Cloth Diaper Info

We'll use Mommy Bear to show how to install a cloth diaper.
Also, how to make cloth wipes and diaper doublers.
And many other goodies and tips.

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05JAN1999
Please, remember it is better to be prepared for any curve ball thrown
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Updated 2001JUN08 - Minor tweaks.
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Philosophy
Shareware
Rules
Cloth Diapers
What to Buy
How to Install
Dealing with a Bowel Movement
Washing
Cost Savings
The Night Time Sleep
Making Cloth Diaper Wipes
Making Cloth Diaper Doublers
Diaper links and other sources of information

Gardening Info

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An important detail for families with young children: Cloth Diapers, when you run out those nice nifty paper diapers what are you going to do?  Don't you hate that feeling that you never even tried a cloth diaper?  Don't you wonder what would happen if you ran out and had to make due with towels?  Yuck.  Get to Baby's-R-Us or Target and buy 36 pairs of Gerber "Tri-fold / Prefold" diapers. (details below) Your child's bottom will never look better . This is more work in short run, but you'll learn you child's "voiding" pattern and will learn when a change is needed, as opposed to the "change when obvious" method that disposables lull you into. Also get two diaper pails and 4 pairs of diaper pins (stick the "working pair" of pins in a bar of soap -- this makes them easier to insert).  Don't be shy about doing this, we've saved a serious amount of money doing this, and our child's bottom looks great (when we take our child to the doctor, he always comments about how good the bottom looks) and the landfill has less diapers.   We wash every 4 days, the pails won't hold any more, & you don't want to ripen the product any longer than necessary :^).

Many daycare allow cloth diapers, you must take home the diapers every day, and deal with the solids promptly.  Is the $558 a year an incentive? You bet!

A tool to add to the list is the diaper duck   link broken Be sure to get two.

Diaper Changes., a good book.

What to Buy
Gerber "Birdseye weave" cloth diapers cost $12-$16 per dozen, Plastic Pants ~50¢ each, and pins were $1 per pair. The Diaper bucket ranges from $10 to $20 depending on the size and brand.  We bought our first at a garage sale for $3 in excellent condition.   "Birdseye weave / Gauze weave" is a very absorbent weave, avoid synthetic fibers when ever possible.  36 pairs of Gerber "Tri-fold / Prefold "diapers UPC #15000.82913 (12- Prefolded with absorbent pad, Gauze weave cloth diapers 14.5" x 20.5". Or get the Diaper service version $12 per 6 - 14.5" x 20.5" UPC #15000.82906. We were very disappointed with the Dundee Prefolded Cotton Diapers, very thin compared to the Gerber's.) (Buy only the 14.5" x 20.5" Size, 12 pairs should be about 8" or thicker) and 18 pairs of plastic pants all sizes (they will wear out -- stiffen/  harden up).

• 4 pairs of diaper pins
• Two diaper pails By Gerry Baby Products 25 Quart With a Pour Spout, Model # 475, UPC #37434.47503,  P/N 029653168
• Plastic pants: about 18 of each size, they will crack and wear out overtime and use -- mainly little pin holes and tiny crack / tears.
• Wipes: Get any soft flannel fabric available in the sewing / fabric section (inexpensive / close out) See instructions below.   Make about 70 squares, from a 45" wide bolt of fabric get 108" in length. Store them in a any old disposable diaper wipe container, covering them only with water.  We keep a few dry for clean up purposes.  Try to get pre washed fabric to avoid excess shrinkage prior to cutting.
• Diaper Doublers: Get more soft flannel fabric, to make 12, get 144" length from a 45" wide bolt of fabric. See instructions below. Try to get pre washed fabric to avoid excess shrinkage prior to cutting.

Installing a diaper :)

How to place "Tri-fold" cloth diaper on a child:
This method will contain even those BMs that would make a disposable diaper will fall off and run away & hide.

• Lay diaper long ways on diaper changing pad

 

 
 






• Lay child's bottom on diaper with the edge under the navel,
• Gently pulling the the diaper at groin area twist once (180°) this gives the best fit, then continue the gentle pulling of the diaper up to the navel

 

 
 






• Fold extra material over as a flap on the outside.

