Cheap way to protect sheets from PP bleeding and NB poo

[jennmiller]

I am due in a few weeks with DC #2 and currently co-sleep with my 5yo DD. Dad sleeps in another room because he snores like a train. Anyway, I will birth at home and cloth diaper with prefolds. I am worried about baby and I leaking all over the sheets and having to hassle with stripping and washing them all the time. I've been searching for an organic waterproof mattress pad to put on top of my sheets, but they're SO expensive. I really, really don't want vinyl or fire-retardants next to us (we have an organic mattress) but I can't seem to find anything else that doesn't cost around $50 each. Any suggestions for recycled or organic options? Also, how large does it need to be and will it just bunch up underneath us? TIA!

[thelocknestmother]

In a pinch I just used large towels...sometimes they move and bother, but usually work well enough. HTH. In the end, though...I saved up the money for the wool.

[Jayray]

I was also thinking towels as a cheap option. I also bought an old wool army blanket and tried to lanolize it before my babe was born for this exact purpose. But I don't think you'd want to sleep directly on one because they're pretty scratchy. Also, the lanolizing didn't work so well with such a large item.

What about a big piece of poly fleece?

[kalamos23]

Joanns has PUL now - it's not vinyl, it's polyuerethan laminated to poly knit, and it's what they use for cloth diaper covers. I bought a yard and stuck it under our sheet (you could stick it under a towel if you wanted, I did it for diaper leaks) and it's been working great and you would never know it was there! A yard is 10 bucks but they have coupons all the time and you can get it for 40% off. The other thing you could do is to put a blanket or towel down on top of the PUL on top of the sheets and then just change the blanket/towel. I did this with DD, we had her crib sidecarred and then put a blanket over her whole crib mattress and my half of the bed - so DH was just on the sheets, but we had some leakage protection.

[kalamos23]

I should add, the PUL is soft and not crinkly at all.

[Sharlla]

i used those overnight menstral pads and they worked great. never got nb poo on the sheets but the first couple weeks we used sposies
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[mynaturalbaby]

While I was cosleeping when DS was a newborn, breastmilk would leak everywhere, so I used towels and they were ideal. Definitely worth a try before you spend tons of $$$ on a mattress protector.

[lili-chan]

Chucks are our solution

I use "chucks" (reusable underpads, about 36"x36") available from a medical supply store. They run about $10-15 each. We bought three reusable ones, which works well. We keep two side-by-side on our family bed, where they catch baby spit-up, leaking breastmilk, and the occasional leak from a diaper. We also have one in the living room on an open futon couch so that our daughter can lie on that. I think towels would work fine too as a cheap option but the benefit of chucks is that that side that you keep up is cotton and the bottom side is waterproof.

In addition we also have a waterproof cover over our mattress, which I lucked out by finding on sale for $15. We haven't had to wash it in the three months since our daughter was born so I don't think it's absolutely essential to have as long as you use chucks or towels.

We use prefold cloth diapers as well. After the first month we started using a Seventh Generation (chlorine-free) diaper for night-time because that meant less leaks and no need to change diapers at night.

[nikirj]

We sleep on a 2ftx3ft or so piece of fleece, with the baby also on a toddler-sized prefold (the whole baby fits on one for a few months). The fleece needs changing out often, but that way we don't have to wash the sheets constantly. The main reason for the prefold is that if the baby pees or spits up without something absorbent underneath, it will roll off the fleece and onto me (because I'll be making a little bit of a dent in the bed, gravity will bring it straight onto my clothes).