Show 48

AMA

Celebrating 2 years of the Cloth Diaper Podcast with an Ask Me Anything. 

 

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The Cloth Diaper Podcast is just that a podcast dedicated to sharing stories of cloth diapering with parents around the world. This is not just your everyday mom podcast or parenting podcast. We're about connecting you with your favourite cloth diaper brands and retailers, the instagram influencers you follow, and the people making big changes within the cloth diaper industry for a more inclusive, supportive community. 

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Welcome to show 48 of the Cloth Diaper Podcast. It’s been two years since I dropped a trailer. My first show is mid-July of 2018. Today’s show is an AMA with my husband about cloth diapering. It’s been a long time.

 

What is the best insert for heavy wetters without being bulky?

I struggle with this answer because you’re going to get bulk. The idea of bulk and thickness is arbitrary and a difference of a few mm. I don’t think there’s a huge difference between a lot of products that offer high capacity.

Why do you want it to be less bulky 

There’s always going to be a certain amount of girth when it comes to 12+ ounces of a diaper – prefolds, receiving blankets, and they will be the similar bulk and width. You could pile up three hemp inserts, but I don’t think it’s a drastic difference for the price cost. 

My husband – will you release your own line of concrete diapers?

I am never going to release my own diapers. I don’t want to ever be a brand or sell diapers. I just wanna talk about.

 

How do you emotionally handle it when a new print is released and you know that you have more than enough diapers?

I have disconnected myself a lot over the past few years from NEEDING to have more prints. 

Something that I noticed in motherhood – I shopped for emotional health, it was a feel good thing – if you’re struggling with that, maybe consider therapy. 

We have to pause and find new ways of joy. Jaqueline from Official Jays Nest also helped me on this journey. I was purchasing diapers to heal trauma instead of facing and that I needed to heal from that and that’s still an ongoing practice. 

I did realize buy diapers because I was feeling sad. I did it. I recognized why I did that – the high of shopping and that wasn’t healthy coping mechanism. It’s really hard because there aren’t a lot of healthy coping mechanisms with COVID.

 

My husband – what is your favourite donut?

I really like the Birthday Cake Timbit.

 

Do you store stuffed, assuming pockets, or unstuffed?

I flip flop and do different things. If my husband is home, then I stuff them.

I don’t really use pockets, so for me this is pairing a prefold with a cover. 

I don’t really like stuffing diapers because I like having the flexibility of mix and matching what I need.

To repair or not repair? Should I send them out or do it myself.

I don’t typically repair diapers. I think we need to weigh the entire situation. Sending them out for repair can cost for $6-10 per diaper for elastics. 

I have tried to repair diapers, and I have been handy in doing this. The first one is the worst and it does get easier. 

My husband – is a hamburger a sandwich? Is a hot dog a sandwich?

Yes. A hotdog, I’m not so sure about a hot dog being a sandwich.

 

What’s the worst diaper?

The first diaper I ever got rid of was the bumGenius Freetime – a microfibre all in one diaper because it was so bulky. 

The worst diaper I ever bought – a few years ago I ordered the $2-3 diapers off Wish. That was something I can confidently say never do again. I’m careful to recognize that comment is layered in judgement and the thing is that I could see through the PUL and it was only 5 snaps, and shaped small. I not that everyone needs to run out and buy expensive diapers, but the super cheap ones do a disservice to the cloth diaper experience. 

I have diapers that don’t work in my stash – Rumparooz is a great brand but doesn’t work for my kids. That doesn’t make it a bad diaper it just makes it something that works for us and that’s okay.

 

The cloth community is growing. What can and should we be doing as a community to be supportive? How do you see the world growing and how do we need to evolve to ban barriers to entry. 

We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves – there is a lot of inhouse fighting between ourselves on the best way to cloth diaper. I think if we focused on collaboration and the wide array of experiences.

The reason that I started the cloth diaper podcast is because the rhetoric that I was mentored on wasn’t the only way. I would give people the answer that I was raised in and it wouldn’t work. That was frustrating. It was frustrating when the rule didn’t work for people. There is a lot of my way or high way approach to things. There is a lot of mom shaming, judgement in this space that can make it feel very unwelcoming. And a lot of racism and systemic bias. 

When you go online and you google cloth diapering – you’re learning about a white middle class womans experience. That’s a very limited and narrow experience and that has an issue about opening up this space and amplify. 

Another really big barrier is decades of disposable diaper marketing telling us what the diapering experience looks like and then there is a huge learning curve and there is such a privilege in having the time to learn about cloth diaper. 

Having to learn about things is a huge time commitment – if it was more mainstream and was something we just knew. Relearning to cloth diapering can make it feel so overwhelming.

 

How in the heck to you figure out a wash routine? I have soft water and a front load he washer (🥴renting probs). I use biokleen free and clear. I have a buildup issue. Did a ton of detergent free washes and there’s still buildup. I’m so tired of washing and rewashing clean diapers to try to get rid of buildup and I just want a wash routine that works!

Currently this is what I do:
Prewash – heavy duty warm, extra rinse, 1 teaspoon detergent 
Main wash – heavy duty hot, extra rinse, 1 teaspoon detergent.
Full rinse cycle with no detergent.
 

Front load, soft water is such a recipe for struggle. People will have a struggle with top loaders too. This is a really challenging situation and you’re not alone because this has been in my inbox from many moms this week. 

Finding your wash routine can be a lot of trial and error and I’m going to ask this on Facebook because I really believe in peer to peer support. We can see what other people do and suggest. You might get 17 different answers, read through their answers and critically think for yourself. What could work for me in this routine. Pick and choose.

 

  • Soft water parents sometimes try a heavier detergent in the first wash, and then none in the main wash. This sometimes is an effective way to kick out the detergent and get clean diapers.
  • Reaching out to your detergent might also help and ask how they would get heavily soiled clothes clean with their product.
  • Wash size, water temp.
  • Clean your machine regularly.

 

 

 

 

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