Friday, September 23, 2005

Old School

I mentioned in my recent post about recycling how I was planning on putting Lauren back into cloth diapers. I still am. Now that's she's almost 2, I'm thinking it makes sense to put her back into cloth so she can start to feel when she's wet and we can begin, baby step by baby step, down the road towards potty training.

I had both kids in cloth diapers for the first year of their lives. With Nicholas, I used a diaper service. No muss, no fuss. But with Lauren, I had to BE the diaper service myself and do all the laundering. It wasn't that big a deal, but I was ready for a break after a year. I've always put the kids in disposables at night for the sheer absorption power they provide. I still plan to be a "hybrid" cloth diaperer and employ the disposable technology for overnight. I've always been curious about using a wool soaker/cover with the cloth diapers, but I could never justify the cost of them. It seemed prohibitively expensive when I was getting all my supplies way back when. I knew of the benefits, but cost was/is a real factor for me. THEN I learned how to crochet and it was a no-brainer that when I was ready to return to the world of cloth diapers that I would make a couple of wool soakers. And so I have. Behold:


Just needs the Velcro and it's done...


the soaker laid out full...


The leg opening - gussets and all!

I was able to knock this soaker out in 2 days time. In other words, quickly. It wasn't a complicated pattern (downloaded free of the Internet!). It's made from 100% organic wool. All that's left for me to do is add a band of Velcro across the front and smaller Velcro pads to the corners that wrap around, and I'm done. I have another pattern I'll be making next - a pull-on style with a drawstring waist. I'm not sure yet how well these will fit under her clothes as they might be too bulky, but maybe that's the excuse I need to dress her in more dresses! Huzzah! Posted by Picasa

Comments:
Where did you find the pattern on the internet?

I'm mediocre at crocheting, but I'd like to give these a try! The cost of disposables is killing us.
 
Yes, Lauren will undo the Velco if she's given free access. I have to make sure she wears pants at all times or the cover is sure to come off. Strangely, she doesn't try to take off a disposable diaper... Her butt looks so BIG in cloth diapers as compared to disposables!

As far as fastening goes, I'm mostly just pinning the diapers in the traditional way. I don't mind pins. Sometimes I just fold the diaper into 1/3 and lay it inside the wrap cover like a gigantic maxi-pad, but it's more bulky that way. Plus, it doesn't work with a pull-on style cover.

I'm finding out just how much my daughter's bladder has grown in the past year - wow! She can soak a cloth diaper right quick these days. I'm finding I sometimes need to double the diaper for added absorbancy. But then again, my diapers (hand-me-downs) are on the thin side to begin with. I have some big thick ones, too, but even those get soaked quickly....
 
Good for you on the cloth diapers! I used cloth on my kids too! Real mothers use cloth diapers.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
Free Counters
Hit Counters

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?