Archive for the ‘Jessica Wiant’ Category
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Once you’ve settled into a routine, using cloth diapers is pretty no-brainer. Wash. Rinse. Rinse. Dry. Use. Repeat.
In that challenging period before I figured out not to over-think things, mistakes were made. My No. 1 mistake? Trusting that the other people changing my baby’s diaper would know everything I do. Will someone else be changing your baby in cloth diapers? Be especially cautious. It’s one thing when mom is the rookie. We still read, research, and, well, over-think. Dads, grandmas, and nursery workers might do things, however, that we never even dreamed they would.
Putting On the Diaper
- The best thing you can do if you’re about to leave your baby and your cloth stash in the hands of someone else is have the diapers pre-stuffed and ready to put on. If you don’t it’s quite possible you’ll come home at some point to a baby wearing a diaper with no insert. Even when the diaper is completely assembled, you still might find a rookie is apt to put the diaper on backwards. Something about the snaps throws them off, I think. A FuzziBunz diaper might be more fool-proof than others. I’ve had people put other diaper brands on inside out, too.
What Else They’ll Put On
- There’s something about a day care provider and butt cream. They just love the stuff. There must be some comfort for them in slathering it on generously. But beware: most widely available diaper creams can wreak havoc on your cloth diapers. This happened to me soon after my day care agreed to use cloth for my first son. I’d left his tube of zinc oxide cream with them even after he started wearing cloth. I knew it wasn’t “cloth approved” but didn’t think about them wanting to use it since he was usually pretty clear down there, but boy did they use it. That day’s diapers, though they still function, to this day have some staining left from that incident. Keep the stuff away from your diapers at all costs.
Laundry
- It’s best that anyone who’s going to wash your cloth diapers gets a full explanation of the proper way to do it. A simple laundry mistake can take lots of re-washing to undo. After the rash cream got used with a few of my cloth diapers, I made the mistake of thinking outside the box for ways to wash it out. I ended up trying a degreaser cream from Lowe’s. I have to rinse my diapers countless times to get the orange smell out. My advice? When you’re a rookie, don’t add anything weird to your diaper laundry. It seems simple enough, but it’s important. Also, think carefully about where you wash. I once did laundry at a campground laundromat and ended up with immediate repelling issues.
You’ve done the research and read all the directions (along with a few hundred blog entries!), but make sure anyone else changing your baby gets all the little details, too. You’ll make things easier on your baby that way – and your diapers!
Jessica Wiant is now a stay-at-home mom of two who was once a working mom with a (cloth diapered!) son in daycare.
Tags: award-winning diapers, babies, baby laundry, babysitters, caring for FuzziBunz diapers, cloth diaper, Cloth Diaper Accessories, cloth diaper benefits, cloth diaper detergent, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, daycare, eco-friendly, eco-friendly diapers, fashionable diapers, favorite baby gear, fleece diapers, FuzziBunz, fuzzibunz cloth diapers, FuzziBunz diapers, green living, how to clean a cloth diaper, How To Use FuzziBunz Diapers, parenting, pocket diapers, potty training, prevent diaper rash, reusable diapers, traveling with cloth diapers, washing FuzziBunz diapers
Posted in FuzziBunz Blog, Jessica Wiant | No Comments »
Thursday, January 10th, 2013
There’s more than one way to cloth diaper. In fact, this fall I learned that there are many ways.
With names like “Frankenstorm” and “superstorm” being floated in the forecast around Halloween, my husband and I started to think it might be a good thing to be prepared for a few days without electricity. He stocked up on jugs of water and propane, and I weighed my options for dealing with dirty diapers.
To help me decide, I checked in with a group of fellow cloth users I’m acquainted with and was shocked to hear some of the other ways mamas were getting prepared. Namely, some were gathering up T-shirts, burp cloths or rags to stretch out their stashes enough so that they wouldn’t have to resort to paper diapers even if the worst happened. In the end, I’m not that dedicated. I washed everything up, stuffed it in the drawer and used disposables until I was sure I wouldn’t be stuck without the means to do laundry.
Luckily, the worst of Superstorm sandy at my house was a night spend in the basement listening to the wind howl. But the experience got me to thinking about how many different approaches people take to cloth diapering. Some would rather use old T-shirts or handwash their diapers than ever put a disposable diaper on their baby. Other people I know only use cloth when it’s convenient, taking disposables with them any time they’re on the road and never using cloth at night.
