I'm a mother of twins, RDA accredited Cloth Diaper Circle Leader, and an RN discussing parenting tips, green living, and products I love!
Cloth diaper liners come in many forms and materials. Diaper liners are around for a couple reasons. The first is to make cleaning up solid poop a bit easier. The second is to wick wetness away from baby’s skin to keep baby feeling dry. This is especially nice to know if you have a baby in cloth that wakes at nap and nighttime when he/she wets a diaper. Diaper liners are placed on top of the inside of a diaper, closest to baby’s skin. See the two types of diaper liners described below:
Disposable liners
Many disposable liners are labeled “flushable”. These liners are meant to be used once and then flushed or put in the garbage. Disposable liners make for easy poop clean up but are not meant to keep baby feeling dry. Many brands make them and they vary in pliability, thickness and size. Most disposable liners do not wick moisture away and do not generally wick onto clothes (pee passes right through the liner). This means that the liner can stick out of the legs a bit to keep poop out of the gussets and make poop clean up a breeze. A drawback to more pliable disposable liners is that they can sometimes bunch up and/or move. I would also caution about flushing anything other than toilet paper. When we used “flushable” liners in our home we placed the empty, used liners in the garbage. I have read COUNTLESS stories from moms that had major plumber bills after either a few diaper liner flushes or several months of liner flushing. If you are trying to save money with cloth diapers – don’t chance a hefty plumber’s bill and skip flushing liners.
If poop talk make you gag, skip this paragraph.
For poop clean up, remove the liner and invert into the toilet. If you find baby’s poop has turned into a poop pancake that doesn’t flush well, keep the liner in the diaper and mash the diaper together until the poop is in flushable form. This technique applies to both disposable and washable liners. Yes – my kiddos made poop pancakes regularly so I’m kinda a poop pancake pro. I’m not sure that I’ll include that on my resume though….
Washable liners
I prefer washable liners. I appreciate that they were a one time purchase and I also appreciate that I’m generating less garbage. Washable liners include raw silk liners (which are not necessarily a soft silk that you may think of when you hear the word silky) and fleece liners. These are the two fabrics that wick moisture away from baby’s skin to leave them feeling dry. Silk and fleece liners are highly recommended for babies that are sensitive to moisture. Fleece is a synthetic fabric, so if your baby is sensitive to synthetics you might lean towards getting raw silk liners which are a natural fabric.
The majority of my experience is with fleece liners. Formed poop comes off of fleece with ease and doesn’t stain. Fleece also drys quickly and is very easy to make on your own. If you have fleece and scissors, you are all set. There are several types of fleece and this may cause a bit of confusion. Microfleece is a tighter woven fleece and is a great choice for making diaper covers. Diaper liners are best made from anti pill fleece. To make liners, simply cut the anti pill fleece to the size you like. No sewing needed. I’d suggest cutting them a bit big. You can always trim them. If you have a smaller baby cut the liners long and fold them down in the front of back until baby grows so that you can use them for the life of your diapers. I cut our liners about 5 1/2 inches wide to keep poop out of the diaper gussets. (I originally cut liners in an hourglass shape but a rectangle shape has been more effective for us.)
If you have any diaper liner insights you’d like to share, please comment on this post!
I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!
Tonight's wash load of covers, wipes and fleece liners.
Tip 1, wash frequently: I think the biggest lesson I have learned through this challenge is that it is easier to wash a few diapers than it is to wash a bunch. Tonight I was VERY tempted to skip washing. I wasn’t able to wash during the kids naptime today. This morning I had to take my son to the radiology department of our local hospital for some testing as to why he got a urinary tract infection (UTI). (It’s much less common for a boy to get a UTI because their urethra is so much longer than a girls. All it takes to infect a girl is wiping baby girl’s bottom up instead of down, and with some fun bacterial growth, BAM! UTI. It’s harder to get poo into a boys urethra and the bacteria have farther to travel to start a party in a boys bladder.) So after an ultrasound to check on DS’ kidneys and bladder, we made our way over to X-ray where they catheterized him and filled his bladder with dye infused saline. They then took X-ray video of his bladder and watched as he peed. They found pee going toward his kidney instead of out his bladder so this requires lots of follow up. During nap time I had to make phone calls to schedule appointments and get a disk copy of the procedure for the specialist. The kids were up before I even thought of washing diapers. After being up until 12:30 or 1AM every night working on blogging (and a video that I couldn’t post) I am beat. I pushed through the pain and washed the diapers knowing that I would have at least 3 loads to wash tomorrow by nap time if I put it off.
Tip 2, dry in full sun: Another thing that I have learned is that the terry doublers and wipes take quite a while to air dry indoors. They took about 18 hours to dry in our California climate. Outside, on a nice warm day, they were dry in about 6 hours. Lesson here is that if you can dry outside, do so! My main drying rack for flats is a permanent fixture of our laundry room so I can’t move it outside. My flats are drying in about 8-12 hours. If I can wash during the day and can take advantage of full sunlight, I will!
