"What's a disposable diaper?" and My First "Dunk and Swish"

Saturday, my son had one of "those" diapers.  I commented to my husband that the, ahem, "deposit" (which was creeping dangerously close to the outside of the Fuzzibunz perfect size diaper) would never have been contained in a disposable diaper!  It's been a while since I used disposables, but I remember blowouts all too well!

My almost-6-year-old daughter said "what's a disposable diaper?"  I'm a little baffled by the question, since we used disposables on her brother for 4 months, and I'm pretty sure she's seen other people change a diaper and throw it away.  I'm guessing she was just confused by the term "disposable."

In any case, I said "It's a diaper you throw away," and she said "Oh."  It would be pretty cool if someday we looked back at our "throw it away" generation, and didn't understand it!

So that diaper led me to my first "dunk and swish."  In over 15 months of cloth diapering, I've never done that.  But this diaper...let's just say it was a little beyond scraping, but was too much to throw in the washer.  I was asking myself why I hadn't bought a diaper sprayer yet.

After I already had to reach into the potty to fish out a cloth wipe I'd accidentally dropped in, I used a tip someone gave me.  I pulled the insert out, held the ends of the diaper in my hand (firmly) with the inner facing out.  I dunked it in the toilet and flushed (several times.)  I held onto it tightly, but let it kind of get pulled down with the flush.

It really worked quite well and wasn't terribly gross!  I was able to flip it back around with the PUL side out again and carry it to the wet bag (I need to put one in the bathroom!) without dripping.

So now I feel a little more initiated, and more like a real cloth diapering Mom.  Ha ha!

Ever wished you could throw a diaper away?

To attempt to make a long(er) story short(er), a few weeks ago, I was totally there.  My son had been drinking some juice (side note: before you worry that your child's dark urine is because of dehydration or a UTI, remember the red food coloring he managed to ingest a few days earlier.)

I was standing over the toilet, diaper in one hand, toilet paper in the other, attempting to scrape the massive, ahem, deposit off of the diaper.  Just for a second, my eyes glazed over, and I drifted away...

I was spinning through a field of daisies, pack of disposables in my arms, "So Happy Together" playing in the background.  With a smug smile on my face, I tossed the offending diaper in the pail.

Then, the record screeched, and I remembered what it was really like to use disposables.  Remember that we used disposable diapers/pull-ups on my daughter for almost 2 1/2 years, and on my son for about 4 months.  The terms "fitteds and pockets and snappis" weren't in my diaper vocabulary, but "blowout" sure was.

We have one single photo of my daughter in her cute baptism gown, and in the photo, my husband is holding her with a horrified look on his face, since the blowout was in process at that very moment.  Even when the diapers were on properly, and in the proper size, blowouts were a regular occurrence.

Much of the time, it came right out the back of the diaper, while the diaper itself remained relatively unscathed.  I looked down at the diaper in my hand, covered with poop from front to back and side to side, nearly to the edges of the elastic and I knew. I knew there was no way this would have stayed in a disposable diaper.

I may be scraping and washing this diaper, but if it had been a disposable, I would instead be washing a shirt, pants, socks, probably my clothing, any surface nearby, the changing pad, and quite possibly, giving the kid a bath.  I saw a post in the cafemom babies group where a Mom cut a onesie off of her daughter after a blowout, knowing there was no way to get it off of her without making a bigger mess!

With cloth, I had one incident where I didn't have the diaper snug around his leg and breastfed baby poop came out of the leg gap, but other than that, no blowouts.  So, yeah.  I gladly washed that diaper!  I think having used disposables in the past makes me appreciate cloth more!

Aside from the occasional horrifying story of the forgotten poopy cloth diaper that was beyond saving, have you ever wished you could pitch a diaper?

Designer disposables (and the time I wore a diaper-on my leg)

I had heard of the new "designer" Cynthia Rowley Pampers, but just noticed them in the Target Ad today.  $14.99 for 23 size 4 diapers?!  *gulp*

I'll say, I'm not a "sposie hater."  I used them for my daughter for 2+ years and on my son for 4+ months.  My daughter never had issues with diaper rash, though my son did (which is really what made me finally make the switch.)

Do I regret it?  Yes!  Mostly because I could have an  awesome stash of cloth diapers (or a diamond ring for that matter!) for the money I threw away on disposable diapers.

I'm cheap frugal, so I stockpile; diapers were no exception.  I worked sales, coupons, special offers etc. to get diapers from 8 cents each (name brand.)  I would buy them if I needed them if they were under 22 cents each.  For wipes my price was around 2.5 cents per wipe.  Now, that led to the problem of how many to stockpile.  I'm a worrier, so it stressed me out.  I was often left with too-small diapers to get rid of.

Speaking of too small diapers, it wasn't just that they were too small, they had blowouts all the time.  I joke that I'm hardly doing more laundry now with cloth since we had so many wardrobe changes with sposies.

