I still miss cloth diapering, although That Husband certainly doesn’t. If we ever live in a place with our own w/d and have a baby again though I’ll be reminding him how much money we are throwing at T1′s cute little bum each day.
(Oh, and I never did buy a diaper genie or anything like it. We’re just using a plastic flip-top trash can and I try to empty it at least twice a day, and never leave poo diapers inside. It’s quite nice having a trash cute in our hallway, I think it’s really convenient to take the diapers out! Though I did lock myself outside the apartment while T1 was inside once already while taking a diaper to the chute, which was a bit stressful (though he was completely fine and in a a safe place)).
We have held on to one habit from our cloth diapering days, and that’s the use of diaper covers. I’ve been stressing about all of the horrible stories I hear from parents about babies blowing out of their diapers and causing messes on couches, strollers, car steats, etc. We have only had one instance where poop leaked out of a diaper onto his clothing, and that was when we were in Washington for his baby blessing and he was wearing disposables. We can’t be 100% certain that the covers we are using are what’s preventing us from stripping down our car seat cover and scraping poo off of it, but we keep using the covers just in case.
We’ve been using the Thirsties XS and S covers with velcro, the same size covers since his birth (he’s skinny enough that they’ve fit the entire time!), but by now the velcro is starting to wear down and won’t stay shut as easily so we’re going to try switching to a style with snaps in hopes that they last longer.
October 15th, 2010 on 8:56 am
I think that’s funny because I think cloth diapers are ugly and disposables are cute! Bean has little clouds and birds on her disposables and I giggle when she’s only in her diaper.
I haven’t experienced a blow out with her but others have. At the day care she blew out while she was taking a nap and it was so bad they had to strip her down and give her a bath. The other two times were when she was with my mom. She never had them when she was just on formula but now that she’s on solids she’s had three.
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October 15th, 2010 on 9:07 am
I think the covers are adorable
I love that you’re still using them with disposables- I never would’ve thought of that!
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October 15th, 2010 on 9:11 am
I think that blowing out depends as much on your baby as it does on the diapers. Some babies are just explosive poo-ers
. If the diaper covers aren’t a hassle, I say why not because it avoids the potential mess–but I also don’t think you should worry about it too much. Also, once Eli hit 3 months we rarely had a blow-out (maybe once a month, and never in a carseat or stroller or anything that we had to clean besides his clothes), so you’re probably out of the woods.
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October 15th, 2010 on 9:22 am
I think my baby has had three since she’s been born. It’s really not that big of a deal to me (which surprises me).
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October 15th, 2010 on 9:28 am
Why does TH not miss cloth diapering?
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Jenna Reply:
October 18th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
It’s a lot of extra work!
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October 15th, 2010 on 10:02 am
I agree with Lisa – I think the blowouts depend on your baby. Ours has had very few, and most were when she was younger and was pooping all. the. time. Recently, it does seem like they happen mostly at daycare…so maybe T1 will be fine since he doesn’t go.
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October 15th, 2010 on 10:16 am
We’re going to use GDiapers – same basic idea with the diaper cover and grefills that we can flush away. J is slightly terrified but I’ve told him that he won’t have to carry dirty diapers to the trash all the time (or smell them in the nursery), so he’s on board for the meantime. Plus we won’t need a diaper genie on our registry. I love all of the choices they have now. It’s daunting, but very exciting.
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October 15th, 2010 on 10:30 am
I like the diaper covers. When I was little, I used to wear them too, but my mother called them “bloomers.” My aunties embroidered cute ones and my Mom used fabric paint to decorate little ones too. Not sure if that is too gender-specific, but my bum looked cute!
Plus, they’ve come out with fashion disposables, and think of how much money that would cost!
http://www.examiner.com/fashion-in-national/high-fashion-disposable-baby-diapers-cynthia-rowley-gives-huggies-jean-diapers-stylish-competition
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October 15th, 2010 on 10:31 am
I have three boys (ages almost 3, 18 mo and 4 mo), and have only used disposables. I can probably count on one hand the amount of blowouts we’ve had for all three.
I agree that it has to do w/ the baby and the diapers. Some diapers just fit the shape of the baby better than others.
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October 15th, 2010 on 10:43 am
Can’t help on the use but he sure looks cute with them, it’s just part of his outfit.
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October 15th, 2010 on 11:11 am
I can definitely say we had a few blowouts, mostly due to the diaper not being tight enough? It was totally my user error.
So once they start eating solids (seriously, like within a day or two of starting), their poop gets magically thicker. Gross, right? It also smells MUCH worse, but there goes the risk for blowouts! Piper hasn’t had a blowout for like, six months, and she’s 10.5 months now.
Funny thing, almost all girl dresses come with the fashion diaper cover. Probably by the time T1 wears full outfits (instead of just a shirt- Paul would never let me just let Piper crawl around in a diaper, punk) ALL the time he won’t need the diaper covers anymore so you won’t need to cover the ugly disposables.
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October 15th, 2010 on 11:15 am
Oh, and sometimes blowouts are a sign you need to move up in size. Usually when there is a blowout in a solids-eating baby usually they need a bigger diaper.
