Recently, I have started to make my own peanut butter.  I wanted to be able to control what is in our peanut butter since I give it to my daughter every day and it’s important for me that it be as healthy as possible.

Ingredients:
1½ cups (organic) unsalted roasted peanuts
1-2 tablespoons oil (for example, peanut oil)

Directions:
1. Pour the peanuts into the food processor and add oil.
2. Process the mixture until quite smooth.
3. Store the peanut butter in a sealed container in the fridge. It should be good for up to 2 weeks.

From Linda Byerline, CEO of Happy Heinys:

We have been very saddened to hear that due to the recent earthquakes in Haiti in the Port Au Prince area, a couple of the orphanages we have worked closely with over the last fews years have been completely devastated. Through the years we have not only sent them diapers and clothing for these babies but also toys and help with food. When we work with any orphanage in any third world nation we work closely with missionaries who actually travel to the orphanages and personally bring our donations to the babies in need. We opt to work this way because sadly we have found that when attempting to donate directly the goods do not always arrive to the proper place due to the civil unrest of many of these countries.

With this recent devastating series of earthquakes there is already a lot of donations and requests for donations out there. Many are requesting items to be given to the Red Cross which is a wonderful organization and will truly help many people. Unfortunately those many orphanages are on the outskirts of town and therefore tend to receive less if any help. These orphanages are now in dire need of new/good condition used reusable diapers. By us providing them with reusable diapers we are ensuring that a baby who has just learned to sit in not placed on a toileting pot for 10-12 hours per day in order to prevent messes.

We are also going to take donations of new or good condition used baby clothing and small items. Most often these items we donate are actually brought over in suitcases so we need items that will fit in suitcases. Again, there is a lot of wonderful support that is heading out that way, people bringing food, water, medicines, and clothing but this is all going to the main population. We need to get diapers and clothing to the orphanages as quickly as possible.

If you would like to make a donation of diapers or baby clothing please send as quickly as possible to:

Happy Heinys
1529 N Cuyamaca St
El Cajon CA 92020

please mark box for donation If you would like to be so kind as to help out financially so that we can afford to send out more new diapers and new clothing as well as shipping costs and costs of extra luggage for those who are flying out to Haiti.

Please send any donations to us through paypal, please be sure to clearly mark the payment in the subject box as Donation for Orphanages in Haiti and select the Personal option for sending the money so there is no extra charges applied.

You can send funds through paypal to: lbyerline@cox.net

You can send funds using a credit card or cash. If you would like to send checks please mail them to the above address and make the check out to Happy Heinys but please make sure the subject is clearly marked as Donation for Orphanages. All funds collected will solely be used for purchasing of new items and the costs of shipping. Any left over funds will be directly donated to those in need. Thank you for helping us to carry on our mission to insure that as many babies as possible have dry cloth on their bottoms, clean clothes to wear, and food in their belly.

Cheers,
Linda Byerline CEO
MLB Industries Inc
www.happyheinys.com
www.babyfrenzy.com

I have finally decided to write a post on potty training after trying to potty train my 27-month-old daughter for more than a month without much success.  Partly, I did not want to write about it because who wants to write about your child failing to potty train when you know a few people whose two-year-olds have been potty trained for a while.  In the end, I decided to write it because I’d love to hear any suggestions you might have.  Also, I’m hoping this post will help some of you out there, who have been through something similar or who are planning on potty training your little one(s) in the near future.

One day, when my daughter was 25 months old, I decided to start toddler potty training after reading that you should do it as soon as your child turns two.  I decided to try the three-day method which almost ended in disaster.  Basically, with this method, you put your child in underwear and you have take her to the potty every 20 minutes or so.  After a few hours your child is supposed to start understanding what she has to do.  Well, the first day was full of accidents on the floor and no signs of my daughter understanding.  Second day was almost exactly the same, but I was definitely starting to get a little frustrated.  By the third day, I was more than a little frustrated and my daughter was starting to hide from the potty.  After less than three full days, I knew I had to stop using the three-day method or we both would have gone insane.  I later read online that a lot of people had problems with the two or three-day methods and that some of the toddlers even ended up having psychological issues.  I am so glad I stopped using the method before causing some major damage.

