I’ve been meaning to write this for a while. We’ll see if I can do it with this puppy tied to me, alternately chewing on her bully bone and yelping in my ear.
When we went to Nova Scotia I gave disposable diapers another chance.
I put my cloth diaper service, Happy Nappy, on hold while I was gone and went off to the plane with some disposables left over from a diaper cake that I received when Babby was born.
By the time we landed in NS, Babby had had three clothing changes. The first happened in the airport, because when we arrived we discovered that he was already soaked in urine. This turned out not to be the diaper’s fault. PH, bleary eyed at five in the morning, diapering Babby in the dark, and unaccustomed to disposables, had accidentally put the diaper on backwards.
Kind of thing that could happen to anyone, I’m sure.
So we put a new diaper on, frontwards, and dressed Babby in dry clothes.
Half way to Toronto I discovered that Babby’s back was covered in poo. I did a full diaper change (which was not a ton of fun in a airplane washroom) and washed all the poop off of Babby’s back, and dressed him in yet another set of clothes.
The next couple of diaper changes were just pee, so they were fine.
Then, not half an hour before landing in Halifax, I went to change Babby’s diaper and discovered… you guessed it… poop up his back.
Another set of clothes. Good thing I came prepared.
The poop-up-the-back scenario repeated itself on a nearly daily basis during my time in NS. I tried a couple of different brands, to no avail.
The most dramatic event happened while I was in Halifax for the day. I planned to visit Hodgepodge, then visit Perfect Girlfriend at her work, visit my old coworkers at my old work, and then have dinner with my cousins.
So there I am, hanging out with Hodgepodge, while Babby plays with the world of toys in her play room and squeals delightedly at the kids around him. He pushes himself to sitting from his stomach for the first time while we chat, and I am very proud of him. He starts to fuss so I pick him up and nurse him. When he finishes I sit him up, and realize that there is poo on my hand.
The poo, I quickly discover, came from under his shirt. I lift the back of his shirt and discover that it is all up his back – again – and now it is on my hands. I swear, lift him up, and realize that there is poo on my pants, where he lay as he nursed. On, and on my shirt, as well. Oh, and on my cell phone.
This is, by no means, the worst poop incident I have ever dealt with. I said before Babby was born that after dealing with dogs, no poop would faze me, and I stick by that assertion. But on the other hand, I do object to being on a day trip to the big city only to discover that I am covered in poop from head to toe, and realize that while I brought changes of clothes for Babby I brought none for myself.
Did I mention that the poop was a bright Babby-had-scrambled-eggs-for-breakfast yellow? With that squirty, squishy consistency of a still heavily breastfed baby?
Hodgepodge, who runs a day home, was completely unfazed and helped me clean Babby and myself up as much as possible. My pants were dark, so once wiped the poop stain wasn’t particularly prominent. But my blue shirt did not merge well with baby poop stains.
So now I had a clean baby, cleanlooking pants, a cell phone that only had some minor yellow poop drying in the cracks, and two prominent yellow poop stains on my shirt – one over my boob and one over my stomach.
Grand.
Hodgepodge raided her closets and found me a baggy white t-shirt to change into, which I did gratefully. Now that the postal strike is over I need to get my mother to mail that shirt back to her.
I then left to go visit my coworkers and my best friend in a baggy white t-shirt. While at the mall I bought a new shirt just so I could go to dinner with my cousins without feeling like someone who was pooped on that morning.
Disposables? SUCK.
The next time we ran low on diapers, Perfect Husband brought home some Huggies, which advertised “leak-lock” technology. And you know what? After that, we didn’t have any more poop squirting up Babby’s back.
…It came down the legs, instead.
At least this outfit didn’t get poop stained until AFTER the service!
If By Yes 
As a disposables user, I have to say that they are soooo a trial and error process. The Bug wore one brand as a newborn, switched to another once he was mobile and now we’re in a third. And you can never get anyone to agree on a brand either. It’s frustrating. But I guess not all bums are created equal.
I guess not. I’m sticking with my cloth as much as possible!
Yup, Thing #2 relished telling that story to his dad when he got home. Also all the other parents when they came to pick up their kids. Because poop is funny.
It’s funny, we’re actually going through this with the youngest one here right now – he’s 13 months and he just started walking well this week. He has never had a poo-splosion before, in his Earth’s Best disposables. Now that he’s walking, every. single. time. he poops it leaks down his legs. Guess they aren’t meant for active babies.
