Please convince me not to quit...

[mom2tatum]

We've CD ds2 completely since birth. He is a little over 7 mos. now. Well, except a vacation and a few times I needed to borrow a disp dipe while out and not prepared. I have two major reasons for wanting to switch to at least partial sposies. I hate feeling guilty about it, but it is causing us more stress than needed, and it's about to get worse with the introduction of some solids...

#1) Ok, so everything went fairly well until around 4 mos - when his thighs started totally chunking up and all my favorite thirsties covers were leaving red rashy marks, chafing, etc. I have spent entirely too much money since then trying new covers, new sizes, etc. and still, we are having this problem. My ds2 is biracial - so his skin color is a light brown. His bum area is bright white. Is that normal? It's always been. People ask me about this all the time when I am changing him? The skin just seems worn down, in a sense. This might make more sense to those of you with darker skin or parents of these children.
#2) I am going to start introducing solids in the near future...this is the part I hated with ds1. The scraping off into the potty. We tried a sprayer, and it slowed down our water pressure and flushability with our toilet. We disconnected it after being frustrated for almost a year. Plus, the sprayer grosses me out with seeing the sprays hit the walls, and surrounding area. I hated that. I DO NOT feel like dealing with the scraping off everytime. I am in a very stressed point of my life, and barely getting through my days feeling good about my job as a mom. I don't want to add anything else to it, really. I want to alleviate any stresses and free up time as much as possible.

So, I am thinking I will continue using my BGOS at night and maybe also during the day, only after he poops. That is my plan right now. They don't seem to bother him, and I am just done with prefolds/covers I think. I just need to get them fixed soon, the velcro is beat.

So, any sposie recommendations?
Or even better, any miraculous suggestions to keep me fully CD?

[Katie T]

Hugs it suppost to be fun not stressful. I liked huggies & you can sign up 4 good coupons online. If you want to stay w/cloth you could try flushable liners. I found that if I let the poopy dipe sit a hr the poop peeled off like a dream. Good Luck

[Michigan Mama]

OK, so issue 1: not sure about the skin color change but I wonder if it is just from moisture? I wonder if when he is dry and diaper free, does the color go back to normal? If not, I have no idea what that's about. But anyway, I highly recommend doing some naked butt time if you can. My ds2 is still little, so I put him in tummy time with a blanket and a prefold under him, or I take his diaper off and let him hang out after I know he just peed (we EC, so this is easy). Lots of air will be helpful for the rashes! Wool covers would be great because the binding is easier on the skin. Most are elastic-less. They are a little pricey, but you might be able to buy/make some recycled wool ones for pretty cheap.

Issue 2: Have you ever tried fleece or flushable liners? I swear, they make poo removal 100% easier. Truly. With the flushable ones, you just drop them in the toilet. If a little bit accidently lands on the dipe, it's usually a small enough quantity that you can jsut wash the dipe as is without rinsing. We often use fleece liners for our kids that have the advantage of being re-usable, but the poo comes off waaaaay easier from teh fleece than it does from the diaper (especially cotton). It also helps wick moisture away so if that's bothering you little man's bum, it might help there, too.

Lastly, don't feel guilty if you feel it's best for your family to use some sposies. You can always go back to cloth at certain times. You also might find when you son is moving more, walking, etc, his shape will change and the diapers may fit differently.

Good luck, mama. I hope you can make it work with cloth, but be gentle with yourself! You gotta do what's best for your family!

[mom2tatum]

Ok, I already feel better with just these recommendations you've both given me. Thanks a bunch! Flushable liners? I know nothing of these, so what kind/brand, and where to buy? I love the sound. Is this like G diapers or something? Is it a package I need to again invest a bunch of money up front?

And duh, I never thought to leave a poo dipe to dry out an hour or so...how sensible. I will plan on doing this when I use the BGOS, because they are fleece inside. I think I am still going to dump the prefolds/tight covers totally, very soon. I have one cover someone gave me (LiteWrap?) recently that is working fairly well for his thighs, so maybe I'll continue with that combo until solids start turning up in his poo, then the cotton prefolds are getting retired. I actually tried banana today and he didn't care one bit to ingest it, yet last week he loved it out of the mesh bag thingy he holds himself. So I guess we're not exactly jumping into solids quite yet, yk? Good, I prefer waiting till he can pick bits up off tray himself anyways...phew.

Also, I believe PP is right about the moisture...that was a suspicion of mine about his skin color change...although I don't think it is permanent - I also don't think it is going to go away from just airtime sometimes. I will try to take that airy advice, though, I love the idea - and although I've thought about it before, I never felt like dealing with it because we have been so busy running here and there lately. Part of me alleviating some stress is slowing down a bit...so this will fit in better, I think.

Thanks a lot, gals. Just writing my own post, sorting out my thoughts, and then hearing your suggestions has stopped my freeking out. It is okay to do partial CD for sanity I guess. I should feel good about that.

[SeekingJoy]

As a compromise, what about disposable liners?

No help on the possible discoloration.

[SeekingJoy]

Here are some liners: http://nickisdiapers.com/catalog.php?category=1556

[Michigan Mama]

i've used both bummis and imse vimse flushable liners and they both have pros/cons. the bummis ones are softer and decomose faster, but that also means that they cannot stand up to the wash machine. (It ends up like shredded cotton balls in your velcro - ask me how I know).

Imse vimse don't feel so soft, but they catch poo a bit better for us, as I felt it stayed in place a little better. These we flushed if poopy, but tossed in the diaper pail if they were only peed on. They can be washed and re-used maybe 3 or 4 times before you have to toss them. This is nice if the poop routine is unpredictable and you need to use liners all day long.

I would think microfleece liners are pretty much the same, except for maybe shape. You can even cut up fleece from Joann's to the size you want. Just it's not quite as soft as microfleece...

Good luck!

[biennourri]

Without liners I would have quit a long time ago!

[JL83]

I loved using liners. I put them in all the diapers when I pulled them out of the drier. If they got pooped on they went in the garbage and if they were peed on, we washed them with the diapers. I tossed them once they didn't look usable anymore.

I stopped using them once her poops were really solid and just fell off anyway.