Saturday, January 14, 2006

Can You Help?

Two questions for all you moms out there!

1. How do you teach a 14 month old to respect books and not tear them? I want her to be able to play with them because she loves books and likes to look at the pictures, feel the textures, etc... but, I do not want her to think it is acceptable to rip them to shreds.

2. Any suggestions for keeping the cloth diapers waiting to be washed from smelling? I have two bins (both with lids) that I keep for the diapers. The wet ones go into the larger bin and the dirty ones soak in water in the smaller bin. I wash them twice a week. Here is the problem, the wet ones really start to smell after about 24-36 hours. I've tried water to soak, bleach/water to soak (ruined two diapers and one cover that way) and am willing to try any other suggestions. I've even tried washing every other day. None of these options seems to be THE answer. I don't mind the cloth diapers and it is really working out very well - except for this problem.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

6 comments:

Megan said...

Board books are your best friends right now. I'd just put the paper ones away except when you read them and let her explore all she wants with board books.

As for cloth diapers, it's been so long since I've used them, that I just asked another gal if she could offer you some advice. She just had another new baby, so I don't know how free she is to visit blogs these days, but maybe she'll be able to help...

kristen said...

I agree with Megan on #1 -- we keep board books accessible for browsing anytime and the "real" books up high where only a parent can reach. We still read them, just supervised.

On #2 -- I keep baking soda in a dry pail, which works well at masking the odor until I need to strip my diapers which is probably your case. Diapers need to be stripped periodically as they have too much detergent, etc. build up. Wash them once normally and then keep washing hot and rinsing cold until ALL the bubbles are gone from the rinse cycle. That *might* take all day. If you are just using prefolds, you can also boil them or add a big pot of boiling water to your washer to get it even hotter.

Check out this thread on a message board for more ideas on how to strip them. Hope that helps!

Mary Ann said...

I don't have kids, but with several years of teaching toddlers and two's, I agree with Megan and Kristen. Have board books available and get the "special" books (paper pages or special pop-up or pull tab books) down for reading with an adult.

Monica Wilkinson said...

Ok, board books only - that is what I will do!

On the diapers, I had thought of baking soda, but hadn't actually done it yet. I haven't heard of stripping the diapers - so will need to check into that more.

Thanks for your help/input!

kristen said...

If you've never stripped them, I'm certain that will help tremendously with any smell issues -- and rash issues, too! I end up having to really strip ours about every 10 weeks.

Then you can go use a dry pail -- way easier!

Monica Wilkinson said...

Well, I washed the diapers seven times yesterday - so time will tell if this is the problem. I did see soap bubbles during the earlier washes, so am guessing this will take care of it.