We had been excited about cloth diapering (CD) since our good friends had their first baby almost 5 years ago. We saw how well it worked for them, and figured we'd do it when the time came for us.
Lyra brought out the CD crazy in L. He was getting samples and showing them to anyone who would listen. He wanted all colors and designs and it was sweet to see him so excited about preparing for her in that way. The wind was taken out of his sails though, and he has never quite bounced back in regards to his previous excitement about CD'ing.
We did disposables when Simon was first born, because we didn't have access to easy laundry facilities. Then we moved, and waited a bit. Once we got started though, I was hooked, and picked up quite of my own obsession (though we used disposables if we went out or traveled).
Until there was a month of unfortunate stomach issues with Simon. And I became quite accustomed to disposables. But I kept having this nagging thought in the back of my head, about why I had been convinced about CD's. So this last week, I gave it another go.
This might be TMI for most people, but if it helps someone else, then I'm happy to divulge :) CD's were great with nice, normal solids. But when they became smushy or less than solid, it was not so great. Of course I had read to scrape or spray the solids off. Unfortunately, I didn't have a sprayer, and for scraping I must have been doing something wrong, because it just was not as easy as everyone described.
Until I was introduced to fleece liners. Jeanette mentioned them to me, and I found some other posts about using them. So, I had some fleece (not flannel), and cut it up into sizes just a little wider and longer than the inserts I use. (I use shells, with prefolds for the daytime, and the pocket diapers to stuff full at night.)
And they are freaking brilliant. Even the smushy solids come off without becoming ingrained into the fabric, and it protects the shells so much better than before. I read that the fleece liner directs the moisture to the prefold, thus making the solids easier to detach from the liner. Plus, I figure if there is an extra runny one, I can soak the liner in a bucket, but throw the insert in our normal diaper bin.
I'll also buy some of the flushable liners here soon, and see how those doo...excuse the lame pun.
Anyways, I thought I had read it all to know how to do it, but sometimes it takes just a little gem to make it that much better.
Have you stumbled across anything that has made an element of life better for you this week? Hoping for a beautiful weekend for you all. <3