Cloth Diapering Made Easy (Chapter from New Moms, New Families: Priceless Gifts of Wisdom and Practical Advice from Mama Experts for the Fourth Trimester and First Year (2 page)

Day
diapers usually last about 1-2 hours for very young children and up
to 4 hours for older children. Newborns can use at least 12 diapers
every day for the first weeks of life. As they grow and their bladder
size increases proportionally, you will be down to 8 diapers per day
by 3 months old. These numbers vary, if your baby is born before full
term.

During
the day, I combine cloth diapering with Elimination Communication
(EC). EC is early potty training. Some people do it from birth. I
started when I felt ready. When my child was two months old, at every
diaper change, I brought her to the toilet to see if she had anything
else to eliminate before putting on a new diaper.

In
the bathroom, I simply hold my child over the toilet. I hold her
under the thighs, knees bent, with back leaning on me. I sound out
“pss” to indicate to her she could pee or poo. Some mamas make
grunting sounds for poo. I do not. At first you may feel weird and
your child may be confused. Just be consistent. Before my child was 3
months old, she picked up on my cues. When she pissed, I mentioned
the word “pee.” As she pooed, I mentioned the word “poo.” By
3 months old, she understood what those words meant.

EC
only works if you have some way to enforce its consistency. The added
benefit of EC is that your kids tend to be daytime potty-trained
before two years old.

I
double-layer my kids when we go out for the day. I use
microfleece-hemp inserts to put on top of the cotton prefold. So the
microfleece that is next to my children's skin will wick away the
moisture to the hemp layer and then to the cotton prefold. This helps
keep their skin and their pants dry.

This
double-layer system lasts at least 4 hours. If they poo, I use a
plastic bag to bring the wet diapers home. For longer trips that can
last up to 8 hours before a diaper change, I utilize my night diaper
system.

I
figured out how to get a full night's sleep without getting up to
change diapers when my firstborn was 4 months old. I used a
microfleece-hemp insert over a hemp prefold. Since night time is when
kids are least active, I can safely have my children in these night
diapers for up to 12 hours without diaper rash. In the morning, I
rinse their diapered area in warm water, pat it dry and rediaper.

Kids
only stay rash-free if they do not poop at nights. You will only get
a full night's sleep if your child tends to sleep through the night.
If your child does not tend to sleep through the night, there is no
sense in using the night diaper system at nights.

In
case you forget to switch to night diapers at night, put a wool or
microfleece blanket under your baby.

In
my early days, I used 2 separate diaper pails—one for poo diapers
and one for pee diapers. I filled the poo diaper pail with water to
soak them before washing. I used a special brush to scrub the poo off
of each diaper before I put them in the diaper pails.

After
my second child was born, I stopped soaking and scrubbing poo
diapers; instead, I rinsed excess breast milk poo off or scraped
solid poo into the toilet before stuffing everything into one diaper
pail.

On
the day of the wash, 7 days later, I load the washer with baby
detergent, load the diapers, set the wash cycle to Hot wash with Warm
rinse, and then put non-chlorine bleach.

Diapers
with breast milk poo may retain a temporary light yellowish stain
even after the non-chlorine bleach. These stains disappear on a
clothesline when left to be sun-bleached.

I
tell you, after my second child was born, I did not care anymore
about these light yellowish stains. I just kept the stains from
touching my baby's skin; the stains left anyway, usually in the next
wash.

One
of my fellow cloth diapering mamas shared with me about her mother's
invention: split pants. Basically, you get a microfleece pair of
pants, cut a hole where the crotch is supposed to be and put that
pair of pants on your child first. Then just put the cloth diaper
cover of choice over these pants and diaper changes are easier.

Another
great tip is to have baby leg warmers for “pants” and just slip
them on up to the thighs. You can either get them at the store or
make your own by cutting off the toe portion of a long pair of socks.

I
still have the same tube of diaper crème, the same can of baby
powder, the same bottle of baby shampoo and body soap I first bought
before my firstborn arrived. In other words, I find them largely
unnecessary during the first year of life. Why?

Diaper
crème seals moisture so that nothing can get to the skin nor can
moist skin dry out effectively. Best thing for diaper rash is naked
time for the rash to dry out and olive oil for the skin to become
smooth again. In fact, some mamas use olive oil in place of diaper
crème.

Naked
time is best employed immediately after a diaper change. Ten to
fifteen minutes of naked time in the sunshine sans olive oil is great
for babies to make their own Vitamin D and stay warm at the same
time.

Baby
powder is best used to eliminate heat rash. Diapering has been fine
without it. With EC, by the time I get my children back to the diaper
changing area, their skin is totally dry—even if it was slightly
damp before from being all diapered up.

Soap
and shampoo is only necessary when your child starts playing with
areas exposed to others' germs. In my case, my child was still an
avid teether stuffing all kinds of things in his mouth his first year
that I never let him anywhere near play areas or sandboxes until he
was nearly one year old.

Baby
wipes are also optional if you use cloth diapers. I use the remainder
of the diaper that is not wet or dirty to wipe off excess poo or pee
at every diaper change. If I cannot get into the creases, I wipe with
a new diaper or rinse the whole area to pat dry. If I take my
children to the toilet for EC, I just use toilet paper. In fact, I
still use the same 100-count package of baby wipes I first got for my
firstborn. I only use this package during travel to sanitize
hands/utensils before food or for poopy diaper changes on the road.

Happy
Cloth Diapering!

The
ten points above exist as found in the
New
Moms, New Families
anthology.
However, having given birth to my third child recently, I want to add
the immediate postpartum diapering tips for the first week.

After
a baby is born, the baby attempts to eliminate meconium that has
collected over the course of pregnancy. Depending on when your breast
milk comes in (or if you choose formula), the baby's poo will take
about a week to transition from meconium to breast milk or formula
milk poo. This time frame depends on when your milk comes in or when
you start on formula.

Because
meconium sticks to the baby's delicate skin so much, you can either
use lots of baby wipes (as I did with my firstborn) or you can use
toilet paper greased with olive or coconut oil (as I did with my
latter two children). I find the latter technique quite efficient in
wiping off the meconium and sparing me the use of my cloth baby
wipes.

Although
meconium is more difficult to wash off of cloth diapers, rinse before
you wash and the sticky tarry stuff
will
come off without stains. :-)

Now
go forth into the world, Cloth Diapering Pros!

###

Gloria Ng is an Oakland-based mother of three who
writes on Owl Time. Her work has appeared in anthologies, including
YELL-Oh Girls!
(HarperCollins, 2001)

Seeing the lack of bilingual books to read to her
children, she created the Mama Gloria Chinese-English Bilingual Books
series. For forthcoming book updates, visit http://www.GloriaNg.com.

If you enjoyed this book, it would mean a lot to
her if you helped others find it too. Please consider recommending
this book to friends or family or
posting
a review on the site from which you purchased it.

Gloria welcomes emails from readers, writers, and
reviewers at
www.GloriaNg.com
.

Contact or
Interact with Gloria Online:

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/FengShuiGal

Facebook Author
page:
www.facebook.com/GloriaFanPage

Twitter:
@fengshuigal

Blog/Website:
http://www.GloriaNg.com/

Newsletter:
http://eepurl.com/fSDdD

Anthologies

New Moms, New Families: Priceless Gifts of Wisdom
and Practical Advice from Mama Experts for the Fourth Trimester and
First Year Postpartum

Grandmothers
Series

Well Water Woman: A Short Memoir