Cloth vs. first bowel movement

Kristal - posted on 01/07/2010

you can buy a yard of fleece and cut it into 4 inch strips. Put those as inserts in the diaper, and throw them away when pooped on. They will save the linings of your cloth diapers from the sticky poop.

Arielle - posted on 01/07/2010

Okay all u hospital ladys. What if ur going to a BIRTH CENTER and they dont give u disposable diapers??

Sheila - posted on 12/27/2009

Baby poo stains everything if you don't wash the clothing/diapers right away... even then it could still stain, but not as badly as it would if you let it sit. I don't know about the diapers at the hospital, if they will wash them for you... I personally would wait until I was home first, then try the cloth diapers. It has been almost 5 years (his 5th birthday is in 10 days!) since I had to deal with the first movements, but it is liquid for a long time, which you should already know with the parenting class... If you want your baby in the cloth diapers ASAP, I would pick my least fave of the patterns and let him make those ones nasty first! Besides, who really cares how they look? They hold poo! LOL! Plus you get these neat pretty covers to put over them :)

Lorin - posted on 12/26/2009

thanks everybody! good to know how long meconium might last, and GREAT to know i may as well save the cloth dipes for after it's passed.

Tiffany - posted on 12/25/2009

we've started using the cloth diapers a month after he was born and still using at ten months, if they get stained hang them in the sun, it helps bleach them and who cares if they're looking stained, you know they're clean and they only get seen when they get dirty anyway.

Tessa - posted on 12/25/2009

I only started cloth with my son at ten months so I don't have personal experience but I do know that my mom started cloth right off the bat with all three of her kids. Her friends used the diapers on three kids, then my mom used them on three kids, and now I use them on my son. They're totally fine! If they do get a bit stained you can hang them out in the sun (or lay them on the grass) and that will take care of that.

That begin said, it might not be a bad idea to have some disposables on hand, incase you're not feeling up to the laundry right after you deliver and you don't have anyone to help you out with it.

And the poop changes over the first week or two from meconium to the seedy yellowy stuff. It's often not just one big poop.

Selia - posted on 12/24/2009

we used sposies just for that and when putting on the first dipe we put silicone lube on baby's clean skin - meconium came right off! Herbal oils and balms work ok too, just avoid all of these if you are using a cloth diaper as they will coat them and cost you absorbency. Our baby's first two poops were meconium, FYI, it isn't always just the first one.

Sunrise - posted on 12/23/2009

I would use what the hospital provides (in the US it's generally sposies) and you should have enough to take some home and will more than cover the first poo. I've also heard of people using products like this http://www.treecitydiapers.com/store/pro... int heir cloth diapers to keep the poo from ruining them. Congrats!!

Carly - posted on 12/23/2009

Just wanted to comment that my hospital (in Tasmania, Australia) seems to do things in reverse to where you ladies are - they provided terry flat nappies while we were in hospital and if we wanted to use disposables, we had to bring our own. So nice to stick those black tar nappies in the bag and wait for the hospital laundry service to take them away!

Jennifer - posted on 12/20/2009

I only had the black stuff maybe a day or two after coming home. I just used disposible for those days because that stuff just doesnt come off!... make sure to take good wipes with you to the hospital...mine has the suckiest wipes that didnt work well at all!

Liane - posted on 12/20/2009

you do not want to use cloth diapers for meconium and that lasts for about a week or something like that, it is black and tar like and will pretty much ruin your CD, just use disposables during this period. we brought our own chlorine free etc etc expensive "natural" disposables with us to the hospital (We were planning a home birth but our midwife had told us to use disposables for this period of time with this poop, ended up having to go to the hospital after 3 days of labor at home and no progress anyway,bring disposables and use them for this poo).

Chris - posted on 12/20/2009

I would also agree, the hospital will give you the plastic throw away kind while your there. My best advice...Use them! If your baby has to leave you to go to the nursery for anything (shots, checkups, or mabye if you really need to sleep) they will not fuss with a newborn screaming n your cloth diaper. The first week of bowel movements are gonna be sticky, I think the plastic throw aways are horrible for baby long term, n enviromentaly, but think of your sanity. Your not gonna want to use your wonderful cloth diapers for a few days just because you'll have to recover n worry about everything else that happens when you bring a baby home. The only think i will say is that sometimes placing a tissue in the plastic ones helps you to see if they have had a pee or not in the first few days... We had an issue when our son was born, they didn't know if he went at delivery, n he wasn't going enough to change the color on thoes damn plastic ones. Well Good luck.

R - posted on 12/18/2009

We were given a single package of newborn disposables while we were in the hospital and it was more than enough for our stay there - in fact there was some extra we took home. The meconium wipes of baby's bumm real easy if it's cleaned up quickly (think every time you feed your baby - change the diaper), but I don't know how it will be with cloth diapers. I was very happy using disposables for that short period of time when I was just trying to get my feet underneath me (about two weeks after a difficult labor). Once we got home I had a hard enough time thinking about what to get together for dinner that adding cloth right off would have left me feeling overwhelmed ... but hey - if you are up for it I applaud you! Our LO was still pooping meconium for several days after we got home (3 days after birth).



Hope this helps. Good luck!!