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15 December 2011

Cloth Diapering | *Questions

You guys came up with several VERY good questions on my cloth diapering system post, so I decided to answer them on a new post- keep the questions coming, I love helping people cloth diaper!




1. The diapers say don't use any sort of diaper rash cream because it causes gunk. What do you do when little man got diaper rash?


- First off, one of the benefits of cloth is reduced instance of diaper rashes, which is wonderful! But unlike some other cloth moms I know who NEVER had rashes, we have dealt with a few. You are right, you should not use any diaper cream up against the cloth diapers as it will cause repelling and lack of absorption. For little red irritations or rubbed spots, there are lots of natural creams that you can use directly against the cloth. I happen to use CJ's BUTTer because it was on sale! But the stuff lasts FOREVER and I don't think we will ever use it up! Just check to see if it's cloth friendly.


For more pronounced rashes (from teething or yeast), we would occasionally use Destin. When using those creams, we used fleece liners. Ours are on off brand and were bought used, but the Bummis Fleece Liners are exactly the same.You use them just like the flushable liners I had talked about in the last post, except the BIG thing is, these do NOT get washed with the diapers. These get put in with the regular laundry so that the diaper cream doesn't get on the diapers. I have one pack of 5 and have never needed any more.




2. Also, sizing can be tricky especially with skinny little legs so how do you know how to size appropriately?


-Honestly, sizing is a trial process. With cloth, it's not unusual to have some indentation in the skin around the waist and legs from the bunched up cloth. As long as your child isn't getting red or rashy or irritated by it, then it's not too tight. In general, I used whatever elastic setting in the waist allowed me to use the snaps the furthest outside of the diaper (this was easiest to explain to babysitters, etc). For the legs, when they are on their back with the diaper on, you should be able to lift up one leg and see no visible gaps between the diaper and their legs. Here is a chart from the Fuzzibunz website which has some recommendations to start with. If you are getting lots of leaking, determine where the leaking is coming from (back of leg when sitting up, front of thigh when laying down, etc) and problem solve the elastic settings from there. One of my big recommendations is that the front and back leg elastics do NOT have to be at the same setting. We started using FB around 5/6 months and I have only changed the elastic maybe 3 times. It's not something you will do often.




3. Do you do the Funk Rock rinse in addition to the regular Rockin' Green or instead of it?

- When I do use Funk Rock (every week or two) I do it in addition to the the regular Rockin' Green.


4. There are a few different kinds of the rockin green detergent. Which one do you use? Also how much detergent do you put into each load?


- The type of Rockin' Green you need to use is dependent on the type of water you have. Up here in Minot, we have very hard water, so I use the Hard Rock Wash. If you have very soft water, use Soft Rock; if your water is in between, use Classic Rock. Here's a chart to use as a reference. 


-The amount you use depends on your washer. Top-loaders use more water (which is better for diapers!), so they require a bit more detergent, 1.5T-2T. Front Loaders use less water and require less detergent. We have a front loader and I use about 1T. For a while we used more, and I had stink issues because it wasn't getting all washed out. 




5. Do you know if it's okay to use homemade laundry detergent on them? (Detergent = baking soda, washing soda, borax, & grated castile soap. And then I usually add distilled vinegar to the load as a fabric softener.


-First off, I have never used homemade detergent on my diapers, so I don't know from personal use, however the research/results I have seen from others would suggest no, not to use homemade. At least not that recipe. The problem lies in the grated soap. No matter what kind you use, soap by nature is intended to leave behind softening agents that can cause buildup/stink issues. From what I have seen, using baking soda, washing soda, and borax alone is fine because they are all non-sudsing agents, as long as you leave out the grated soap. And it's not recommended to use vinegar on diapers, nor do they need a fabric softener if they are washed without sudsing detergent. I've noticed that people with front-loaders have alot more trouble with homemade detergents than those with top-loaders, since they use more water.


My suggestion would to give whatever you would like a try, and see! If you start having stink or repelling issues, do a Rockin' Green soak to get everything out, and then try again with a different recipe. 




Any other questions? Hope that helped some!! :)

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