How did I prepare?

Today is the second day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. I headed out for home this afternoon. We will see how this goes! I have a medium size wetbag half full that I will be handwashing in the hotel sink tonight. I then will let them hang dry overnight. I want to then use the iron to finish drying them in the morning if they are still damp.

I didn't really prepare for this challenge as I normally would've, since I didn't decide until the last minute to participate. Since I was 1200 miles from home and forgot to bring my flats, I went to Walmart and bought 15 flour sack towels. I had my covers, pin, Snappi, and Boingo with me, since I was going to use prefolds my family already had. One of my sister-in-laws had some Charlie's Soap she was no longer using and gave it to me. I normally would use Eco Sprout.

You may wonder why I have three different fasteners. Well, depending on what fold I use, I have different prefernces for what fastener I use.

Jo fold: I use a Boingo or Snappi
Diaper Bag fold: I use a pin
Pad fold: I don't use a fastener.

For night time last night, I used two flats and did the pad fold. It worked great! I am also finding that the pad fold works best when we are traveling in the van. He lasts a little bit longer. I stop every 60-90 minutes anyways, as I am pregnant and need to stop that often to use the restroom.

So far, things hve been going great. I am planning on taking pictures tonight for washing. I will post tomorrow on how it goes.

Why did I decide to take the Flats and Handwashing Challenge?

Today marks the beginning of the 3rd annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. I participated last year and learned so much! I loved flats so much by the end, that I got rid of most of my prefolds and started using flats on a regular basis. Last year, I had two in cloth diapers full time, which was quite a challenge. This year, I only have one in cloth full time, but I still have some challenges. I am traveling for about half of the challenge.

I am currently in Utah and I will be leaving for Oklahoma tomorrow. The next three days, I will be doing the challenge while on the road and staying each night in a hotel.Plus, I am 33 weeks pregnant, traveling with four children, a cat, and a dog. This could get interesting!

You might wonder why I am willing to participate this year as I have so much going on, only a sink to handwash in, and no real plan for drying my flats and covers. Well, I learned  so much last year about how ANYBODY, no matter their situation, can cloth diaper, that I wanted to participate this year with all of my challenges to prove even more that it can be done.

Cloth diapering is an option for everyone. I grew up poor... there were times our heat and electricity was turned off and my family slept together in the living room in front of the wood pellet stove. There were times we lived off of beans and rice for weeks at a time. My mother managed to cloth diaper my brothers and me.

I was a single mom for the first seven years of my son's life. I barely made ends meet. I cloth diapered with the cheap Gerber prefolds, pins, and plastic pants that you could, and still can buy, at Walmart.

I know what it is to struggle. Though my family does not struggle now, I still choose to cloth diaper for the health of my children and to prevent the horrible disposable diaper burns and rashes that every single disposable diaper I have ever tried on my children has caused them.

I want to raise awareness that cloth diapering is a viable option for anyone and everyone. It is better for you budget, better for your child, and better for the Earth.

I forgot to bring my flats when I left Oklahoma for Utah, I went to Walmart and I bought 15 of the flour sack towels.They came in packs of 5 for $4.98. That is pretty inexpensive!

 I decided to use the Jo fold today. This fold works best for my little man.

 I just bring the middle together in thirds.

 As you can see, we had some adjustment issues.

 Pulling up the middle and adjusting the Boingo made a huge difference.

 Here it is with a Thirsties Duo Wrap Cover in size 2.Very trim!

On Monday, the 3rd annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge, hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry is coming up this Monday, May 20th! It runs from May 20-26, 2013. I participated last year and I still use flats a year later. I even got rid of most of my prefolds and switched to flats most of the time. I am signed up to complete this challenge again this year, but I am not sure I will be participating.

My biggest challenge is that I am currently visiting family in Utah and I will be driving back to Oklahoma in the middle of the challenge. Plus, I forgot all of my flats at home... I am considering hitting up Ikea and getting some of the hand towels there as they are recommended to use as flats. I have PLENTY of covers with me, so that is not a huge deal. I may even go for the cheapies at Walmart or Target, since I have plenty of flats at home and could reuse whatever I buy for unpaper towels.

Being 33 weeks pregnant, I am wishy washy, but I think I am going to go shopping today and take the plunge and do this challenge while traveling. At least it will give me plenty to blog about!!!

Kawaii Minky Bamboo

Kawaii Minky Bamboo diapers are one-size diapers that are minky on the outside and they are lined with bamboo on the inside. The inserts are also bamboo. I had read on a few of the cloth diaper blogs I visit that bamboo is very absorbent. Also, bamboo is good for babies with skin sensitivities or allergies to man-made fibers. One of my boys seemed to havea  slight sensitivity to man-made fibers and he had eczema, so I thought I would give the bamboo diapers a try.

After research, I decided to try the Kawaii Minky Bamboo diapers because they are easy on the bank account and they also have bamboo inserts. I also checked out the Blueberry One-Size Bamboo Deluxe Cloth Diaper. I didn't go with that diaper because of the price and because the inserts are microterry. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on an experiment to see if the bamboo diapers would work for my son.

