Off Grid Wool Suggestions

[aussiespring]

@jesse123 Washing fitteds is so water intensive. In the summer, mine dry on the line just fine, but they take a lot of extra washing and rinsing even compared to prefolds. I have no limit on my water use besides the normal disincentives-- cost and, ya know, caring-- and I've limited my use of fitteds because the high water and washing effort.

So I agree, if it's possible at all, OP will need to go with flats.

 

[godsgatekeeper]

@jesse123 Agreed! Plus they’ll have elastic which can trap poo and take a lot more agitation to fully clean

 

[aventador]

@simply_amazing I've been really happy with my flats from green mountain diapers. The kind you mentioned, with the snaps, are probably what they call 'fitted' diapers, and are tougher to wash and take longer to dry because of how many layers of fabric it takes to get enough absorbancy. The flats won't have snaps, but you can use pins or this nifty thing called a 'Snappi' to hold them on. My husband was always worried about poking the baby but I don't think they ever happened with ours, even when they were wiggly during changes.

I did also want to mention that both my kids had skin that was really sensitive to being wet, so I either needed a layer of 'stay dry' material between them and the cotton diaper, or to change them within 20 or 30 min of a pee. We did EC also, which helped reduce time in wet diapers and the number of diapers I had to wash. But for nights, we ended up using disposable diapers. I just got some cloth 'pull ups' from Smart Bottoms for my 4 year old that have a synthetic stay dry layer and those seem to work overnight for him, while the cotton diapers he was in before would give him awful rashes, no matter how well washed they were.

I like the wool shorties covers from Disana for overnight or immobile babies, but they didn't stay on my kids well when they were up and moving around. I used the snap style Babee Greens wool covers at that stage. I got to the point (with a lot of practice!) that I could do diaper changes while the kids were standing with flats and the Babee Greens covers, so it's possible but definitely tricky.

 

[simply_amazing]

@aventador Really useful to know, I have heard babies can have really sensitive skin but I guess I hadn’t thought about how CD plays into that. I’m really hoping that between EC and CD I can escape the expense of disposables so maybe looking into the “stay dry” material would be good so that I’m not unprepared if it happens.

 

[fah270]

@simply_amazing So much credit to you both.

I’m going to also put in a vote for flats. They’re way easier than you think and cheap. I used my full size ones as burp clothes or general baby mess catchers when he was tiny and still in the size half’s for diapers. He’s now in the full size flats and the half are for spit up and extra nighttime absorbency. Plus, they will be amazing kitchen/cleaning rags when he’s done. I’m going to attempt hand washing this weekend while we’re away and have no washer, so I can’t speak to it yet. I will also say that they’re easier to get clean because they’re one layer. Plus the folds allow you to fit it perfectly to your baby’s little body which means fewer blowouts and that means fewer wool covers drying and a smaller stash. We started with 4 covers and that was tough. 7 was very comfortable. I am still doing through 15-20 diapers a day at 4.5 months if that helps. He’s very sensitive about being wet.

ETA: Green Mountain Diapers is an amazing resource not just for purchasing but for information. She seems to do a sale for every holiday and some just because. So I’m anticipating one for Memorial Day and she definitely does one for July. You might also want to look into prepping. Took me about 6-8 washes to get them prepped in a machine, which might be a while with your system and water catching. If you have a friend or family member who could prep them for you that might be worth it. Maybe as a baby shower gift? Prepping is a need for all cotton options not just flats.

 

[simply_amazing]

@fah270 Oh that’s a good point, I didn’t think about the “customization” of flats… would you say it was pretty easy to get used to folding them to fit your baby? Also sorry for my ignorance but what is prepping for the diapers?

 

[fah270]

@simply_amazing Oh yeah. Learning the folds is super easy. Maybe took a week? And that’s probably only because we were also learning all the other new baby things and finding the right one. Plus the internet has videos on how to fold them so you can do step by step follow along (GMD has them and then you could YouTube from there if you want a different explanation of a particular fold). Jelly rolls are key to EBF poops if you plan to EBF.

