Taking care of your SoftBums!

This is an example of bamboo pods that have been dried with high heat repeatedly.

• How can I prolong the life of my diapers?
  While SoftBums are made to last, please remember that reusable diapers are a garment and like any garment are worn down with every use, every wash cycle and every dryer cycle. Like any garment, they will eventually wear out with continual use, but its possible to make them last much longer by following some simple tips:


• Make sure you have enough shells so that you don't have to wash every shell you have every time you do diaper laundry. The number 1 thing that will prolong the life of your diapers is having enough so that each one doesn't get used every single day. The more you have, the longer all of them will last.

 
• Never soak your shells (or if you do only soak them in water), never use vinegar or bleach and don't use the sanitize cycle if you have one. These things can severely degrade every part of your diaper, from the elastic to the fabric itself. Gentle care will prolong their life, sometimes by more than double.


•  Line dry your shells.  If you do use the dryer, never turn it up past medium heat unless you're doing the 15 minute sealing recommended when you first get your shells.  High heat in the dryer is the main reason for degraded velcro, and will also harm your bamboo pods over time.  For best results, take the shells out halfway through the dryer cycle and let them air dry the rest of the way. Because they contain no absorbent material, air drying wont take long and it will prevent a lot of wear and tear.

• If line drying your shells outside, arrange them with the inside facing outwards to minimize sun bleaching.  This isn't harmful to the diaper but it can fade your fabric!
  
  
  Read more about FAQs here: http://www.softbums.com/FAQs_ep_47-1.html

Flats & Handwashing Challenge- Day 7

 

Day 7: Overview of the Challenge- What did we learn?

 

 

First and foremost we wanted to do this challenge for 4 reasons:

To create awareness of cloth diapering by way of using flats & shells an easy to use and clean system. 
We did this to show those who think cloth diapering is hard and or unsanitary that it's not or doesn't have to be with the right supplies.

We also did this challenge to show you how to your cloth diapers while camping or in natural disaster type situations where you don't have access to a washer & dryer.  

Finally, we wanted to show our SoftBums users and anyone interested in learning that it can be done using our shells, AND it can be fun, clean, and easy.

Did we accomplish our goal?
Yes, it was a long 7 days but we did it, and we surpassed our goal of just doing flats & handwashing at home. We also took them on the road and on a 3 day camping trip.

Was it fun?
Yes, it was a lot of fun learning all the different ways to fold a flat. It was also fun to hand wash them. It was so interesting and educating to learn how they really get clean. Because you are the one who is actually working the soap and water through the fibers.

Was it easy?
It was a lot easier than I thought it would be for both using the flats and snappi's and handwashing..
It was easy process to clean the diapers and although it was hard work it was not something that you could really mess up. It would be easy to see or smell that the diapers aren't clean.

Did we have leaks?
Yes, there was a learning curve when using flats and folds for the first time. Ultimately the problem was the absorbency wasn't enough using just one flat for our 13 month old. We had to sneak in a half flat with every change to last us a couple hours (2 flats for overnight). But by day 4 we were successfully leak free.

Was it unsanitary?
 No, I would say it isn't any dirtier than washing cloth diapers in a washing machine, because all the dirty work is really the wiping of the butt and removal of solid's into the toilet, which you have to do with any diaper. If you use the camp style washer for washing diapers the rinse cycle is not gross because you don't have to look or smell the mucky water (that of course is depends on how well you pre-rinsed the dirty diapers) If you use a tub for washing then using a rubber glove so you aren't in contact with the dirty diapers and mucky water. I had to do both during this challenge & I would consider the tub style a bit more physical labor not anymore messy.


What did you learn about camping with cloth?
Bring enough diapers to use in one full day and a half, any more would be excessive for your pack. Washing every morning is the best routine.  You get a early work out and your diapers are ready to use in about an hour after washing (depending on the weather). Use fleece liners! It will save you a lot of time pre-rinsing your dirty diapers. Try making a make-shift diaper sprayer by either bringing a hose and a sprayer nozzle, or bring a nice pro quality spray bottle. Another way to pre-rinse would be to bring a 3 gallon water jug with a spout and run the water over the diaper and catch the solid's in it with the bucket below. Kids love to help wash the diapers.. So let them, as long as they are making an up and down motion the diapers will get clean. It saves you from doing it everyday and gives them something new to do for a while.