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October 15th, 2010 on 11:59 am
Not a parent, but I used to work at a day care. So I probably saw a blowout about once a week. No big deal at all, wipe em down, (or rinse em down in the sink!) and put on new clothes. Maybe get out a little carpet cleaner, if need be. But really…a blow out will take 10 minutes out of your day, tops.
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October 15th, 2010 on 12:08 pm
Blowouts seem to happen most often when they are younger and on a liquid diet. As he gets older and eats more solid food, it should rarely, if ever, be a problem. I wouldn’t say I ‘feared’ them – they happened occasionally and the only time I dreaded it is if we were in public. Otherwise, at home it’s no big deal to wash them off, change clothes, and go on our merry way!
I guess the look of cloth or disposable never bothered me because well, they usually have clothes on! I don’t see it anyway. Maybe other moms have babies just in diapers more often than I do:)….
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October 15th, 2010 on 12:21 pm
Not a mother.. but have been nannying for a while – a 3/mo and 11/mo – and no diaper blowouts at all.
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October 15th, 2010 on 12:21 pm
Finn is 4.5 mo and all breast milk so far. He’s had several blowouts, yes probably user error. But not a big deal at all. If its an outfit you love just put dome stain stick on it. And always bring extra clothes !
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October 15th, 2010 on 12:29 pm
When my daughter is on antibiotics she gets the ultimate blowouts. They are so bad I don’t think one of those cute covers would help, although it might minimize the damage…lol.
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Jackie Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Oh yeah, definitely. Antibiotics are the WORST. I don’t know if anything would help for that!
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October 15th, 2010 on 2:58 pm
i say blowouts aren’t that big of a deal really. and I have never had a child blowout where i had to scrape poo off of anything but themselves and the clothes. but if you like the look of the cover and you have them heh why not use them!! But i don’t think you have to worry a whole lot. and if he is having them all the time i would either change diaper brands or go up a size. Good luck!! Oh and i use oxy clean for my clothes with poo on them it works like a charm!
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October 15th, 2010 on 3:04 pm
1. Blowouts freak me out.
2. You could always pick up new velcro at a craft store, take of the old stuff and replace it with new velcro (or snaps). Replacing the velcro would be pretty easy
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stacey Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
I thought of this too – replacing velcro is super easy/cheap.
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October 15th, 2010 on 4:29 pm
Good idea about the diaper covers. I’m not sure that I’ll ever get around to trying cloth (I know my laundry limits– it’s already like pulling teeth to get the normal stuff washed…) but as a method for preventing blowouts, the cover sounds like a winner.
Is your fear much ado about nothing? Um, no. See this post:
http://blog.colinandjeanne.org/2009/06/09/i-spent-the-day-in-a-poop-stained-shirt/
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October 15th, 2010 on 4:59 pm
oh man, my hubs hates cloth. when he’s on duty i let him use disposables. not worth the fight
if t1′s reached 5 mths and had only one blowout then i wouldn’t worry too much! most of harper’s horrible explosions (literally went up her back all the way to her SHOULDERS) happened in the first few months.
but if you like the look of the thirsties (i do, too!) then it definitely doesn’t hurt anything!
our velcro is wearing thin, too…tho any snap covers we have she tends to pull off. ahem.
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October 15th, 2010 on 7:30 pm
The blowouts aren’t THAT bad. I mean, yes, occasionally one will make a big mess, but usually it’s just a little leak out the side onto the onesie or something. (For some reason, O poops to the left a lot so it tends to sneak out that side!)
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October 15th, 2010 on 10:13 pm
Oh yes, FEAR the blowout. I have used every disposable diaper under the sun and it is still a thrice weekly occurance. Of course, it’s usually while we are out in public and I’m covered in it before I even notice it has happened…the smell of my arm being coated in poop hits the nose faster than the passerby’s gasps of horror hits the ears. Don’t get me wrong though, it wasn’t a public event yesterday when I picked my son up from his highchair and got a good coating up to my knuckles. My son poops a diaper-full daily and at 10 months old and 20 lbs has mastered the art of the BLOWOUT. So unless you appreciate having a good poop story to gross-out your childless friends with, fear the blowout, my friend.
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October 16th, 2010 on 12:20 am
Blowouts are really more funny than they are annoying. One tip: Baby OXIclean spray. It’s amazing. Trust me.
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October 16th, 2010 on 12:31 am
Do you line dry your covers? we have Thirsties and we’re going on kid 2 and the Velcro is still ok. I think it’s b/c I (usually) line dry them on a rack.
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October 16th, 2010 on 8:46 am
Interesting to read all the comments. Warren has had many blowouts and he’s only 2 months old! He went through a phase where he only pooed every other day (or every 3 days!) – so when he did go it was in massive quantities. There was no containing it. Even now he usually goes once a day – so it’s a decent amount. I have him in cloth diapers now… and it’s yet to escape the cover.
I was on vacay with my mom and he had blowouts 2 days in a row while we were out shopping. The worst part was that I didn’t realized we’d used up all but 1 of the wipes in the diaper bag the first day so the second day a store worker had to go get us wet paper towels! It was a mess
And he smiled and cooed through it all 
I have covered his disposables with a diaper cover when we flew… I really REALLY did not want a blowout on the plane… and that’s when he was not going everyday so you never knew when the ‘explosion’ would happen
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October 17th, 2010 on 7:20 pm
That’s actually a good idea!
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