8 Mistakes Parents Make with Cloth Diapers
If you’re a family that prefers to use cloth diapers, you know that it’s a whole different world from using disposables. It’s a lifestyle you have to commit to if you want it to work. Here are some common mistakes cloth diaper families make and how you can prevent them.
1. Not changing baby often enough – Cloth diapers don’t absorb liquid the same way synthetic ones do. Your baby doesn’t have to be wet too long in a cloth diaper to form a rash. Plus, some parents try to let it go a bit longer to reduce how many diapers they have to wash in a day. Once you notice it’s wet, change it right away.
2. Use harsh laundry detergents – Modern detergents use harsh chemicals, like bleach, scents and optical brighteners. These chemicals can be tough on gentle baby skin (especially in such a delicate area). Stick to natural products if you can or simply baking soda and borax. Don’t bleach or use fabric softener.
3. Not having enough diapers – You need at least 36 diapers to get through a couple days when your child is a newborn. Any less you’ll find yourself doing a load every single day and they will wear out before your child is potty trained. If you can afford it, buy 50 cloth diapers.
4. Not washing often – Even if you have a lot of diapers, you want to wash them as soon as you have a load’s worth. If you let them sit in the laundry bag too long, they start to stink. If you run out before new ones are clean, you risk holding your baby in a towel until the machine is finished.
5. Not rinsing diapers right away – No matter what’s inside them, a diaper needs to be sprayed down before you add to your laundry bin. Even if the contents were solid and rolled away easily. Matter is still left behind. If the contents sit on the cloth, they’ll just be harder to clean later.
6. Washing in cold – To clean organic matter, you need a HOT wash. If you are washing by hand, make sure to use plenty of water and really scrub into them so all the contents are removed. Make sure the diapers you buy don’t say “cold wash only.”
7. Using “pockets” or inserts – Inserts are used for additional absorbency if you feel like you need it, but they’re just another thing to clean and they force you to handle something that can get very messy. Just change your baby right away whenever he goes.
8. Adding essential oils to the diaper pail – Some people try and cover the smell by adding scented oils to their diaper pail. This doesn’t help much and you waste expensive oils. Just wash the diapers and the pail more frequently.
Also read: 5 Tips for Quick Diaper Changes
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Written by Stephanie Parker from Sleepingbaby.com, inventors of the Zipadee-Zip
The motto for Sleeping Baby, makers of the Zipadee-Zip, is: "Inspiring Dreams One Night at A time," and that, in a nutshell, is how it all started…with one little dream that has since become the Parker family's reality. When Brett and Stephanie Parker's daughter, Charlotte, was born, the feeling that welled up inside of them was indescribable; they never realized until first looking into those baby blues of hers that they were even capable of that kind of love.
When it was time to transition baby from swaddling, the Parkers tried every sleep sack on the market and every swaddle weaning trick they could find for nearly two weeks and nothing worked to get baby Charlotte to fall and stay asleep.
Stephanie became determined to restore sleep and sanity to their household and set out to find a solution that would soothe Charlotte's startle reflex and provide her the cozy womb-like environment she loved so much but still give her the freedom to roll over and wiggle around in her crib safely. Out of sheer desperation and exhaustion, the Zipadee-Zip was born. The first Zipadee-Zip(R) Stephanie put together on her little sewing machine worked like magic!
To date, tens of thousands of Zipadee-Zips have been sold and all from word-of-mouth marketing. It is so rewarding for the Parkers to see other parents and babies getting the sleep they both need and deserve!
Interested in writing a guest blog for Sleeping Baby? Send your topic idea to pr@sleepingbaby.com.
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