Yes, they even fought over who got to clean them.

How did you like using SoftBums for this challenge?
They worked great! The microfleece lining keeps the flats in place & every fold we tried fit wonderfully in our Echo & Omni shells with some tucking. We did echos during the day with an airplane or origami fold and for nights we did a pad folded and stuffed and then another flat pad folded and layed on top. We really liked these combinations!

What was your biggest challenge this week?
Using more complicated folds and snappi's with a very wiggly 13 month old was difficult to handle. But with practice we were able to get them on without much struggle. But if we were in a hurry we did just throw a pad folded flat in the shell and throw it on him.



Is this something you think you consider doing again?
To be honest this challenge has really been eye opening to us who are so accustomed to using "modern cloth diapers" 100% of the time & washing in a machine. We never considered it to be a luxury but more of a way of saving money, imagine that. Now that we have been educated on the financial diapering struggles of 1 in 3 families, I can honestly say it can be done. Even if its only part time, that would greatly reduce the cost of diapering a child and it really wouldn't be that hard.

What do you take away from this challenge?
We will definitely continue to use our flats in our current cloth diapering routine. They are a great solution to use under clothes that your child is on the brink of outgrowing, because of their uber trimness. We will absolutely use our flats and handwashing skills again for our camping ventures which are frequent during the summer and fall months. Learning to handwash was also something I will take away from this challenge, not just for cloth diapers but for anything. I never had to hand wash anything before, but now I know how, and feel confident to do it again when needed. Finally, if ever we are in a situation where we are in dire need of a diaper and cant find or afford any we will know how to make our own from things we have in our house (sheets, shirts, towels, etc) and will know how to fold them into a diaper & wash them appropriately & efficiently.

We want to thank everyone for following us on this journey and we hope you gained some new flat folding or handwashing skills as did we!

Please don't forget why this event was started:
Each year Dirty Diaper Laundry hopes that this event will spark a fire in others to do more about the diaper need problem.  So what can you do to help families facing this struggle everyday?  Educate:  Educate others using your online or local influence.  Donate: Donate your used diapers or make a monetary donation to the national cloth diaper bank Giving Diapers, Giving Hope.  They are a non-profit that send cloth diapers to low-income families for the cost of shipping if they meet the requirements.  Share: Share the information about affordable cloth diaper solutions such as this post and video: Cheap and Easy Cloth Diaper Solutions.

Flats & Handwashing Challenge -Day 6

Day 6: Camping with Cloth!

It just so happens that we were going on a camping trip during this challenge. So today's topic is on how to go camping with your SoftBums & Flats.

What you will need:

15-20 flats (depending on how often you need to change, and how often you want to wash)
4-5 shells
Snappi's
Cloth diaper safe & environmentally friendly detergent. (We use Rockin Green)
Rubber gloves (bring both!! Lol)
Washing bucket & plunger (or 2 buckets one for washing one for rinsing to save time)
A bucket to hold dirty diapers, or a wet bag, but a bucket with a lid is easier to wash & dry.
4-7 Fleece liners
10-20 cloth wipes
Clothes line & clothes pins
Diaper rash cream
Diaper sprayer (either a hose with a sprayer nozzle, or a nice large spray bottle)
A bag to organize your diapers & accessories- optional. (I use a thirtyone organizing utility tote.)
Pot for boiling water
Access to water, or bring a couple gallons of water.

What you need to do:

1) Once your baby dirty's a diaper after you change them into a fresh one. If its a wet diaper toss the flat in the washing bucket and hang the shell to dry on the clothes line. If its a poopy diaper start with using your diaper sprayer (bottle) to spray off the solids into the washing bucket.

2) Place your dirty diaper in the other washing bucket or if you only have one put it in a plastic bag until you dump the solids out of the washing bucket.

3) If you are camping a place with toilets accessible bring your bucket with the solids and flush. Rinse out your bucket and then place the dirty diaper in it till wash time.

4) Once you have enough diapers dirty and ready to wash. Start by boiling water on the camp stove or over fire in a pot. Then while your waiting for that to boil, fill your bucket with cold water 3/4 full and agitate with your plunger. This will remove anything you couldn't get off with the sprayer previously. Dump the water again in a toilet if its really nasty water or if its not too bad just dump on the ground in a place your not going to be walking in. (If you have dogs dumping the solids on the ground will attract them... Eww)

5) Add the boiling water to your bucket a little over 3/4 full again & 1 tbsp of detergent. Then take plunger and agitate the diapers using an up and down motion, all around the bucket for about 5 minutes.