Then, there was the trash.  The pails were stinky, I had to keep on top of emptying them, then smell them again on trash day.  I'll admit that at the time, I was more concerned with my convenience than the environment, but now the thought of all those diapers in a landfill sickens me.

When you get down to it, the reason I didn't cloth diaper my daughter was ignorance.  If it weren't for the cost, I would have been interested in the new Pampers.  I'm not into "character" stuff, it's just not my thing.  So I hated seeing purple stripes through her clothes and Sesame Street characters peeking out of her pants.  Now I know that cloth diapers are easy, fun and addictive.  That they pay for themselves in no time, and even the plainest cloth diaper is cuter than the cutest disposable!!

Speaking again of money, I love being able to change my son whenever, without worrying about the cost.  You figure even at a good price, a diaper change costs you a quarter or more for a diaper and wipe or two. 

Even though disposable diaper manufacturers try to say you should change after every "use," really, how many people do that?  I know some kids are just super soakers, but I was able to get a diaper to hold 5 cups of water in my little experiment.  Really?  I think they are more absorbent so you don't have to change after every pee.  Even my doctor would say oh, I think you can get a little more use out of that, and close the diaper back up after checking her.  Sometimes we'd change 3 diapers just in the doctor's office!

 

At 65 cents per diaper, do you really want to change it after an hour or two? 

So, about my wearing a diaper.  I received samples of the new, ultra-thin (and somewhat controversial) disposable diaper in the mail.  So, I decided one evening to wrap one around my leg and see what happened.  I'll be honest, I was hoping it would give me some awful rash, 'cause that would make for some good blogging.

Alas, it did not, and while I took pictures, I won't even bother posting them.  OK a few pics, LOL.  They're not very exciting, I took them myself.

I started with a dry diaper and it instantly felt itchy and scratchy, especially at the leg openings.  No way would I want  to wear one of these on my bottom!

After an hour, I poured some water in and put it back on.  Each hour, I took a pic of my leg, added more water and put it back on.  Now, granted this was water and not urine.  I will do a lot in the name of my blog, but I have to draw the line somewhere!

After a while, the diaper warmed up to my body temp and felt squishy.  I actually forgot I had it on until I stood up from the couch!

I haven't done this with a cloth diaper, so I really can't guess what this means for potty training.  I've heard that cloth diapered kids tend to train (learn) sooner, but I don't know if the soft, stay dry and comfy fabrics of today's diapers make a difference.

My hubby didn't blink when I put a diaper on my leg, but he sure looked at me funny when he caught me in the kitchen with a diaper, measuring cup & scale.  That diaper is a good 3 inches thick I think!

5 cups of water!  Won't someone please change my diaper?!

Anyway, if you can afford to spend 15 bucks on 3 days worth of diapers, consider cloth!  In a month's time, you could have a day's worth of Smartipants diapers or a great stash of a hybrid/all-in-two system or prefolds & covers.  If nothing else, you could use them until they had paid for themselves (saving the money you had not spent on disposables) then sell them and buy something even cuter and nicer! 

Use them for another child, sell them...heck you could  donate them and still be way ahead of where you'd be had you used disposables!

OK maybe later

I had decided on one size pocket diapers, where the rise and the inserts snap down to size, to fit babies starting around 8 pounds, potentially through potty training.  Specifically, the BumGenius 3.0s. 

Some reviews indicated that the diapers didn't quite take their children through potty training, but since my wee little bit of a thing was only twenty something pounds when she potty trained, I figured we'd be fine.

Since my daughter was a wee 6 1/2 pounds at birth, I assumed I wouldn't be able to use the one size diapers right away.  Plus I wasn't sure about throwing in a cloth diaper curveball into the whole new mother-o-two game.  If only I knew what I know now, but oh well, water under the bridge right?

So, with the new customer hook of $10 off, combined with $5 off, combined with free shipping and manufacturer coupons, I ordered a case of wee little newborn diapers for the wee little baby I was expecting (ha!)

They cost HOW MUCH?

So, once I successfully had a bun in mah oven, I delved even deeper into the world of cloth. 

When I had my daughter, I was shocked (SHOCKED I tell you!) by how much disposable diapers cost.  Seriously, OMGWTF how is something that will be pooped in & thrown away costing more than a quarter, or maybe 15 cents for a screaming deal on a mega-jumbo-sized-never-gonna-use-em-all box of itty bitty newborn diapers bought with layer upon layer or coupons & subscribe & save savings.  I will talk about the cost of the hiney wiping devices later.

I was in for still more sticker shock when I found out how much cloth diapers cost.  The logical side of my brain tells me that the cloth diapers would pay for themselves in no time at all, whereas I would still be shelling out for disposables week after week.

But I was still having a hard time committing to such a large initial expense, especially since I wasn't sure how I was going to like all this anyway.