I’m glad I successfully amused a three year old, at least :-p
Yuck! I’m so sorry you have problems with disposables. If there were a diaper service around here, then I would have stuck with cloth, but we use Huggies Pure and Natural with the baby and have never had a nasty blowout. As Jessica said, not all bums are created equal and it really depends on the size and physique of the baby as to which diaper works best. At least you can stick with cloth 99.9% of the time. And I bet Babby’s bum rocks the cloth.
Yes, poo splosions are quite rare with the Happy Nappies, and on the rare occasion that it leaks out, the diaper cover catches it!
Well, this just strengthens my resolve to use cloth. We don’t have a diaper service here, but I’d honestly rather wash diapers every day then deal with exploding poop and trash bins full of festering poop.
Do you live in a rural area? Most cities have at least one diaper service…
Huh. Last time I looked, we didn’t. But now we do. I’m not in a rural area, but people here, in general, don’t give two shits about the environmental impact of anything. So cloth diapers are pretty rare. (Not that that’s the only reason to use them, but for me it’s a big one). I’ll probably still wash, though, because the idea of a Liao of festering CD’s is icky to me.
I would wash my own, too, if I had a decent washer dryer system. But since my dryer’s door FELL OFF the other day, I’m thinking I’ll stick with my service!
i tried cloth for a while, and as soon as i would put it on he would poo, and when he poos he POOS!!! i kept with it for a little while, but he got a nasty rash from them. i’m not sure what caused it, i tried a couple different laundry soaps, and no change…. so i gave up:(
and it did take a little trial and error, huggies when he was tiny, and pampers as he got bigger. Vi has always been in pampers brand, they can contain her massive attacks:)
i’m glad that you’re having a good experience with cloth! makes up a bit for all the garbage i’m adding to the landfill.
You have to change cloth diapers frequently, because they don’t whisk wetness away from the skin. A friend of mine noticed that her baby got fussy faster in cloth, because he KNEW when he was wet.
You also have to make sure your washer/dryer are up to the task, because obviously leftover bacteria is not great for baby’s bum. Another reason I love my diaper service!
Funny how some people have poosplosions and others don’t. It must be about bum shape!
Well, actually, there ARE cloth diapers with stay-dry layers that whisk away wetness. I use such diapers overnight. But many don’t, so you have a point.
As for washing them at home, the biggest thing is the AMOUNT and TYPE of detergent. You want the least possible bit of detergent residue left on the diapers, so you need to: a) use a detergent without additives, like “brighteners”, etc. (recommended brands include Nellie’s Washing Soda, Allen’s and Country Save, among others; you find these in cloth diaper stores usually, rather than the supermarket), 2) use a very small amount of said detergent (a tablespoon or less), and 3) use as much water as possible and rinse, rinse, rinse! (High-efficiency front-loaders are actually a problem for CDs and need special treatment). The other key to cloth diapers is absolutely NO fabric softener at ALL in your machine EVER, ’cause that definitely coats the diapers and ruins their absorbency. And you will need to “strip” them every once in a while, just to remove the residue that builds up. Oh, and for the same reason: no diaper creams with zinc or fish oils.
Once you have the rules and your system down, it’s pretty easy. It’s the trial and error that’s tricky.
yuck. ick. somehow, despite only using disposables, i escaped any of that kind of poop mess. the kittens, however, were giving you a run for the money. oy. (better now.)
I’m glad they’re doing better!
Ew, ew, ew, ew, EW! Poor, poor you. That’s one nasty-sounding poo splosion!
I’ve found a cloth diaper cover over a sposie is helpful in keeping the poo splosions contained. Just a thought for next time. 🙂
Babby looks adorable in his Christening (Baptism?) outfit! 🙂 (Thank you for NOT posting a picture of the poop. :P)
Yeah, shockingly I didn’t photograph that.
My elder son had poo up the back and out the leg-holes on a regular basis, but he had them first in cloth and we switched to disposables because we only had three nappy-covers and the cloth system was out of action when they got dirty. You are evidently using a much better cloth-nappy system than the one we tried.
His cloth diapers close with snaps and have gussets around the legs and waist. That probably help. I also feel that the fuzzy-woolly nature of the material provides friction.
Funny story. I’m about to travel on a plane for about 3 hours with my toddler and baby in a few weeks. I used disposables with my toddler and just caught onto the cloth diapers with the second one. I never really had problems with disposables except for the rashes which I just thought were normal and didn’t realize they were from the diapers. Hense the term, diaper rash. I love cloth now and would never go back. My husband really thinks that we should at least use disposables on the airplane but I see no reason. I have two really good wetbags that will hold in the stink if it happens. Thanks for the giggle and this story just reconfirmed for me that I’m going to use cloth on my vacation.
Yeah, if you can, do it. SAVE YOURSELF!
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