6) Then let the diapers soak for about 15-30 minutes.

7) Agitate the diapers for another 5 minutes.

8) Drain & fill with clean water cool or room temp.

9) Agitate for another 3-5 minutes & drain.
(Repeat this step if soap bubbles, smells, or mucky water is still present).

11) Dump out the whole bucket and run each diaper, wipe, and cover under running water individually and swirl and wring out the excess water. & line dry.

12) Once everything is dry, they will be a bit stiff.. You can beat each flat individually, or throw a couple of them in a pillowcase with a tennis ball.

First day camping with cloth was so much easier than I anticipated especially after this week of practice with flats we had. Although we did get a lot of looks from other campers, but I don't care they can think what they want. Lol

I will update this again once we're done camping if I have anymore tips to add.

Don't forget tomorrow is the last day of the challenge!! We will take the whole week and summarize it in a post on Monday evening & also announce the winner of our Flats & Handwashing Challenge Giveaway!! If you have yet to enter it follow the link now: http://loveclothdiapers.blogspot.com/2013/05/flats-handwashing-challenge-softbums.html

As always the heart of this challenge is to shine a light on the fact that there are families struggling to provide clean diapers to their babies and to offer an alternative solution not often discussed when the major media outlets cover these stories. There are diaper banks that can help families get started with cloth diapers for free or little cost. If you know a family or are a family in need please visit Giving Diapers, Giving Hope- the only nationwide diaper lending program that ships to any approved family in the US. I encourage anyone touched by this challenge to donate to their organization and help them provide more diapers to more families.

Flats & Handwashing Challenge -Day 5

What is working, What is not? Day 5:

What's working?

1. Trim, trim trim.. Flats & SoftBums are a very trim combination!
2. Flats & handwashing has far less staining & smell cleaner & wash up nicely.
3. It's easier to know if they are clean (sud free & not stinky) because you visually see them washing out vs periodically opening the washer.

What's not working:

1. Poop on the floor! Not once but 2x this week so far. Reason, not having enough covers - 1 more shell would be ideal, then I wouldn't be waiting for one to dry while our son decides to soil the carpet!
2. Not having enough absorbency at night- 2 flat's are ok but its bulky and we are used to our SoftBums OS Bamboo and a mini pod.
3. Washing at night, bad idea.. For starters I am already exhausted from trying to get our kids to bed. Then trying to handwash is a workout in itself. Washing in the morning works much better then they have all afternoon to dry in the sun.
4. One flat (I am guessing these Target FST are not the best quality you can get) last us about 1 hour, So I have been having to add half a fst pad folded as a doubler. With this combo he will last about 2-2.5 hours which is good timing for our schedule.

Folds that are working and not:

1. Pad fold is the best, far less messy poop, easier to clean. Easy to stuff in the Omni for bed.
2. Airplane & origami & others are great and look very nice under our SoftBums but they do require time to fold them and a cooperative child to put on the diaper it can be frustrating.
3. The diaper bag fold is nice and convenient to pre-fold and have ready in the "diaper bag" imagine that.. lol

Its really hard to get action shots of this 13 month old.

 Whoa! Only 2 more days left!! This week is actually flying by, must be from all the fun we are having.. lol

Don't forget there are 3 days left to enter our Flat's & Handwashing Challenge Giveaway HERE:

http://loveclothdiapers.blogspot.com/2013/05/flats-handwashing-challenge-softbums.html

As always thanks for reading!!

 

Flats & Handwashing Challenge Day 4

Day 4: Handwashing & Line Drying

Well we had our second night of handwashing last night and it went a lot better because I got to use the camp style bucket washer. The first night I had to wash everything in the tub, drain the tub, rinse and repeat.. That was a timely task. Especially since my tub is HUGE.. I didn't take all that draining into consideration when I started washing the diapers in there.. Heres a picture..

 

So if you don't have a bucket and you use a tub to wash them here's a wash routine:

• Start with a cold rinse, Fill tub with cold water and add diapers. If the diapers are really soiled, you can let them soak for a minutes, then swish them around using your plunger or hand (using a glove).
• Next drain the tub, add hot/warm water to the tub, detergent and diapers. Scrub the diapers by rubbing or moving the diapers back and forth between your hands or agitate again with the plunger 
• Drain the tub and add warm water to rinse the diapers out until you see no more bubbles.
•  Swirl & wring out the excess water and hang dry on a drying rack/ shower curtain rod or clothes line.

