For those of you who are cloth diapering, have you ever had trouble with the absorbency?
Cloth diapering was going really well for us until the past few days. Yesterday, every cloth diaper I put on Caleb (aside from the prefolds) leaked as soon as he wet. It was pretty much like he wasn't even wearing a diaper! Both of us had about 4-5 soaked outfits not to mention the number of towels and amount of bedding that were soiled.
There were no leaks last night when we used disposable diapers, but when I put on a cloth one this morning, his onsie and bedding were wet again. At that point, I debated putting a disposable back on because I was just so tired of changing and washing clothes, but they keep giving him diaper rash so it was not a favorable option either. Then, I remembered the prefolds didn't leak so I went that route instead.I couldn't figure out why these diapers were leaking so much now, especially since they only leaked occasionally in the past. At first I thought maybe they weren't fitting him snug enough, but I couldn't get them any tighter without making him uncomfortable. Then I considered that maybe he was outgrowing them. That didn't make sense though because we use a wide variety of diapers including Thirsties, BumGenius, Fuzzibunz, and gdiapers. All of them were leaking!
Since I couldn't figure it out, I turned to google. One discussion board led me to this website that discusses laundrying: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentbasics.htm#Pocket%20Diapers. I learned you are not supposed to use diaper creams without a liner because it can clog the diapers and make them less absorbent. It also described what it looks like when detergent builds up and mentioned how hard water can also clog the diapers requiring them to be stripped. Despite my previous research online and talking to other people, this was all new info to me. I had been using diaper creams, used more detergent than recommended for HE washing machines, and washed the diapers in hard water at my parents' house.
Somewhere I read that you can test to see if your diapers are clogged by filling your baby's nose syringe with water and squirting it on the diaper as if your baby had wet in it. It if beads up and runs off, you know your diapers are clogged. I tried this trick and sure enough all of the water beaded up and flowed to the legs of the diaper. My goal now is to try to strip the diapers as the website mentions.
Has anyone else had these problems or have other suggestions that work?
Who knew diapers could be so complicated!!
ReplyDeleteI have also heard that fabric softener can make towels (and diapers, too, I guess) less absorbent. However, I use it anyway and haven't really noticed any problems with our towels.
ReplyDeleteYep, fabric softener is not recommended for cloth diapers. I also heard you should use it for baby's clothes because it makes them less flame resistant.
ReplyDeleteHave you been able to strip your diapers yet? How did it come out? I didn't even think to tell you about the cream, sorry! I hope you are feeling better!
ReplyDeleteCrystal, we tried washing them several times in hot water, using Dawn detergent with boiling hot water in the sink multiple times, soaking them in vinegar, and letting them sit in somebaby Oxyclean but nothing worked. Finally, my dad suggested using Goop since you can use it to get grease off your hands. It worked! My mom only tested it on one diaper so I still need to clean the rest.
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