 

 
 






• Pin on each side.  Pinning technique: make a peace sign (two fingers) under the diaper and pull the cloth diaper away from the waist, push the pin between the two fingers.

 

 
 






• Fold over that little flap under the legs, this will help prevent leaks - Notice this was done in the next photo -- look where the GAP that will cause a leak and notice the little flap is folded.
• Tuck completely in plastic pants, not tucking well provides the pleasure of washing the bed, the clothes and the dolls. Be sure the plastic pants fit the legs tightly - with NO gaps, GAPS = LEAKS!

 

 
 






• This is how NOT to tuck the pants! -- See the big gap, it will leak!

How to deal with a Bowel Movement (BM):

• If Firm: then shake the BM off into toilet and drop the cloth diaper into a diaper pail. Wash your hands.
• If Not So Firm: shake off and the using toilet paper wipe off any excess into the toilet and drop the cloth diaper into a diaper pail.  Wash your hands.
• If Oh, My What a Mess: Shake off into toilet bowl and HOLD tightly to a corner and flush toilet, I said hold tightly! Then let soak in the toilet for a while [10 minutes or longer], or until the next Oh, My What a Mess comes along. The best way to let soak is to hang the clean corner over the edge of the bowl and retain using the toilet seat foot/ bumper pad [that little bump on the bottom of the seat]. Lower the seat on the diaper corner and then lower the lid. Then before the transfer make sure the corner is UNDER the bumper and STEP hard on the lid and flush -- trust me, make sure it's under the bumper or you'll be calling the plumber!  Then slide over the diaper pail and pick up the diaper corner and drop the diaper into the diaper pail.  Wash your hands.
• Comment: We have never had a 'blow out' using these, and our little one's legs are thinner than most. We have had problems with disposables.  We have had the BM leak out into the plastic liner, but that is what the pants are for, clean up the major excess using toilet paper and just throw the pants into the diaper pail. The TP goes into the toilet.
• Hint: Keeping your child healthy will help avoid the Oh, My What a Mess diaper - I believe it is one strong motivation!  Washing their hands before eating, and making sure they don't put their hands in their mouth unless they've just washed.  Yeah, it is really hard and relapses of thumb sucking and finger sucking do occur - almost always followed shortly by a Oh, My What a Mess diaper.

Washing:

• Pour off the soaking water into the toilet, do it very slowly and carefully-- not the kind of mess you want to cleanup even once -- trust me, I'm an expert. [Practice this with clean water first] Pick up the diaper pail and set it on the rim of the toilet, then start to pour out the center spout with the lid closed.  I have found the prying the lid up just a little, while still retained shut, allows for a nice clean pour. Sometimes you just don't get a good pour, stop pouring and wiggle / shake the pail a little - a diaper maybe right at the spout and blocking the flow.  You don't need to completely drain the pail of all water, just most to make it easy to move to the laundry area.  I use a clean diaper to wipe up all surfaces, and use that diaper as the 'pusher' when dumping the pails into the washing machine.
• Pour the pails into the washing machine. Sometimes a whole 'clump' of diapers will stick between the rim and the center agitator, use that wipe down diaper as your pusher. Add a ¼ dose of laundry soap into each pail. Wash your hands.
• NO FABRIC SOFTENERS, it clogs the fibers - making them no longer very absorbent.
• "Pre wash" using the complete permanent press cycle.  Hot water and lots of soap, full load of water and soap. Use a full dose of laundry soap.
• "Main wash" using the normal / heavy duty cycle. Hot water and lots of soap, full load of water and soap. Use a full dose of laundry soap.  You may want to use some white vinegar in the last rinse. DO NOT pour vinegar into the bleach dispenser! You will make toxic chlorine gas.
• I've not needed to use bleach as it will ruin the fibers.  Sun dry with lemon juice, and re-wash the won't come clean "soiled" diapers, about two of those a week.
• If you do need to use bleach, do it in the "Pre wash", so it will be rinsed out in the "Main wash".
• We have an electric water heater -- so the estimated cost for water / hot water and electricity is about 80¢.
• Fill the diaper pails with water to just below the handle hinge, you should of already added a 1/4 dose of laundry soap. We had used our child's bath water (from an inflatable kiddy tub in the bath tub).
• Wash your hands.
• Dryer dry the laundry load on high heat, our dryer requires about 75 minutes for 2 pails and 45 minutes for one pail. Sometimes the diaper doublers are still not dry, so they get hung up with the plastic pants to finish drying over night.  Do NOT dryer Dry the plastic pants - it makes them brittle and ruins them quickly.

