Organic Wool Baby Diaper Covers
Deciding to use cloth diapers was a no-brainer for me. My parents used them, so they were already the norm for me. I try to be environmentally friendly. Plus, I’d read a bit about the health dangers of disposables. I knew from my reading (there is quite a cloth diaper community online!) that I’d have lots of options for the diapers themselves, and deciding what types I wanted to try was pretty easy.
What I didn’t expect was the sheer number of options for diaper covers. I started out with a few PUL (plastic-coated fabric) wrap covers and some handknitted wool covers. Needless to say, I preferred the wool covers! The PUL wraps definitely had their usefulness, but I’d say about 90% of the time I reached for wool.
Why is wool so great?
Many reasons. Environmentally, it does not use crude oils and fewer chemicals are involved in manufacturing it (none, if you buy organic like Sckoon Organic Wool Diaper Covers). For me personally, the health benefits were the biggest. Wool breathes, allowing baby’s skin to breathe.
An organic cotton diaper allows airflow, but a plastic cover stops it! Wool absorbs liquid as well as repelling it, which keeps baby from sitting in a puddle. It is also antibacterial and antimicrobial. My baby has never had a diaper rash!
I recently started using a Sckoon’s Stick-N-Snap Merino Wool Diaper Cover, which combines the wrap style with wool. I was immediately impressed with how soft the wool is.
I love the fit of the cover. It is generously cut but not at all baggy. The elastic keeps the fit tight at the back, even when my daughter has a poop blowout. I find that it fits best over the blue pair diaper (which I use with this flat liner for added absorbency) but works over all of my other baby cloth diapers as well. It is even secure enough to lay an unpinned prefold in, which I have never been able to do with PUL covers (at least, not without a mess).
How to Care Wool?
My method of caring for wool is to spray off any poop as soon as it becomes dirty, then wash in batches (every two weeks or so) in lukewarm water with wool wash (Eucalan or Soak, which I buy at the local knitting store) and a little lanolin to replenish the naturally occurring lanolin (I buy the tubes that can be found in the breastfeeding aisle at any department store—just make sure you use 100% pure lanolin with no added ingredients). Soak for 10-15 minutes, then squeeze out the water, roll in a towel, and line dry.
It is easy as can be! I stick to hand-washing because I have so many wool covers, but the Sckoon cover can be washed it in the machine—I tried it and it really works! When my daughter outgrows the size small, I will replace it with a size medium—maybe more than one!