Cloth After Potty Training

If you have kids, you will get to the point where your little one’s will no longer be in diapers! While it may be a sad day, it is also an exciting point in your child’s growth and development. But if you are like me and have a ton of cloth diapers lying around that are no longer being used, what are you to do? I have come up with a few different ideas for you.

• Sell - This may seem like one of the most common and profitable ways to go after you are done using your cloth diapers. You can sell many of your used cloth diapers for up to 90% of what you paid based on the condition of the diaper. The condition of the diaper can be dependent on how big your cloth diaper rotation was, how many children you cloth diapered, how often you used cloth diapers, or even what type of cloth diapers you used. There are many different sites that you can sell your used cloth diapers on including: eBay, craigslist, local mom’s group, cloth diaper retailers “used” sections and specialty cloth diaper trader websites. It’s up to you how and where you would like to sell your cloth diapers and is an excellent option if you are looking to recoup some of the money spent on your original cloth diapers!

• Inserts can be used for cleaning – Some cloth diapers are in such bad condition that they simply cannot be resold for any value. In this case, the fabrics on some of your cloth diapers would make a great cleaning pad or wipe. I know of people who have used the cloth diaper inserts for scrubbing floors, bathrooms and even windows. This is definitely a viable option if you are looking to stick with the “green” theme that cloth diapers offers.

• Donate to Cloth Diaper Charity – If you want to pay it forward to people who are in need of cloth diapers, but are having a hard time affording them, I suggest you research some of the national and local cloth diaper charities. These charities seek to help and educate families about the use of cloth diapers while providing them with their own stash whether it be temporary or permanent. Many families struggle to diaper their babies, but cloth diapers when distributed properly can help out many of these families and babies. Check your local area for charities that may need your donations!

• Pay them forward to a Friends or Family – You may not know of any local cloth diaper charities, but I can be sure that many of you probably know a friend or family member who is looking to try out cloth diapers. Maybe they are curious and would like to get started, what a perfect way to help them take the plunge. Passing down cloth diapers to friends or family will help to pay it forward, and hopefully your friend or family member can pay it forward to the next person!


What other ideas do you have for the use of cloth diapers following potty training?


Contributed by: Julie

Diaper Cream and Cloth Diapers

One of the first things new cloth mommas learn is that you cannot use typical diaper creams when using cloth diapers. It is completely logical if you look at the way diaper creams are meant to work. they act as a barrier to keep wetness off the baby's rash, and give it healing time. When this gets on a sposie its no big deal, but when applied to cloth it causes repelling issues. The diaper cream will work on the cloth diaper the same way it works on the baby, and repel wetness preventing the diaper from absorbing and doing it job. What to do for rashes then? There are four options: switch to sposies during the rash, use a liner, cloth diaper safe cream, and my cure all for everything, coconut oil.

Some moms, especially ones who already use sposies part time during day care or at night, simply use traditional methods and keep their baby in sposies until the rash goes away. This is a preferred method if the rash is a yeast rash, because yeast is as tricky as diaper cream to get out of a diaper! The other option while using traditional cream is to use a liner inside your cloth diaper to protect the diaper. Ive heard great things about viva paper towels being laid in the diapers, or you could use a cloth diaper specific liner like the ones from gDiapers.

The third option is to try cloth diaper safe creams. The ones I know about for sure are the ones marketed by cloth diaper companies, or more "natural" companies like California Baby, CJ's Butter, Angel Baby Balm, as well as some smaller WAHM companies. If natural is for you, I like naked baby time (diaper free! woo!) to get air circulating on the rash, as well as coconut oil, my cure all for everything. At the first sign of redness I pull out my jar of coconut oil and apply it with every change, and the redness is usually gone within the day before it turns into a full blown rash.

What do you use to combat rashes with cloth diapers?

Contributed by: Miranda

Washing Cloth Diapers in a HE Washing Machine

One of the questions that you see people pose over and over again about cloth diapers is "How do I really get them clean in my High Efficiency Washing Machine?" If you use cloth diapers, chances are you care about the environment and you try to make eco friendly choices everyday. One of those choices may have been to buy a high efficiency or HE washing machine. Then to only discover that so many are up in arms about HE machines don't clean cloth properly - which may put you in a small stage of panic. Don't let it.

You can successfully wash your cloth in an HE washer!

One of the reasons that so many believe that cloth diapers don't come clean is because they feel that HE machines don't use enough water. Now, I'm no scientist and I'm not claiming to be {or chemist, plumber, whoever can make these scientific proclamations}, but I can attest to the fact that I've been washing my cloth diapers in a HE washer for over 3.5 years quite successfully! You may have heard of the "Wet Towel Trick" - where you put in a wet towel with your diapers to "trick" your HE machine into thinking the load is heavier and it will use more water. I can't say if this works or not, really, who can? Sure, your HE machine may use less water in a load than a traditional Top Loader, but if you put your diapers through a long enough wash and rinses, they will come clean!

   

 I have been successful for the last 2 years with a cloth diaper wash routine that looks like this: Warm Rinse {no detergent} Warm Wash w/ Extra rinse {with detergent} Warm Rinse {no detergent} While some may say you need to use a Blanket Setting, I've always used the same cycle as I wash my clothes with no issues. This step may not be necessary for you, but it ensures that our HE machine is truly using enough water to rinse the detergent out of the cloth diapers. Two important things to remember on top of a good wash routine: A load size, for any washer for that matter, should be around 12-15 diapers. Too few diapers could mean that you're not getting enough agitation and too many diapers could mean it's too crowded in there. Washing every 1-2 days is ideal, no matter your washer as well. The longer you leave stinky diapers brewing, the harder they will be to get clean.

Happy Washing!

  Lindsey is the author behind the So Easy Being Green blog. Once she decided to use cloth diapers on her children, she started making green-er choices in all areas of her life. SEBG is a resource for parents who want to make small changes that will make a big impact on their path to a green-er life.