Bubblingbrooks
Made in Alaska
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I wonder if you could make your own oil cloth covers, using heavy cotton and beeswax.
Plastic and Latex Free Diapering
- Thread starter lwheelr
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lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
BTW, WISE scheduled feedings will never result in Failure to Thrive.
All of my babies started at approximately every 2 hours from birth. I didn't intentionally do this, that is just about how often they needed to eat. They gradually spaced out their feedings more and more. I kept them LOOSELY on a schedule, because it was easier for all of us.
The need to eat, and the need to SUCK, are two separate and independent needs in infants. So I gave them a pacifier in between nursing them. I'd rather give them a pacifier that I can throw away when the need to suck ends, before it becomes a habit for other reasons, instead of having them suck a thumb until they are in school (one of my daughters sucked her fingers and had deep bleeding cuts in them from her top teeth - she was born when her brother was 11 months old, and he had just been weaned from the pacifier, so he thought it was bad for her and kept taking it away).
Sometime around three months, they started sleeping through the night. But during the daytime, they pretty much stayed on a schedule of every three hours as long as I was exclusively nursing them. I did not try to push them out from what they needed.
All of them were healthy (even Alex, born with Crohn's, stayed healthy until he was 7 years old), rarely got sick, were contented and mostly easy babies (except the one with Fetal Drug Effect from my having surgery while pregnant with her - necessary to save her life).
The only time it causes trouble is if you try to regimen them outside of their actual needs - when you are forcing a newborn onto a 3 or 4 hour schedule, for example.
The key to healthy feeding is NOT in nursing them every time they fuss (I know people who do), nor is it forcing them onto YOUR schedule. Either one can result in eating disorders and avoidable behavioral problems (too little control on the part of the parent is just as damaging as too much, and indeed, abusive adults as often come from homes with too LITTLE parental control as from too much). The trick is listening to the child, and meeting their actual needs in a healthy way. It is the JOB of the parent to determine needs, and provide appropriate structure and routine in the life of the child, and feeding is one of those areas where appropriate structure is required.
BB, one thing you will find as you get further and further into parenthood. Many things you are told by others end up not being true FOR YOU. Worked for them, doesn't work for you. You'll form strong opinions, reach conclusions from the experiences of others, and start out with a plan based on those conclusions from what you've learned to that point. But parenthood often changes that - we definitely morph as we go into someone we did not exactly expect to be, mostly I think, because our children turn out to be someone we did not exactly expect THEM to be!
What works for your first won't necessarily work for the rest, also. One kid may DEMAND that you schedule them, another may refuse to be scheduled. Kids are like that, each individual, each with different needs.
I didn't expect to be where I am now, researching things I never wanted to do. I never wanted to deal with cloth diapers - they seem no more environmentally friendly nor cost effective than disposables, they are just a heckuva lot more work, and since I had three in diapers more than once, the work load won out! It would again (since I am no less pulled in twenty directions now than I was with seven kids under the age of 11), were it not for the fact that I know this child is different than my other children. I feel it in my bones with a deep certainty - a calm feeling that this time I will have to rewrite my own rules for parenting because what worked with the other seven isn't going to work with this one.
All of my babies started at approximately every 2 hours from birth. I didn't intentionally do this, that is just about how often they needed to eat. They gradually spaced out their feedings more and more. I kept them LOOSELY on a schedule, because it was easier for all of us.
The need to eat, and the need to SUCK, are two separate and independent needs in infants. So I gave them a pacifier in between nursing them. I'd rather give them a pacifier that I can throw away when the need to suck ends, before it becomes a habit for other reasons, instead of having them suck a thumb until they are in school (one of my daughters sucked her fingers and had deep bleeding cuts in them from her top teeth - she was born when her brother was 11 months old, and he had just been weaned from the pacifier, so he thought it was bad for her and kept taking it away).
Sometime around three months, they started sleeping through the night. But during the daytime, they pretty much stayed on a schedule of every three hours as long as I was exclusively nursing them. I did not try to push them out from what they needed.
All of them were healthy (even Alex, born with Crohn's, stayed healthy until he was 7 years old), rarely got sick, were contented and mostly easy babies (except the one with Fetal Drug Effect from my having surgery while pregnant with her - necessary to save her life).
The only time it causes trouble is if you try to regimen them outside of their actual needs - when you are forcing a newborn onto a 3 or 4 hour schedule, for example.
The key to healthy feeding is NOT in nursing them every time they fuss (I know people who do), nor is it forcing them onto YOUR schedule. Either one can result in eating disorders and avoidable behavioral problems (too little control on the part of the parent is just as damaging as too much, and indeed, abusive adults as often come from homes with too LITTLE parental control as from too much). The trick is listening to the child, and meeting their actual needs in a healthy way. It is the JOB of the parent to determine needs, and provide appropriate structure and routine in the life of the child, and feeding is one of those areas where appropriate structure is required.
BB, one thing you will find as you get further and further into parenthood. Many things you are told by others end up not being true FOR YOU. Worked for them, doesn't work for you. You'll form strong opinions, reach conclusions from the experiences of others, and start out with a plan based on those conclusions from what you've learned to that point. But parenthood often changes that - we definitely morph as we go into someone we did not exactly expect to be, mostly I think, because our children turn out to be someone we did not exactly expect THEM to be!
