Longies & Wool Soakers

[sugarpop]

What are they, how do they work and when do you use them?

[blumom2boyz]

Longies are wool pants that act as a diaper cover over either prefolds or fitteds. Soakers are wool covers. Because wool has natural repelling properties, you can use them without having to worry about leaking (as long as they are lanolized properly). They are antibacterial and antimicrobrial, you only have to wash them when they get soiled with poop or they start to get smelly. I LOVE using wool and am in the process of switching over to all wool (with prefolds). I love that it is a natural material that breaths and is so soft. And I love the way it looks!!!! My friend gifted me with a wool diaper cover (soaker) when my dd was born and I have been hooked since!

[My3guys]

I would echo everything the PP said. They are great. Properly lanolized wool is fairly bullet proof when it comes to leaks. Many people who use regular PUL covers for daytime will switch to wool at night. It is just that great when it comes to repelling leaks. Longies are just longer versions of the covers (more like pants) and then there are shorties and soakers.

You can buy liquid lanolin in order to lanolize your wool. Doesn't need to be done everytime...just when you do a wash or when you notice the wool leaking.

Wool is wonderful. Natural. Soft. I love it.

[ShwarmaQueen]

I started CDing with a collection of covers- bummis whisper pant, Bummis wrap, staccinator fleece, bummis polar fleece, and a Imse Vimse wool Bumpy cover. After a week of trying all the covers, I was totally hooked on the wool (for the reasons already mentioned) so then I bought an Aristocrats longie. My only problem now is deciding which wool cover to use!

[kickinitbabystyle]

You have some good feedback already. Just want to add that I wish I tried wool from the beginning, but i was intimidated by it. Now I use it all the time and I can't believe I was actually scared of it at first. It's great!

[Michigan Mama]

I love my wool, too. I love using longies for my boys now in fall and winter. It means one less layer. They only need the diaper and the longies, not diaper, cover, then longies. Breathes great. Love it!

[laughingfox]

I love wool soakers.
They don't get stinky, they don't leave your babies rashy, and they have an amazing balance of absorbency and water resistance that makes leaks very rare.

Also, they are ridiculously easy to make out of old sweaters. If you don't sew, you can get handmade ones on etsy.com for much less than you'd pay for brand name ones.

[felix23]

I just want to say that I was sure I would hate wool longies. They looked difficult and I was worried they would be scratchy, but I LOVE them now!! They are so soft and warm and she has never had a single rash with them. And they aren't hard to care for at all.

[CookAMH]

A question I have is how does it work if you wear, say a wool shorty with cotton pants? Will the pants get wet?

[Peace+Hope]

mamas, would you be willing to give your experiences with specific brands of wool covers and longies in this thread? seems appropriate here...

i've been to greenmountain diapers (and may knit some, but am still researching patterns), and am trying to narrow down.

thanks you

[felix23]

Originally Posted by CookAMH

A question I have is how does it work if you wear, say a wool shorty with cotton pants? Will the pants get wet?

I've done that with really thick wool (like recycled wool) and had no leaks. But with regular, thin, knit, I had compression leaks.

[ShwarmaQueen]

Originally Posted by Peace+Hope

mamas, would you be willing to give your experiences with specific brands of wool covers and longies in this thread? seems appropriate here...

Imse Vimse wool wrap- love love love it. Nights, days, whenever, its really trim but thick, felted wool, if that makes sense. It has generous gussets that give lots of extra coverage around the legs.

Swaddlebees merino wool wrap- awesome! So soft and comfy. I've only used it days, not nights. It's 2 layers of stretchy merino wool.

Aristocrats wool longie- I have the small on my 11 lb newborn. It's soft and thick in the bum area, works great for nights (I put it under gowns), but I also use it on cood days when we're out and about.

[Carhootel]

Disana Wool Pull-Up
Works great for us. We're using the medium size on ds who is 22lbs. We only use it at night with a long sleeve shirt and some sort of fitted diaper with a bunch of extra hemp or whatever in it. We use a variety of fitteds that have lots of absorbency and don't have leaks with the wool. It's bulletproof for us, I have lanolized it once so far and we've used for 2 months or so... ds doesn't poop at night so as long as I air it out during the day it's been just fine. I used a bunch of lanolin on it and I like it a lot. I bought it gently used because I didn't want to spend a lot to try it out, now that I have one I would buy another one and fork over the higher price since I know it works so well. I don't think I need more than 2 though and I think I might actually wait and just get the next size up since I don't think they have to be as snug fitting to work well.

[Carhootel]

Oh, I also have some biobottoms wool covers that are wrap style with velcro. THey are fine but don't have the coverage that a pull-up cover has. I don't use them all that often because they also don't fit as well around fitteds or snappi'd prefolds - they pretty much only work with a trifolded prefold.

[porenn]

So, if using prefolds. you just snappi the diaper and pull wool pants on over? I assume they have to be fairly snug, more like leggings than pants, right?

[felix23]

Originally Posted by porenn

So, if using prefolds. you just snappi the diaper and pull wool pants on over? I assume they have to be fairly snug, more like leggings than pants, right?

If the diaper fits snug, then no, they don't have to be leggings. Almost all of my longies look like regular pants.

[porenn]

Hmmmmm.... I can see a weekend project coming on.

Do felted sweaters have to be 100% wool to work? I have several 80-20 blends (with acrylic, I think) that found their way into the dryer that I'd like to use up.