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By: Lea | Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 3:36 PM | | 
This will be brief because my experience here is still limited. Never fear my faithful readers (both of you) I will not stop the cloth diapering chatter after this week has ended! There is plenty more for me to still learn and you will be with me on my journey and I hope you will learn as well!
Now, what I know about
All-In-One Diapers is they are so super-dee-duper easy it is ridiculous. Well, when it comes to putting them on and taking them off anyway. It works essentially like a plastic diaper because it is all the parts the cloth diaper needs in one article of clothing. There's a soft inside (sometimes in higher end ones, this fabric even wicks moisture away from baby's skin), a thicker absorbent padding in the mid section , and a waterproof outer cover.
They close with snaps or Velcro. Some are really high tech
like this Bumgenius 2.0 AIO diaper that looks like it is truly genius, especially for dealing with the issue I am about to get into. However, they will run you almost $20 each brand new. OUCH! I have seen some of the originals on
ebay for decent prices, but it takes some serious shopping time investments when you're stuck on a particular brand because the size availability is limited.
I found some great AIOs on
ebay for less than $10 each and I got size medium and size large since my boy grows so fast - he's already outgrowing the mediums! And I love them for their cuteness with no top or just a tee and for their ease.
Just today I was putting
a fancy prefold fold into my fleece cover and it was all ready to go and set aside for me to get him undone and cleaned. When I put the diaper under his bum, he decided there was something he needed on the wall next to him and he started to reach and roll and squirm and turn and I had to hold him down and refold the diaper which came undone when he moved and try and just stuff it all in there and quickly get it snapped before he rolled again. The AIOs do not have that issue. It's just like disposables, put them on it and close it up, while they try and roll around. No problem.
The problem that I have run into is in the washing. The absorbent pad in the dipes are quite absorbent but don't seem to know the difference between the baby pee and the washing machine water! They get completely filled on every washing! I have to wring them out and run them on a separate spin cycle or two to try and get a bit more water out of them before putting them in the dryer. Then the instructions say to dry low heat which then takes forever and runs my dryer all to heck. The weather is crazy around here right now so I cannot hang them outside yet. To me this is a big drawback!
I have decided to save the cost of even $10 each or more for the AIOs, I will be sewing my own soon. I am not a sewer so it may take me a while. I am getting my machine today. I am very fortunate to have a mother who supports my crunchiness and purchased me a machine from Sears on sale for an Easter gift. Otherwise it might have been another month before I could get one.
Anyway..
I found a pattern
here and it looks easy enough for even a newbie to do. Of course I will be posting the results. But I have decided to modify it slightly which will also take some practice, to be more of a pocket diaper.
Best description of a pocket I have seen.The advantage to a pocket is you get the convenience of the AIO by having the innards already in the diaper ready to go before changing, but you can take them out to wash and dry them separately which will cut down on the dryer run time!
I am not yet sure how I will modify the pattern from above, again I will be playing with it to find the best way, but I will let you know once I have it worked out!
I love my AIOs I really do, but they kill my dryer. Sad. I need their convenience on the changing table with some added convenience in the wash room.
Oh, one more thing about a pocket that I think will be awesome is they can be stuffed as much as you like! In other words I can put in extra soakers (which I also plan to make myself btw) and maybe, just maybe, we can do a cloth for overnights! Ah, what a dream come true that would be! I'd love to not have to use those nasty plastics at all except when traveling for longer than and hour which is rare. My baby's bottom would be ever so grateful! And so would my wallet!
So if you are not willing to invest the time in the prefolds and really want something super simple, look for some all-in-ones and/or pocket diapers on
ebay. Be sure to use your Google bar to cross reference the brands you are looking at and the sizes they come in, I got burned once by not double checking the sizes on covers and couldn't use them for long because they were smaller than I expected.
You will need quite a few depending on your baby's pee and poo habits. Mine poopoos several times a day and is a heavy wetter so I could easily go through 8-10 in a day or as little as 6 depending. And you'll want more than one days worth eventually so you aren't doing laundry every single night, but at first to experiment and test them out maybe starting with only 6 will work for you.
Ebay sellers often have lots so you can get several at a time anyway.
Tomorrow, fitteds! Pretty much an easy version of the prefolds - plus a bonus make your own that I too will attempt one day and share with you!
By: Lea | at 12:52 PM | |