What works for your first won't necessarily work for the rest, also. One kid may DEMAND that you schedule them, another may refuse to be scheduled. Kids are like that, each individual, each with different needs.
I didn't expect to be where I am now, researching things I never wanted to do. I never wanted to deal with cloth diapers - they seem no more environmentally friendly nor cost effective than disposables, they are just a heckuva lot more work, and since I had three in diapers more than once, the work load won out! It would again (since I am no less pulled in twenty directions now than I was with seven kids under the age of 11), were it not for the fact that I know this child is different than my other children. I feel it in my bones with a deep certainty - a calm feeling that this time I will have to rewrite my own rules for parenting because what worked with the other seven isn't going to work with this one.
- Thread starter
- #13
lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
Ok... beeswax. Washing would seem to be a problem. It might lack flexibility in the cold also - could be a bit unnerving to pick up your baby and have his bottom crack!
I think you could dip the cloth, then scrape it when warm, to get down to a minimum of wax in a flexible cloth. But wax cracks when it hardens. Beeswax is flexible in warmer temps, but would crack badly I think in the cold, and crumble out of the fabric.
Might work with a very tight weave fabric (like percale), but I think there still might be issues. It would probably stop dampness, but would not hold back a flood.
The other issue I can see with it (or any kind of oilcloth) is that they'd likely leave a residue on anything they touch, including other clothing.
I think you could dip the cloth, then scrape it when warm, to get down to a minimum of wax in a flexible cloth. But wax cracks when it hardens. Beeswax is flexible in warmer temps, but would crack badly I think in the cold, and crumble out of the fabric.
Might work with a very tight weave fabric (like percale), but I think there still might be issues. It would probably stop dampness, but would not hold back a flood.
The other issue I can see with it (or any kind of oilcloth) is that they'd likely leave a residue on anything they touch, including other clothing.
chickensducks&agoose
Lovin' The Homestead
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Obviously, it isn't going to be easy, or convenient. You've effectively removed any possibility of diapering being either of those things. I think that the wax idea is probably your best bet, and you'll just have to make sure that you're changing often enough, and using enough padding, that a 'flood' doesn't happen. Also, you'd keep the diaper in the pants in cold weather, so unless you're keeping your baby in the fridge, they shouldn't get too cold.
Also, don't borrow trouble. I think it's great to get an idea of what your options are, but it's also totally possible that your child will be born just Loving latex and wool...
Also, don't borrow trouble. I think it's great to get an idea of what your options are, but it's also totally possible that your child will be born just Loving latex and wool...
miss_thenorth
Frugal Homesteader
this is what I was thinking. I have plans to make sandwich and bread wraps, I have the plans somewher, but basically you shred some wax,-- beeswax or parrafin, spread it out over cloth, cover, and iron until the wax melts into the fabric.Bubblingbrooks said:
MsPony
Lovin' The Homestead
Floods happen, no matter how often you change. My bosses first kid would hold in her poo for a day or more, and the release floods of diarrhea...no dpubt whenever they were in public.
Babies, why do we want them again? Lol.
Babies, why do we want them again? Lol.
pinkfox
Super Self-Sufficient
have you tried aternative wools, most folks alergic to wool are aergic to the lanolin in it, apaca, llama, rabbit and goats wool are low-no lanolin.
more expensive but might be an option to look into where wool is concerned.
(my dogs are allergic to lanolin, my hairless male particulaty so, so i make all their sweaters from alpaca or llama, more expensive, but no more allergies.
more expensive but might be an option to look into where wool is concerned.
(my dogs are allergic to lanolin, my hairless male particulaty so, so i make all their sweaters from alpaca or llama, more expensive, but no more allergies.
- Thread starter
- #18
lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
I can wear angora rabbit, but not angora wool. Can also handle silk. No relevance for diapers though.
I don't know if this helps but, I know cloth diapers as we know them are fairly new. Even the square of cloth (flats) with pins weren't used until 18 hundreds. Before that newborns and young infants were wrapped in swaddling clothes and the mother would stuff absorbent materials were needed. You could just use bits of flannel perhaps? Native American women did the same thing. Some tribes would place the baby in a cradleboard and then stuff cattail fluff or other absorbent fibers around the babies bum. Babies were diapered long before synthetics were developed. It just may not be as convienient as we would like.
When my daughter was tiny I would sometimes let her go coverless and just lay her on a pad made of flannel. Especially in the summertime.
When babies get a little more mobile you can just put a flat on them but, let them go coverless. Just fold a flat into a "pad" and place it in the crotch area of a second flat to bump up absorbency. You just have to change more frequently.Or, Just let them go naked when the weather permits
.
Good luck.
When my daughter was tiny I would sometimes let her go coverless and just lay her on a pad made of flannel. Especially in the summertime.
When babies get a little more mobile you can just put a flat on them but, let them go coverless. Just fold a flat into a "pad" and place it in the crotch area of a second flat to bump up absorbency. You just have to change more frequently.Or, Just let them go naked when the weather permits
.Good luck.
