E-Mail 'Getting Started with Cloth Diapers - Part 2, by ADC' To A Friend

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1. We raised our children with cloth diapers.
   Grid down or not, it is a money saver.

   1. I did the same. And my kids were toilet trained earlier than kids in disposable diapers. I’ve had other parents who used cloth diapers say the same thing. I think it is because the cloth diapers allow a child to be more aware of what their body is doing.

2. I do suggest large well made diaper safety pins because the snaps will fail on those snappies AND there is many uses for safety pins when things get weird (SHTF).

   Diaper pins and a sewing kit are often something Preppers don’t think about. Might give you options as to adapting old clothing to your growing baby.

3. We loved the Lanacare wool diaper covers. All my children were heavy wetters. We would put them to bed in the Lanacare pants and sleep sack. They woke up dry every time.
   https://danishwool.com/products/diaper-covers-soakers-in-soft-organic-merino-wool?variant=22291831815

4. Here’s a bit of trivia that could prove to be helpful. If you use actual diaper pins or safety pins to anchor the diapers, they can sometimes resist being pushed through the layers of fabric. If you stroke the end of the pin through your hair before pushing it through the fabric, it will slide through like a hot knife through butter. Apparently just the wee bit of oil that gets deposited on the pin is enough to prevent you from stabbing yourself or the baby by using excessive force on the pin.

   1. That is a helpful tip, MaG. At my advanced age, I know a ffew folks older than me who are wearing “adult diapers”. I’m curious how the article might apply to folks at the other end of the age spectrum.

      Carry on

5. I had to look up what a snappy is. been 40 years since I diapered any baby!

6. Regarding detergent: I stock up on Ivory soap bars, along with a couple other brands. Bar soap can be made into liquid detergent, or grated to be used as flakes. There are lots of recipes on the Interwebs. The bars are compact and store easily in every available nook and cranny as opposed to storing large gallon liquid detergent containers. One thing you can do to make the bars have a longer shelf life, is to unwrap them entirely. They will harden and last longer. If you like good smelling soap, be aware it may irritate a baby’s skin, so save the smelly soaps for adult detergent. I have a supply of Dove (sensitive skin), Zote soap and Fels-Naptha. You can search for these particular soaps’ special qualities. I haven’t tried it, but supposedly Zote soap makes a great catfish bait. Walmart has good prices on bars of soap online.

   1. Same here! I can make a half gallon of liquid soap from one bar of Ivory. Was chuckling the other day because I got in an altercation with an online ordering system, and LOST of course, and instead of one package I had 34 bars arrive! (Do the algorithms now know I’m a prepper?) Not what I had intended, but of course they’ll keep, and I’ll be glad to have them.

      1. Ivory soap bars can also be unwrapped and air-dried (preferably for several weeks) and then “shaved” with a carrot grater, and the gratings used in place of laundry detergent in an automatic clothes washer. A good thing for folks to remember, if they ever run out of liquid laundry detergent.

      2. At one time, I actually made my own dry laundry detergent using grated ivory soap bars, some washing soda, and borax. It was time consuming (at the time I was working crazy hours), and then there were complaints, lol, from the household on how their laundry didn’t smell as good. Actually, for the boys, it didn’t quite get the smell out. LOL. I intend now to start making it again, only this time the liquid version since everyone is up and out of the house doing laundry for their little ones.

   2. i bought a few 50 lb bags of lye (sodium hydroxide) and have been making my own soap for a while now. far superior to anything i can buy in the store and i know it’s got no hidden ingredients in it. just oil, lye, water, and a pinch of salt (and a lot of stirring until it thickens!) i make a roughly 30 pound batch of soap (thats what fits in two fillings of the really big pot) , i made a big mold out of some scrap plywood , basically a big tray whose sides i can remove, after about 2 weeks the slab is solid enough to cut into chunks, and then let it cure for another month or two before using. one can get fancy adding some aromatic oils etc, or just leave it plain. plain has the other advantage of being neutral for all the other uses in the house – dishwashing and laundry particularly. real soap rinses right off from dishes, for example, whereas those liquid detergent mixtures they sell in the store i always found took two or three times the rinsing to feel clean enough to eat off of.. been using real soap now for about 15 years, make the switch and you wont regret it. its a few hours of work a year and some space in a corner of the cellar, and it will be better and cheaper than anything store bought.

      1. WONDERFUL!! My daughter also makes soap that way.

7. It’s been awhile for me too, but used cloth diapers exclusively on four kids. Old dish towels and bath towels come in handy as spares and for extra heavy wetters. Old wash clothes do a fine job of cleaning a baby’s bottom with no irritating chemicals. So diapers and rags, wash clothes, and a pail and you’re good to go. Sticking the diaper pin in a bar of soap next to the changing area also helps the pin to work well. The little one will be well aware of being soiled and should be easy to train by a year to a year and a half.

8. Excellent article. I was delighted to see this topic addressed here. In this case, “the little things” definitely are the big things!

   Oatmeal baths are indeed great for diaper rash or any other skin irritation too–just be sure to not rinse! Pat the skin dry gently so the oatmeal stays on. There are commercial packets of colloidal oatmeal available (Aveeno, etc) or you could powder it up in a food processor.

   We have found most success with the Burt’s Bees brand of zinc oxide cream, though it’s getting harder to find. Diaper cream may be one of the few items NOT to heavily stock before the baby is born — suppose his/her skin turns out to be sensitive to the kind you’ve stacked 27 tubes of? *face-palm*
   My MiL tells me that when they lived in Germany in the 70s, the ladies there would make baby powder by toasting flour in a skillet. I have never tried that one.

   We have been using cloth wipes for awhile now. My husband sacrificed some old undershirts for the cause and I bought several PLASTIC boxes full of commercial wipes to use once emptied. Those were harder to find too–mostly now it is the plastic wrappers. I mix a little castile soap with some essential oils (found recipe online) and pour it over the folded cloth wipes in the box. Using a spray bottle works well too; just moisten the ones you need a few at a time.

   I wish we had been able to use cloth diapers. That had been our intention, but when firstborn arrived early and not having a clue how to eat, our prefold supply was quickly relegated to burp cloths; laundry (and everything else) went by the wayside as I struggled round the clock for weeks to keep him from being hospitalized on an NG tube. (Plus cloth diapers aren’t really made in sizes for 5-8year olds, and I would have chickened out of them anyway once I learnt that insurance paid for diapers with their diagnoses!)

9. Having been an intermittent lurker here at SurvivalBlog, this is my first comment and that was my first article. Thank you to our host, and to everyone who commented on both parts for their kind words and insightful feedback.

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