Prepping is getting the brand new diapers to a usable state. The cotton fibers aren’t particularly absorbent until after prepping. I use the GMD organic unbleached birdseye flats. Unbleached = more prep time (1-2 washes?) so if no bleach is important that’s a consideration too.

Basically you wash and dry your diapers until they are absorbent. I just put mine through a hot wash with detergent followed by a full dry cycle 6 times and after 4 I started dripping water on them to see if the fabric immediately absorbed the water.

Here is one of the GMD learning pages, prepping is one of the last sections:
https://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/pages/washing-diapers

GMD will also send you a free 16 page how to book if you order from them (you have to add it to your cart). They also do free pins if you want to try them out. I thought I’d be all about pinning but he was just too little and I was too sleep deprived so we use snappies now. I pinned myself too many times.

 

[simply_amazing]

@fah270 Thank you this is very helpful! I’ll definitely look into jelly roll because I am planning on EBF. Do you think it would be helpful to practice folding beforehand or practice on my toddler nephews? I know they aren’t newborns but they definitely squirm around.

Also thanks for the note about prepping! I think my mother in law (who lives the closest to us) would probably love to help out by doing that for us in her washer she’s a bit crunchy like me so I think she already wants to help with anything more out of the norm like cloth diapering

Also it seems like everyone is recommending GMD! I’m for sure gonna take a look

 

[fah270]

@simply_amazing Toddler nephews would be great practice and probably harder than a newborn! Teddy bears are also good. I pre-folded my entire stash before he got here. So that helps with the folds and finding one that feels good. I used the Jo fold when he was little and was in half flats. We do the kite fold now that he’s in the full size ones.

One thing we do when he has a poo is (he’s pretty obvious about it…) I get him on the table and clothes/cover off as quick as I can so I keep my covers clean. May want to look into EC as well to reduce the number of diapers you need to wash!

Yes to the crunchy MIL!! That would be a great help and make your start for cloth diapers a lot easier.

 

[simply_amazing]

@fah270 I’ll talk to my sister in law and see if she’ll let me practice on the nephews then and get some folding techniques down! I mentioned in the comment I’m definitely interested in EC… honestly I’m hoping that works out the best but I know it won’t be perfect so I want to get cloth diapers so I’m not having to run an hour to the store for disposables that I would have to then find some way of disposing of… plus we don’t get mail at out off grid place so shipping isn’t an option either.

 

[fah270]

@simply_amazing Totally missed this bit about EC! I know almost nothing about it due to lack of brain power to learn currently. I hope it works amazingly for you!

Good luck with it all! If I can ever be of help, happy to do so. Still learning loads too. I’m excited for you!

 

[chrisleatherman40]

@simply_amazing Very cool! If I was handwashing I’d want to use flats. Well, I do largely use flats anyway. They’re going to be the easiest by far to wash and fastest to hang dry. Fast drying means you need fewer diapers because you can get them back in rotation faster. I don’t like fussy stuff, but I often choose my flats over my other diaper types because I like how simple the concept is. Wool pants are a great option and not hard to care for. I use both wool and PUL.

Presumably if you wash every two or three days you have 6-9 gallons of water to use for washing? I don’t have much experience with handwashing so not sure how much water a load of laundry for you takes or what your laundry set up is (tub with some kind of hand agitator? Wringer?) You’d want hot water for your diapers, and they’ll take more wash water than your clothes (though I think you could add your clothes in to a second washing of diapers). I think traditionally diapers were often boiled in a laundry pot? That would help get them clean for sure.

My vote is to give flats a chance! They’re the cheapest too, and there’s just one size so you don’t have to worry about your baby outgrowing them and having to buy another set. You’d need maybe three dozen (someone correct me if I’m wrong, my baby’s only two months old and needs changing a lot) to have two days worth plus a day for washing and drying, but it doesn’t hurt to have more.

 

[simply_amazing]

@chrisleatherman40 I think after all these comments I have no choice but to give flats a chance definitely sounds like they might be a little harder to put on but much much easier to wash.

As far as washing set up… I’m old school just a washboard in the sink. I’ve been looking at little manual pump washers though that spin and agitate the clothes so it seems that might be a good idea to get them clean and use less water. We would definitely have plenty of water if we waited a few days between washes… the big thing is just alternating days and not doing everything on one day, dishes one day, laundry the next… I just didn’t know if you had to wash them every day or not?

