Cooper started wearing his size two when he was about seven months. This means we’ve been using these cloth diapers for about five months.  In the last month or so, I’ve noticed that after Cooper peed in his diaper, it smelled very strongly of ammonia–and that his bum was getting red. I did some research and found out that I needed to strip my diapers. Occasional ammonia build-up is a completely normal part of cloth diapering and is easily resolved.

Stripping Cooper’s diapers was easy.  I simply ran them through a pre-wash like I always do to remove the traces of solid waste and rinse out most of the urine. To really get the ammonia build up out of the diapers requires a more intense process than a regular wash, so the next step  was adding about two tablespoons of regular blue Dawn dish detergent and washing the diapers on hot for a full cycle. Then I rinsed them about four times until all the bubbles were gone in the rinse.

After I pulled out the diapers, I gave them a quick smell.  They had a lingering scent of dish soap but I couldn’t detect the ammonia smell anymore. I knew the true test would come when Cooper wet the diapers.  As soon as the diapers were dry, I put them to the test and thankfully the powerful ammonia smell was gone!  I’ve learned a few tips to about how to prevent ammonia build up:

• Put your diapers out to dry in the sun. The sunlight helps to disinfect them and bleach out stains and nothing gets out smells like fresh air!
• Instead of tightly sealing up your diaper bin, allow in some air .  This helps to prevent the ammonia from building up inside your diaper pail.  If you are over-powered by an ammonia smell when you dump your diapers from your pail to your washing machine, you have ammonia build up!
• Don’t let your diapers sit for more than a few days before you wash them. This also helps to prevent the ammonia gas from building up.
• If you are stripping All-In-Ones, I suggest you turn them inside out.
• And don’t forget to separate out your diaper covers after the pre-wash. They do not need to be stripped.

Our Thirsties diapers are once again back to normal and so is Cooper’s red bum.  Stripping them was much easier than I had anticipated and well worth the effort.  Have you had any problems with ammonia build-up in your cloth diapers?  If so, please share your secrets and tips!

In between breaking up squabbles, kissing boo-boos and otherwise generally micromanaging our children, I got a chance to ask my sister about how she potty-trained her two boys, Owen and Andrew, by the time they were 18 months.  Owen is now almost five and Andrew is two-and-a-half.  She is expecting her third baby in a few more weeks and this last baby, like his (or her) older brothers, will be wearing cloth diapers.

Catherine told me that she didn’t set out to potty train her sons early but when her mother-in-law brought over a small plastic potty she had found at a garage sale, it got her thinking. Owen was just over one at the time. She says she could tell when he was peeing or pooping so she started to talk to him when he was “going.” She’d say “You’re peeing, good boy,” or “Good pooping, Owen!”  This helped him to learn the words that were associated with his bodily functions.

Much of Owen’s early potty training was spent naked.  He seemed to like being in the buff as many young children do, and the hardwood floors in her house meant that an occasional accident on the floor was no big deal. She left the potty in the corner of whatever room they were hanging out in and let him use it when she sensed he needed to go or whenever he wanted to sit on it. One thing she attributes to his success was his age–he hadn’t reached the stubborn and willful “Terrible Twos” and he was quite happy to please his mother and responded well to praise. In hindsight she says she doesn’t know how others potty train their two-year-olds because her boys were far too disagreeable and prone to power struggles at age two.

Catherine is extremely in tune with her children and practices “Attachment Parenting.”  By watching Owen for cues, she would plop him on the potty whenever she sensed he needed “to go.”  And she also began to put him on the potty right after nap, after meals, before leaving the house and upon getting back home–times when adults and older children often empty their bladders. This sent Owen the message that there are “times” when we use the potty so we don’t have to go when there isn’t a bathroom around.

Something we hear often today when getting ready to potty train is that we should wait until the child has the “words” to communicate.  Owen was not an early talker by any means.  He was mostly using “baby signs” and would sign “potty” if he needed to go.  He was potty-trained long before he was fully verbal.

Since Owen potty-trained early and was also a cloth diaper wearing baby, I, of course, asked Catherine if she thought there was a relationship between the two.  She said she thought there was.  For one thing, she was motivated to get him potty-trained because she was the one washing the diapers.  But she also said, she felt that the cloth helped him to understand at a young age the cause and effect of peeing and then feeling wet.  Though she let him go diaper-less as much as possible when training, she said he did wear  a diaper when she didn’t have time to have to clean up accidents or when she left the house.

Now, I’m certainly not saying that all cloth-diaper-wearing toddlers can be potty-trained this young. However, Catherine’s second son Andrew was also potty-trained early–and by seventeen months! All kids have different personalities, different temperaments, and different levels of control over their bodily functions. My girls were trained by two and a half and two and a quarter. Will Cooper be earlier? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous since I’ve promised to keep you all apprised! But what I really want to know is this: Will Catherine have a Hat Trick with this third baby or will he or she throw her for a loop and be in diapers until the age of four?  I’ll be sure to let you know!

