To understand why poop on wool can ruin your day you have to understand 2 things. 1) Poop and cloth and 2) Wool covers.
Let me start with poop can cloth. This is one of those questions I hear alot: What do you do with the poop?! Well, it's simple really. If your baby in exclusively breastfed their poop is water soluble and can go straight in the wash. Claire is completely on solids so her poop is solid. I just turn the diaper upside down over the toilet and it plops right in.
**Okay, that's partially true. When you have a diaper with stay dry it comes off easily. Prefolds have been a little more difficult requiring spraying or dunking (mentioned later) to fully get off. Also depending on the fold it can get on both sides of the prefold - so I can't just open it up and dump as easily. **
It's the transition time between exclusive breastfeeding and exclusive solids (or if baby is formula fed) that can get sticky - no pun intended. For this time there's a variety of things that can be used such as disposable liners or a handy dandy diaper strayer that attaches to the toilet (or a shower head that reaches to the toilet would work too!). There's also the dunk and swish method, diaper scrapers, and such but I can't say I have much experience with them.
***WARNING: If you can't take the poop talk, I suggest you stop reading. Then again, why are you reading a blog post about cloth diapering if you can't take poop talk?***
Another thing about poop and cloth is blowouts. Blowouts are when poop comes out of the diaper and onto baby's clothes. This is more of a rarity in cloth. As in I've done cloth for 7 months and had poop get on her clothes maybe twice - and it was when we found out she was allergic to dairy. Yeah, there's no stopping that - it's gross. Since it's so rare, I've heard people in the cloth world call "blowout" when it gets on the cover. The cover normally contains it then.
*TANGENT*
So I keep hearing that prefolds and covers are awesome for newborns. I understand the fit factor since nearly all one-size (OS) diapers don't actually fit a newborn - or at least wouldn't fit my little newborns. Also, a newborn wouldn't be as wiggly as say my toddler so getting one on would be easier. BUT THE POOP! Maybe it's just that I don't have the origami skills, but I'd imagine I'd be going through an awful lot of covers.
*/TANGENT*
On to 2 . . . Wool. To understand wool - and particularly why poop on it can ruin my day - we'll need to look into the different kinds of covers.
First, PUL. PUL is a polyester laminate as its name suggests. It can have closures in snaps or velcro. It can be sized or one-sized. It can have a single band of elastic or an additional band of fabric and elastic called a double gusset. The good part of it, it can be wiped down and easily reused (though it's good to rotate between two as discussed earlier). You can also trifold a prefold and lay it in a PUL cover if you aren't up for using a snappi, pins, or octopus wrestling which isn't as possible in fleece or wool. However, I'm finding trifolding a bit bulky and sometimes they don't stay in place and bunch. The bad part, it doesn't let the booty breathe as well which doesn't help if baby has a rash. Though I will say that I've found rashes in cloth to be less frequent in general (provided I'm not putting her in a fabric she's allergic to) and clear up faster.
Fleece. Fleece is perhaps the easiest cover to use. It's sized. It has a variety of styles - diaper covers, skirties (think diaper cover with attached skirt), shorties (shorts), and longies (pants). It can be washed with anything, dried in the dryer - it's like the super cover. The bad thing? It's not as reusable as other covers. Once the diaper it's covering has been soiled, it will often hold the stink (even after airing out) and need to be washed. BUT if you're semi handy with a sewing machine you can snag a free pattern online (might I suggest the Katrina's Sew Quick pattern), get some anti-pill or blizzard fleece, and have an army of fleece covers for cheap. I got some in the clearance section (ie leftovers from a bolt that had already been cut) for under $2 and was able to make 3 large covers for Maddy to wear at night over her panties - just in case.
Now, wool. (WARNING: This is the section I had to completely rewrite because it went poof. I hope I can remember everything I put!) Wool is the same as fleece in that it's sized and has the same variety of styles. It has a great breathing quality - if Claire gets a rash, one diaper change in wool and it's normally cleared up. Also, it makes for a great bulletproof nighttime cover. It can be knit or sewn. Knit tends to be more expensive but the quality is wonderful (I have seen a breakdown of the costs and will post it if I find it again - the price is completely warranted). For sewing, it's the same as fleece - buy wool fabric, use a pattern and sew. If you're like me you can make wool covers easier (and cheaper!) buy scouring your local thrift stores for wool sweaters. I can get about 2-3 covers out of an adult sweater that I get for $3. If you're a rockstar shopper like my mom you can find a wool cardigan (that made adorable longies and still has enough material for a soaker) for 85 cents. To be water resistant wool has to go through a lanolizing process (check out woollybottoms.com for details because I don't have time to rewrite it all). You can buy lanolizing wash or make your own using pure lanolin (like lansinoh - yes, the breast stuff) and baby wash. Because of how long the lanolizing lasts and the properties of wool it really only needs to be washed every month or so - unless it gets soiled. Then, the cover has to be washed (and lanolized) by hand - never the washer or dryer. Now you see why poop on wool can ruin your day?
Anyway, to end on a good note before my final review - laundry. Prefold laundry has been the easiest diaper laundry I have ever had to do. It's a simple wash, prefolds in the dryer and PUL covers hung to dry. They really get a thorough clean so stink really isn't an issue. By the time the dryer is done the PUL covers are dry. You could easily have a smaller stash with these because the wash time is so short. That's a plus for people on a budget and those that are scared of the wash routine.
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