CD Tips: Of Leaks And Stinks And Stains And More

This is purely a cut and paste from Farrah's blog on the title above. Mainly for my own reference and/or reminder. Thanks Farrah for the great tips!! :)

CD Tips: Of Leaks And Stinks And Stains And More by Farrah Rahim
I've shared a few CD tips in some forums. So perhaps I should share them here too.

These tips I learned from my readings over the Internet, and mostly from my CD guru, none other than Sandra of Miabambina.com. And much of them, I learned from my 21 months of cloth diapering experience.

Leaks

1) Detergent or/and oil build up due to using too much detergent, poor rinsing, using oil based diaper rash cream, using softener, etc. Hot wash and strip wash your diapers.

2) Wrong diaper sizing, or the diaper isn't put on properly. You will know this if your finger can slip in easily through the waist or the thigh.

3) Using too much inserts. If you use too much insert on smaller babies, it sometimes may result in leaking via the waist or the thighs too. Like for instance, when you use a onesize Wahmies microfiber insert in a small size pocket Drybees on a small 2mo baby. It happened to me.

4) Not laying microfiber insert on top of hemp insert. Hemp is slow in absorbing. Lay the microfiber insert on top of hemp to assist in quicker absorbancy.

Stinks

As the baby started to eat food, and even more, as the toddler started to eat varieties of food, it is very natural for the urine to stink a little. Just think, if the urine doesn't smell, it is just NOT NORMAL at all!

However, if the smell is sword sharp stink and burns through your nose, something is just not right. Most probably, you have detergent residue in your diapers. Detergent residue acts with urine to produce overpowering stinky smell.

Again, do the hot wash and the strip wash.

Stains

The sun is our best friend! It's the best natural bleach for your diapers.

Hang your diapers with the stained parts facing the sunlight. For better results, get the full benefits from the early morning sun.

Some of the stains may not be gone. Don't worry, they will, over few washes and dries. Just remember, if the stain is still there, it doesn't mean your diaper isn't clean. Just think of the blood or curry stains that you were not able to remove from your clothes. The stains are there but they are clean nonetheless. The same principle applies.

Washing : Back To Basic

ALWAYS remember:-

1) NEVER EVER over use detergent. Read the instructions on the label of your detergent bottle/box, and use ONLY 1/4-1/3 of the recommended amount of detergent for that particular amount of wash load.

2) Use the RIGHT detergent. Do not use detergents that have enzymes, whitener, or any other super powerful features in them. They are bad for baby soft skin and may cause severe diaper rashes, especially whitening enzymes. Read the label carefully. Just use the most basic detergent you can find.

3) Do NOT use SOFTENER! They will cause build up in your diapers and you will end up with leaking problems.

4) Do NOT use BLEACH! They might actually eat up your diapers and before you even know it, your diapers will all already be reput. Plus, bleach is very unkind to baby's skin and may cause rashes. If

5) Do NOT use SOAP (as in hand and body soap)! You may think they do wonders in removing stains but they are also actually very wonderful in creating build up in your diapers. Just look at your bathroom, how often do you have to scrub the walls and floor?

6) Rinse WELL! It doesn't matter if you machine wash or hand wash your diapers. The most important thing is to rinse well enough! If you machine wash your diapers, I would recommend adding a prewash or another rinse cycle. If you hand wash your diapers, use enough water, but remember not to cause water wastage!

7) I would recommend the dry pail method over the wet pail method. Wet pail method is just so yucky. You'll be soaking your diapers in a pool of urine, unless you rinse them first before soaking them. Just toss your diapers from the dry pail straight into your washing machine.

If you follow these simple basic rules, you may find you won't actually need to do any strip washing at all!

Other Recommendations

1) Do NOT use oil-based diaper rash cream. I would recommend the Earth Mama Angel Baby Bottom Balm. It works wonders! Not only does it work in healing rashes, you can also use it for insect bites, bruises and small cuts. It heals pretty fast too! Smells nice and not so sticky either. If you really have to use those oil based cream, make sure you use a nappy barrier, like a nappy liner, and just use a thin layer of the cream.

2) When your baby is on medication especially antibiotics, you will notice some brownish stain on his diapers, especially the inserts. That is absolutely NORMAL. Just remember to wash the diapers immediately and not to keep the used diapers for too long in the dry pail. This is important to prevent mold and also the brown stain from setting in for good. What I would usually do is to rinse the diapers before dumping them into the dry pail, and shorten the wash cycle from my usual 2-3 days cycle to only 1-2 day wash cycle. Don't worry though, the brown stain will dissappear over several wash and dry cycles.

3) To increase the lifespan of your diapers, use laundry nets, especially for natural diapers like those made of bamboo, hemp and organic cotton.

4) Snap off GENTLY. Get it? Hehe, what I meant was, handle your snap diapers with care. Take off the snaps gently, don't rip them off in a rush. Otherwise you will find the snaps coming off from the diaper entirely pretty soon enough, especially if the diaper is made of natural fibre.

On another note, just for the record, I just bought our 2nd pack of Mamypoko for this year. This time around, for the first time, I bought the largest pack (66 pieces). Let's see if it can last till the end of the year ;).