Cost Savings:

¢= the cent sign - i.e. 75¢ == $0.75 -- Some web browsers don't read this correctly.

[Based on early 1999 pricing]
The load is 25-35 diapers and ~50 wipes every four days, bladder control is getting better.
We had used Pampers (regular) @ ~ 20¢ each
Huggies' wipes @ ~2¢ each
Minus 80¢ for detergent & energy (hot water and dryer)

Savings: 30* 20¢ + 50* 2¢ - 80¢ = $6.20 per 4 days == $46.50 per month == $558 per year
We do use Pampers for some trips and other times when you can't get to a washing machine.
This does not include the initial cost of the supplies, which is less than $200.  You can search on the net and find some great deals and or used items.
Diaper Pail          2* $35    =    $70
Cloth Diapers      4 * $15    =    $60   that's 4 dozen diapers.
Plastic Pants       3 * $3      =    $ 9
    Get three 6 packs for $3, in each size - this is the only wear item.
Pins                    2 * $3      =    $ 6
Fabric        10'+12' * $2      =    $44  10' for wipes, 12' for doublers
     The doublers are not needed until your child is older.
     Try to get pre washed fabric to avoid excess shrinkage prior to cutting.

Bare bones getting started and to keep going:   $125
Diaper Pail          1 * $35    =    $35  -- You'll be washing every 2 days
Cloth Diapers      3 * $15    =    $45   that's 3 dozen diapers.
Plastic Pants       3 * $3      =    $ 9
    Get three 6 packs for $3, in each size - this is the only wear item.
Pins                    1 * $3      =    $ 3
Fabric                10' * $2    =    $20  for wipes
    You can double diaper larger children for night time diapering.
     Try to get pre washed fabric to avoid excess shrinkage prior to cutting.

You can do a really bare bones of not using a NON child proof container, if you have a NON Mobile infant and no other children. You MUST get a child safe pail once the infant starts to move around or have any young children!!!!  I will be exploring some other pails.

The Night Time Sleep
[Old Info]
And we still use Pampers for the sleeping diaper, we just aren't ready for the "Big" 11+ hour sleep in cloth,
this amounts to one diaper a day.  Which is a big difference from the 7 - 10 a day usage.
We have a good supply of disposables, so the bed time issue can be tabled for a while.
[end Old Info]
 

Making Cloth Diaper Wipes:
Try to get pre washed fabric to avoid excess shrinkage prior to cutting.
Get any soft flannel fabric available in the sewing /fabric section (inexpensive / close out).

Wash the whole batch flannel in hot water and soap, and dry well.  Make sure it is not to wrinkled, or you will need to 'coarsely' iron the fabric for easy cutting.  This washing will pre shrink the flannel.

Make about 50-70 squares, from a 45" bolt of fabric get 90"-108" in length.
Cut them into ~9" squares and double fold (hide the raw edge) + sew the double fold.

Store them in a any old disposable diaper wipe container, covering them only with water (some folks make an herbal oil mix).  We keep a few dry for clean up purposes.

When on a day outing we still use regular paper wipes (from an abundant supply), and just toss them in the pail too, they wash out very nice --but we still pitch them.

Making Cloth Diaper Doublers:

When wetted just the drop doubler into the diaper pail like all of the other items, the diaper, the wipes, plastic pants and now the doublers.  If BM'ed then you'll need to soak them see dealing with a BM, a diaperduck link broken will be handy for this operation.

The sewing is not hard just a bit tedious and well worth the effort. Make 12 diaper doublers from 4 yards of fabric.  We had doubled up cloth diapers, but this is hard to do on an older child since the waist is growing in size. Also, a doubler is smaller between the legs. These Diaper Doublers are 3.5" x 12" and made from a 12" by 42" section of soft flannel fabric and folding them so there are no exposed ends to fray. Try to get pre washed fabric to avoid excess shrinkage prior to cutting.

