I think I'm at the end of the road

[wombato]

I have an 18 month old son, and I think I might be nearing the end of my struggles with cloth diapers with him.  I feel like I spend so much time researching products - I just want something that will work well for him and for me, and now I feel like I might be missing something with diapers.

I haven't been able to find the time to sew.  I wish I could sew something, but I don't see how to fit it into my life right now.

Ok, here's where we are.  I started my son with prefolds.  This worked great up until about 10 months old.  That's when my struggles with getting him to lie down and stay still for a diaper change started.  After about a month of that, I felt like my life was draining away.  He's extremely strong-willed.  No amount of singing, toy dangling/distraction, loving nuzzles and smiles, were keeping him lying down long enough for me to get a prefold and cover on him, or prefold and snappi, then grab standing up for a cover.  Ok, maybe once or twice a day, I could manage it.  I still get a prefold on him here and there when I can.

Oh, there were a few bum genius diapers at night in there, but they kept leaking.  Never could figure out why.

After nearly abandoning prefolds, I got fuzzi bunz one size.  These fit great and rarely have leaks.  I should mention that I use charlie's soap in a mixed HE/conventional washing machine and always use conventional washes and an extra rinse on them, as well as occasional oxygen bleach stripping.  This is what we were using until recently, nearly all the time.  We had occasional diaper rash, but nothing too terrible.

At some point in the last several months, I started struggling to get the fuzzi bunz clean.  I did so much experimentation - it was taking nearly all day to get them clean and dry.  I finally figured it out:  baking soda and charlie's soap in a cold soak, wash, and rinse; charlie's soap and calgon in a hot wash and rinse; then a whole long rinse cycle.  Ok, that only took HALF a day with the drying!  Before that, my normal routine was leaving my fuzzi bunz with stinkiness, requiring an extra hot cycle or two!  I'm convinced that polyester never truly lets go of crud!

And then...the bad rash started a few weeks ago.  Just when it's almost gone, when all the hours of airing out and disposables and zinc oxide cream get the sores nearly gone, I start putting a few fuzzi bunz into the mix, and it starts coming back.  I change them promptly...doesn't matter.

I think I'm going to use the disposables available in my store and order a gdiaper starter kit.  I don't know if I can do cloth anymore.  I can't believe how much time I've spent trying to get the fuzzi bunz clean, trying to make them work, and now I'm abandoning them.  I don't know that I want to buy fitted cotton diapers and struggle with that, either.

Oh, not to mention that I did EC with this child, and I had to give up on that around 10 months, too!  Screaming when I put him on the potty after a nap and such (I promise I am gentle and never forced anything).  Now I offer him a potty and he runs off.  I'm not sure he'll be pottying anytime soon.

Any advice?  Any options I could try?  Is there a way to get prefolds on my child while standing up while ensuring poop coverage?  Painfully easy sewing options I might be able to pull off?  I currently have PUL covers I'd rather not use anymore, and one wool cover with snaps.

[ibusymomto5]

I understand. I've cloth diapered 6 babies and have gone through burn out more than once during the stinky diaper, busy toddler stage. A couple of times I switched to disposables for awhile or sometimes till potty training, because I was early pregnant and too tired and sick to mess with troubleshooting. Sometimes I found I just needed a little break or maybe a switch to a different diaper, and then feeling refreshed I'd get back in the swing of things.

Like you, I started out with pfs and loved them(they're still my fave), but with a couple of my kids they got so squirmy around a year old that it made securing a pf very trying. With my first 2 cloth diapered kids I only trifolded into pul covers, because that's all I knew. It worked fine and was easy to put on a squirmy baby, but poop did occasionally get on the covers although not too often the older they got. A lot of times their pooping times got fairly predictable, like everyday during their nap, so I got in the habit of using a disposable for that time and cloth the rest of the time. Is your little one like that? If so, maybe you could do the occasional disposable during that time?

I've also used pockets from time to time, and each time I liked them for awhile but then got either leaks or stink. I once bought a whole stash of Fuzzibunz for my toddler. They fit her great, never leaked, were easy to put on, and I loved them until we got a front loader which totally threw a kink into my wash routine. I never could figure out how to get them fresh smelling in the front loader.

I guess my best suggestion if you want to stick with cloth would be to switch to cotton fitteds. Or, if you have sewing skills, maybe you could convert some pfs to fitteds. I know there are instructions online on how to do that. Or maybe you could check out the diaper making forum here and see if someone has some suggestions on how to do it. I think it's supposed to be pretty easy though.

Good luck!



ETA - I found this link right quick for one example on how to convert a pf to a fitted
http://www.diapersewing.com/prefold_to_fitted.htm

[wombato]

Thank you for the reply, ibusymomto5 - I've calmed down now, took a look at greenmountaindiapers.com.  I saw fitted prefold-based fitted diapers with snaps, and the price isn't bad.  I think I can deal with that.  

Today was a good diaper day.  I managed to get mostly regular prefolds on him, and only used a couple of disposables to get through the day, and disposables tonight.  I think with the cotton fitted prefold-type ones to get through the rough patches, and maybe disposables when out and about (or maybe the cotton fitteds, we'll see).  I did try the thirds thing, but with the poop going all over the cover, and the PUL right next to his skin, I gave that up!

I will save that sewing info.  One day, I will manage some time to sew.  

I hope I can find someone to buy my fuzzi bunz.  I'm currently washing and stripping right now - charlie's soap and oxygen bleach.  I've heard what you're saying about the front loaders before.  My washer is a top loader that does HE, and it does a great job on everything (fisher & paykel).  I don't care for the programmed cycles and am frustrated that the separate rinse cycle takes 45 minutes, but it works pretty well.