These are the not-so-funny yet hilarious moments of motherhood. In addition to a few moments like the one above (thank heaven for the big brothers who left diapers behind!) I always found myself trying to validate my desire to get more out of each diaper. Some days I had a distinct awareness of throwing money in the trash can with every diaper that got “needlessly” soiled - that is it wasn’t on the tush for more than 10 minutes. I guess a part of this mentality could be my money-mindedness. Nate has often told me I remind him of scrooge. I collect the coins I get in change and more than once he has found me smilingly making neat little piles on the kitchen table as I assess my “wealth”. I digress... back to the topic at hand! This has been one of my motivations for experimenting in the cloth diaper world although I wouldn’t say it is the only one.
In addition to a dislike of spending so much on something entirely disposable, I have a true old-school streak in me that smiles in delight at the thought of successfully making cloth diapers work. Perhaps it is my love of old skills or because I love to read about culture as it was centuries ago. Regardless of the source of motivation, I began my venture in the cloth diapering world with great anticipation and excitement when I was pregnant with Kellan, my fourth. Although I was unsuccessful with cloth diapering Kellan (all 10 pound of his newborn body wouldn’t fit in the newborn diapers I had toiled over for the weeks leading to his birth!), I was blessed with little Arden and turned my previously unsuccessful learning experience into a success - one that I have truly enjoyed!
There is so much to cloth diapering, I will have spread my experiences out over various posts so keep watching. For now, I thought I would chatter about the thing I dislike the most, that cloth diapering monster that has sent me reeling one too many times... the stink!
I read that if your diapers stink there must be something wrong and perhaps they need to be stripped. I realized this to be true with my very first hemp/cotton diapers. I never got the hemp oils out and the smell was near unbearable. However, my sensitive nose simply does not like the smell of day old pee in diapers, in the toilet, on the walls, on the floor, on the outside of the toilet, or anywhere else it may be found in a houseful of boys. Even when my diapers don’t need to be stripped I can still smell the dirty ones.
To appease my offended nose, I decided to try various dirty diaper bags. I bought a nice PUL red one that color coordinated with my room. It worked okay until wash time when the smell worsened exponentially as I dug or dumped the diapers into the wash. I figured perhaps they needed to breathe and went in search of an old woolen skirt to make into my new dirty diaper bag. I was sure this was the ticket as I love using wool diaper covers. The smell at wash time was surly a bit better but now it oozed out of the bag in between times and left the whole room smelling badly. It was about this time that we were living in temporary housing and I had such sympathy for the wonderful ladies who came to vacuum and had to walk by that smelly bag!
Finally, in desperation, I struck on a wonderful thought. Moisture tends to enhance smells so perhaps elimination of the moisture factor would lessen the smell! I set a small plastic laundry basket near where I changed diapers and began to drape the wet ones all around the edges being careful not to overlap them. It worked! By the end of the day, the rim was full of drying soiled diapers (the really dirty ones got a quick hand wash and were hung in the shower to dry). In the morning they were all dry enough to flip in the middle of the basket freeing the rim for the new day’s diapers. The smell was gone! The only times I have had to deal with an adverse smell are the days when we are out and I hang up a bundle of wet diapers all at once. Even then, the smell is gone once the diapers dry a bit! Come wash time I thrown a dry pile of dirty diapers in the washing machine, add a wet towel or a couple purposely soaked diapers (a great way to get a better clean from an HE machine!) and wash away!
I have also noted that this theory helps me to make sure my diapers are getting sufficiently clean in the wash cycle. Just as a dirty diaper stinks less when it is dry, same goes for a clean diaper! If I pull my “clean” wet diapers out of the washing machine and can smell anything even slightly stinky, I know I need to tweak my washing cycle. If I wait until they are dry, they will smell fine regardless of how clean, or dirty, they truly are. Ah, how nice it is to tackle the stinky monster and enjoy that pile of fluffy, white, nice smelling diapers!!!
P.S. Nate says he can’t ever smell the diapers... yeah!
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