Assume the Perpendicular

Trigger warning:* This post is about poop.

I’m an eternal fan of cloth diapering, but I have to admit, it gets way, way more gross once solid foods enter the picture. You always hear cloth diapering mom’s going on and on about how cloth diapers are really just as easy and mess free as disposables, and its totally true when the baby is breastfed, but when it comes to that awful sticky poop that starts occurring after introducing solid foods, disposables win hands down. 

There are ways to make it easier to deal with these no-longer-exclusively-breastfed poops, like liners and diaper sprayers, but they don’t really compensate for the mess. The liners will catch some of it, if you feel inclined to take the extra step of stuffing them in along with your inserts, which honestly I don’t usually do, but you’ll probably still need to rinse or spray the diapers. Diaper sprayers are supposed to be awesome, but it can be tricky to find the right amount of pressure. If it’s down too low, it won’t get the job done. If it’s up too high or if you don’t angle it just right, poopy water will shoot off of the diaper and spray all over your floors and walls and sink. And you will definitely get it on your hands.

Regardless of the precautions taken, each poopy diaper these days requires at least a 5 minute clean up effort and a vigorous hand scrubbing afterward. Luckily for me Eleanor only makes a #2 every other day or every third day now that she’s older. I’m hoping things might get less gross when her poop solidifies more, but for now, and for the last few months, each diaper has been an ordeal. Obviously it’s not enough to make me stop using cloth, but I have to roll my eyes when I come across a cloth mamma extolling the virtues of fluff and absolutely denying that you will have to deal with more mess. 

We’ve been using cloth since Eleanor was three weeks old. I feel like it’s time I write a post about it.

Read More

I know a lot of other moms here on Tumblr use gDiapers. We’ve been using them (with the gCloth inserts) since Eleanor was 3 weeks old. In the last week or so we’ve been having problems with rubbing. The snaps are rubbing against her hips, and the liners are rubbing against her legs and causing blister-like chaffing (insert giant sad face here). The snaps rubbing against the hips seems to be a rather common problem, but not the chaffing caused by the liners. I’ve been experimenting with different tightness and looseness of fit, but nothing seems to make much of a difference. In fact, it seems like the chaffing on the legs is worse if they are loose, and the rubbing on the hips worse if they are tight. 

I’m wondering if I should switch from the small to the medium size, but the gDiapers website says the smalls should be good up to 14 lbs. and or 4-6 months. She isn’t even 3 months yet and is 11 lbs. They also say to call customer service if you are experiencing problems with rubbing and they will talk to you about fit, but I haven’t been able to get ahold of anyone yet. 

I’m starting to feel really frustrated and disappointed. We spent a lot of money on these diapers, and I was counting on her wearing them comfortably.

My plan right now is to put her in disposables until her skin looks better, and then try again with a tighter fit, and if that doesn’t work then put her in disposables until her skin looks better and try a looser fit. Isolate the variables, if you will. 

Has anyone else had these problems? Are there any known solutions? 

Thank you for all of your responses!

The consensus is that the diapers really don’t need to be sprayed as long as we are exclusively breastfeeding, and that if I want to spray anyway it can be done all at once before I wash the load.

We made the switch to cloth on Friday. I wanted to wait for Eleanor to chunk out enough for the diapers to fit snuggly, but seeing how well she fits into the small size gDiapers, I think we could have been using them since birth.

Obviously there is a learning curve when it comes to coordinating an efficient cloth diaper change. So far my biggest stumbling block is when to spray poopy diapers when I’m changing Eleanor by myself. We have a diaper sprayer attached to out toilet, and operating it seems to definitely be a two-hand task. How do other cloth diapering mammas pull this off?

I see a few options. The easiest would be to lay Eleanor down for a second in her crib, but she is not the biggest fan of changing time and is often crying by the end, so I don’t want to sit her down to cry while I rush to spray poop and wash my hands.

Another option would be to just leave the diaper on the changing table until I am able to take care of it, but that could take a while and dirty diapers might start piling up.

The only other idea I have is to grow more arms. Or maybe just not spray the diapers until Eleanor is old enough to  be content alone for a few seconds. Any advice or tips?