After I stopped using the three-day method, I decided to put my daughter back in diapers, but that did not last more than a day because she just did not like diapers anymore.  After talking to some great moms on Twitter, I started taking it easy and my daughter relaxed quite a bit as well.  This more relaxed approach is definitely easier on both of us, but more than a month later, she’s still not potty trained.  Most of the time I don’t complain, but once in a while I’m tired of changing her pants 3-4 times a day since the underwear she wears most of the time does not hold much.  Sometimes, I wonder whether she thinks of underwear and trainers as diapers. She did wear comfortable cloth diapers after all.  They were a bit thicker than underwear, but still quite comfortable.  I suspect it would have been a bigger surprise to her if I had switched her from disposables to underwear, instead of cloth diapers to underwear.

Thanks to the relaxed potty training, I have noticed some improvements:

• My daughter urinates less during the day now.
• Her night-time diaper is usually dry or slightly wet in the morning.  Before we started potty training, her diaper was soaking wet in the morning.  I suspect her diaper would be dry more often, but we’re a bit lazy in the mornings and do not get up right away to take her to the potty when she wakes up.
• Once in a while, she’ll totally surprise us by going to the potty herself and actually pee in it.

Have you been or are you potty training your own kids or someone else’s kids?  Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for leaving some comments!

Picture by jbird (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbird/ / CC BY-NC 2.0)

One of the gifts my daughter received this Christmas was a pair of Padraig slippers. Up until this Christmas she has been wearing her Robeez slippers, but because we keep the house a bit cooler this winter, we needed something warmer for her. When I found out about Padraig slippers, I just had to get a pair for her.

The Canadian Padraig slippers are made with pure New Zealand wool. They are dyed and crocheted by hand and are fitted with a soft sheepskin lining and leather soles. I have been looking for wool slippers, so I was very pleased to see that a baby store in my town was selling these.

The slippers are not cheap, but nothing made with wool is. If I wanted something cheaper, I could have gone with slippers made of fleece or something similar, but I really wanted something more natural and healthier for my toddler. That reminds me – I still need to find a wool hat for my daughter. If you have any recommendations, I would be very happy to hear them.

So far the slippers have been great. My daughter has loved them since the first time we put them on her feet. They seem to be very comfortable and her feet are always nice and warm. In addition, whenever my daughter has an “accident” and some urine gets on the slippers, I just let them dry because they are made of wool. Those who cloth diaper and use wool soakers are familiar with the wonderful properties of wool.

The only downside of having wool slippers is that they do pill a bit. So, after a few days of use my daughter’s slippers do not look as good as new. The pilling does not bother me much though maybe because I am used to pilling wool thanks to some hand-knitted wool soakers that I used a lot in the past.

Courtesy of SuperFantastic on Flickr

It seems that everyone around me has been baking a million things for this Christmas.  I’m the only one that has made NOTHING so far.  A lack of time is partly to blame for this.  Another reason is that I just do not have great recipes, except for one, a Dutch Shortbread recipe.

If you have any good cookie recipes, I would really appreciate it if you left me a comment or send me a message via the contact form.

Thank you so much and Happy Holidays!

Just as most cloth diapering people, I occasionally use disposable diapers. Since plastics and the chemicals found in disposable diapers are a concern for me, I do try to look for diapers that contain as few of those chemicals as possible.

Over the past few months, I’ve tried diapers such as, Nature Babycare, gDiapers with gRefills, Moltex OKO, Seventh Generation and PC Green. With every brand of these “eco” diapers, I found something lacking. Then I discovered Broody Chick diapers, the first 100% compostable diaper on the market. So far this diaper is my favourite disposable diaper.

When I received the diapers in the mail, I was very surprised by the packaging.  The diapers are sold in a cardboard box which I have never seen before.  I’m used to seeing disposable diapers in plastic or compostable bags.  The other thing that surprised me was the expiry date.  It makes me think that there’s something more natural in those diapers.  Unfortunately, I do not know all the details of the components making up this diaper.

