Keeping diaper washing bills low - tips?

[spmamma]

DS is a week old and I'm finding myself washing his diapers every day (with DD we used a diaper service so I'm new at this). Here's what's going on in a nutshell:

• DS has a crazy pee stream (how does one pee on the top and bottom of a diaper, but not in the middle?) and his poops are a force of nature. He can poop through a prefold to the back of the cover - they're that forceful! His covers are often wet through (maybe I need to strip them??).
• We use prefolds and covers, as well as cloth wipes. Right now, we have six covers. I know the reason I'm washing so often is that he's blowing through his covers with his poops. Should I just make more?
• I wash his diapers in a cold wash. Then a hot wash. Both with max water levels. Then dry in the dryer (I don't have enough diapers to wait all day for them to dry outside, plus winter is coming).

Am I going to be hit with a crazy electric bill this month? I'm getting a little nervous...

Does anyone wash their diapers on cold without going through a hot water wash? We have hard water, so I don't know if that could cause problems with only doing cold water washing.

Aaargh... sorry if this post is so scattered. I've got DS in arms and not much time to type...

I'd appreciate any tips you have for keeping my costs down. Or maybe just some reassurance that I'm not going to be slapped with a crazy high bill!

[fawnanddoe]

I would definitely make some more covers if you find that you are constantly having to wash the ones that you have, plus extra covers never hurts!

I don't have any suggestions for washing, but I use wool dryer balls that I made and that really cuts down on dryer time! They are super easy to make, or if you don't want to make any Etsy has a lot of great ones.
Here is a link to a tutorial on how to make them: http://goodmama.typepad.com/goodmama...yer-balls.html
Also, you could put a dry towel in the dryer, that will absorb some of the water also.

[octobermom]

more cover will help if they are pull covers you can try hand washing between uses and just air drying so something is alwasy dry..
For washing at that stge I jsut did a pre-rinse in cold then one hot wash and dried. however honestly even days where we were washing daily and stripping and having crazy wash rountinues my bill never went up.

Deanna

[sunshynbaby]

I do a cold rinse and a hot wash. That seems to work for us so far. We try to time the diaper washes so they are durring the "off-peak" energy use times. We use commercial dryer balls to speed up drying time. I'm going to try to make some wool ones, that link is great!

As far as the strange pee stream, do you make sure his penis is pointed down when you diaper him? I've had some off to the side peeing issues when I forgot to check the direction before, lol.

[inky leeuhhh]

you can do as someone else posted and try to rinse out the covers that aren't as messy. i had 6 covers with dd when she was newborn and i remember really wishing i had more, so that may be a good option anyway. honestly, our bills havent gone up a ton even with frequent washing.

[woodchick]

FWIW

I have only ever washed our covers and prefolds in cold water. And with the washer set on 'small load' (assuming it is a small load!) I've never had any problems.

I think a few more covers might lighten your load a little. And you may want to look into some different ways of folding the prefold. I know there's a way to make a little pocket or channel for the poop to go into... Somebody help me out here!

[Katie T]

I think Woodchick is refering to the jelly roll fold

[spmamma]

Thanks, ladies! These are all great suggestions!

I'm going to have to look into the wool dryer balls. Do they really truly your drying time? And I'm definitely going to have to try the jelly roll fold - I had forgotten that you could do different folds with prefolds. Duh! And yeah, to everyone who suggested more covers, you're probably right. I know I need more so I need to carve out some time (time... with a toddler and newborn... that's a funny thought ) to make them.

Keep those tips coming! I really appreciate them!

[eclipse]

I'm no longer cding (all kids out of diapers! woot!), but I always washed on cold only and never had a problem.

[lifeguard]

I went through a LOT more dipes & covers during the newborn stage then I did even at 3 months - so the insane pace you're going through them now will slow down. If you can afford to buy/make more covers I would - that was my biggest regret at first, that I didn't have enough covers - I just didn't realize how often poop would get on them.

With ds it did not matter what fold I did the poop ended up on the covers - once I accepted that it made it less stressful.

[mamadelbosque]

The first couple months after DS2 was born I was doing diapers every other night (we have 36 bg 3.0s for ds2 and 40 bg 2.0s for ds1), but have been able to go every 3rd night lately, and tbh could probably go every 4th night if I didn't have all of DS1's diapers to wash too, but the washer is only so big Just make/buy yourself some more covers/diapers so you have enough to go at least a couple days between washes.