Prefold woes... Advice needed :(

[ChaiTea]

Hi Ladies,

I've been using prefolds and water proof covers off and one for the past 7 months. I was never able to get poop stains out before starting solids, but now that we've been on solids for over a month, things have gotten even more frustrating... This is my routine, please let me know what I'm doing wrong.

Pee is no big deal at all! When there's poop, I fold up the diaper and set it aside, clean up baby and put on a new diaper. I put him down to play and then 9 times out of 10 I end up having to stand over the toilet scraping poop off the diaper with toilet paper. It rarely just rolls off leaving a small stain. I use lots of toilet paper and am left with sticky poop and a huge stain. I'm not all that fond of so much poop going into the washer, either, but I can never get it all off. Maybe I'm completely uncoordinated, but I always end up with it on my hands! Someone suggested rinsing it in the toilet, but no thanks, I'm not going to stick my hands in the toilet bowl. I've heard of the sprayers for the toilet, but that seems like a mess as well. Won't the diaper be soaked, in need of ringing out and then rushed to the wet bag before it drips everywhere?

Am I just whining and not cut out for using cloth diapers? I still have a whole set of larger diapers that I haven't even washed yet, much less used. My parents bought me all of the supplies as a baby gift and I want to use them and not waste their gift. I also hate the thought of diapers going into the landfill, but they are so much more efficient, and there are so many good options for chemical free ones. If I had known that beforehand, I probably wouldn't have decided to even try cloth. Now I'm just riddled with guilt because I use the cloth infrequently because they are so much more of a hassle. I was so adamant about using cloth before I had the baby and now I guess I have to put my foot in my mouth.

ANY advice is welcome! Even if you don't use prefolds, tips on preparing diapers for the wash is more than welcome.

Thank you and please don't mind my whining... I'm just frustrated and kinda sad!

 

[Rachel_C]

What exactly is the problem - is it stains? If so, why are they a problem? Stains aren't dirty as long as you've washed the nappies properly. They're nappies - they go on your baby's bum to catch poo so I'd just leave them, they aren't doing any harm.

After you start weaning, you do really want to remove most of the poo from the nappy but you don't need to be too fussy about it. Just remove any actual 'solids' - a bit of liquid poo left on the nappy won't do anything any harm. The only reason poo in the washing machine would be a problem would be if your machine wasn't good enough to wash it out properly. A normal decent machine will just wash it away so you don't need to worry. It's always a good idea to do regular maintenance washes whether you use cloth or not so perhaps start doing that for peace of mind. Either do a regular (perhaps monthly) boil wash with the machine empty or you can buy machine cleaning stuff from the supermarket.

I personally preferred to remove solids from the nappy with loo roll but a quick wipe to remove lumps is all that's needed. It shouldn't be any worse than wiping your baby's bum. If the nappy was particularly nasty I used the shower head into the toilet (we don't have sprayers here) but it was easy. Yes the nappy gets wet but with a prefold, you would hold it by the top, spray it off (hold it quite low in the loo to avoid splashing), then without touching the dirty bit, roll the nappy up and give it a quick squeeze so you're only touching the cleaner outside of the nappy. If you trifolded the prefold you could leave it folded to spray so rolling is easy. If you used a nippa, I would spray it then fold in the side panels (as if trifolding it) then roll it up.

You could also look at liners - are you using them now? With a big enough fleece liner, no poo should get on the prefold so you would just rinse that out, and fleece isn't absorbent so no need to wring out.

I can't remember what they're called but you can buy little things that help you hold the nappy while you clean it - like little silicone mittens I think!

 

[ChaiTea]

Okay, you gave me some peace of mind. I guess I'm not doing things too terribly wrong after all! I haven't thought of liners recently... Will try those out.

Thanks for your response!

 

[Rachel_C]

Good luck!

Another thing you could try is having a special pair of 'dirty nappy' rubber gloves. Keep them in the bathroom and you might find it easier to deal with everything. Poo under your fingernails isn't one of my favourite things either.

 

[JenX]

I was really worried about how I would handle the poo diapers once we started solids, but thanks to my diaper sprayer it has been fine. I have always used prefolds with fleece liners anyway, so most of the time I only need to spray off the fleece liner. I find I don't get stains anymore, either, since I spray them right away. I use a diaper pail with a wet bag liner (it is really just a small trash can with a flip open lid) and I drag the whole thing into the bathroom when I spray off a diaper so I can drop the wet diaper in after it is done. Then no worries about drips or mess.

 

[JenX]

Oh, and if you want to get stains out of your prefolds you can do a wash on the sanitize or allergen cycle and add a little oxygen bleach (like Oxyclean). Just make sure no covers are in the wash when you do- just the prefolds.

 

[LittlePants]

Are you not using liners? Fleece or flushable liners protect the nappy, and even fleece one can just be held in the flush, and that will remove most of it. Also the sun will remove stains from nappies. Hang them on the line, or even put the in the sun inside by a window - you'll be amazed