Adventures in cloth diapering: Part IV

The leaks


Lately we've been having a lot of leaky diaper issues.  Usually it's just urine that's leaked, but we did have one day with a small bit of poo that had come out too.  Now the latter case, we determined to be due to a true "blow out" as he had a huge poo in the diaper and only a small bit escaped.  However, the times that pee has leaked, we haven't always determined why.  

In the case of our prefolds and Thirsties wraps, sometimes just a tiny bit of the cloth diaper is exposed outside of the shell, transferring whatever liquid the cloth diaper has so efficiently absorbed into the material of his outfit.  The often happens around the waistband of his diaper.  Other times the mess just gets outside the cloth somehow and onto the inside of the wrap, and depending on how much leaks from the cloth to the shell, some can get out of the shell too. 


A fellow new mom that I know uses cloth diapers with Thirsties wraps and has started using Snappis to close the cloth diaper before putting the wrap on as the waterproof cover.  This has helped contain the mess inside the cloth diaper, preventing leaks and also allowing more reuses of a given Thirsties wrap before having to wash it.  Snappis are the new alternative to using diaper pins.  However, we are still just using the Thirsties wrap to secure the cloth diaper closed and have had pretty good success with this.  We cannot predict how many reuses we'll get out of each wrap before the next wash though, so if we choose to continue using prefolds and wraps, we may look into trying a Snappi in the future.


A recent leak with a Thirsties wrap occurred on the inside of one of his legs and I was worried the double gusset legs were getting stretched out and not working well anymore.  However, after some investigation (i.e. upon pulling off the diaper slowly), I found that the cloth prefold was bunched off to one side between his legs, thus leaving one side of the diaper shell without any absorbent layer between him and the shell!  We have since learned how important it is to line everything up in the diaper shell just right!  It's hard though, as Evan loves to kick and squirm during changes.  Nonetheless, we've gotten pretty good at making sure the cloth prefold diapers are on him right and not sticking out of the shell.  We really don't have any leaking issues with them anymore, and I feel very confident putting him in these types of diapers overnight. 

On the other hand, we're continuing to have leaks here and there from the Bum Genius and we're still not quite sure why.   It's no fun when a perfectly content baby is sleeping through the night gets awoken by a leaky diaper making his clothes all wet.  Thus, until we figure out what's causing the leaks in the Bum Genius diapers, we refuse to put those on him at night.  We've started keeping a "leak log" for them, to see if it is the same diaper that leaks all the time.  Each diaper is a different color or closure style (snap or velcro) so we can identify them individually.  So far there is one that has been logged that it leaked along the leg twice now.  I figure if it leaks a third time, I'll contact the manufacturer and assume it's been sewn poorly. The issue is that if the interior moisture wicking material is not sewn properly along the leg elastic seam to stay on the inside, then the moisture will wick right out of the diaper to his clothes along the leg.  


The laundry


Now that I'm back to work, keeping up on washing cloth diapers is not easy.  It's been made do-able since my mom is here with us this month, and does most all of our laundry.  I'm a bit worried how we'll keep up when she is no longer here though.  It needs to be done every other day, and sometimes more often if the Thirsties shells get dirty after just one wear.  I have a feeling we'll need to rely on disposables for emergencies more often, but we'll do our best.  Stay tuned!