Posts Tagged ‘cloth diapers’
Monday, October 29th, 2012
We’re changing things up here on the FuzziBunz blog! For the next few months, you’ll be hearing from five real moms who have learned how to make cloth diapering work for them! From diapering multiple sets of multiples (yes, you read that right!) to diapering kids with special needs who require extended diapering, join us to learn about five modern moms and their adventures with fluff! – FuzziBunz Blog Editors
When it comes to cloth diapering, some moms like to pretend it’s all fluffy bums and saving the planet. Not Chantal Shelstad, a self-proclaimed “crunchy” stay-at-home mom who lives in Alabama with her daughter, Penny and her husband, a pilot in the Army. Chantal is more than happy to own up to the fact that cloth diapering parents have to face plenty of difficulties, transitions, stigmas (and yes, plenty of poop!) …but it is still worth it in the end.
When Chantal isn’t caring for her baby, she’s writing one of her numerous blogs, working on her fiction, and enjoying what she describes her “crunchy mom” practices, including babywearing, eating a Paleo diet and keeping her post-baby body fit and healthy.
Tags: chantal shelstad, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, crunchy mom, green living
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Monday, October 29th, 2012
We’re changing things up here on the FuzziBunz blog! For the next few months, you’ll be hearing from five real moms who have learned how to make cloth diapering work for them! From diapering multiple sets of multiples (yes, you read that right!) to diapering kids with special needs who require extended diapering, join us to learn about five modern moms and their adventures with fluff! -FuzziBunz Blog Editors
When Sarah Scales tells people that she has four children in cloth diapers, the responses are either: “that’s awesome” or “you’re nuts!” or nothing in between. What most people don’t know, she says, is that most people don’t know just how easy cloth diapering can be. Yes, even when you’re cloth diapering four children at once.
Sarah is a stay at home mom with five children, a first grader and — are you ready for this? – two sets of twins still in diapers. A native of Iowa she is a recent transplant to Florida where she’s very involved with her local multiples club. She loves playing with the kids, nights out with her husband, warm weather and of course…FuzziBunz cloth diapers.
Look out for Sarah’s column about why cloth diapering twin bottoms is twice as fun!
Tags: cloth diapering multiples, cloth diapers, fuzzibunz cloth diapers, sarah scales
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Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
This is my last post for Cloth Diapering Unwrapped and it’s making me a little sad. It’s been several weeks since my daughter first showed interest in the potty and has been about two weeks that she has been using the potty consistently. These days she in underwear most of the day, with very few accidents, and cloth diapers are quickly becoming a memory in our house.
And I was fully unprepared.
Yes, I know there was probably a day (or five) several months ago that I was elbow-deep in poopy toilet water, swirling a dirty diaper around and wishing desperately for this day to arrive. But now that it’s here, I’m feeling nostalgic for the warm fluffy diapers coming out of the dryer and the unmistakable look of her cloth-diapered bum crawling around the family room.
In her room, right next to the new basket of pristine Minnie Mouse underwear, her cloth diapers are still neatly stuffed and put away in the changing table, just as they’ve always been. I just can’t put them away just yet. Because to me, they represent the journey we have been on over the past two years.
When I think back to all the stages we went through with cloth diapers – the research, the conversations, the arrival of my first “fluffy mail” shipment, the trial and error of the first several weeks of newborn diapering, the battle with stink, the huge stockpot boiling the inserts, the bright colors and white-white inserts flapping in the breeze in the backyard, the dunking and swirling – it gives me a great sense of pride that we’ve been able to stick with it and do something great for our child and our planet.
With our commitment to cloth diapers, I figure that our family alone has saved roughly 3,500 diapers from entering landfills and has saved ourselves almost $800 in just over twenty-one months.
And that is something to celebrate.
So while I’m sad to see my cloth diapers retired from regular use (and sad to put an end to this column!), I’m excited by our “stats”… and at the prospect of what I can use the diapers for next. Once I have the heart to remove them from the changing table, that is.
I am so grateful to the online cloth diapering community for all of the information and wisdom I’ve learned from all of you. And I wish all of you the best of luck on your cloth diapering journeys whether you’re just beginning or moving on to the next chapter like me. Thank you for reading!