The diapers worked great! My son's little heiney stopped getting red from cloth diapers and I proved time and time again that they do absorb and hold more fluid. It even got my heavy wetter through the night! I used both inserts and added a hemp doubler, just in case.

The diapers are one-size and they do seem to run a bit on the large side. My son is 27 lbs and we are on the 2nd rise, 3 hip snaps in, and 3 waist snaps in on each side. My 21 lb son also wears this setting.

Update: I gave in and bought some of the Blueberry bamboo diapers. I then took out the microterry and instead used bamboo inserts. I LOVE these diapers! The prints are adorable. They are pricey, but they work so well for sensitive little heineys.  My boys are a bit bigger now and only my youngest is still in diapers. The bamboo diapers, both the Kawaii and Blueberry, are the first diaper I reach for. This means they are washed more often and they have held up beautifully.

MIA

I have MIA for quite a while and decided that I really needed to do an update.

I was able to complete the Flats Handwashing Challenge! I am also proud to say that I have been using flats since the challenge. I still use my pocket diapers and I do not hand-wash, but I have found a new love for flat diapers. I still have not had a leak. My favorite folds are the Diaper Bag fold and the Jo fold.

My experiences with the challenge convinced my awesome sister-in-law (and best friend) to use flats for her daughter. She was already cloth diapering, but finding a good fit for her petite daughter has been a challenge. Enter the flat diapers, Thirsties, and Bummis covers and my niece is the cutest cloth-diapered little girl ever!

If I was not the cloth diaper addict that I am, I would sell most of my pocket diapers and move almost exclusively to using flats and Thirsties Duo Wraps covers. When my 16 month old is getting a red bum for whatever reason, usually acid poo, I just put a flat on him with a little bit of coconut oil. The next day, his little heiney looks as good as new!

The flats diapers do not hold onto smell, wash and dry easy, and fit VERY trim. When my baby boy is in a flats diaper, you almost cannot tell he is in a cloth diaper! My one complaint about using flats is when it comes time to use the diaper sprayer to get the poo off. It is a lot of material to unfold and get clean, but it really only takes about 30 seconds more of my time. I attribute my complaint mostly to the 30 seconds being 30 seconds more of my time that my boys know I am distracted, so they can get into something!

All in all, the challenge was a major win for me and I am planning on doing the challenge again if it is hosted again next year!

Day 4: Flats and Handwashing Challenge

Origami Fold on my 1 year old

Night time ready diaber bag fold with a pad fold inside on my 2.5 year old.

Today is day 4 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge. Today I used a mix of the different flat folds. I am finding that the fold I use the most for my 2.5 year old is the pad fold and the fold I use most for my 1 year old is the origami fold. I am developing a love for the diaper bag fold. My least favorite is the kite fold. The kite fold is theone I cannot seem to get perfected and it just doesn't fit either of my boys as well as I would like it to. 

For night time, we have been so successful with the diaper bag fold and a pad folded second flat on the inside. In fact, I am thinking about making this our regular night time set up. My 2.5 year old is a heavy wetter at night and we have not had a single leak this week or stinky pjs in the morning! I have actually been able to reuse pjs for him and that almost never happens. I am LOVING the decrease in laundry!

Day 3: Flats and Handwashing Challenge

Today is day 3 of the Dirty Diaper Laundry Flats and Handwashing Challenge. Checkout my blog for posts on the other days of this challenge.

Today I am going to share how the handwashing has been going. I have washed two loads so far. The first load was done with Eco Sprout detergent. The second load was done with Ecos, which is a liquid detergent I buy at Costco.

My camp bucket washer and plunger

I started out the first wash load with four covers and nine flats.

Then I filled the bucket with cold water and used the plunger to give a cold rinse to the diapers.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the plunger agitate the diapers!

After that, I added one teaspoon of Eco Sprout.

I added hot water, without turning on the cold tap. I wanted it as hot as it could be.



I agitated the diapers for about ten minutes. My arms were very sore, as was my back! I then did two rinses with cold water.

No bubbles!

I then squeezed out as much water as I could from the flats and covers. My 2.5 year old went outside with me to hang the diapers on the line. He is an amazing helper! He hands me the diapers and pins so I don't have to do any bending over.

The diapers and covers were dry in less than three hours! The flats did not get stiff at all and the two diapers that had poop stains were very hard because the sun had bleached out most of the stains! They smelled fresh and I was amazed at how clean the diapers were. They seemed to have gotten a better clean than my washer gives my diapers!

I repeated the process today, but I used Ecos instead. WAY too much Ecos... After three rinses in the camp bucket, I finally just hand rinsed each diaper. I discovered today that I prefer to wash the flats first and then wash the covers seperately. It is an extra step, but I felt the covers received a better cleaning job that way. Despite the fact that it may rain, I chose to hang the diapers on the line tonight, so they can have the sun in the morning.

I also discovered today that I could probably have gotten away with only 20 flats between the two boys. 36 flats was wya more than I needed. However, I do need six covers for each boy, maybe a couple more each, as I have not perfected the art of catching poo in the flat and the covers are getting soiled. I am hoping to change that by the end of the challenge!