Tip 3, pre-dry your covers: Many other moms that either took this challenge last year or this year, shared a tip about helping dry your diaper covers. I have found this information invaluable! If there is anything you want to air dry quickly use this tip! I fold a towel in half and lay the covers about an inch in from the edge. I fold the one inch over the ends of the covers and roll them up in the towel. Then kneel on the towel, mashing the layers of towel to the covers (or garment). My towels were pretty wet and my covers were nearly dry after this process! I hang the towels over the shower door and hang the covers to dry a bit more. This cut drying time for my covers dramatically.
The 10 flats I washed tonight.
Tip 4, stick to what works: When I first started handwashing I was using a tsp of Charlie’s soap alone. I didn’t like the lack of suds and found that if I added the Charlie’s water softener (which I use in my washing machine normally), the wash seemed much more effective.
Tip 5, washcloths rock!: I LOVE using the terry cloth for a doubler. I will never buy another doubler (and this has nothing to do with the fact that DS is almost potty trained). Half of a washcloth trifolded in the wet zone is like a magic fix. Magic I say! I dare you to try it and comment with the results! 
Tip 6, everyone should try fleece liners: I think my last tip for hand washing is that it has been much easier to wash poopy diapers with the fleece liners. Poo hardly sticks to the fleece at all and I haven’t had any issues with my flats staining because they are mostly protected by the fleece. It also doesn’t hurt to have them soak in the oxiclean water until I’m ready to wash, however, today, DS’ last diaper of the day was a poopy one. It didn’t have time to soak in the oxiclean water and it came out clean as a whistle.
I can’t wait to have a chance to read the tips of many of the other moms taking this challenge! Check them out on the links below this post!
Until tomorrow….
I am taking part in the Second Annual Flats and Handwashing Challenge hosted by Dirty Diaper Laundry. For 7 days I will be using only flat cloth diapers and handwashing them in an effort to prove that cloth diapering can be affordable and accessible to all. You can learn more about the rules and why this challenge was started by visiting the announcement post. This year there are over 450 participants from all over the world!
Today you get a MommaWords twofer. I’m posting a picture tutorial on my favorite fold (for my son) as well as photos of my washing process. I made a video yesterday of my wash process and after an attempt at editing it, and uploading it and a bunch of annoying computer complications, it was just too much for YouTube to handle. (That’s how I’d like to think of it – really it was just under 15 minutes and YouTube was all “This video is too long momma!” (But instead of momma, I heard it saying something else, considering all the time and effort I had put into making it. I guess making my first video during The Flats Challenge wasn’t such a hot idea…) Anyway! Check out the pics!
This flat will be pad folded with more absorbent layers in the front for my son. I prefer a pad fold since it allows me to get the diapers all ready to go in one sitting. I fold them up, layer them into the diaper cover, close it up, and set it in my basket so that it is ready when DS needs to be changed! The above picture is a flat with one edge folded 1/4 up on to the other 3/4 of the flat.
I then folded the same area I already folded up again so that 3/4 of the diaper is folded and 1/4 is showing.
Now I start at either side (left or right makes no difference) and fold toward the opposite side at the width I want the diaper to be. I repeat this step until the diaper is completely folded to the width I want it. If there is just a bit left over, I fold that part in.
Flat completely pad folded for a boy. This gives approximately 15-18 layers of absorbant material at the front of this diaper. If your child is smaller just fold your flat in half before starting this process or make the initial folds that go upward smaller and fold until the length is right for your baby.
Here is the pad folded flat diaper in a cover. On top of the flat is a single layer terry washcloth that I have cut in half and surged on the cut side. There is also a piece of fleece on the right of the diaper. Terry is very absorbant (hence why we use it to towel ourselves off after bathing) which is why I decided to use this to give my diapers extra absorbency without adding a ton of bulk. I also want to note that most people have dishtowels and washcloths in their home. Guess what you have in case of emergency? Yup, you have yourself a diaper!
Here is the terry cloth trifolded and placed in “the wet zone” for DS. You can move the terry to wherever your baby wets the most.
Here is the completed diaper with all of it’s layers. [1)Pad fold flat diaper 2)Trifolded terry 3)Fleece liner] Did I mention that fleece liners are no-sew? You just cut them to the shape you want them and they don’t fray. Fleece makes a wonderful liner because poo hardly sticks to it. Denser fleece can also be used to make covers! The fleece liner not only makes poop clean up much easier, it also allows fluid to pass through it without holding onto it. This keeps baby feeling dry. I always make sure the kiddos have a fleece layer on their nap and nighttime diapers. This way, they don’t wake up from wetting their diaper!
Here is a link to some video tutorials for a boat load of flat folds. Use the one that suits your baby best! Thanks to Tara at Padded Tush Stats for putting these together during last year’s Flats Challenge!
I’d also like to make one last stitch effort to make the Top 25 Moms of Multiples Blog list this year. The contest ends today May 23rd at 4PM PST. Your votes mean a great deal of exposure for not only MommaWords.com, but for cloth diapers (since I post about them regularly)! Please help me educate and advocate for cloth diapers (and lots of other topics) by clicking on the link below, scrolling down to MommaWords.com and clicking the vote button. It takes 30 seconds and your help is much appreciated! Click HERE to vote.