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every week.
Tags: Cloth Diapering Unwrapped, cloth diapers, fuzzibunz cloth diapers
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Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
Everyone I talk cloth diapers with knows how smitten I am with the pocket variety.
But let me take a quick step back.
When I was a cloth diapering newbie and apparently had a lot more energy, I tried a bunch of different types of cloth diapers on my daughter. I tried AIOs, fitted diapers, prefolds with covers, and a few different brands of pocket diapers.
Pockets ended up being the clear winner in my book for their functionality and ease of use. A pocket diaper is comprised of two layers – a waterproof outer layer and a fleece (or other soft material) inner layer that sits next to the baby’s skin. The two layers are sewn together at the edges leaving a “pocket” that can be stuffed to provide the absorbency. And of course, FuzziBunz is my favorite of the pockets.
In my head, I had always known that pocket diapers could be extremely versatile, but it has only been recently that I’ve started to actually experiment with stuffing. And when you play around with the absorbency a little, it’s amazing how versatile they really can be.
So I thought I’d give a little run down of how you can stuff pocket diapers to get the most out of these hard working diapers:
- Microfiber inserts that come with the diapers. This is the obvious choice and the only thing I stuffed into diapers until recently. These guys definitely do the job, they fit the pocket perfectly and they have plenty of absorbency for a normal wetter if changed every two hours or so.
- Minky inserts. These are the new breed of inserts from FuzziBunz. They come with the One-Size Elites or you can buy a pack of the insert separately. And I love them. They absorb the same amount or more than the microfiber insert in a much slimmer package, making for a much trimmer profile on baby’s bum. They are billed as being odor resistant and I have to say that I have never had an odor problem with mine. I dream about replacing all of my inserts with these gems.
- All Natural Cotton or Hemp inserts. These natural fibers absorb a LOT of liquid with a very trim profile. And hemp is naturally antibacterial. They make great doublers because they are so thin. I personally have only tried hemp in my pocket diapers and they definitely don’t hold as much as the microfiber ones making for a couple of leaky situations.
- Pre-folds. Using good quality cotton prefolds in pocket diapers is a trick I’ve recently perfected in my pocket diapers. They are obviously not the trimmest option out there, but they saved me when I was fed up with stinky microfiber. I just folded the prefold and stuffed them into the pocket. For some reason, they never developed a stink and they wash up beautifully. And their absorbency is pretty amazing.
- Towels. Never tried it, but it just goes to show you that anything can be stuffed into pocket diapers. They are really just a way to hold the absorbency in place. So yes, absorbent hand towels (bought on sale or second hand, perhaps?), cut up receiving blankets or even old sweatshirts, tshirts, socks, make an easy emergency (or everyday!) alternative to specially-made inserts.
- Double-stuffed. Whatever you’re keen on stuffing into your pockets, don’t ever forget that you can always add absorbency (and perhaps add time between diaper changes?) by doubling up. Add a thin hemp or cotton insert underneath your regular microfiber friend and you’ve added a ton of extra “space” for liquids without increasing the size of your baby’s behind (much). Or two microfibers. Or two Minkies. Or a Minky and a microfiber. The possibilities are endless, so if you’re having leak issues (maybe your baby is finally sleeping through the night but now wakes up wet?), try a doubler. You can thank me later. ☺
What do you stuff into your pocket diapers? Which of these methods works best for you?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every week.
Photo Credit: Life As You Live It.
Tags: cloth diapers, how to stuff cloth diapers, preventing leaks in cloth diapers, stuffing cloth diapers
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Tuesday, August 28th, 2012
Wipes are one of the things I have gone “around and around” with since I started cloth diapering.
I started with disposable wipes. At the beginning of my cloth diapering journey, I was slightly overwhelmed and felt that using disposable wipes – as I had with my first baby – would just be easier. I felt overwhelmed by cloth diapers and cloth wipes just threatened to throw me into overload. So I gave myself a little break and went with disposable wipes at the beginning.