Before cutting wash the whole batch flannel in hot water and soap, and dry well.  Make sure it is not overly wrinkled, or you will need to 'coarsely' iron the fabric for easy cutting.  This washing will pre shrink the flannel.

Folding instructions:

1. Hint: Make the first fold about an 1/8 of an inch shy of the center and the next about 3/16 th and all of the following folds a little bit less (a 1/16 th) than the previous, this will allow for a nice main fold.
2. Lay flat the 42 inch section from both ends fold 7" from each end. Now 28" wide.
3. Fold the end to the middle, now 14" wide.
4. Fold again, now 7" wide.
5. Fold in half - resulting in a single thick fold and two thinner folds on the other side.  Now 3.5 wide."

Start (M= middle) Lay flat
42---------------------------M-------------------------------
Total width 42"

Step #2  fold each end in by 7"
Total width= 28"

            ______  7                     7______
           |_____28_____M_____________|
 

Step #3  fold over by a full half
Total width= 14"

                     ___7 _____      ______7_____
                    |   7_______|    |______ 7 ___  |
                    |__14_______M____________ |
 

Step #4  Fold over by a full half, again
[It will look something like this, please don't hold me to it.]
Total width= 7"

                     ____3.5____     _____3.5_____
                    | ___3.5___  |    |  __3.5____    |
                    | |  _ 3.5--  |  |    |  | --3.5_     |   |
                    | |  |_3.5__|   |    |  |_3.5__|    |  |
                    | |___3.5____|    |____3.5___|   |
                    |_____7_____M_____________|
 

Step #5 Fold over by half,  again
Total width= 3.5"

                   ____3.5____
                  |   ____3.5__|   <-- Lots of layers inside
                  |   ____3.5___  <-- Lots of layers inside
                  |___3.5_____|

                     ^-- Be sure to stitch the inside raw edge
                          and get all of the inner folds stitched
                          so they would not bunch up.
 

Step #6 Begin sewing.

Start with a regular stitch and then finish using a serger like stitch.  Sew the thick main fold, making sure you sew the raw edges deep inside- do it three times.  Then sew the double fold do it three times. Then sew the raw edges on the top and bottom.  Wash them about four or five times before the first use - throw them in any load you can, this will soften them up.

Some other interesting cloth diaper links:

Born to Love  A really good cloth diapering resource and starting place. Some nice links on how to make the 'Pre-Fold' Diapers.  You can make the 'Pre-Folds' out of flannel and terry cloth (read: old towels).

Getting Started With Cloth Diapers  I really like her introduction.  We tried the fancy diapers and covers and found the inexpensive covers and diapers listed above have worked far better than the fancy ones - this is manily because our little one's legs are thinner than most childrens. You REALLY don't need to spend a whole lot of money!

My Diaper links page
 

Comments or questions? Email us: Diapers@ofuzzy1.com

Off topic section:

Garden supplies:
Epsom Salt (great for tomatoes), Fertilizer (costco sells miracle gro now for $10/ box!)
Garden tools: See http://hearthoe.com/product.htm the Disc Hoe (not the music genre', but music to your soul when clearing ground cover for zee garden.)  Please mention Ofuzzy1.com when you buy one.
It's a must buy, what took me 30 minutes to do with a shovel, took me 10 minutes to do TWICE as much.
BTW we just planted our garden, and we used some beans right from the grocery store.  Black, Pink, Garbonzo, and Soy.  These came right out of the bag for cooking, had over 80% sprout!  They produced very well, amazing well.
[2000April] Also we planted sweet potatoes grown from a grocery tatter that had some root left on it, stuck it in a wide mouth jar and supported it with tooth picks.  It and sprouted some nice stems within 2 weeks and we snipped the stems and stuck them in wet soil and watered them daily for about a week. After 5 months of near total neglect, every else during the summer had died, we had solarized our beds to kill the nematodes, and planted summer hardy stock in some pots - the only thing that had survived was the sweet potatoes, with near total neglect. We yielded ~3# from 5 vines in 3 pots!  We're totally amazed.

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