Diapers - Page 4

[JenInMpls]

Wet bags and enzymes (2-part question! Careful!)

We are looking for advice on wet bags. Please cast your vote:

1. I use a _________ wet bag and bought it at ___________ , I love it.

2. I bought a __________ wet bag and found it a complete waste of money because ________ .

3. We just bring along a plastic shopping bag and it does the job just fine.

Also: do you line your pails with a cloth bag or otherwise?

SECONDLY: We love bac-out. It makes us really happy. The big question is, though: how much, and when to apply?

Add bac-out to cold pre-wash in washer? If so, how much?
Squirt diaper with bac-out before putting in diaper pail?
Keep a little bac-out in the bottom of the diaper pail? Won't the bottom diaper soak it all up?

Thank you for your thoughts, Sept mamas

jen

[chumani]

Wet bags-

With my first two I used grocery bags (I also used gerber dipes from wally world too). They are noisy and we had several incidents where the dipes were mistaken for trash and tossed.

I currently use small waterproof stuff sacks from the outdoor outlet here at about $3. They have drawstrings and hold 6 large dipes. They do need re-waterproofing every couple of months with nikwax.

I just ordered some PUL from www.onestopdiapershop.com to make some zippered wetbags. I will let you know how I like them after they are made up. I know there are several wahm that make zippered PUL wetbags but don't know the links.

I haven't ever used a pail liner. I put 1/2 cup baking soda and 1 quart of water in the bottom of the pail after rinsing it out in the tub. My pail is now almost 9 years old, it has a foot pedal to open it. I haven't ever had a problem with a stinky pail. It is in the "boys" room where the changing station is currently for 2yo Jonah.

I haven't ever used bac-out, but have read of other moms spraying it on the dipes. Stains don't bother me. I do like to hang them outside to dry and that gets rid of any stains.

HTH
Sarahb

[chrissy]

Okay Jen....

I use a Happies Tushies wet bag and love it. I actually have 2- the first one I ordered from www.happytushies.com and the 2nd I bought on the TP here. The 2nd one is actually meant for mama cloth but it works well for diapers for me. It has 2 compartments, which is nice for storing either dirty and clean diapers or dirty diapers and dirty wool cover. I do need to rewaterproof them occasionally too, though.

I don't use a pail liner. I have a Rubbermaid trash can with one of those dome lids that swings open and closed (do you know what I mean?) After I dump the diapers in the wash I squirt some Bac-Out in the pail, wet a wash cloth and wipe it out. If it smells a little stinky I'll put a few drops of some good smelling essential oil in the bottom. For me, having a pail liner is just something else to wash.

I like Bac Out but that's the only time I really use it. The sun is amazing for getting stains out, better than anything else.

[cottonwood]

Jen, I've been looking for a good wet bag. I bought one from an online site that was terrible -- the inside edges weren't finished and unraveled, and it wasn't very waterproof. Unfortunately I don't remember where I got it. I'm gonna check out the happy tushies site.

I've never used a diaper pail -- I just throw them into a regular laundry basket, dry. I wash every day though, and the changing table is in the laundry room, so the smell isn't an issue. My wash routine is: regular unscented detergent and about 1/4 cup vinegar, with a second rinse. They always come out great!

Okay, now my question for you guys: what is THE most absorbent nighttime diaper?

[chrissy]

Linda, the most absorbant night time diaper I have found is a Nighty Newt from www.littlelounginglizards.com It's a hemp prefold with about a million layers of hemp. Love, love, love them. I think she recommends her regular hemp prefolds for newborns, they're called Froggy Fleecers I think. I have 3 to try with this baby.

Our wash routine was/will be: wash on HOT with about 1/3 capful of Sensi-Clean (aka Sport Wash), wash on HOT with a few glugs of vinegar, wash on HOT with nothing. I think it is probably rare to have to do so many hot washes but that is the only way for us to get out all the suds (even with such little detergent).

[mum2tori]

Great changing areas!! I have plans to work on that this weekend.

About wetbags...

I use Bummi bags. I've gotten most of mine through SWAPs but can highly recommend Colleen at NaturalBabies.com. She's awesome to get "basics" from. She also carries lots of other great products. I have a couple of the Small bags (blue) that I use for diaper bags. They hold a couple large diapers so they work well for us when we are out and about. I try to carry two in case I need to change Tori's pants if she has an accident (which is getting very rare, we have a Bjorn mini pottyseat in the truck for those "emergencies"). I have 4 X-Large (purple) bags that I use in the diaperpails. I have 2 for each pail. Tori and Jack each have their own pails in their rooms. Tori's only gets her night diaper anymore... which we are going to start trying to use panties at night next week (wish us luck ). I just found it was easiest for me to have 2 bags per pail. One would go into the machine with the diapers and the other could go into the pail. Because inevitably the diaper RIGHT after diapers go into the wash... is a "stinky". :LOL

They work great, I need to re-waterproof them because they are starting to get a little bit damp on the outside. But that's not a biggie when I consider I've been using them for almost 2 years.

I like having a pail liner because sometimes I can't put the load of diapers in RIGHT then, and that way I can leave the bag on the floor next to the W&D until I can put it in. I also figure they will get a lot of use down the road with camping trips and sports, so they are a good investment. I also will use them for dirty clothes bags when we go on trips.