But then. Then came the problem of what to DO with the wipes. Exactly how to dispose of them when you are not disposing of the diaper. My habit/instinct was to put the dirty wipes on top of the dirty diaper, which I usually leave lying open on the changing table. Therein lies problem #1 with disposable wipes: how to gingerly pick them up out of the dirty diaper while covered in nastiness and still needing to find a place to throw them away.
I still had my Diaper Champ set up for the odd disposable diaper, so I just made an “eeew” face, stuffed the wipes as fast as I could into the hole, flipped it over and hoped for the best. Enter problem #2: the poor Diaper Champ, a device that was never intended to be a place to dispose of paper thin, wet wipes, was always getting stuck, and worse, the inside of the well was always covered in poo (it was breastmilk poo at that point, but still). Blech.
You’re guessing where this is going: It didn’t take me long to make the switch to cloth wipes.
As soon as I got my act together on the cloth diapers when my daughter was about 4 weeks, I realized cloth wipes would not be a big deal. I started with an old disposable wipes container that had a pop-top. I filled it with a stack of 16 cheapo baby washcloths folded in half (the kind without the piped edges because they lay flatter in the container). Then, I filled the container up with water covering the washcloths and added either 1) a few drops of California Baby baby wash and swirled it around, or 2) several sprays of the California Baby Diaper Area Wash. That number of wipes usually lasted me a couple days. And I don’t like to let them sit for longer than two days anyway to prevent bacteria growth (so only soak number of wipes you think you’ll use in two days).
Cloth wipes are like jelly to the cloth diaper peanut butter – they just work well together. When I was wiping up a mess, I no longer had to worry about accidently putting the disposable wipes in the washer with the cloth diapers (though it did happen a couple times and they actually come through in one piece – not a shredded mess as you might guess). I just piled stinky on top of stinky, rolled the whole thing into a ball of stinky and plopped it in the bag to wait for laundry day.
Now, I should mention that when baby starts solids and the real-deal poops begin, there is a little more finagling with the cloth wipes. Since the diaper should be rinsed and swirled to remove the solid waste, I usually try to wad up the dirty wipes into a ball with a clean washcloth exposed on the outside and then stuff that ball into the hanging diaper pail with the other dirty diapers before I go to take care of the diaper. But even that can get nasty come laundry day. Oh, and the cheap cloth wipes do need to be replaced every so often (going with a higher quality cloth wipe to begin with might solve that and would probably work out to the same cost overall).
Today, I don’t use very many wipes in a day, so I go back and forth between cloth and disposable wipes and use whatever I have available at that moment. But as I’ve learned, used wipes can be pretty offensive no matter which method you choose.
I will say that cloth wipes make me feel a heckuva lot better about the whole experience and I think my daughter agrees – I mean, who wouldn’t want to be wiped with a soothing, nice-smelling, soft washcloth to get rid of the nasties?
Tags: cloth diaper wipes, cloth diapers, cloth wipes, fuzzibunz wonder wipes, wonder wipes
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Monday, August 20th, 2012
Melissa Smith and Jeniffer Smith are sisters-in-law and co-bloggers on Sisters in Cloth, a guide to cloth diapering, breastfeeding, babywearing, frugal and green living. Melissa, a mother of four, began cloth diapering her third child and eventually, inspired Jeniffer to do the same when her first baby was born. Together, they are passionate about living and parenting as naturally as possible — from homemade detergent to breastfeeding to…of course…using cloth diapers!
Q: How have cloth diapers changed your life?
JS: Using cloth diapers has made me realize how much I depend on companies to provide things I could make at home. I’ve become much more “green” since switching to cloth, and I’ve learned a lot of ways to keep my family healthier. Cloth diapers have been my “gateway green!”
MS: With my first two children I spent so much money on disposable diapers, even buying the “cheap” diapers that didn’t work as well. We were a young, struggling family, and there were many weeks where the money I had to spend on diapers made me wonder how we were going to buy basic needs like groceries. It is so freeing knowing that no matter how tight the bank account gets, my babies have clean diapers, and that I’m not taking money from our food budget or electricity to provide them.
