Smartipants

Welcome to Day 2 in our Diaper a Day Giveaaway! We loved all of your responses to our first question about the benefits of cloth diapering with Smartipants.

Our Winner for day 1 (1/19/11) is Kristin Jensen!
Kristin Says: “The best thing is that the inserts come out in the wash. I won’t even consider buying any other pocket diapers no matter how many rave reviews they get. If the inserts don’t come out on their own, then I’m not buying!”
Congratulations Kristin!

Here’s the question for Day 2: (Don’t forget to comment here and on our Facebook Fanpage for entries)

What changes would you like to see in the Smartipants diaper this year?

Good Luck!

For 15 days starting Wednesday January 19th Smartipants is giving away one diaper per day to our blog readers!

Each day we will post a question and when you comment to answer it, you will be entered to win a Smartipants diaper and insert in your choice of color! You can also post your answers to our facebook fan page for an additional entry.

The question of the day for Wednesday January 19th is:
What is the biggest benefit of using Smartipants cloth diapers?

We get this question a lot from new parents and often the question is regarding cloth diapers. The truth is that babies should be changed every 2 hours or so or whenever you notice the diaper is wet or soiled no matter what type of diapers you use.
We recommend changing every 2-3 hours during the day and during the night whenever your baby wakes. If your baby sleeps through the night make sure the diaper is fitted snugly but comfortably and that the absorbency is adequate to get baby through the night. Hemp inserts can be a wonderful addition to your diapers at night to increase absorbency due to their ability to hold a lot of fluid and are great for heavy daytime wetters as well. Place it just behind your microfiber insert in your smartipants for a night combo many of our customers swear by.

If you choose disposable diapers you still should change this often to keep your baby clean, dry and comfortable.

If you prefer to use a barrier cream or diaper ointment at each diaper change we recommend a light layer of aquaphor healing ointment.

It’s hard to recommend detergents because different people have different washers, different types of water and different diapers. Here are the top 5 recommended by users of Smartipants in no particular order.
Customers have been happy with the following detergents, not every brand works for every family, and not all detergents are available in all areas. Many are available online. The key is to find what works for you!
Again- these are user recommended brands to try if you don’t know where to start

Rockin Green
Country Save
Tide Free
All Free and Clear
Charlie’s Soap

If you experience leaks or your cloth diapers are stinky you might need to strip your diapers. But how? This is the simplest method and works for most.
Turn up your water heater or boil water on your stove to add to your washer. You need HOT water to strip residue from your diapers.
Add your clean diapers to your washer and add the hot water if you boiled it otherwise turn on the machine. You can add a few drops of Dawn dishsoap which can break up residue to the wash.
Set your machine for a hot wash and extra rinse.
Wash the entire load again with no detergent, no soap, just water with an extra rinse. Watch this wash to see if you see any bubbles. If you see bubbles you’ll need to rinse until you don’t. If you see no bubbles you can dry the diapers.

If you try this method and you still have diapers that are stinky especially when wet, you may need to scrub the lining of your diapers with a nail brush or an old toothbrush and dishsoap to get the residue out.

If you’ve tried both methods and you still have issues then I recommend adding 1/4 cup of bleach to your next load of diapers. You can do this about once per month if you have issues with stinky diapers. Using bleach too often can wear your diapers out faster than normal, so use sparingly and only when necessary.
Make sure if the diapers smell dirty, not just like amonia that you are using enough detergent to get them really clean. Your inserts can be bleached every other week or so separately from your diapers.
Remember not to use fabric softeners at all!