Forced to use disposables for a few weeks--WHY DOES ANYONE DO THIS?!

randomelement

New member
You can all laugh at me. I'm literally reacting to disposables how everyone reacts to cloth. And yes, I see the irony.

Baby has had some recurring albeit minor contact rashes and after trying everything and it never fully resolving, but coming and going for a few months, we've decided to just put him in disposables for a week or two until it clears up while we do bleach soaks and cleans with his diapers to ensure there's nothing irritating his little bum.

Guys.. I have never used disposables before. I legit didn't know which way was forward. I have no idea how to tell if they fit. But most of all.. the SMELL! In cloth we can tell when he's pooped, but he constantly smells poopy in disposables, I don't know why! Is it because the plastic-y material works like a little balloon, capturing his farts and slowly releasing it throughout the day? Is he just constantly dutch ovening himself?

And our bathroom smells so. bad. We usually use an open-bucket in the bathroom with his dirty diapers that we wash every other day, but having to store disposables FILLED with poop?! It smells! So bad! My baby smells. My bathroom smells. His nursery smells. It all. Just. Smells.

And the expense, too! I got all my diapers for $160 total, buying second-hand older styles plus prefolds. But we've already spent $30 on disposables.

Anyway, looking forward to getting back to cloth in the next few days since his rash is almost completely gone (yay!). I just genuinely don't understand why cloth is seen as undesirable when I've had to do so much more cleaning to manage the smell alone from disposables. And I hate the idea of having just pounds upon pounds of poop just hanging out in garbage bags around my house and garage... Yuck.

UPDATE: Well... turns out I'm pregnant. Might be why the smell was bothering me so much! xD
 
@randomelement I hate the smell of disposable diapers. I almost gagged thinking about it. I used them occasionally with both kids and despised it every time. My husband probably has PTSD from me complaining about it to him every dang time.
 
@katrina2017 I don’t know! It’s so weird! We tried so many brands and they ALL had a weird smell - even before they got wet. It’s that sickeningly sweet perfume that I guess is supposed to mask the smell of waste? Bleh. Gross!
 
@randomelement We’ve just switched to cloth and never noticed a smell while she was wearing disposables. We have a nappy bin so all nappies go straight in there and gets emptied every 2-3 days. We use a liner for the bin but still clean it once a month or if it start to pong. A bit of bleach sorts it out. The only other time is if someone doesn’t push the nappy all the way through the lid and leaves it open.

Compare that to cloth that I store in a closed bucket. As soon as you open the lid the stench hits you, even if it’s just wee. Left them in a mesh bag the other day (just wee) it was fine for a few hours but by the end of the day it was awful we had to open a window to air the room out. I wash every other day so not doing that again
 
@randomelement Had to use disposables the last couple of months because our cloth nappies just would not lose their ammonia smell no matter what strip method I tried (finally sorted now thank goodness). And the main thing I was so shocked by was exactly that: the constant smell!! Like how or why do people put up with it? My brother is only 5yrs old and I remember him having smelly nappies, but I don't remember the smell affecting everything and everywhere, did we just get acclimatised to it?!?!
 
@melaniekurz UK based so don't know if the info will help, but in the end I did:
  • Half hour rinse and spin
  • 3hr wash on 60°C with bio powder (but not much) and a bit of stain remover
  • 3hr wash on 60 with no detergent or anything
  • rinsed until there were no powder bubbles showing during the cycle
Then I did the whole thing again but on only 40°C for the two 3hr cycles and used non-bio, and no stain remover.

Also previous attempts I had put in about more than 10 nappies plus all their inserts, etc whereas this time I only put in 8 at a time and their bits

Hope this does help!!
 
@randomelement I've found that the Huggies snug and dry work best. We travel with my husband and I use disposables then. They hardly smell, they've never blown out on me, and they do the job they say they do.

Other than that, you won't catch me using disposables. I can't STAND them.
 
@randomelement We flush the poop from disposables (overnight) or cloth. Makes the trash bin last longer without smelling nearly as bad. But I feel you - disposables are just as much trial and error as cloth.
 
@tarantula13 We had an ice storm two weeks ago and DH got a small pack of Pampers diapers in case we lost power for a few days. They smell so bad. It's supposed to be this florally fresh scent. Ugh.

I've been using them up as night diapers just to get rid of them. I can't wait for them to be gone. I usually keep a small stash of disposables as backups but I get a different brand that's totally unscented
 

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