Swish and Spin - Poopy Cloth Diapers

Until now, Ada's diapers haven't been all that nasty. But recently, she started solids. Which means she also started pooping solids. And since we use cloth diapers, that changes things a bit. We're trying to adjust and I'm sure it will be a bit of a process. It seems to be going well so far.

The good news: Breastfed babies don't poop a lot. Some poop everyday, some poop once a week. It isn't like they poop in every diaper all day long and you won't be relegated to the bathroom to clean poopy diapers every five minutes.

The bad news: Poopy diapers stink. And you have to rinse them out before you wash them in the laundry machine - unless you use a diaper service, but even then you should at least remove the majority of your baby's handy work.

The solution: We've decided to change the poopy diaper, take it to the toilet, swish it around, flush the solid material while we hold the diaper in the water, then rinse the diaper in the sink and put it into the diaper pail. Since the diaper pail is smelling more funky than ever before, we're attempting to use a "wet pail" instead of a "dry pail" meaning that we fill the pail with water and let the diapers soak in it until it is time to wash them - which is about every other day. This is supposed to cut the acid of the urine and contain the funky smell a bit. If you have a top loading washer, you can dump the water in with the diapers when you do the wash. I have a front loading machine so I can either drain it in the tub and pull out some rubber gloves to transfer it to the machine, or I can run downstairs and wash them in the coin machine. Not pleasant but I'm doing what I can to save money and the environment.

I'm also going to try out the cloth wipes for when she has a poopy diaper. I think they will be easy to use and I can throw them into the "wet pail" with the diapers instead of throwing them into the garbage can and having to take the garbage out every time she poops.

Another tip -- we tend to use disposable diapers when we travel since we already have to take a gazillion things with us when we travel with the baby. Otherwise you have to take the diapers, covers, wipes, and a bag to transport all of the dirty diapers back home with you, and you may have to do laundry while you are out and about. We've done it both ways but find that for convience it is a bit less bulk to use disposables. That and I fear having to swish and spin in a public toilet.

Moral of the story: Cloth diapers are a bit more work and a bit more disgusting, unless you have a diaper service, but it really isn't that bad. You have to deal with the poop either way so just take a deep breath and try not to breath -- or be mature like me and yell "not it" as soon as you smell the baby bomb, then pass her off to your husband.