Wednesday, March 07, 2012

fluffy bottom {the prefold}

in my process of deciding about cloth diapers i did a lot of searching for information about how to use the various types. there really is a lot of great resources out there to help with this journey. it also really helped me to get some hands on at our local store. got to see and try them out on a teddy bear. after all is said and done, my go to diaper is a prefold and a thirsties cover. in all honesty as easy as the pockets are to use, i really prefer to use my two step diaper instead. i have never had a leak using this method, where we have had a couple leaks with the pocket diapers. i think there may be some fit issues with our pockets. as little man grows, they should fit better. for now they are the daddy friendly diaper, until hubby gets good at changing the prefold.
so i got my prefold, snappi & cover (and my little one), how do i put all this on him?

i currently use the angel wing folding method. i will explain other methods as i use them in the future,

1. place prefold under child. because little man is still so little i have to fold down the prefold so it is not so long on him. i put the fold against his back. adjust as your child grows.
 2. fold the front of the prefold, the two edges meeting in the middle.
 3. fold the front over baby.
 4. fan out the front so the prefold covers the front of him and the back corners will overlap.
 5. pull one backside corner over the front side.
 6. hook snappi into the flap and pull across him.
 7. pull opposite backside over the front and hook with snappi. there should be tension on the snappi.
 8. pull down the lower hook of the snappi while pulling up on the center top portion and hook snappi into the diaper. again, it should have tension. the snappi should make a "Y".
 9. grab cover & place under child.
 10. fold front of cover over child.
 11. pull flaps tight over the front and secure.
 12. check your cover. all cloth should be covered. none should show, period.
 13. check the other side. oops, this side has cloth showing. adjust the covers flap to cover the cloth.
 14. recheck your work. no more cloth showing.
 15. ready to go!

so the clean one is on, what do i do with the dirty one?
i have a few ways of dealing with this. upstairs in little mans room i use a diaper pail. more specifically i have a diaper champ. love my diaper champ. the best thing about it is that you can use regular trash bags in it.
so i take the prefold, whether wet or dirty, and just put it directly in the pail. yup, that is all i do. if the poop is a little more on the solid side, i might shake it in the toilet before putting in the pail. for now this is all i need to do. both breast milk and formula are water soluble and do not require you to do anything prior to throwing in the washer. once they start eating solids, they require a little more prep prior to washing.
typically i can just rotate the cover. i wipe it out and lay it to dry for the next change. if poop happens to get on it, i throw it in the diaper pail as well. i wash my covers about once a week to twice a week in general.

downstairs, i have my large wet bag hanging from my pack-n-play. i just put the dirty diaper in the wet bag.


how do i wash my dirty diapers?
once i begin to run low on diapers, which for me it is about every other to every third day, i have to run a load of the dirty diapers. i take my trash bag out of the diaper pail, grab my wet bad and bring them to the laundry room. i dump all the prefolds and covers in the washer. and if the wet bag needs it, i throw that in too. just turn it inside out first. i set the temp to hot wash. i first run a rinse cycle, with no detergent. once the rinse cycle is done, i add my rockin green detergent (about 1 tablespoon of detergent) and run a full wash cycle. i separate out the covers and hang them to dry. drying them in the dryer can cause them to wear out. take the wet bag out too. i then throw all the cloth prefolds in the dryer on high heat at the most dry setting. i only dry my prefolds in the dryer, everything else i line dry. once dry, they are ready for use.

every person i talk to has their own system for diapering. this is just what i have found works for me. there are many ways to do everything involving cloth diapers. find what works for you and go with it.

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