September 2nd, 2010

Diaper Drama

It is always something with cloth diapers. It could be stink, stains, leaks, rashes, the perpetual wash routine. Cloth diapering is an ongoing process. Don’t get me wrong, for the most part I love it, but every once in a while, I want to chuck all of my cloth diapers out the window.

I have been having some problems with stink and a diaper rash that looked like it was maybe caused by ammonia build-up. I soaked. I added extra rinses. I used more soap. I used less soap. I sunned. Finally after one more soak/sun combo, the stink was gone. Mostly. And then the leaks started. Diapers were lasted less than 2 hours. Diapers that could previously go as long as 4 hours. And night-time leaks too. I was not a happy cloth-diapering camper.

I took a little break and used disposables for the San Francisco trip and was loving the lack of leaks. This made me more determined than ever to fix the problems before my lazy self went back to disposables for good. And then a light bulb went off. Spencer is in the 95th percentile for height. I’ve been on the same rise setting for at least 6 months. I unsnapped the front and lo and behold, no more leaks. It was user error all along, but I am still going to blame the diapers.