Getting Prepped

Flats and Handwashing Challenge stats so far:

Total $$ Spent: $90.43 with tax
Total Time Spent: 1 hour (shopping)
Total Diapers Changed: 0
Total Leaks: 0

I'm on my way with this challenge thing and it's time to start keeping track of things I think.  How time consuming will it really be to use flats and handwash them?  Will thin little flats be able to contain Ivy's business?  How much money am I spending (no one tell my hubby lol)?  These are things I want to know.


While I have used flats before, the flats I have are pretty nice.  The highly acclaimed Little Lions unbleached birdseye cotton flats.  Will the Walmart stuff be able to measure up?  While Little Lions aren't any more expensive really than the Child of Mine flats, and only slightly more expensive than the flour sack towels, I think that price is only one factor in why cloth diapering can be tough for low income families.  There is also alot to be said for intimidation and bewilderment. 

If you search for cloth diapers online, you get literally millions of sites.  Even if you limit it to flat diapers, you're still only knocking off a million search results.  Which ones to buy? 

But, that's only if you have a Paypal account or credit card.  Because you can't send a ten dollar bill through the computer.  And often, getting and keeping bank accounts is a struggle for low income families.  Things you can purchase with cash or a money order are much more accessible.

If you go into Walmart and look at cloth diapers you get two choices - padded (prefold) or flat.  Pretty simple decision and since they are so similar, you can't really make a wrong choice.

So that's what I've done - I went into Walmart, picked up what they were putting down, and brought them home.

Now it's time to prep them.

Time to what?

Prep them.  Sometimes cloth diapers aren't at their most absorbent when you first take them out of the package due to oils and residues and whatnot from the production process and also ones that are naturally occurring.

Do you really need to do this?  The Child of Mine package says simply to wash before use.  Is that good enough?  Lets find out.

I'm going to boil the towels and blankets because they aren't intended for diaper use, but I'm only going to boil half of the diapers. 

The other half we'll just wash and see if that's good enough. 
I'll mark those with a permanent marker so we know which are which.

Besides access to money and someplace to buy diapers, I think access to information is another tough point with cloth diapers.  If you need to boil the diapers, it should say so on the package.  You shouldn't have to do detective work on the internet to find that out.  What low-income mama has time for that?

Flats and Handwashing Challenge 2011:
A Walmart Shopping Spree
Getting Prepped
It's So Campy
Bye Bye Love
Day 1: So It Begins...
Day 2: Homemade Love
Day 3: Wordless Wednesday
Day 4: Noso Glory
Day 4.5: The Apoocalypse
Day 5: TGIF!
Day 6: Sharing the Love
Day 7: Your Grandma's Diapers
Reflections in a Yellow Puddle
The Happy Anteater