What I like about this diaper:
1. Chlorine free
2. More “breathable” than diapers with plastic components
3. Fragrance free
4. Diaper and packaging are fully compostable
5. Created by a Canadian mom
6. The diaper does not smell as bad as other disposable diapers when dirty. Whenever my daughter wore disposable diapers in the past and peed in them, I thought she pooped the smell was so bad. I suspect that those who use disposables all the time are used to that smell, but to me that smell is quite strong.
7. No leaks even overnight.
8. No marketing on the diaper itself.

What I don’t like about this diaper:
1. The tabs are not stretchy. Even though I did get used to this, I still hope they will change those tabs.
2. Contains SAP (Super Absorbent Polymers)
3. Cost – I can’t find the diaper locally, so I have to pay to get it shipped from British Columbia

Overall, I really like this diaper and I even ended up using it for night-time for a bit because my daughter was such a heavy wetter at night that the soaking wet cloth diapers affected her sleep. Since last night, I’m back to cloth though because she wets her diapers a lot less now at night than she used to.

If you’re interested in purchasing this product, please check them out at the Ecobotts store. In case you decide to purchase from Ecobotts, please check their Facebook fan page for coupon codes.

I have not been paid to write this review. The Broody Chick diapers were purchased by me.

Please see the results of the survey below.  Thank you everyone for taking the time to fill it out!  If you would like further information regarding the survey, please do not hesitate to contact me.

~~~

1. How long have you been using cloth diapers?
Answers varied from around 1 month up to 18 years.

2. How many children have you cloth diapered?
Most said 1.  The highest number of cloth diapered children was 6.

3. Have your family and friends been supportive?
Yes: 84%
No: 16%

4. What was your first cloth diaper purchase and why?
The top 5 diapers:
1. Prefolds
2. BumGenius
3. FuzziBunz
4. Happy Heinys
5. gDiapers

The reasons included, cost (Prefolds), convenience and/or recommendations.

5. Which type of cloth diapers is your favorite?
Top 5:
1. Pocket
2. Fitteds
3. AIO
4. Prefolds
5. AI2

6. How many cloth diapers do you own?
1-5: 0%
6-10: 1%
11-15: 6%
16-20: 8%
21-25: 17%
26-30: 18%
31-35: 6%
36-40: 9%
More than 40: 35%

7. How did you acquire most of your cloth diapers?
Most people bought the diapers themselves. A few people made them, received them as gifts, traded them or won them in giveaways.   A couple of people also mentioned Miracle Diapers as the source.

8. What are your top 5 favourite diapers?
Top 10 answers:
1. Prefolds
2. FuzziBunz
3. BumGenius
4. Thirsties
5. Goodmama
6. Happy Heinys
7. BSRB (Bagshot Row Bamboo)
8. GroBaby
9. GAD (Green Acre Designs)
10. Smartipants

9. If you use pocket or AIO diapers, which of the following do you prefer as the inside lining?
Top 5:
1. Microfleece
2. Bamboo Velour
3. Suedecloth
4. Bamboo Fleece
5. Cotton Fleece

10. What type of fastening do you prefer?
Snaps: 66%
Velcro/Aplix: 21%
Snappi: 12%
Pins: 1%

11. Why have you decided to cloth diaper?
Top 5:
1. To save money
2. For environmental reasons
3. Chemicals in disposables are a concern
4. Allergies to disposables
5. Cloth diapers are cute

12. What laundry detergent do you use for washing cloth diapers?
Top 10:
1. Rockin’ Green Soap (This is by far the most popular detergent among those who filled out the survey).
2. Charlie’s Soap
3. Tide
4. Country Save
5. Purex
6. Soapnuts
7. All (Free and Clear)
8. Crunchy Clean
9. Nature Clean
10. Arm & Hammer

13. What’s your favourite diaper rash cream?
Top 5:
1. Burt’s Bees
2. California Baby
3. Northern Essence
4. Lanolin
5. Weleda

Quite a few people said they haven’t needed any with cloth diapers.

14. What is the biggest challenge you encountered with cloth diapering?
- Finding the right detergent that wouldn’t cause rashes and/or detergent build-up
- Initial cost
- Night-time cloth diapering
- Smell of dirty diapers (once babies/toddlers start eating more)
- Ammonia build-up
- Figuring out a good washing routine
- Travelling with cloth diapers

Some answers that I wanted you to see:
“I have to handwash all my diapers nightly because we don’t have a W/D”.

“Honestly, not getting angry with people at the grocery store with cases of disposables in their cart!!! We just want to yell at them! It is so much more cost effective to cloth diaper, just as easy and you aren’t ruining the environment for the child you obviously have!”