At different points in my time as a mom I’ve taken slightly different approaches, but I – probably like most moms – usually fall somewhere in the middle. When I first started, I used a single, solitary diaper for a few days to give it a try. Next, I bought enough diapers so that I used cloth at home in the evenings and on weekends, but my son was in disposables during the weekdays at day care. Eventually, I upped my stash again and used cloth full-time. I’ve taken cloth diapers on trips and vacations, and I’ve left them at home, too. If I at all have a choice, I stick with cloth.
Every single time I avoid putting a diaper in the trash can, I feel like I’m doing something good. And when I can’t use cloth, I try not to beat myself up too much. However we work cloth diapers into our lives as parents, every little bit is worth it.
Jessica Wiant is now a stay-at-home mom of two who was once a working mom with a (cloth diapered!) son in daycare.
Tags: caring for FuzziBunz diapers, cloth diaper, cloth diaper benefits, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, eco-friendly diapers, FuzziBunz, fuzzibunz cloth diapers, FuzziBunz diapers, green living, reusable diapers, traveling with cloth diapers, washing FuzziBunz diapers
Posted in FuzziBunz Blog, Jessica Wiant | No Comments »
Thursday, December 13th, 2012
I can’t count the number of times I had to change my sheets in the middle of the night after my first son was born.
During pregnancy, as I performed the tedious task of deciding what baby gear I needed, I made the ill-fated decisions that a changing table was something I could afford to do without. As punishment, my baby showered my bed with pee numerous times during late-night diaper changes.
Throughout his diaper days, I had multiple packages of diapers and wipes – and later, when I switched to cloth, laundry baskets – scattered throughout the house. Most often, he got changed on the floor. It worked out OK, most of the time.
But, when I knew Baby Boy No. 2 was on the way, and that I’d be cloth diapering him from the start, a changing table was at the top of my want list. Why? Mainly because using cloth does involve more… stuff. I desired a central location to keep all the necessities a little more neat during this, my second round, with diapering. I’m not typically very organized, to say the least, so anything to force me to keep it together more helps. Grabbing a pocket and an insert out of a laundry basket is simple enough, but pulling a ready-to-wear diaper out of the drawer just sounded more appealing.
Thankfully, a wonderful friend offered to hand down her little-used table to me. I drove my pregnant self right over in the summer heat and helped load it into my car practically immediately, and not long after started setting up shop in the nursery.
The top drawer now holds pocket diapers and back-up disposables. A few cloth drawers from the dollar store turned the shelf below into a home for cloth wipes, inserts and covers. On the top of the table I keep a spray bottle, to wet wipes during changes, and a pump bottle of baby oil and a bottle of baby soap at hand – I use a squirt of each and then fill the bottle with water for my wipe solution.
 
 
The bottom of the table stores a few other nursery items, like toys, and I snap two wet bags to the side of the table for easy access. When one bag is full, I can wash it with the diapers and still have a clean one to start the process over again.
Having my son that much closer to eye level during diaper changes – and let’s face it, there are a lot of them – has made it one of his favorite places to stretch out, smile and babble with me or my husband.
The only downside to my system is that I have to bring the baby to the table instead of bringing the diaper to the baby like I did with my first son. Keeping my bedsheets dry makes it well worth it.
Jessica Wiant is now a stay-at-home mom of two who was once a working mom with a (cloth diapered!) son in daycare.
Tags: babies, baby boys, changing table, cloth diapers, convenience, families, nursery, organizing
Posted in FuzziBunz Blog, Jessica Wiant | No Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2012
BY JESSICA WIANT
When you venture into cloth diapering, some things are a given, like less waste and more laundry. Then there are the things you count on because you’ve heard they’re true, like how odds are you may deal with less diaper rash.
Then there are the weird things.
For example, I always thought my son just had stinky pee. I had no idea until I used my first cloth diapers that it was actually the disposable diapers themselves.
Because I didn’t start with cloth diapers until my first son was about 10 months old, my experience was a bit different than it is starting out with a newborn, like I did with my second son at the end of this summer. By the time kid No. 1 had a fluffy bum, he was toddling around and eating solids. His poop was of a consistency that it could sometimes roll right out into the toilet. Ironically, we started out using cloth at night, since I was working and he was at daycare during the day. We had no problems.
