25th
Reality of cloth diapering a newborn
10 notes of a first timer cloth-diapering a newborn with v.e.r.y..f.e.w modern cloth diapers and dozens of traditional lampin (muslin squares) ;)
1. Your granny’s-time lampin (muslin squares) for the win!
Easy drying, not bulky & cheap. Go buy 3dozens! if you think that’s too many, you can always use it as burp cloth, wiping here & there…. it’s mulitpurpose! Oh and *standing ovation* for the inventor of nappy fastener/snappi. Can’t imagine mommies used to poke sharp baby (safety) pins so near to the delicate baby skin!
2. I heart Thirsties Duo Wrap <3
The best diaper cover over a lampin/fitted cd for a newborn, eva!! fullstop. Never had any leakage even after a fatal explosion inside there. A trim fit all the time!
3. Go for hook&loop (like velcro) cds.
Believe me, it’ll save you LOTsa time. It is easier to zap-unzapping the velcro then snap-unsnapping buttons when your baby is wailing miserably while you’re changing her (Hmmm…if only the Rumparooz cd i got was the pattern aplix type. oh well. love ya anyways Tiny Tapir! :P)
4. Everybody wants to poo in a clean toilet.
The lampin is a winner coz you have so many of it you won’t feel like you’re going to run out of diaper at the end of the day, but if you do, it’ll only take half a day to line dry it after you wash it the next morning. Therefore, you won’t be pulling your already falling hair everytime your baby poops just after you change her into a clean nappy.
5. Saving money by choosing one-sized doesn’t necessarily save your sanity.
So we blame the cd for it’s bulkiness. I did pre-test a one-size cd on my 2.5y.o. and the cd wass too small for her (& yeah, my 2.5y.o. is not even near to be potty trained, her choice *sigh*). Most one-sized won’t do justice to your (then) petite baby and your not-yet-toilet-trained preschooler. Choose fitted! It fits nicely on your baby (when you buy according to her size la of course). I so love the trim of Thirties Fab Fitted Size S on my shmontelness 2.5m.o.! (she started wearing it from when she was 1m.o.)
6. Since you have so much moolah & bought those imported cds, why not buy a dryer as well?
Coz it’s not ‘green’ using a dryer? Then don’t blame the rainy weather! I did say lampin’s a winner, didn’t i? Half a day dah kering dahh….
Btw, the easy peasy “just toss the cds in the wm” only works if you have like two dozens of cds?= which i don’t. Boohoo.
7. Do not afraid to soak
So i soak the lampins…..as well as the modern cd! Sorry peeps, the dry-pail system only works for me from morning till evening- i can’t stand the idea of letting the poop and poop stain set on those pristine white cloth for 48hours. Everytime i take my evening shower, i would start rinsing the cds and soak them overnight so that when i wake up the next day, there will be no more stain on the cds (or very minimal) & i’ll just have to rinse them & they are ready to be hang to dry under the sun. *Weee!*
8. Newborn/breastfedbaby poop stain are like permanent marker.
I realized it’s utterly difficult to remove poop stain from some of the cds, like the GroBaby soaker. O.M.G…. tensionzz ok. GroBaby is the only brand that i bought more than 1 set of cd & unfortunately it sucks during cleaning time *grr*. Is it because it’s made of cotton? It iS harder to remove stain from the lampin too, but i think because the lampin cloth is (much more) thinner, it’s easier for the stain to break off and when i dry it out under the bleaching sun, it would look white and clean again. All my OS cds and (my fav) Thirsties Fab Fitted are so super-easy to clean!!! I loike. Eh, but the os inserts are difficult to clean„ *haihh**. so does this means my next step would be buying only fitted diapers (which are easiest to clean)? hmmmph…
9. Take it easy!!!
I find most mommies that are ‘experimenting’ cloth diapering their babies for the first time treat cloth-diapering like breastfeeding. Like “your baby MUST absolutely be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months or she will die, die, dieeeee…!!!” *insert evil laugh here muahahahaha*. Hehe, a bit overreacting there, but i must say it’s true.. the mom-hormones sometime can give you the unnecessarily guilt/sense of failure when you couldn’t do something to the level that you had planned to. My advice (ecececece..): Start cd-ing according to your convenience. As far as i can remember baby dJ wasn’t on cd during her 1st week— super duper hectic week i tell ya, didn’t bother to think about cd bla bla bla! Then the whole confinement period, she was on cd during daytime, and wearing dispos at night. Now she’s fully on cd at home all day long, only using dispos for outings! Yay!
10. Go Green.
Spread the green message. I really do think that cloth diapering is more of us being kind to mother nature, and newborns do use the most diapers in a day! I think this is the stage which actually most crucial to go cloth…,no? *wink*
**This entry was inspired by [this article]