“Hmmmm, when to stop buying?  Lol. Finding the perfect fitted.“

“My toddler started leaking at night when he was about a year old. No number of doublers solved the problem…I used disposables at night for several months…and then I tried wool longies and it solved the problem!
I started getting smelly dipes when I used AIOs for my toddler. I think AIOs are great for little ones (who don’t pee much, don’t eat solids, and get changes really frequently) but I don’t like how they turn out for older kids. I also found that the stink was worse with synthetic fabrics–so even though I started with a full stash of microfleece inners/microfiber cores, I’ve slowly been replacing them with hemp, bamboo, and cotton. It seems to come cleaner and be less susceptible to the stink!!”

“My boyfriends family wouldn’t even try to learn, and then they were always putting sposies on him when he was there, and that kind of felt like a slap in the face, that they didn’t respect our decision”.

“rash overnights on my toddler.  Her urine is just too acidic to be sitting in any cloth diaper for more than 3 hours.  I’ve tried everything from creams to liners, to different fabrics, stripping, baking soda in pockets, wool vs. PUL vs. fleece covers…everything; and nothing seems to help but a disposable and some cream for overnights.”

“My husband. He hates them”.

“Getting the heavy-duty diaper cream we use out of the microfleece liners. Due to my son’s medical condition, not using cream isn’t an option, and getting that stuff out is almost impossible!”

“Buying too many, LOL. My addiction makes me think I won’t save any money, although I still will even with diapering costs. Plus I can use them for my next kids! “

15. Do you ever use disposable diapers?
YES: 75%
NO: 25%

What I found interesting is that most people who said “no” also chose “Allergies to Disposable Diapers” as one of the answers to question #11.

16. If you answered yes to the above question, which brand(s) do you use?
Top 10:
1. Pampers (This was by far the most popular brand).
2. Huggies (Regular)
3. Huggies (Pure and Natural)
4. gDiapers with gRefills
5. Seventh Generation
6. Kirkland/Costco
7. Nature Babycare
8. Target Brand
9. Luvs
10. President’s Choice (PC) Green Diapers

17. When you shop for cloth diapers, which of the following matters to you in a baby store?
Top 10:
1. Low price
2. Great customer service
3. Low shipping cost
4. Friendly store owner(s)
5. Large selection of cloth diapers
6. Fast shipping
7. Availability of American/Canadian cloth diapers
8. A lot of cloth diapering information on the store’s website
9. Large selection of cloth diapering accessories
10. Large inventory

Please take a moment to fill out my cloth diaper survey (Link has been removed).  I’m hoping that your answers will help people who are considering cloth diapering, or those who already cloth diaper but would like to learn more about other peoples’ experiences.

Thank you so much!

UPDATE (2009-12-06): Thank you everyone for taking the time to fill out the cloth diaper survey! I will be posting the results later today.

So, you’ve decided you want to try making cloth diapers for your baby yourself, but you have no idea where to start.  Hopefully, I can help you get started by providing you with some useful information in this post.

Diaper Patterns

If you have no idea how to design a diaper pattern yourself, or you just don’t want to deal with that, there are quite a few free patterns available online.  Zany Zebra Designs has a few listed on their site.  Another good site for cloth diaper patterns is The WAHM Mall.

I’ve only tried one diaper pattern – the Ottobre pattern.  It was the first one I ran into and I thought it would be easy to follow.  I ended up making a diaper that was way too big for my daughter and the leg elastic was so loose that there was no way she could wear it.  It took me a few tries to get the size and elastic length right.  I’ve read that a lot of other people have had much better luck with the Ottobre pattern though.  I ended up designing my own pattern which I tried to perfect over a few months.

If you don’t mind paying for a diaper pattern then here are a few popular ones:

• Darling Diapers
  A lot of people seem to love this pattern.
• Jalie Diaper Patterns
  This is a Canadian pattern.  If you’d like to see how to make a Jalie pocket (or AIO) diaper, you can view their YouTube video here.