With my first son, I exclusively bought one-size diapers. I had no issues with leaks, I never doubled-up on inserts and they all fit from then until the time he potty-trained a few months after he turned 2. I did struggle with laundry, trying out several different routines and dealing with ammonia more than once.
I got a short break, at least. My first finished with diapers by March and my second son was due later in August. Even though I spent that time wondering how cloth diapering an infant might be different, I had my confidence. If diapering an older baby was so easy and effective, how could doing it with a tiny one be any more difficult?
Then my baby boy got here and I learned a very important lesson: A smaller baby does NOT mean less pee. Sure, I remembered those messy poops, but this much pee? It didn’t seem possible! I’ve struggled this time to find a combination that works. Part of the challenge has been finding a good fit and part of it is the sheer volume of output. As he’s grown, the things that works have already been changing. Our FuzziBunz Elite seem to fit best at the moment on our now 3-month-old 16-pounder. Laundry this time around, has been simple – that exclusively breast-fed poop washes right out!
Despite the different challenges we’ve faced, my only regret is that I didn’t start using cloth diapers sooner. At any age, cloth diapers have their benefits, and no matter the size of your baby, they’re always cute!
Jessica Wiant is now a stay-at-home mom of two who was once a working mom with a (cloth diapered!) son in daycare.
Image via CBS News
Tags: cloth diaper newborn, cloth diaper toddler, cloth diapers, fuzzibunz cloth diapers, jessica wiant
Posted in FuzziBunz Blog, Jessica Wiant | No Comments »
Monday, November 12th, 2012
BY JESSICA WIANT
After my second son arrived, we’d been home for one night before I happily dove into my stockpile of cloth diapers (even earlier than I planned) and didn’t look back.
But three years ago, things were quite different.
When I brought my first son home, I had an entire closet of all brands and sizes of disposable diapers and wipes. I was so proud of my collection, gathered and assembled over months, bought with coupons or given to us as gifts. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought of using cloth diapers. I liked the idea. I considered it, briefly. Ultimately it seemed like nothing more than a nice idea that wasn’t actually implementable, so I moved on.
About 10 months later, when cloth diapers showed up on my radar once again, I bought one – a single diaper – and tried it out a few times. It was easy to put on, it worked, and I washed it without a problem, so I got a few more, and, eventually, I was cloth-diapering my son full-time.
Today, I’m using those same diapers, which used through potty-training with him, all over again on his little brother. Thinking back on it now, there were a few key reasons I initially ignored my instinct and avoided cloth diapers.
Here’s are those reasons, and how I recommend overcoming them:
Cost: The first time you see the price tag on a cloth diaper, there may be a bit of sticker shock. This is especially true if you’re pregnant for the first time. One diaper costing what a big box of them does can seem intimidating. Diaper a baby for a few days and you’ll see just how quickly that closet full of diapers is gone. When my second son was a couple of weeks old, I actually took a tally and over 24 hours, I changed his diaper 11 times. Over a lifetime of diapering, one initial investment is beans compared to having to continually run out for more disposables. The deal gets even more sweet if you plan on having more children, not to mention that there’s a thriving market for used diapers so when you’re done, you can make back a good chunk of what you’ve spent.
Laundry: Admittedly, figuring out a wash routine that works can be tricky, but let common sense prevail and it’s soon just a simple chore. I’ve had better luck keeping my cloth diapers clean this time than all the spit-upon clothes we go through!
Function: Get the right cloth diaper and the right fit and you’ll have fewer leaks than with disposables. You’ll also avoid all the creams and ointments that often go hand-in-hand with disposables.
Naysayers: This is the No. 1 reason I passed on the idea of cloth diapers at first. At the time, I wasn’t really friends with other moms, let alone moms who cloth diapered. There is a tremendous online community of cloth diapering parents. Seek it out and participate (and take some of the advice in stride). You’ll find support, and probably a few real friends, as a result.
Day care: I knew my first son was going to spend his days with someone else, and the idea of imposing something on them that I wasn’t sure about myself sealed the deal. After I did start using cloth diapers at home, I became comfortable enough to pitch the idea to my son’s care, too, but that’s a story for another day!
Jessica Wiant is now a stay-at-home mom of two who was once a working mom with a (cloth diapered!) son in daycare.
Tags: cloth diaper challenges, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, diapering challenges
Posted in FuzziBunz Blog, Jessica Wiant | No Comments »
|
|
