Posts from — September 2009

And the winner of the Northern Baby cloth wipe giveaway is:

#107 Carrie (@EatCrayons)!

CONGRATULATIONS!
Please contact me with your shipping information.

Today, whenever my daughter has a dirty diaper, I take her to the bathtub and wash her bum well.  Not too long ago though, I used to use cloth wipes and my own cloth wipe solution almost at every diaper change.  The recipe I used for making the wipe solution is as follows:

3-4 cups of boiled water (cooled)
3-4 Tbsp of organic extra virgin olive oil (I like to use quite a lot of it, but you don’t have to.)
1/2 tsp (or less) of baby wash (I use an unscented one by Little Twig.  It’s good for babies with sensitive skin.  Also, the ingredients are supposed to be organic .)
2 drops of tea tree oil (I didn’t always add it, but I think it prevents the solution from going bad too quickly and tea tree is antimicrobial so it might help with diaper rashes.  However, be careful with this one since I’ve heard that some babies can be a bit sensitive to some essential oils.)

Organic Bamboo Velour and Cotton Print Wipes

Everyday, I would pour the solution into a spray bottle and either spray the solution directly on the baby’s bum (making my daughter laugh many times) or on the cloth wipe.  I’ve also used an empty disposable wipes container for my wipes and the solution.  I would place the wipes in the container and then pour some of the solution over the wipes.  This way the wipes would always be ready for use.

I’ve heard that some people cut a roll of Bounty paper towels (not the select-a-size ones) in half and put it in a wipe box (with the core removed), then they pour the solution over the paper towels. You can also rip the towels into separate pieces and then pour the solution over that.  Personally, I prefer to use a spray bottle and cloth wipes. The best thing about the wipe solution is that I know exactly what’s going into it… no guessing… and no skin irritation. For those babies who are VERY sensitive, I would recommend skipping the baby wash and tea tree oil and always use cloth wipes.

Since I really wanted to give gDiapers another chance, I decided to buy the Large size kit and see what happens.  When I first tried them a few months ago, I was very disappointed because my daughter was getting red marks from the snaps in the front and I eventually sold the covers.  Then I ran into some information on gDiapers which made me think I was putting the diapers on my daughter a little too tight.  Maybe that was why she was getting those marks?

So, I bought the kit and decided to give it a try.  The first time I tried the diaper, I got the same result – red marks!  I tried the diaper a few more times and every time I did, my daughter ended up having red marks.  At one point even my husband noticed the marks.  If he noticed the marks then they must have been quite bad.

I started to wonder why some babies were getting those marks and others weren’t.  Well, after playing with the diaper for a couple of minutes, I figured it out.  Basically, it all depends on the size of the baby’s waist.  Babies with bigger waists will most likely get the marks because the snaps are exposed when using a wider waist setting.  The snaps are covered by the fabric for babies with smaller waists.

I still want to use the diapers from time to time (with my cloth inserts), but I really need to fix that snap problem.  I already have a couple of ideas in mind, but finding the time to work on them might be hard :-D

Recently, I ran into a blog post I wrote on March 19, 2008 on a private blog.  Below is an excerpt from that post which I found interesting and wanted to share with you.

There are a few things I LOVE about cloth diapers….

1. I haven’t had to empty the diaper pail for sposies in a LONG time.  I must admit it was bothering me in the past that we were producing so much waste with the disposables.
2. Feels amazing to know that a huge amount of chemicals is not touching Olivia’s bum.
3. The selection is amazing… there’s like a million different cloth diaper designs out there!  I think I have at least 9 or 10 different kinds of cloth diapers.
4. Prefolds are incredibly cheap compared to sposies.  Fitteds and pocket diapers are a bit more expensive, but still, in the long run you save quite a bit of money.
5. They make diaper changing time more fun.
6. I love how my daughter’s bum is not swimming in poo.  When she’s wearing cloth diapers, her poop soaks very well into the fabric thus making clean up a lot easier.  That might be one reason why she’s not getting as many rashes when wearing cloth diapers.
7. My daughter’s been getting very few rashes with hemp and bamboo diapers.  When she was wearing disposables, she almost constantly had rashes.
   
8. Cloth diapers (when the fit is right and they’re put on properly) look more comfortable… no rubbing of plastic against the baby’s legs or tummy.  Also, I’ve noticed that when my daughter’s wearing a comfortable cloth diaper she seems to be having better naps during the day.  Not all cloth diapers are created equal though when it comes to comfort… some are less comfortable than others… but most of the ones I use look pretty comfy :-)

A lot has happened since then, but I still love cloth diapers for those reasons.  I just wanted to add a couple more.

9.  I can make my daughter perfect fitting diapers.
10.  Cloth diapers (especially with wool covers) speed up healing of diaper rashes.  With cloth diapers, my daughter rarely has diaper rashes – if she does, it’s usually thanks to my experiments with detergent :-D

Lately, I’ve been asked a lot about PC Green Diapers.  These diapers are still relatively new and there isn’t a huge lot of information about them online.  So, I decided to tell you everything I know about them.

As I’ve written in a previous post, PC Green disposable diapers are chlorine and fragrance free.  Those of you who have had trouble finding other eco disposable diapers close to home, might have better luck finding these since PC Green diapers might be available in your supermarket store (owned by Loblaws).

What I do like about this diaper:

• Very stretchy tabs.  None of the other eco disposable diapers I’ve tried have tabs that stretchy.
• The diaper is quite a bit cheaper than other “green” diapers.  The regular price of PC Green diapers is $15.99 for 46 diapers in size 4.  Seventh Generation diapers are $17.99-19.99 for 30 diapers in the same size.  Also, you can sometimes see the PC Green diapers on special for $12.99.
• No rashes so far.  It does not promote healing of rashes very well though.  I found that bamboo cloth diapers with wool covers at night promote healing much better than the PC Green diapers even though cloth diapers get quite wet overnight.  I guess it’s not a surprise since cloth diapers do allow more airflow.  Also, bamboo is antimicrobial.

What I do NOT like about this diaper:

• SAP (Super Absorbent Polymer)
• Still has some plastics in it however, according to the manufacturer some of the plastic components were replaced with “revolutionary plant-based polymers”.
• Packaging is not biodegradable.
• It’s still a disposable that takes hundreds of years to decompose.  One of the few reasons why I don’t use disposables is that the thought of mountains of disposable diapers in the landfill really bothers me.
• I wasn’t impressed with what’s written about cloth diapers at the back of the packaging.  It might mislead people into believing that cloth diapers are made from pesticide sprayed cotton ONLY.  Trust me there’s LOTS of diapers out there (including my daughter’s) that are not.  I also wasn’t impressed with the mention of detergent as if tons of it were being used on diapers.  The truth is, most people use only 1/4 of the recommended amount of detergent to wash their diapers.  Also, a lot of people these days use front-loading washers which use quite a bit less water.

NOTE: These diapers do fit a bit bigger than SG diapers, so if you’re using SG diapers and your baby is almost outgrowing a size, PC Green diapers in the same size might still fit her/him well.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Just please keep in mind that I’m not an expert on disposable diapers – I normally cloth diaper only.