Q: The first thing I do when I wake up is….
JS: Because I’m nearing the end of my pregnancy, I use the bathroom and then get breakfast and coffee made for me and my daughter.
MS: Normally nurse the baby next to me! As soon as my feet hit the floor I am on my way to brush my teeth, or I feel gross and can’t think. After that it’s time to start the coffee pot!
Q: No matter how much time it takes, I always….
JS: Spend way too much time online. The only way I’ve found to curb it is to stay off completely. That leads to me tweeting and checking emails more on my phone than online, but it’s easier for me to get off of my phone than for me to get off the Internet!
MS: Nurse my baby when he asks for it. At eighteen months this isn’t as often as it used to be, but it still happens a lot, and I still sometimes feel like all I do is nurse all day long!
Q: The most unusual thing in my diaper bag or purse is…
JS: I have a sample of laundry detergent in my purse. It was put there after I opened some fluff mail at the post office, and I haven’t used it or moved it since!
MS: At the moment I think it’s a matchbox car. My three year old loves to hand me random toys while we are out and about and they end up living in my purse forever.
Q: If I could live in one outfit for the rest of my life, it would be…
JS: Jeans and a t-shirt. I go for comfort most days.
MS: I’m really not picky about clothes. I love flowy skirts, but I’m just as happy in jeans and a t-shirt. The one wardrobe item I absolutely wish I could wear every day of the year are my flip-flops! I wear them as far into the fall and winter as I possibly can, and at the first sign of spring they are back to full-time use.
Tags: cloth diapers, fuzzibunz cloth diapers, jeniffer smith, melissa smith, Monday Mama, sisters in cloth
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Tuesday, August 14th, 2012
 By the time she’s ten, my daughter probably won’t have any vivid memories of her cloth diapering years. In fact, experts say that most people cannot recall much of anything substantial before they are three or four years old. All I have to say is that it’s a darn good thing I’m taking lots of pictures.
Hopefully someday, she’ll look back at her baby pictures and notice her cute, fluffy bum poking out of her adorable outfits (though it will be a different experience from my own because my daughter has literally thousands of baby/toddler pictures while her mama probably has about 30. Certainly makes me wonder how all of these digital pictures will affect the memory and recall of certain events for our children…But maybe that’s another discussion for another day).
Anyway, I know that she won’t remember actually being in cloth diapers, but I hope that somehow the knowledge that she was cloth diapered will remind her of a few things for the rest of her life:
- The earth is our only home and it’s up to us to take care of it. Big things, small things, it all makes a difference. And the difference cloth diapering makes really adds up. She can be proud of the environmental commitment her family made.
- She was a trendsetter. When she’s reflecting on cloth diapering (perhaps it will be when she’s considering cloth diapering her baby), I hope – for all of our sakes – that cloth diapering is a much more mainstream practice. She can tell her friends that she was cloth diapered back when wash-at-home pocket diapers were still in their infancy (or toddlerhood as the case may be) and they can ooh and aah and say that there is no way they would ever think about putting their baby in disposables!
- (And along those lines…) She is the next generation in a long line of cloth diaper wearers. Her mama wore prefolds with pins and plastic pants in the seventies when disposables were all the rage, her grandfather was doted upon by his mother and childless aunts and probably never sat in a wet cloth diaper for more than one minute. And that brings us back to countless generations before that who were also cloth diapered because there weren’t any other options. That’s some serious tradition.
- Her mama loves her. I’m not – AT ALL – saying that somehow cloth diapering mamas love their children more. Not at all. But I hope that she (and all children) will be able to look at the pictures of her in diapers and be able to see and feel the love that surrounded her in those early years.
- It wasn’t easy, but we did it anyway. There are so many wonderful benefits to cloth diapering that her dad and I chose to plop, rinse and swirl poop into the toilet and wash diapers in our laundry room all in the name of protecting her cute little behind.
- She has our help with college. It maybe doesn’t compute dollar for dollar, but we did save money by reusing her diapers and we were able to start a college savings fund for her and her brother. Truth be told, I think it’s so important to start saving for their educations when they are young, so we probably would have started a 529 anyway, but every bit helps!!