ETA: no advice on the Bac-out, we don't use it.

[Robertsgirl]

Ok, I know this has been mentioned sporadically here, but I'm dense and haven't made up my mind yet. What kind of detergent do you guys use to wash your dipes in? We use an all natural enviro friendly for our clothes now. I want to use something natural and as gentle as possible because Robert has massive skin issues and reacts to anything remotely harsh. I'm hoping if I start out natural with Spud that he/she won't develop Daddy's skin issues. Any suggestions? I've heard that the all natural detergents aren't good for dipes???

Thanks guys!

[adventuregirl]

Christi, I am planning on using Bio-Kleen for dipes, I've heard it reccomended, but I have no real experience.

So I bought flannel for wipes, now what? It looks like it will fray, so I'll need to sew up the edges after cutting. Then I was thinking that 2-ply would be really nice, is that just way more work than I need to do? Tell me your flannel wipe making stories.

[banana girl]

Originally Posted by adventuregirl

So I bought flannel for wipes, now what? It looks like it will fray, so I'll need to sew up the edges after cutting. Then I was thinking that 2-ply would be really nice, is that just way more work than I need to do? Tell me your flannel wipe making stories.

I haven't started yet, but am intending to use old towels and soft flannel. So, I will cut out peices of flannel and of towel.... match them up and use a tight zig zag stitch around the edges. You could use a serger if you have it! This way, one side is flannel the other is like a wash rag. I'm trying to be cheap about it!

[JenInMpls]

Christi we have the exact same problem in our household, Jo is extremely sensitive to dyes and perfumes (esp perfumes) and so we have to use special laundry detergent. We started out with one called Equator but have since switched to Bi-o-kleen. It works extremely well in our front-loader, starts out smelling citrusy because of the orange oils and grapefruit seed extract in it, but leaves absolutely no scent whatsoever. No kidding! Jo would have given me an earful if it had! It is widely recommended on cloth diapering sites because it is gentle and has no borates which supposedly eat up the fabric. It also does an extremely good job, the only thing that didn't come out using it was peach juice (on my white preggo t-shirt, figures, doesn't it, I've ruined so many white t-shirts eating peaches!) but I also forgot to pre-treat it.

After buying a starter kit from earthbaby.com (they have a trial pack of detergent, oxygen bleach and enzyme treatment - I also highly recommend the enzyme treatment bac-out, it does a bang-up job on stains), we took a big (expensive!) plunge and bought a 50-lb box of premium powder and a 5-gal pail of bac-out from juliestuff.com - through her you can get it drop-shipped directly from bi-o-kleen and pay no shipping charges! - and now we figure we are set for a little while at least - the 50-lb box will do over 1000 loads, since we use it one tablespoon at a time!! The cost looked ridiculous at first but when we calculated the cost for detergent per load if we bought 50 lbs at a time, it made complete sense because it was down to something like 9 cents a load. The 5 lb box was 14 cents per load. Ended up being a savings of around $50 plus shipping costs per 5-lb box.

Anyway, enough math, I can strongly recommend Bi-o-kleen products to you! And the kit on the earthbaby site can give you a good start with it and you can see if you like it, but I bet you will.

jen

ps: if I had a sewing machine, I would buy flannel, cut it into squares, hem the edges, sew it onto a washcloth on 3 sides and then turn it inside out to have a little diaper wipe mitt. I've heard that the nubby side is good for cleaning off and the flannel side good for a last swipe. Alas, I have ABSOLUTELY NO DESIRE to sew wipes by hand.

[cottonwood]

I made up some wipes using flannel, and they're okay. I just pseudo-serged the edges. I really prefer a little nubbly texture, though, anybody know where to get good fabric like that that won't curl up? (I bought some fleece wipes at little lounging lizards that curled horribly. )

[mum2tori]

The first batch of wipes that I made (3 years ago ) where one side flannel and one side cotton terry. I didn't have acces to a serger then, so I turned and topstitched them. They were nice but the flannel gets worn looking and feeling quickly. And this was quality superflannel from a quilting store too. I did a couple of them with just doing a tight zig-zag stitch and they still had lots of fray. Those fell apart after about a year. The others we still have. Then when I was pregnant with Jack I got a couple of freebie wipes from Colleen of NaturalBabies.com and I *think* they were Kissaluvs wipes. They are a single layer of Burley Knit Terry serged. They are awesome. They stay soft but have that bit of nubby to be able to scrub a bit too. I bought a couple of yards of BKT and my mom and I chopped it up and she sergered them for me. It was one of our "projects" that she did right after Jack was born.

I only like to use velour for faces. Especially poor widdle noses. They don't "grip" very well when you are trying to get the poop off IMO. I don't like fleece at all, hemp fleece is okay but again I usually will use those for other kinds of wipes.

Biggest recommendation for wipes... make them BIG. 8x8 or 8x9 (my preferance) there is nothing worse than trying to handle a massive poo with a 4x5 wipe. :LOL The whole time you are trying to not get it all over your hand too and usually failing. : : BIG WIPE! The only thing little wipes like 4x5 are good for is noses. Especially when they are little, don't like to freak them out with a massive wipe that makes the head disappear. :LOL They also work well for the toddler age, not too big for them to work with either.

There are several threads over in the diapering forum in the last week about what wipes do people like best.