Character Flaw
I have many character flaws, as long time readers know. One character flaw that I can’t seem to get over is a certain uptight perfectionism that makes me a joy to reason with. If there is a right way to do something, I am damn well going to do it the right way come hell or high water.
Problem being, as I’m sure you all know, there is rarely a right way to do anything. There are better and worse ways, but right? Not so much.
Try telling that to my pregnant and postpartum self and that self will rip your soul out of your nostril, stomp it into the ground, then stuff it back in through your ear.
Or just ignore you while imagining the above.
That’s been my biggest problem with cloth diapers. I’ve done way too much research and wanted to make sure I washed them the “right” way and didn’t “ruin” them.
Now that I’m almost 8 months postpartum my sanity has returned and I’m realizing there isn’t a right way to do it. Unless I do something crazy like. . . I don’t know. . .pour boiling water over them, I doubt I’m going to ruin them to the point that they are unusable. They’re made out of fabric. There’s things that can be done to fix problems that come up.
Here’s the basic theory, if you care. If not, feel free to skip the rest of this post.
I use a type of diapers called pocket diapers. They have a fleece layer that goes against baby’s skin, a plastic layer that holds everything together and a pocket that I stuff with an insert to absorb the pee. With the wrong detergent, you get build-up, which blocks the microscopic holes on the fleece, causing the pee to repel instead of absorb. If this happens you can strip your diapers by washing them in Dawn dish detergent.
Somehow I equated this process of stripping your diapers with utter and total failure. If my diapers were at the point of stripping, clearly I was an idiot who knew nothing and my life was over, woe woe woe.
Don’t ask me how I arrived at that conclusion. That’s my character flaw. I get caught up in right and wrong and no amount of common sense can help me see I’m being an idiot.
I’ve tried different specialty detergents and not really been happy with any of them. I found Rockin’ Green to be adequate, but I didn’t really love it. They recommend using specialty detergent on all your clothes so you don’t get a build up of gunk in your washing machine and these specialty detergents just didn’t stand up to the dirty laundry of a preschool boy.
Rockin’ Green changed its formula in October and things quickly went down hill. You know you have a problem with your diapers when they smell like wet dog. The smell eventually turns into a horrid, burning ammonia smell that makes you almost pass out when you have to deal with your diapers.
Fun times!
I was doing everything right, doing all the steps to prevent this build up and gross stinkiness, but I failed. Failed horribly! My diapers have been ruined! Horrors!
A few days ago I flipped a switch in my brain (my other character flaw, closely related to the first, is my digital nature. I’m either on or off, in or out. There is no in between) and decided I was done having dirty clothes, stinky diapers and paying a hefty price for the privilege.
I stripped my diapers (a process that was no where near as dire as I thought it would be. Basically you just squirt some Dawn in your laundry, then run it through several rinses), bought some Tide Free and Gentle and have been enjoying clean laundry and non-stinky diapers. Real laundry detergent! What a luxury! All of our clothes are already looking much better, and a few of Erik’s shirts that I’d basically given up on are nice and clean. And my diapers don’t stink! So far they are not causing a horrid rash on Elsa’s tushie (as some people have experienced). I’ll have to test them out for build up in a couple of weeks, but now that I know how easy it is to strip them I’m not worried.
Don’t you hate it when someone is so set in their ways and refuses to listen to reason? Me too. Even more, I hate realizing that I am that person.
Overall I have really been happy with our choice to cloth diaper. This has been our only problem with the whole process.
Can you believe that in eight months we’ve had exactly two poop blow-outs? With Erik we probably had two a week, if not a day. The two we had with Elsa were caused by the diapers I hate (GoodMama Ones). I only had her in them because we were at the dregs of diapers before laundry day.
I also am more happy than I thought I would be about the environmental impact. It just feels good to be doing something so good. I don’t regret not cloth diapering Erik because I could not have handled one single more instant of stress, and it would have stressed me out, but I am so glad I am able to do it with Elsa.