Fix Your Leaks Week- Day 2, Fit of the Shell

 

Today is Day 2 of Fix Your Leaks! Topic is: The fit of the diaper shell and how to fix your leaking problems by diaper area.

 

Common fit problems: 

• waist too loose
   
• legs too tight/loose
   
• wings not pulled up high enough to get around top of legs
   
• diaper isn't secured with legs in downward position

Problematic Fit Pictures:

Waist too loose: Here is an example of a waist that is too loose & just right.

 

 

Legs too tight/ loose: Try this formula to get the best fit custom for your baby:

Click to enlarge

Example of good fitting leg elastic on a newborn

Wings not pulled up high enough: here is an example of a wing droop where the front wing is secured by the tab but the leg elastic is too short causing the wing to droop down on the leg which can cause leaks.

 

Diaper isn't secured with legs down:

 

 

 Lets focus on what is going on and how to fix it by leak area!

Leaks out the top front:

Possible Causes: Waist is not snug enough, Legs are not down when securing the waist tabs causing a gap. Elastic is too short, Rise isn't high enough. Not enough absorbency (when sleeping on tummy) Pod too high.

Solution: 

• Let out the leg elastic or follow the slide2size formula to size the leg elastic.
• When changing the diaper make sure the baby's legs are down and not curled up in their lap. If curled up when securing the diaper, once they kick down, the shell will have a gap in the front top. Try to pull legs down when securing the waist tabs, be sure to get a snug fit (tabs crossing over for newborns & skinny belly infants, touching for infants & almost touching toddlers)
• Be sure to always start the shell in line with baby's belly button to get a high enough rise.
• Add a mini pod for naps or bed if your child is a tummy sleeper.
• If the pod is too close to the top of the shell you will get wicking onto clothes out the top of the shell. (Be sure to have the pod end 1 inch below the belly button and have the shell line up over it so that the middle of the aplix strip is in line with the end of the pod.)

Leaks out the top back:

Possible Causes:  Waist could be too loose, Rise isn't high enough in the back, Pod Repelling, Not enough absorbency (when sleeping on back)

Solution:  

• Start with the shell in line with the baby's belly button, bring the pod up and fold over, while holding the pod down with one hand pull the shell up and over the pod with the other hand. 
• Be sure to pin down the pod with the shell and that the pod is in line behind the aplix strip on the front of the shell.
• Be sure to secure the waist tabs snug across the belly.
• If the pod isn't soaked when your take off the diaper repelling could be the cause and you would need to strip your pods.
• If they are soaked then you need to add a mini pod or add absorbency somehow to the diaper for naps and bedtime when child is laying down.

Leaks out the legs:

Possible Causes: Legs too loose or too tight, if the leg elastic is too tight this can cause compression leaks (especially in seated position for long periods of time, car seats, bumbos, baby carriers, strollers) Wing drooping, Not enough absorbency, Pod too low in front, Pod not tucked into the shell causing wicking.

Solution:  

• Let out the legs to fit 2 fingers snuggly between the baby's leg and the shell or follow the slide2size formula to size the leg elastic.
• Be sure to have the pod up as high as 1 inch below belly button approximately and pinned down with the front of the shell.
• The shell shouldn't be resting on the thighs (pictured above "wing droop")
• If the shell doesn't completely cover the pod and edges are exposed this will cause wicking onto clothes, be sure to tuck in all the pod all around the legs when putting on a diaper.

Newborn Poop Leg Leaks:

Cause: Its runny, slick & shoots out fast, its basically butter (churned up breastmilk or formula) the pod in most cases already is saturated with urine or just cannot absorb the stuff in enough time before it rolls down the length of the pod and onto the shell where it quickly finds its way out. If in a seated position can be caused from compression.

Solution:

• Putting the shell in the dryer for 15min on high to seal the sewing seams.
• Changing often (especially with poops)
• Adding additional absorbency (easy way to add a bit of absorbency without bulk for a newborn, use a baby washcloth or cloth wipe behind the pod).
• Making sure fit is good -no inserts shifting or legs too tight causing compression leaking.

Even with all of these things, it can still happen but newborns do outgrow this stage (and some never have this issue to start with). When changing the diaper make sure the legs are down and not curled up in their lap. If curled up when securing the diaper, once they kick down, the pod will also go down and leaks will happen.

Testimonial:

When LO was really little, we had issues with leaking out the top back of our one Omni. The wetness was wicking to the outside of the diaper because the PUL was rolling under instead of the fleece providing the seal. I eventually figured out that the legs needed to be a little looser so I could pull the rise higher and make sure that only the fleece was against the skin, not letting the PUL roll in. 
~ Sarah D. 


