the late 80's at school when we started learning about reuse, reduce and recycle.

To help me decide, I actually set about calculating the costs.  Unfortunately we lived in an apartment complex with coin laundry, so that increased my costs quite a lot.  Cloth diapers were not going to save me any money, but they would be an investment in our environment.  However, I didn't go the cloth route because I discovered gdiapers.

Waterproof liner snaps in to cloth diaper cover, flushable insert will go into liner.
This is my oldest diaper cover (2 kids and 5 years) so note the curled velcro and pilling. 

gdiapers use cloth covers over waterproof liners that hold a flushable insert.  Flushable diapers!  I thought it must be too good to be true, but I was impressed that the inserts really did flush.  I found gdiapers just as absorbable as disposables, and didn't require much washing.  The diaper covers rarely got soiled.  The liners didn't get soiled too often and they dry incredibly quickly.  I chose to handwash the liners in a bucket in the tub, then hang them over the shower rod.  Apparently handwashing can cause the elastic to wear down more quickly, but I didn't notice much issue with the elastics until I used cloth inserts (so different inserts and quite a long time later).

Flushing the inserts never was too much of a problem for me.  You are meant to tear the insert so the pulp in the middle can fall into the toilet, then give it all a swish with a special stick they give you, and flush.  I found that I wasn't too keen on dealing with the inserts that had been pooped on, but you have the option not to flush.  The inserts biodegrade, so you can always just throw them away!

A gdiaper in action, pretty cute

The hubby also did a good job with these, which for us is a sign of a convenient system.  We were gifted the starter kit, then just got new cute covers when they were on sale.  diapers.com seemed to have pretty good prices for shipping new inserts, but usually I picked them up at Whole Foods.  There are also forums online where people sell and trade their gdiaper equipment, some getting really crafty and embellishing the covers.

Unfortunately when our child was 7 or 8 months old he developed a rash which would only get better if he was out of the gdiapers.  We tried to get him back in the gdiapers repeatedly after the rash would clear, but even after only 20 minutes in a dry diaper the bumps would start appearing.  We were bummed to stop using them, but saved all our equipment for child 2.  In part 2 of the diaper blog I'll cover how we were able to convert the gdiaper system into a cloth one.

natures organics

Perhaps most Australians are quite familiar with the earth choice line, or anything from the parent company natures organics, but I am new to them.  When I moved to Australia from the US I didn't know anything about the cleaning product brands here.  I went through trial and error trying to find things that worked well but didn't cost a lot of money.  Something about the earth choice packaging didn't grab me, and honestly I wasn't sure if natural products could clean as well.  Of course I should have thought back to my childhood of cleaning with vinegar, but apparently I like to shop with my eyes instead of my brain.

My first natures organics product I bought was actually kid's bubble bath.  How could I say no when it was the cheapest product by far and wasn't going to fill the tub full of funny chemicals?  Then I moved on to the earth choice laundry detergent.  Let me tell you, when I saw how syrupy the stuff was, I was worried.  But I'm very happy with it and have been able to use it for normal laundry, baby laundry, cloth nappies, anything.  My latest addition is the earth choice dish soap, and it seems to do the job although possibly not the best product for greasy things.  I will have to conduct an experiment in that regard, though, since I always wash the oily or greasy things last when the dishwater is rather spent.

Natures organics has a philosophy of trying to lower their impact on the environment and recognises that there are many things to balance in aiming to do so.  That's pretty much how I feel about any environmentally conscious decision I make.  I like that the company uses recycled packaging and bioplastic, has a palm oil policy, and is cruelty free.  In general now that I have tried a few different products and have been pleased with them, I am more likely to seek out the natures organics range when I need to get soap, body wash, shampoo, etc.  I think it might be time for me to seriously consider all the different products I rinse down the drain on a regular basis.  Health and beauty products could be a whole other kettle of fish, though, so stay tuned.