So how's it going...Our November Challenge has been interesting.
We got our electric bill for October, and well for the 2 weeks that we were using cloth on this bill, we really didn't see a difference in cost. Plus for that.
It hasn't really increased the laundry load that much. Since there are 4 people in this house, there is always plenty of laundry to do on a daily basis. So it is not a problem to toss some diapers in with a load. When I actually do an exclusive "diaper" load, I am finding it to be the best and easiest laundry that I do. Hang dry shells, toss inserts into the dryer and forget. No wrinkling, even if I forget them! It takes 5 minutes to stuff all 12 dipes. If I do the wash at night, they are ready to go by morning. No worries!
Now onto stains, well, good 'ole mother nature takes care of this one for me. I don't waste time on trying to "get" the stains out because frankly it's bad for the dipes and futile. But for this person with OCD, stains are just...not supposed to be there! So after pulling the dipes from the washer, I check for stains, if I see them, they go out in the sun. Voila, no money spent on drying the inserts in the dryer and everything becomes stark white, just like they were shipped to me in a couple of hours!
How's the Gator doing? Great. No more rashes from dipes! He did have a reaction to something I or he ate, but it was gone the next day after an oatmeal bath. Had we not have been using cloth, the disposables would have exacerbated the problem.
Now the cons we have experienced.
Poop dipes...Not really a con.
Not a real problem. No blow outs, no dunking. Since Gator doesn't eat "real" solid foods, it's still typical baby poop with out smell. I am sure this will change overtime, but as long as I take care of it just after it happens it shouldn't be an issue. Plus the Gator has become accustomed to alerting us when he does go #2. He doesn't want to sit in it anymore than we want him to be in it!
Getting used to getting the dipes clean.
After the first couple of days of washing the dipes, I had to seek out help as to the funk smell, that was happening that was retained in the dipes. Ok I am not stupid, I washed like I was supposed to, but was about to give up with the smell of the clean ones. I didn't know if there was any lingering bacteria or something else, so I was getting paranoid. I couldn't expose my baby to them! So turns out that the Charlie's soap I was given to clean the dipes and my washer, released some bent up smells from the washer. Not only did it change the P.h. in the washer but it also affected the Gator with redness (he is in that small part of people that it actually burns them),We changed our soap and added some sun and Batta Bing! Smell Gone, Heiny is Happy.
Heavy Wetting.
Mostly, the Gator is not a heavy wetter. But there have been times that well, I feel that I have failed him in this cloth experience by not noticing how much he has eaten to prepare for heavy wetting. We had gotten into the habit of doubling his inserts at night to prevent such disaster, but after noticing a few mornings that this was pointless, well we stopped the extra fluff. Guess I should have taken note to some of the not-that-heavy dipes just after changing him before bed. One screaming Gator, one set of wet sheets, one cursing Mr. Bacon Bringer Homer at 3 am and a few changes of wet clothes. So now we definitely double at night to prevent this from occurring again. At first, I thought that it had to be the dipes, and well after careful inspection...not so much. Some of them are bigger in the legs on him, and those we are staying away from at night, but during the day they seem fine.
So in conclusion week one of extreme observation of cloth diapering, I feel we are doing really well.
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