Below are pictures from my wash routine. I put the Laundry Pod in the sink for ease of use (it stays in place better when turning). I also included a picture of my makeshift washboard, AKA, our meat marinade tupperware container’s lid!
Well friends, this is the last of the MommaWords First Birthday GIVEAWAYS! What a busy month it has been with so many giveaways! Thanks to all our sponsors. The last giveaway consists of two Cloth Diapering Packages. I recently wrote about our struggle with ammonia build up in our cloth diapers, how we treated the diapers, and how we treated our twins for the ammonia burn diaper rash. I wanted to help any parents who might be in a similar situation. So…. I put together two packages! The packages consist of 1) The herbal burn balm (Ching Wan Hung) that I got from my acupuncturist, 2) A homemade bath soak consisting of oatmeal & chamomile tea (enough for 8 baths), AND 3) Hand cut fleece cloth diaper liners (8).
Krystal of Blue Jasmine Acupuncture and Herbs has sponsored the burn balm included in these two packages. I am thrilled that Krystal agreed to sponsor this giveaway because she supplied me with an amazing healing balm! This burn balm works for burns, sores, blister, eczema, and psoriasis. The tiniest amount goes a long way which makes this balm a long lasting steal at $6!
When my twins were recovering from the ammonia burns I was at a loss for how to heal their bottoms as quickly as possible. My daughter had blisters where her skin was exposed to the diapers! I was scared to even take her to the pediatrician. Do you know that the pediatrician was as much at a loss about this “rash” as I was? Because she didn’t have much, if any, experience with cloth diapers, she couldn’t help me. All she could do was take a culture of the rash and later tell me it wasn’t yeast. After digging around on the internet, a fellow cloth diapering momma suggested that the blisters could be an ammonia burn. BINGO! I had even told family members “This is an awful rash! It looks like a BURN!” My point. I told Krystal about this ammonia burn that day and she said she had a great burn balm. It is brown in color, smells like sesame seeds, and works like a charm. I brought it home and applied it that afternoon after nap. Only 24 hours later, the burn looked 50-75% better and all blisters were dried up. At the 48 hour mark there were some completely healed areas and all of the blistered areas looked markedly better. By day three the worst areas were just a thin layer of skin peeling off (like after a sunburn). It was AMAZING. I applied the burn balm 3 times a day, at waking, before nap, and after bath – before bed. Please read the directions on the box and consult your doctor and/or cloth diaper manufacturer with any questions. I used disposable inserts while using this product.
The other treatment I used to heal the ammonia burn (it helps with all diaper rashes and any skin irritations like eczema, as long as there isn’t an allergy to the ingredients) was a bath soak. I used the Aveeno soothing bath soak a couple of times but then found a recipe for a homemade bath soak! I have included this bath soak in the giveaway package! The bath soaks are meant to be placed in a warm bath (not hot!) and swished around until the water looks milky. The soak bag can be used to gently wash baby’s skin. My daughter’s hair and skin felt super soft after using these bath soaks. The bath soaks are also great for any time baby has irritated skin such as, heat rash or a sun burn. I hope we all avoid sun burns! 
If your baby has very sensitive skin you may try using this bath soak instead of baby wash to clean him or her during bath time.
To read the complete post on “How to heal and ammonia burn and terrible diaper rash” click HERE.
Now I’ll talk a bit about the fleece liners. There are many reasons to get into cloth diapering. Some parents have chosen cloth to stay away from the chemicals like SAP (super absorbent polymers) found in disposable diapers. Many of these parents choose to use only cloth diapers made from organic all natural fibers. If this is the case, you may not be interested in using a fleece liner. I have tried using all organic cotton or bamboo soakers only in my children’s diapers and found that their skin felt very wet when I changed them. I also use another soaker that has a fleece top liner which did not leave my children’s skin feeling so wet. So for all my soakers or AIOs that do not have a fleece liner, I have cut fleece liners from fabric bought at my local fabric store. I have found that these liners are helpful in many regards. First, they keep my kids feeling dry. Second, they make clean up of poopie diapers easier because I can simply lift this liner and dump its contents in the toilet. Third, the liners keep our diapers looking nicer which means less work to get stains out.
To enter to win this GIVEAWAY you are required to do the following:
“Like” Blue Jasmine Acupuncture & Herbs on Facebook AND “Like” MommaWords.com on Facebook and tell me in a comment on this post that you have done so. If you do not have a Facebook account and would still like to enter, you may leave a comment on this post telling me what other product or treatment you are interested in on Krystal’s Blue Jasmine Acupuncture & Herbs website.
To qualify for extra entries you must leave a comment on this post stating that you have done one of the following for EACH entry:
“Like” Biker Baby on Facebook (this is another sponsor of our birthday giveaways!)
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Tweet about this giveaway and include the URL in your comment. (Limit one per day)
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This giveaway closes Friday September 2, 2011 at midnight. Winners will be drawn on Saturday September 3rd, 2011. I will post the winning results as soon as I can that Saturday! I will also notify winners via email. Please check your spam folders! Winners will have 48 hours to reply before a new winner is chosen.
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
