Take the Worry Out of Wool

I hear all the time how people are scared to use wool as a night time or even daytime solution for their little ones because they are worried about how much work it is and how time consuming it can be. That was my biggest reason it took my so long to try it while we struggled to find a good night solution. I finally decided I was tired of waking up with wet sheets & dove in head first to wool. I’ll never look back now. We haven’t woken up to wet sheets since(well except a little baby drool.) I ordered a pair of Sloomb longies and a Sloomb cover from Kelly’s Closet because I figured it may take a day or two to dry so I’d want something to use in the meantime. I also ordered some Eucalan wool wash and Sloomb solid lanolin. I wanted to make it as simple as possible for myself and this seemed like the best way to go. After all you take a teaspoon of the solid lanolin and I use about a ½ teaspoon or so of the wool wash dissolve the lanolin in hot water and soak your wool. Ring them out with a towel to get as much water out as possible and then lay them to dry. We either lay ours in front of the air conditioner or heater vent so they dry faster since they take two or three days to dry in our house. The best part is unlike all the other diapers in the world you only have to wash wool every 2 or so weeks. We usually wash once they start to smell like urine even after they are dry but I try really hard to make that at least every 2 weeks.

At first I was only soaking my longies and my cover for the half hour that is on the instructions for the lanolin until I was still waking up with wet sheets and couldn’t figure out why he was peeing through something that was supposed to be bulletproof for nighttime. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks that maybe I needed to soak them longer to get the lanolin into soaked up in them better. I thought I’d let them sit for a couple hours then take them out well life happens and they ended up soaking overnight. I panicked I really thought I ruined them so I took to Kelly’s Closet and the Diapershops blog to see if I could find anything. Somewhere in my search I came across that for nighttime use they needed to be soaked overnight or at least soaked twice before they would be bulletproof. Then I got confused because you wash them everytime before you lanolize them (well I do at least) so wouldn’t all the lanolin from last time come off anyway? Completely not my point though in all of this, as long as you don’t over think it like I have wool can be a great and super easy nighttime solution for your little ones.

Bio: Kristen is a mostly stay at home mom to two boys and a advocate for special needs children. She blogs at crazylifeasatruckerswife.blogspot.com


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Take the Worry Out of Wool

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Wonderful Wool

In recent months I finally jumped on board the wool wagon. For as long as I’ve been cloth diapering, I’ve heard mom after mom rave about using wool as a diaper cover. I was initially hesitant to give it a try due to the up front cost, as well as the additional care wool needs when it comes to wash day. I’ve always enjoyed seeing other cloth diapered kiddos sporting their cute wool longies, but never saw anything that was boyish enough to put on my little guy. I had fun looking at all the cute wool soakers and longies, but it wasn’t until this past January that I started to get a bit more serious about giving wool a try.

Now that my little man is reaching the size limit of many of his current diapers, he is wearing a lot of fitted diapers instead of pockets. He just turned two years old and is approx 32 pounds. Thank goodness he has a small waist, thus extending the lifetime wear of some of his diapers. Making the transition to fitted diapers brought with it the need for a few more diaper covers.

I already had a few large Thisties diaper covers left over from my oldest son’s diaper days, and have added a few Blueberrry Coveralls, both of which work great for us. I wasn’t finding as much success with night time diapering as in the past (a bumGenius One Size 3.0 pocket diaper stuffed with a SuperDo insert was my go to diaper for night time until he began to outgrow it and we began experiencing frequent leaks). I remembered many mom’s swear by wool for nighttime, so I decided to give it a shot.

Dreading the initial lanolizing, my first wool sat on my kitchen counter for a good two weeks before I dived in and lanolized it. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I originally thought. I simply stirred a pea sized amount of solid lanolin into a cup of hot water. I then added a small amount of wool wash to the mixture and stirred some more to emulsify it. Next, I added this mixture to a sink full of lukewarm water and stirred it in. I then added my wool and let it soak for 30 minutes. After the soak, I folded and pressed out the excess water before rolling it in a bath towel. I then let it air dry on a sweater dryer for about 24 hours. Because my wool was brand new and hadn’t been lanolized before, I repeated the process before using it the first time.

I was both excited and slightly nervous the first night I put Brendan in wool for the first time. However, I became a believer overnight when the following morning, Brendan woke up with dry pajamas and a dry bed. The fitted diaper was soaked, but the wool had contained the wetness wonderfully. I turned the wool soaker inside out and let the dampness air dry during the day and it was ready to go again at bedtime.

I’ve found I can typically go 2 weeks or so between washes unless we have a rare accident where the soaker gets soiled. When this happens, I simply wash the wool in a sink full of warm water and a bit of wool wash, followed by the same dry routine as I mentioned above. Yes, wool does require a bit more care, but for our family and our diapering needs, it’s well worth the effort. If you’ve been considering adding wool to you stash, I highly encourage you to give it a try.

By Katrina

Wonderful Wool

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