Moldy Grovia: The Real Thing This Time

I traveled back from Mexico with half a stash of diapers soaking wet, due to my Grandma's slow system.

Once I arrived here, I put everything on my spin dryer, I was amazed at the amount of water that my diapers still had after an hour of drying attempts and unfortunately a Grovia AIO could not stand the moist and developed mildew.

So, what to do? Well, I washed it in the regular load, sunned it, washed it again twice with oxy clean added to the detergent and sunned it and sunned it in between those washes. Finally got the courage to use it. No problem. It still looks mildly stained, so I keep sunning it after every wash, getting whiter every time, but I have seen no problem in Tiny Guy, so it is safe to use.

I could have used bleach or boiled it had it been a prefold or an insert, but with AIOs, one has to be more conservative and be aware of the TPU that can delaminate in high temperatures.

But more than anything else, let's keep washing frequently, specially sprayed diapers in this exceedingly warm summer

What to do with Too Small Disposables

Due to several lost battles in the rash war, I had to give up on nighttime cloth diapering.

But my inventory of disposables was 2 bags of size twos and one single pull-up.

Then I wondered: could and should I use those little baby disposables on my big toddler?? mmm... wouldn't hurt to try....

So I went ahead and placed the small diaper inside a Real Nappies cover, just placed it all open on top, like an insert. Next morning, there was a lake around Little Guy, but his rash was much better (I may add we're using antibiotic and antifungal ointments). The diaper was completely full though.

Second night, I placed a prefold in bikini fold on top of the cover, so that it would catch the urine once the diaper was full. Total Success!! His rash is rapidly disappearing and he woke up dry as a grain of sand in the desert.

That gives me a relief. Tiny Guy was going to outgrow those diapers soon and I was going to be stuck with them taking space, now I know I can use them anytime I need a disposable for whatever reason.

He is taking a nap and I made a different experiment. I'm using a pocket with a trifolded prefold inside, covering the mini disposable. Wish us luck!

Free of Chemicals? Not so Sure

I've been battling a chronic rash in Little Guy. It is incredible that he has it, given that he spends most of the day dressed in his Angel Costume wearing more hair than clothes.

I had to totally give up un cotton and start using pockets with him for nights and naps, which makes it harder to keep up on laundry since I only have 17  (including 5 AIOs) for Tiny Guy to use, and I can't use the Fuzzibunz on him because they are a little on the small side and it would require me sizing them back and forth all day long. I also can't use the GroVias because, as I've said, I've given up cotton on him, so that  leaves me to the Ecconappi (sad face).

So, how come Little Guy's butt is all burned if he's wearing diapers with "no chemicals"?

Well, here's the catch: no such thing.

Ammonia

First, and most important, is the pee itself, which is a very complex compound. Which is why I'm wearing a layer to take it away from his butt. The problem is that, contrary to what people may think, it is very hard to clean. Some fabrics tend to retain urea crystals, no matter how many times you rinse, and over time, the amount grows and decomposes to ammonia, to a  level that will at any contact with liquids and on some occasions  burn the skin.

Detergents.

No matter how hypoallergenic the stuff is, or how "free and clear". It needs cleaning agents. Period. No cleaning agents, no urea removal. If someone uses plain water to clean diapers, it would take some 20 washes or more every time. And those chemicals will, again, build up and leave residues in the fabric. Next thing you know, in the best case scenario you'll have repelling. In the worst, rashes again.

Water.

There's no place on earth in which you will get plain H20 from the tap. Not only it does not exist in nature, but as a solvent, it grabs whatever is there, so it would be impossible to keep it pure and clean. Some places do better jobs than others in keeping it free of toxins and adding a balanced combination of stuff to make it potable. Others have wells and water takes whatever is on them. In any case, water will mostly come with chlorine and fluoride and some other salts. That means that you can not trust your washing routine to work on a different location and that those salts will build up too. For some hard water places, the easiest solution seems to be Calgon. I'll tell you my experience when that happens. Right now I have extremely soft (and not good at removing soap) East Coast water.

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So far, no detergent has proven to remove all the crystals and leave no residue with just a couple of rinses regardless of location and water composition. We can only do the old fashion trial and error and do our best to keep those bums as chemical free as possible. As always, with cloth it's our choice and our chore, not a corporation's.

Synthetic vs Natural

With the new trend and the newer designs, comes the usage of new fabrics.

In our baby times, our moms (or grandmas if you're younger) used birdseye cotton. That's it.

Now, with the new cloth diaper industry, designers have come up with a variety  never seen before.

But what is best? what do we put in our little ones' butt?

As a newbbie, I went ahead and bought whatever I found in good price, and a 2 day stash of prefolds and covers. That got me organic cotton, bamboo and 2 forms of microfiber for the absorbent core, and microfleece and cotton velour for the stay dry layer, so I can't compare all types.

I also have not tested the absorbency with a measuring cup and a scale, I can only talk about my experience dealing with them. IMHO, the answer is simple: get both.

Natural

I like organic cotton and love bamboo. They absorb fine and compress when wet. They tend to keep what they absorb. This is an advantage for leak prevention, but a disadvantage for drying. Prefolds are not expensive, but you need covers, bamboo is a little more pricey, so I only have 4 inserts, but I have never had leaks with it.

When it comes to contact with the baby, my Tiny Guy cannot stand feeling wet, so, when I was using prefolds, I needed to change them almost every hour, even less, or he would be screaming. That's why I mostly use pockets with him, he needs a stay dry feature.

Another issue I've had with prefolds (that I use now with my Big Guy) is the washing. Since they tend to retain more, that translates to ammonia pretty well. I've had horrible rashes due to ammonia buildup and it has escalated to the usage of blue Dawn in every wash. I may even bleach them one of these days.

Then it comes what I love the most: organic cotton velour. It is the only thing I use at night with Tiny Guy. He sleeps all night without any problems. He  wakes up with the diaper all soaked, I change it first thing and take the soakers off. The main problem with it is the price. Oh, and the drying time, which, although not exactly slow, takes a few hours hanging in the inside.

And lastly, stains. For some reason, my main stain concerns come from the Grovia AIOs, with cotton soakers. I just hang them near the window and let the sun take care of things.

Synthetic

I'm not in love with microterry, but I do use it, and I do love mink. I like microfleece as well, but not as much as cotton velour.  Microfiber absorbs like crazy, but just like it absorbs, it dries. That means, any contact with it will release water. Translation: LEAKS.

I may say that 95% of the leaks I've dealt with have included microfiber. The worse ones were with Fuzzibunz, that gave in to 2 explosions, one in the middle of the night, staining my blanket while I was nursing, and the other one while I was out and my beloved husband used Murphy's Oil Soap to wash it.  Only one #2 leak has occured ever since (and very minor).

Changes that involve exclusive mink have to be within 2 hours, and if Tiny Guy is sitting in his bouncy chair, wetness will still come sometimes. Just squeeze a little and voilá, wet leg at 9. On the other hand, once out of the spin dryer, they are ready to use within an hour of hanging. No waiting time required!

As for the staydry of my pockets, it gets grummy after a few washes, and leaves residues all over, but it does keep him happy and moisture free (to a nice degree). The Fuzzibunz pockets dry extremely fast, so you can just keep using them.

And for stains, the question is: "what stains?" really, dump the dirty stuff in the washer and you won't have any souvenirs after they're dry.  Plus: the inserts are cheaper than bamboo and the pockets cheaper than cotton velour.

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So, I would say, give variety a try. You may like hemp and suedecloth as well.  and yet more options for covers.....