• Little Comet Patterns
• HoneyBoy! Diaper Pattern
• Chloe Toes Diaper Pattern

Yahoo Baby Diaper Sewing Group

The “sewingdiapers” group on Yahoo is a great source of information.  There’s a lot of helpful mamas there who would love to help you with any questions you might have.  They can also help you select a diaper pattern if you’re not sure which one to choose.

Diaper Making Fabric

To make your first diapers you can use old T-shirts, swaddling blankets, towels, pants, etc.  I wouldn’t recommend using new and expensive fabric for the first couple of tries.  My first two diapers were disasters, so I’m glad I used cheap flannel.

Once you feel more comfortable making diapers, find out if your local fabric store carries any of the fabrics you’d like to use.  If you can’t find anything there then try searching online.  There’s quite a few online stores that carry diaper making fabric.  You might also want to ask in the Yahoo Baby Diaper Sewing Group where to find specific fabric.  If you have no idea what fabric to use, the group can help you with that as well.  I usually use the very absorbent bamboo fleece for my cloth diapers which I haven’t been able to find locally.  So, be prepared to order the fabric online and pay a bit for shipping.

Elastics

Buying the right elastic for your diapers is very important.  The most popular types of diaper making elastic are as follows:

• Lastin® (1/4″ and 3/8″)
• Polybraid Elastic (1/4″ and 3/8″)
• Cotton Swimwear Elastic (1/4″ and 3/8″)
• Fold Over Elastic (5/8″ and 1″)

Lastin is not the easiest to use, but it’s supposed to be very durable.  Cotton swimwear elastic tends to shrink a bit, so you might have to either wash and dry the elastic before use or make it a little bit longer than suggested by the diaper pattern makers.  Polybraid elastic is probably the most popular choice for diaper making.  Fold over elastic (also known as FOE) is used more frequently for making covers than diapers.

Cloth Diaper Fasteners

Snaps and velcro/aplix/touch tape are the most popular choices.  Touch tape is easier to use than snaps, but it’s scratchy and it can create diaper chains in the wash.  Snaps are not as easy to use, but are great in the wash and usually last longer than touch tape.

Other fasteners that you can use include the Snappi® and diaper pins.  Snappiable/pinnable fitted diapers are quite a bit easier to make than ones with snaps or touch tape.  I have recently made a few of those myself and have been using them for night-time because they seem to be a lot more comfortable for my daughter.

I hope this is enough to get you started.  You’re always welcome to ask me questions!

A few weeks ago, we decided to see if our then 23-month-old daughter was ready to sleep in her own room again after many months of sleeping in our room.  The first night my daughter slept in her room, she woke up crying around 2 am.  We decided to take her to our bed for the rest of the night, but surprisingly, she did not want to be there and would not calm down until we went back to her room and I lay down beside her.  The following night, she went to her bed by herself which shocked us.  She did wake up during the night again, but this time she wasn’t screaming.  Unlike the previous night, I just went to her room and lay down beside her and she fell asleep without a problem.  Now, every night, she walks over to her bed, lies down and falls asleep beside me within 5-10 minutes.  The next day, she wakes up between 7 and 8 am and walks over to our bed.  If it’s closer to 7 am, then she will sometimes go back to sleep for another hour or so.

While our daughter was sleeping with us in the same room for more than a year and a half, I’ve been told many times that she shouldn’t.  Very few people, like my mother and grandmother, were supportive of what I was doing.  My much younger brother slept in my parents’ room until he was four, so to me and my mother it definitely wasn’t strange that our daughter was still in our room.  I am so glad I did whatever I thought was right because I did not have to suffer by using methods such as “cry it out”.  Our daughter was ready to move to her own room and that is what makes me really happy.

I really do believe that staying close to your little ones for at least the first couple of years is important for many reasons.  Also, time flies and you’ll quickly start missing those brief moments you were able to share with your baby.