Did you forget to read Day One? Click here to read about: Prepping & Repelling

Check back tomorrow to read about the 5 Culprits of Pod Leaks. http://bit.ly/17Nl4dP 

The Great Diapering Debate

Cloth or Disposable

By Guest Blogger Ruby from the Sweet House Life Blog

 

The Scoop on Poop

Disposable Blowout

When I first think of cloth diapers versus disposable diapers one word comes to mind.  Poop.  Let’s be honest here, every baby does it, not every diaper contains it.  Speaking from my own experience with cloth and disposables, I have only had one true poopexplosion using my cloth diapers, and that, unfortunately, was because of user error.  The poop exploded up her side and all over her pretty pink onesie.  It was gross.  So gross, I never wanted it to happen again.  Then, enters our weekend of disposables….. we decided to take a suitcase full of disposables on a weekend to the grandparents’ house (I was truly scared to travel with cloth at this point).  All was going well, smiling baby, giggling grandparents, tons of pictures, and then you hear “OH NO, grab a towel.”  In baby-land, that can mean two things, either you got blasted with spit up, or pooped on.  Unfortunately for grandma, it was the latter of the two.  There was poop everywhere, all over my daughter, grandma, her blanket and even her socks.  It was sick. What might you ask then is the difference between the disposable poop and the cloth poop?  Well, it happened four other times JUST that weekend…. that, my friends, is the difference.  One poop explosion, when we’ve been using cloth for over nine months, versus four poop explosions after using our disposables for a mere 3 days.   Needless to say, we now travel with cloth EVERY single time.  Also, after hubby received the other three blowouts, he was a cloth believer ;). 

                Why do cloth diapers tend to hold the poo in better? I believe it has to do with the back elastic on the cloth diaper.  It has the ability to be snuggly up against the baby’s back and conform to their actual curves, thus holding in the diapers contents.  With the adjustable leg openings, Velcro closure, adjustable absorbency, and back elastic, you have a diaper that fits perfect every single time.

All About the Benjamins

                Let’stalk about my husband’s favorite part of cloth diapering, saving all those benjamins!!!  I’m not going to lie, as the budgeter of the family, I love it too. Want to make yourself feel good? Write down all of the things you do to save money in one column with the associated costs, and then in the other column write down what it would cost you if you decided not to save that money. Ahhhh, instant gratification.  Cloth diapering will just add to that amazingly satisfied feeling.

 Let’s say you spend about $450 on your initial diapering costs.  This would include a package of enough Softbums diapers to get your child from birth to potty training, a diaper sprayer, some detergent, and your wipes and wipe solution.  This might seem like a large amount, and it is, up front, but me oh my it will save you in the longrun. 

Let’s assume that the average family using disposables will consume about 63 diapers a week (9 changes in a day).  Each disposable diaper costs about 27 cents (I used a package of Huggies on Amazon.com).  Therefore, disposables are costing roughly $68 a month, $816 a year, or $2,040 in 2 ½ years, and remember, this is conservatively speaking. 

Now, there are some slight continuing costs associated with cloth diapering.  Our water bill has gone up between $4-$6(using an HE washing machine), we hang dry, so we haven’t seen an increase in our electricity, and about once every four months I have to buy detergent which is $13.  Overall, a continuing cost of about $100.00 a year.  So from birth to 2½ years, it would cost roughly $700.  At this point, many of your items can be used for more children as well, thus giving you an even greater savings.  I don’t know about you, but in my mind $700 > $2,040 (however you want to do your math ).

 “So, It’s Just Like a Disposable”

                Now, one thing that people who aren’t into cloth diapers always say is, “disposables are just so much easier.”  My response? Well, let me show you how easy cloth is. I take it off of my child’s bum, use a cloth wipe, wrap the snapped in insert and wipe up together and throw it in a wetbag.  When the wetbag is full, I dump everything into the washer, and wash it.  When it’s done, I hang it up.  If it’s poopy, I spray it, so add 10 seconds onto my diaper change time.  I suppose I don’t understand the difficulty of it.  The interesting thing that a lot of people don’t know is that if you read up on disposable diapers, it actually states that you are supposed to flush the poo down the toilet.  It isn’t supposed to go into a landfill (I wonder how many people actually do that). So, if you truly used a disposable diaper in the way that it was intended, it wouldn’t necessarily save you any time during the diaper change process. 

                One thing I love is when I have a disposable diaper using friend babysit my child (this EXACT situation has happened three different times).  I go to show them how to use my Velcro cloth Softbums, and I do it by demonstrating on my baby.  Once I show them (in all of 5 seconds) the next thing out of their mouth is “so, it’s just like a disposable.”  Why yes, it is just as easy to put on as disposables, and I always want to throw in there “but yet my child won’t poop all over you,” but I generally refrain. 

