The Curious Case of Cloth in the Nighttime

I have about a thousand different things to post which makes it difficult to choose just one thing. For now however, I will limit it to one of the most important and annoying topics that every parent has to encounter - diapering.

If you read my blog earlier you know that I wanted to cloth diaper (or at least attempt it). I wanted to do this for several reasons:

1. It's cheaper than using 'sposies.
2. It involves fewer blow-outs than 'sposies (supposedly).
3. It's better for the environment.
4. It's better for baby's butt than 'sposies.

Well, I got my cloth diapering stash. I got my coconut oil. I got a changing pad and a bagillion baby washcloths (I even got disposable wipes to be safe). I was given several packages of disposables as gifts and I formulated a plan.

My plan was simple: after the tar-like meconium was passed by the end of kiddo's first week, we would start cloth diapering. This was met with moderate success because life got in the way - specifically diaper rash.

Like his dad, kiddo has pretty sensitive skin (though newborns have sensitive skin generally). This means we have to be quick about changing kiddo. During the day we had no problems with cloth diapers. Christian figured out how to use prefolds quickly, and I was even able to teach my parents about cloth's technological advances (Prefolds, pockets, wraps, and Snappis are innovations that occurred in the last 30 years.). We felt confident. We felt competent.

However, after one night of cloth diapering involving sleeping a little longer with a dirty diaper, the evil rash struck. We applied coconut oil liberally for a few days and it did nothing. Finally we had to give in. We broke out the zinc oxide ointment and the 'sposies in a desperate attempt to keep the rash from getting any worse (Note: Zinc oxide can't be used with cloth because it decreases the diaper's absorbency.).

It took almost a week for the rash to clear. My heart ached every time we put another disposable on him, but I couldn't let my kid's skin get worse.

Finally we put cloth on again. We figured out that pocket diapers with an insert and stay dry fleece lining at night would keep kiddo's butt from getting angry. The key was changing him three times over the course of the night. If we missed one change, things would go badly...which brings us to our current interval of disposables.

Sigh.

Hopefully we can master the world of nighttime cloth diapering so this doesn't happen again. I've ordered a bunch of pocket diapers and even some additional fleece liners to help keep kiddo feeling dry.

We're crossing our fingers our learning curve will be short lived.

If you've had adventures in cloth diapering or diaper rash - share your solutions below! I'd love to get some successful tips and tricks!