I have really bad carpel tunnel in my right hand so wringing out the flats truly frightened me. Thankfully I had been reading up on last years event and I saw someone post they used the stomp method to wring out the diapers by throwing them in a clean dry towel and stomp the water out, I know this challenge is technically called "handwashing challenge" not foot washing challenge, but sometimes you need to do what works best for you. lol

 

 If you are using a camp style bucket & plunger to wash the diapers here is a wash routine:

• Pre-rinse poopy diapers immediately after I change them, just a cold rinse under the faucet in the tub with my bucket underneath to catch the chunks and I have been flushing that in the toilet. If you were camping I would bring a couple gallon jugs with a spout on them for pre-rinsing and again let your 5 gallon bucket catch the solids and find a place to flush it. (so your not smelling or stepping on old poop, or your dog will try and eat it, sorry TMI but its true)  That's if your camping somewhere they have toilets.

• Ready to wash, start by filling the bucket with room temperature water a little over 3/4 full. Then take plunger and agitate the diapers using an up and down motion, all around the bucket for about 5 minutes.
• Then let the diapers soak for about 30 minutes.
• Drain the water while pushing the diapers with the plunger to get out as much water as possible.
• Next, fill the bucket with hot water a little over 3/4 full then add yourdetergent andagitate the diapers for another 5 minutes.
• Drain the water again and fill the bucket with room temperature water a little over 3/4 full. 
• Agitate the diapers for another 5 minutes.  (Repeat this step if soap bubble, smell, or mucky water is still present).
• Dump out the whole bucket and run each diaper, wipe, and cover under running water individually and swirl and wring out the excess water. & line dry.
• Once everything is dry, they will be a bit stiff.. You can beat each flat individually, or throw a lot of them in a pillowcase with a tennis ball, or try ironing them to soften them up.

It has been a typical week in May here in Minnesota. Cold and Rainy. That makes it this challenge extra challenging. But we didn't let that get us down. We just improvised.
Having to line dry inside:

My sears wall mount drying rack holding 7 flats & 4 covers and 4 fleece liners

I opened the window and these flats took about an hour and they were dry

Another example of indoors air drying

Here are some more handwashing tips from Dirty Diaper Laundry:

Roll your covers in a dry bath towel and apply pressure (by kneeling) to take out as much water as possible to expedite air drying.
Line dry your flats in a well ventilated area if at all possible.  Outdoors if it isn’t humid or indoors under exhaust or ceiling fans.
Iron your flats if you need them to dry faster.  This can also kill leftover bacteria that may not have washed out.  Think of it as sterilizing while making them pretty too.
Use a light hand with the detergent- too much and the extra rinses will be time consuming.  Remember the volume of you washer/sink is likely a lot less than your washing machine.
Rinse with warm water.  According to a laundry expert warm rinses=easier to wring out more (or spin out more in machine)
Let the water work for you- if you can leave soiled flats in a SAFE place to soak then do so to remove waste.

Don’t use wet bags.  Store dirty diapers in your bucket or sink because handwashing the bags will take valuable space.
Wash daily or at every change.  Washing larger loads means harder work, longer work, and the potential for the diapers to get less clean.

Got stink?  Probably not enough detergent or not washing long enough.  Set a kitchen timer because a few minutes handwashing can feel like a lot longer.

 

 

Thanks for following us on this journey! Tomorrow I will be discussing what is working and what is not in this challenge..

 

 

In case you haven't yet entered our giveaway to win a SoftBums Starter Pack for participating in our Flats & Handwashing Challenge here is the link to go enter:

http://loveclothdiapers.blogspot.com/2013/05/flats-handwashing-challenge-softbums.html

About the challenge: We're participating in the Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. This event aims to bring awareness to the challenges that low income families face when trying to diaper their children. There are not publicly funded programs that supply diapers to families in need. Using cloth diapers and handwashing is an affordable way to families to diaper their children. Flats are the most inexpensive of commercially available cloth diapers; receiving blankets, flour sack towels, cut sheets, and t-shirts can also be used as flats making these diapers available to all families.