                Remember that story from the first paragraph? Our weekend with disposables? Well, we had to stay in disposables for a while after that because my sweet little one had contracted a yeast infection from them (doc said it was likely the Ph level difference in the diapers), and we couldn’t use the cream with our cloth diapers.  Therefore, we were stuck using disposables for an extra week.  That being said, when we were nearing the end of the everlasting yeast infection, my husband was changing a diaper as I was sitting in the nursery, and he asked me “when can we go back to cloth?”  My response was,“soon, why?” and his most AMAZING response ever was, “because it’s easier.”  Enough said.

                So,when you have a friend or loved one say, “why choose cloth?” you have your gunsblazing and your facts ready!  It’s just obvious, cloth wins everytime!

 

And really, who can resist the cute factor?

February, 2013 Calendar Bum

One year of Calendar Bums! In 2012 we introduced Calendar Bums! Each and every month we introduced a new limited edition color or print. This month we are celebrating 1 year of Calendar Bums! Click HERE to see past months. To celebrate 1 year of Calendar Bums we are bringing back a much loved and requested color, FIRECRACKER! This time it is available only in Omni with Velcro.

Enter here to win one of your very own!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

August Calendar Bums

Calendar Bums Continues!

Each and every month this year, we will be introducing a new limited edition color or print as part of our "Calendar Bums" campaign.

This month SoftBums is bringing back an old favorite, Lime! But this time, it's an Omni! They're available for purchase now at www.SoftBums.com Little Stella couldn't wait for lemonade in her new Lime Omni!

Lime Omnis are available now for a limited time only in Omni with velcro from www.SoftBums.com or from your favoriteSoftBums Retailer! Win your very own August Calendar Bums on the blog starting at 12 noon, plus a bonus giveaway!  See our SoftBums blog: I Love Cloth Diapers

Bonus Bums!

As a special bonus this month we are making 5 current shells available in snaps! The following shells are now available in snaps on www.Softbums.com Ocean in Echo or Omni Lilac Echo Cowies Omni Berry Owls Echo (with brown snaps - super cute!)

Thanks, and see you soon! SoftBums www.SoftBums.com

March 2012 Calendar Bum Giveaway

Enter Here for the:

March 2012 Calendar Bum Giveaway

Here we go again!  Enter to win below for your March Calendar Bum Giveaway!

March we are giving away an Echo 6 pack this includes:

2 Echo Shells (your color choice)

6 Dry Touch Pods

2 Mini Dry Touch Pods

We will also giveaway one Blueberry Shell to a friend you refer, and 'likes' our Facebook Page!

What do YOU want to see for next month's Calendar Bums?

We are sewing up a storm in our SoftBums Secret Design Studio, and want to know what you want to see on your baby next month!  Be part of the fun, and add a comment on your thoughts on favorite styles, colors, or prints that you want to see!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Valentine's Winner Announced!

Congratulations Kayla!  You have been randomly selected (using http://www.random.org/) as the Soft Bums winner for our Valentine's Day photo contest.  Please check your email for notification on claiming your pink Soft Bums cloth diaper.

Thank you to each entrant.  You all have some adorable babies.  Continue to visit Soft Bums on our blog and Facebook page as we will be having more great giveaways and contests soon.

Have a great day!!!

Welcome to the new blog!

Good morning everybody!

Quick intro: My name is Megan Schultz, I met Sarah a couple months ago when I bought my first set of Softbums. Since she is a fellow mom and Minnesotan, I offered her help if she needed any. She asked for some help with her blog, keeping it updated, etc. So here I am, doing my best...

If you've been visiting the blog lately, you've probably noticed it has changed a few times, things haven't worked smoothly, etc. Well, I think I got it up and running! If you notice any problems please email me at: MeganSchultz@gmail.com.

Check out the new menu bar, with links to follow Softbums on Twitter and Facebook. There is also a nice link to Softbums and different areas of the Softbums website. From the menu bar you can jump to Softbums' home page, category, or to a specific package! On the end, under 'Retailers' is a list of retailers carrying Softbums. Under this category also I stashed the RSS Feeds for both comments and posts.

I have put together a little slide show of babies wearing Softbums on the top left corner (my little boy -Mason-is pictured in his orange Softbums). If you have any photos of babies in Softbums that I can add to that slide show please email them to me (Meganschultz@gmail.com)! Just for fun I have put a poll up about cloth diapering. On the right side you can see all the 'logistics', followers (Join us!), archive, profile and welcome message! On the way bottom of the page, you can see any recent Tweets!

If you haven't already, join us on Facebook and Twitter, and be sure to check out the Softbums home page at http://www.softbums.com/!

Thank you for your patience!

Megan Schultz

Feel the Cloth Diaper Love!