When my husband and I were choosing names for our own children, we were hoping that there would not be five other little girls

Picture courtesy of www.TipTopTens.com

named Kate in our daughter’s class. However, we tried to avoid names that seemed SO different that they bordered on weird. Unique baby names seem to be a must have in Hollywood. Check out the names these three celebrities chose for their children: Gywneth Paltrow, Jason Lee and David Duchovny.

Apple Blythe Alison Martin: This is what Gywneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin named their first-born. Gwyneth wanted to name her daughter something that was “different” yet that everyone had a positive association with. I mean, who doesn’t like a nice, juicy red apple? Be that as it may, I think she should have stuck with either Blythe or Alison (her mother’s name and her mother-in-law’s name) and she would have had a winner. Maybe not a super unique baby name but a very nice, normal baby name…and who doesn’t like a beautiful (and yet not off the wall) name for a little girl?

Pilot Inspektor Lee: This extremely unique baby name belongs to the unlucky son of actor Jason Lee. I do know that Jason Lee is a comedian, however, spare me the joke when choosing a name for your baby’s sake, please! Even worse, he allegedly named the baby from a line in a song by the band Granddaddy–”He’s simple, he’s dumb, he’s the pilot.” Given the line from the song after which poor Pilot was named, I understand their attraction to the name even less. But they did come up with a very unique baby name. I’m sure Pilot Lee will be the only “Pilot” in his class.

Kyd Miller Duchovny: David Duchovny and Tea Leoni named their second child Kyd Miller. Now, I can’t say that I know where the name Miller came from–it may be a family surname and therefore, I kind of like it. I actually know a little girl whose middle name is Miller and that is what she goes by. It’s kind of cute. However, I can only guess that David and Tea made up the name Kyd and in my opinion, it’s not the worst, but definitely seems to be trying way too hard to be cool. Do they chuckle every time they call their son? “Hey, Kyd! It’s time for dinner!” “Go to your room, Kyd!” Especially since their first daughter is named Madelaine, I have to ask “Who were they trying to Kyd?” when they named their son?

Though I tend to lean towards more traditional baby names for my own children, I do say to each his own. And if celebrities feel their famous-by-association children need unique baby names to help them “fit in” in Hollywood and “stand out” everywhere else, more power to them. As for me, I like apples in pies, pilots in the cockpit and my kyds tucked in bed. But that’s just my plain-old, non-celebrity opinion.

The first diaper Cooper ever wore was cloth–that’s right. The hospital he was born in uses only cloth, which is very cool. So come to think of it, all three of my kids wore cloth for their first diaper! Anyway, in the hospital and in his first few tiny weeks (he was only 6  lbs 9 ounces!) we dressed him in one-sies paired with those baby nightgowns–I don’t know what they’re actually called–but they have the little elasticized holes at the bottom.

As soon as I was able to drive, Cooper no longer wore his little nightgowns. I really liked how they fit with the cloth diaper and the fact that they didn’t constrict his belly, but I needed to buckle him in his car seat several times a day to drive his sisters to and from school.  He needed his legs free. My first choice of outfits for my cloth diaper wearing boy is always something that is one piece–I find that since cloth diaper booties are slightly bigger that disposable diaper booties, little pants, cute though they may be, often tend to seem too tight around his middle.

I was lucky enough to get a couple of big boxes of hand-me-downs just before Cooper was born.  I was able to pick and choose my favorite outfits and ones that I thought would work best with his Thirsties.  I chose mostly one piece outfits–long sleeve, short sleeve, long pants and shorts rompers. I’ve also always liked to put a one-sie under all of his outfits but especially when he does wear pants, that way when his shirt rides up, his bare skin isn’t hanging out and getting cold. Any pants I do have are big enough to fit his diaper booty. Another benefit of the one piece outfits are that they are quick–one and done! With my other two daughters to help in the mornings, I don’t have time to mix and match cute little outfits any more. That’s what happens with the third, I guess!  As opposed to “Pants? Check. Matching shirt? Check? Matching socks? Check.  Cooper gets “You’re no longer naked?” Check.

Now that spring is here, I’m starting to toy with idea of occasionally just pairing Cooper’s cloth diaper with a T-shirt.  The patterns and colors are so cute, it would be fun to show them off. But I am also afraid of getting them dirty. He was in the backyard this afternoon and came back inside covered in dirt and leaves. I’ll have to play that by ear.

Right now Cooper is 12 months and I find that 18 month clothes work best with his Thirsties because they give his fluffy booty a little extra room. Do you dress your cloth-diapered baby any differently than you dressed your disposable diaper wearing babies? What kind of outfits do you find work best?

But not all laundry is so bad
My Thirsties never make me mad.
I close the tabs on the hook and loop,
And try not to touch the poop.
Covers, inserts, fab fitteds too,
Reusable wipes? I’ve used a few.
Next my wet bag goes into the machine,
Add the pre-wash and start to clean.

Next I add the Super Wash,
And turn the temperature to Hot.
When the dipes are spic and span
I toss them in the drier and
Watch our fluffy diapers spin.
And once they’re dry I will begin
To sort the covers, fold and stuff,
I just love to wash my Fluff!