 

[chrisleatherman40]

@simply_amazing I was actually really resistant to flats and only tried them on my current (third) baby, but I love them now I fold them all in advance so putting them on the baby with a Snappi is just as quick and simple as a fitted. They’re also just a nice piece of fabric that can have so many other purposes.

You definitely don’t need to wash them every day, but you may want to rinse out bigger amounts of poop every day if your baby does big poops, to make it less poopy come laundry day. Most people don’t do that with EBF poop because it washes out fine in a washing machine, but it might make things easier for you. My baby has gone through stages of many little poops a day but is currently pooping every 2-4 days so it’s huge when it happens, like someone dumped a smoothie in his diaper

When your baby is eating solids, you’ll probably want some kind of poop scraping set up, or a quick hand rinse depending on poop consistency.

I think that being able to wring or spin them will help with your wash routine too, because it will get more dirty water out before your rinse or second wash. I’ve seen vintage hand crank wringers. And doing one of your washes or rinses as a boil would probably help a lot because you’d get them sanitized. Your covers might not hold up to that but flats would.

 

[simply_amazing]

@chrisleatherman40 Thanks for the reply! Everyone on this thread has been so helpful and thorough and quick to respond I really appreciate it! As a CD veteran, what do you do with the dirty diapers if you’re waiting a day or two to wash them? I’m sure they are stinky so is there a certain container most parents keep them in (I assume yall don’t just keep them in a dirty clothes pile)?

 

[chrisleatherman40]

@simply_amazing No prob! I hope you’ll come back and update us on how cloth is working for you once your baby is here!

I actually do wash every day or every two days because that works best for the amount of diapers I have and how often I change. I keep my dirty diapers in a plastic laundry basket with holes in it (ikea slibb I think it’s called). With my other kids I used a zippered wet bag (that was 9+ years ago) and I honestly don’t remember much about it. There seem to be two schools of thought on dirty storage: airtight to lock away smells, and airflow to reduce them. Airflow is working well for us at this point! I think once we start solids we’ll spray off poop and put those extra wet diapers in a wet bag til it’s time to wash.

I also wanted to mention that we do EC as well and it’s great and totally worth it to do at any level. We are super lazy with it and mostly just offer the potty at diaper changes and after sleep. We started on day two and it’s really inspiring how the tiniest of newborns not only have control over their eliminations, but can quickly learn to go when we want them to. Depending on how much attention you devote to it, EC can totally reduce the number of diapers you use. With my first son I had a six month period when I didn’t have to change a poopy diaper! Diaper free observation time is harder with boys and their fire hoses tho lol

 

[simply_amazing]

@chrisleatherman40 I’ll definitely update in a few months when I get to try it out

And thanks for the EC note! That’s awesome to know because we’re pretty low maintenance/lazy too but it just made sense and I really want to try it. Six months without a poopy diaper is epic! And the bit about newborns I didn’t even know! I thought you had to wait a few weeks after the baby was born so that’s great that I could start even earlier

We’re waiting to find out the gender at birth so we’ll see if I have to deal with fire hose or not

 

[marcenoc]

@simply_amazing Definitely look into flats. They are easiest to clean and dry fast on a clothesline.

Edit- there are lots of different ways to fold a flat, so you can pick your “fancy” level.

 

[bramblewild]

@simply_amazing Im following this post to see others' thoughts. I use a fair amount of water to keep my diapers clean and sanitized. I will say little helper used to have a YouTube video on how to hand wash cloth diapers. Basically, it's a bucket with a stick in it, butter churn setup. But the lack of water is really going to be a limit tester. If possible, a disposable during newborn phase is nice because that new baby poop is like tar.

I wish you all the best luck, momma!
Being a parent is hard! The beginning is very much survival mode (for me, anyways lol), so don't beat yourself up if you have to do things differently than planned at times!

 

[simply_amazing]

@bramblewild Thanks for the comment! I’m definitely mentally preparing a lot of grace for myself (and my husband) as we become new parents