Have you thought about using cloth diapers for cost, environment or health reasons on your baby, but never got around to it? Or perhaps a friend of loved one, maybe even your own husband, doesn't seem to be as interested in cloth diapers as you are? Do they seem like too much work? Too much laundry? Too confusing with all the different brands, or styles? Maybe you have visions of diapers soaking in the toilet, or pails of bleach water, saggy ill fitting plain white vinyl diaper covers, or stinky messy poopy diapers having to be washed out by hand. Honestly modern cloth diapering has changed so much from our mother's day, they are so much different.

First off, diapers today are CUTE!!!! They can be so much fun, even for families on a super tight budget(are there any families that aren't on a tight budget anymore?).

Don't even look at the price tag of cloth diapers. We'll get to that later.

Just look at the pictures to begin with. Pictures say a lot, especially on the bums of happy little babies!

You can see lots of pictures of babies in cloth diapers if you just google images cloth diapers.

Start with just looking at colors, and patterns that you like best. There are so many fun things out there for babies, and cloth diapers can be one of them. Just like a new outfit, or a pair of tiny little baby shoes. These are a justifiable buy for your infant because you have to put something on their butt!!! Why not make some of the diapers cute!!

Okay, see lots of pictures, now what's next?

Buy a diaper or 2. If you don't have a store near you that stocks more than Flats, Prefolds or pull-on cover, and you probably won't because there aren't that many, just do what we all do, and order one from the internet!! There are literally thousands of brands of diapers out there. It's a good idea to buy most of your diapers from a reliable, well known or well reviewed diaper company. Unless you are just buying 1 or 2 to play with that is. If you just see a hand-dyed bamboo velour fitted diaper that you know nothing about the company or diapers, but you are in love with the look of the diaper, go ahead and get it! You never know it might be a tiny WAHM (Work at Home Mother) diaper that is not well known yet, but makes fabulous diapers! Start with just 1 or 2 to play with, even if you don't have your baby yet.

Don't go overboard with this experimenting, you're not really ready to be a great judge of a good quality diaper yet, and you don't want to spend tons of money finding this out the hard way.

Now that you have your little fluffy treasure in-hand, it's time to do some research.

First you need to be informed of the benefits of cloth diapering. Mostly so you can defend yourself against every do-gooder who decides to inform you on the how hard, messy, leaky, waste of time they will be. Once you have a few lines like: "Well, it's not like I'll be at the side of the river beating them clean against a rock, we DO have a washer", you'll be set!

Cloth diapers are clean, safe, and healthy for you, your baby, your washing machine, family, and especially the EARTH. There are plenty of facts and figures out there to prove this, but not that many really good studies. That's because there is a lot more money behind disposable diapers than cloth. There have been some studies though by independent sources. http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/ is a great place to start for facts and figures on this.

Cloth diapers are super super easy. No lie! We are so busy at our household, I wouldn't be able to handle them if they weren't! Waterproof washable diapers have totally changed the way we can cloth diaper our babies. And it keeps getting cooler all the time with new innovations, and new high tech fabrics!

Cloth Diapers are WAY cheaper than disposable diapers. The numbers for disposable diapers really really range depending on how many you use each day, what brand you use, and when you'll potty train your baby. Disposable diapers are supposed to be changed every 2-3 hours(unless sleeping), but many parents leave baby in a dirty diaper for 4 hours or more regularly. That's not very sanitary, or safe. Babies can get such bad rashes from this practice that can get raw and even bleed. Plus we don't yet know of the long term effects leaving chemical laden disposable diapers on a developing infant for 24 hours a day, for 3-5 years of it's life.

The average number of diapers a baby goes through in their lifetime is 10,000. Multiply that by however much you spend per diaper(luvs are .25 ea, huggies supreme are .37 ea, Seventh Generation are .47 ea). Make sure you add the cost for an extra trashcan, tax and driving to and from the store to buy all these diapers.

That's about $4000.00 average cost. No cloth diapering system, no matter how complex will ever come close to that figure. And many cloth diapers can be re-used on a second baby, saving even more money.

For Cloth diaper costs from birth to potty training it's pretty easy to figure out the cost. You just have to know how many diapers you'll need, sizes needed, how often you want to do laundry. Prefolds, one-size-fits-all All-in-2's are about $500, one-size fitteds or pocket diapers are about $700, Sized(when you have to buy 3 sizes, sm, med and lg, it's called sized) all-in-ones, pockets or fitteds are about $1400-$2200, and more custom made, fancy diapers are about $1200 per size. This is all variable of course, and you can add laudry costs in too for about .37 cents per load. Most people wash about every 2-3 days depending on how many diapers they own. And detergent lasts forever with cloth diapers because you only use about 1/4 the recommended amount per load. So one bottle will last about 6 mo or more.

For all the "What do you do with the poop?" questions, check out the FREE Diapering Book online at www.softbums.com

It's also got lists of pros and cons of different styles of diapers available now, and how to use them all, with bright colored pictures!