Help me love cloth diapering again

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I have been using prefolds with DD since she was 6 weeks old. I LOVED cloth diapering her. It was so easy and cheap and I felt so good about it.

Fast-forward to today. DD is almost a year old and I am in a cloth diapering funk. The endless winter has meant that I haven't been able to hang dry my diapers outside and they are getting stained since they haven't been out in the sun. DD is loving her solid food and I am finding scraping and dunking her poopy diapers a major chore. The pail stinks and it never did before solid foods. I'm just feeling lazy and not finding cloth as easy or enjoyable now. Can you help me regain my love? Do I need a new system? Do I need a hose attachment for the toilet? Do I need to move to a place that has shorter winters? Help!

[Jaimee]

No need to be dunking!  That would be enough to turn almost anyone off from cloth diapering!  Here are some ideas to try with your current system:

*BioSoft liners: cellulose, flushable liners that you line each dipe with and then just peel and flush to remove almost all the poop

*Diaper sprayer: some people adore these things and they are quite easy to install, other people say they create more of a mess with the spray that comes off the diaper

*BioKleen BacOut enzyme spray: made of vegetative enzymes, spray on each poop diaper (after you've removed as much of the poop as you can) and throw it in the pail.  It prevents the growth of bacteria hence prevents odor and staining.

*Fleece liners: you can make your own out of ordinary fleece (microfleece, not windpro fleece), just cut into rectangles and line each dipe with them.  The poop will roll off fleece much easier and prevent staining on your diapers

*Soak in BioKleen oxygen bleach: to get rid of stains

Other ideas:

*Get some premium diapers to mix into your stash.  It's easier to remove poop from the polyester lining of pocket dipes like Fuzzi Bunz, bumGenius, SmartiPants, Romparooz, Happy Heinys, Thisties duodiapers, etc.  The cute patterns may also rekindle your CD love.  :)

*Introduce the potty and part time EC: I know I used to think that EC was extreme, but part time EC is so easy and you may quickly find yourself catching most of her poops in an easy to clean potty.  I like the $4 Ikea potty.

HTH!  Good luck!

[blessedwith7]

The poo dipes are just going to get worse so I would invest in a diaper sprayer.  It does take a little while to get the hang of so you are not making a worse mess but I went without one for months and now feel like I can't do without. 

One way that may work to get you more excited again about cd is to read blog posts about them.  Enthusiasm is contagious.  I like to look at The Cloth Diaper Whisperer sometimes and I'm sure there are others.

Summer sun has got to be almost here; I know how you feel about that!

[4midablemama]

I don't have a diaper sprayer, but I do have a Diaper Duck, and I LOVE it! It's such a simple thing, but it makes such a huge difference, keeps your hands out of the icky water when you have to dunk and keeps a portion of the diaper dry so you aren't handling wet AND stinky diaper.

[apple o' my eye]

is it the poop or or the diaper stinkies?

We used a spatula for the poop. In a cup next to the toilet. Scrape off the worst of it, wipe the spatula on a clean part of the diaper and then just do a good rinse before the wash cycle. Worked great and amazingly DD never played with the spatula :-)

For stinky diapers RLR works great!! It busts the ammonia stink really well. Rockin' Green makes an ammonia buster too though I don't have much experience with it it seems to work too. I don't know the cost comparison.

Around a year old was a tough transition. My DD got awful blistering rashes from the diapers with teething. The RLR fixed the problem for us and made us successful! I am glad I stuck with it, it is a little thing that makes me feel proud to be doing my part.