What I Wish I Knew Now

Up until recently my little guy was exclusively breastfed. He has been ready to begin solids for some time but at that six month mark, we finally started him on small amounts once a day. I was dreading this- my biggest fear of cloth diapering was finally here: spraying diapers. Day three of solids, my son had his first poop. You should have seen me in that bathroom struggling, it was quite comical. I walked out of there drenched from the knees down and my clothing was speckled with that fantastically colored orange of sweet potatoes. And still the diaper was not completely cleaned off.

I was not prepared, by any means, of what it took to spray that sticky yuck out of diapers. So there I was, contemplating of returning to sposies until I could figure out how to make the situation easier. Well, I didn't even have time.. another poo 30 minutes after I finally got that bathroom clean. This was a never-ending cycle and after the fourth poop that day, I closed the bathroom door and labeled it "out of order" for a few hours. I did finally go clean the mess up that night but that day taught me a lot about starting solids with cloth diapers.

Here are some things that I learned:

-When starting solids be prepared for the amount of poops from your child to increase or decrease in frequency, size, and stench. (For the first time ever, I gagged during my son's diaper change. YUCK!)
-Just save yourself the stress and get a SPRAY-PAL... seriously, it's great, it's not that expensive and saves an incredible amount of time in cleaning.
-Sunning is a really great way to get stains out naturally. I had never had a stain (I couldn't get out with an extra wash) in my diapers before starting solids. I had never sunned anything before and was surprised at how fast the stains just disappeared.
-A wetbag in the bathroom is a must-have. My fave is a Planetwise wet/dry bag.
-Although not necessary, a sprayer that hooks to the toilet would be helpful. I use a detachable shower head in the bathroom that we don't shower/bathe in but it still makes a mess sometimes.
-For me, liners have been ineffective. For some reason, every time I have tried them so far, the poo has not stayed in the liner, no matter how I set them in the diaper. (Note: my little guy has pretty runny poo still)

So far, using cloth diapers has been quite an experience but totally worth the trial and error period to figure out what works!

By Samantha


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