Ok, so I have not blogged about this yet, but over the holiday I decided to switch Georgie to cloth diapers. I did this a bit selfishly, honestly because George was having major blowouts and I decided that with the amount of laundry I was doing I might as well give cloth diapers a try. That and I was shocked by the quantity of dirty diapers leaving our home. While I would not consider myself as environmentally conscious as others, I began to feel that I did not want my children's lives to begin by creating large quantities of trash that would be around for hundreds and hundreds of year. Plus, I started to get a bit grossed out by the things they put in disposable diapers. I honestly don't think that all those chemicals can be good for our kiddos.
So far things have been going well until a few days ago. I started to notice a horrible fishy stench coming from the diapers. I washed them several times, but the smell only got worst. Finally, I called the store where a purchased the diapers only to find out that apparently you can not use Desitin with cloth diapers because the ointment does not wash off of the diapers and bacteria and such then grow. Gross and the fish stench that I smelled was from the ointment itself because there is a lot of fish oil in it!!! The remedy they said was to boil the diapers. So yesterday, I spent hours literally boiling stinky diapers (they were clean before I boiled them). I had two huge stock pots going and some thirty diapers boiling. The worst part, despite the time spent, was the fish stench spread across the whole house and all our windows fogged up. As if having two kids was not enough work!
Aside from the boiling, I have to say that the diapers are awesome. I learned an important lesson and that is that I really need to do more research before I jump into things. For instance, if I had read more, I would have learned that I could not use Desitin while using cloth diapers. There is a lot of good information out there about cloth diapers that would have better informed me. I really encourage people to give cloth diapers a try (although this blog post might discourage you)! Ask if you have any questions!!!
Wow - you are a better woman than me. I know that disposable diapers are not the most environmentally friendly (or even healthy) choice, but I honestly don't know if I could commit myself to cloth diapers! I have a hard enough time getting through our laundry as it is! My mom told me that when I was in diapers, the disposable ones were so terrible that she did cloth diapers, but she said that back then they actually had a service that would come and pick up your dirty diapers, launder, fold and return them to you so you really didn't have to do much at all. If that were still an option then maybe I'd give them a try! LOL. But good for you!!
ReplyDeleteNote to self, never eat soup of any kind cooked by Edie in her diaper pots!
ReplyDeleteEdie, I commend you for using cloth diapers. When Tomás was born I didn't have a choice and I loved the smell of clean baby in clean soft diapers. Fortunately I didn't need to use Desitin all that often but I can see where that would be an issue! Maybe your pediatrician might have an alternative cream for diaper rash?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, good luck and oh yeah, what Erika said!!! Clean those pots with a little drop of bleach after. LOL.... <3