What do you hope your children take from their cloth diapering roots (whether they actually remember it or not!)?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every week.
Tags: Cloth Diapering Unwrapped, cloth diapers, fuzzibunz cloth diapers
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Monday, August 13th, 2012
Cara N. is ais a mother of two, wife, fitness instructor, personal trainer and nutrition consultant who blogs about her healthy lifestyle at Your World: Healthy and Natural. Since her first child was born, she has fed her passion for healthy living by learning even more about nutrition, fitness, natural personal care products (you guessed it…cloth diapers!) and ways to keep our homes and families safe and healthy.
Q: How have cloth diapers changed your life?
They have saved me loads of money with three little ones, and I love that I don’t have to worry about any nasty chemicals getting on my baby’s skin with cloth diapers.
Q: The first I do when I wake up is…
Drink a protein shake and go teach my fitness classes.
Q: No matter how much time it takes, I always…
Cook healthy food for my family. Their health is a huge priority in my life.
Q: The most unusual thing in my diaper bag or purse is…
Jeepers, that is a hard one! I guess probably it is an extra cloth diaper.
Q: If I could live in one outfit for the rest of my life, it would be…
Sweatpants and a cute T-shirt.
Tags: cloth diapers, fitness, healthy living, natural parenting, nutrition
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Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
Earlier this week, my twenty-month-old went pee-pee on the potty for the first time.
I think it surprised me almost as much as it surprised her. She had been showing an interest in her brother’s bathroom endeavors for a couple weeks and has definitely done the hiding-in-closet-while-pooping move for at least a month, so I knew she was on her way to being ready.
With my son I wasn’t as aware of the readiness signs, but with this child, I’ve started letting her go to the little plastic potty to “try” whenever I changed her diaper even though she’s only 20 months. Usually it’s a lot of fake grunting, some proud smiling and a perfectly dry potty. But this particular day, she sat down and went pee-pee like a champ and we looked at each other with matching looks of astonishment on our faces. We did the requisite high-fiving, doing the potty-dance, celebrating with daddy and giving lots of compliments to entice her to do it again, but that, it seems, was the first and last time for now that she’ll use anything but a diaper to catch her pee.
A friend of mine and mom of three who also babysits other children in her home, swears by a particular potty-training regimen that I’m beginning to think might have some merit. In her experience, toddlers, especially girls, need to start talking about the potty, trying to go on the potty, using training pants, etc., at about 20 months of age. Then, the minute they turn two, you start full-on potty training and you’ll have no diapers within about a week. There is a limited window, her theory goes, and if you miss it, the child may be in diapers for another 9 months or even a year.
Some say that cloth diapers make it easier to potty train because they are more aware of a wet diaper than their disposable-clad counterparts. Whether that’s the case with my daughter or not, I think I may subscribe to my friend’s method for potty training. She’s at the right age to try it, so come December and her second birthday, we may be saying goodbye to diapers forever.
Beyond making me proud, the thought of gone diaper-less also made me a little sad. Sad that my baby, possibly my last baby, might be almost done with her cute cloth diapers – and that I might be done with my cute cloth diapers – forever. It’s an odd feeling. On one hand, its complete excitement to be done with diapers but on the other hand, I’m already a little nostalgic for that pile of warm, clean diapers in the basket or a rack of sunning dipes in the backyard (not so much for flicking poop into the toilet or putting dirty dipes into the washer!).
What is your plan for potty training? Has your child already shown signs of potty training readiness? What has worked/not worked for you?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every week.
Tags: Cloth Diapering Unwrapped, cloth diapers, potty training
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Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
How the heck is summer more than half over? Yes, the heat has been stifling – almost unbearable at times – but it seems like only last week we were still wondering if we needed a sweater and anticipating the last day of school.
Instead of getting caught up in thinking about school supplies and the crisp fall days ahead, I want to make the most of the summer we have left by doing the things that only happen in the summer. Inspired by a summer to-do list for kids I saw on Pinterest (which I am totally starting at the beginning of the summer next year and definitely getting my kids to help come up with the list), I decided to make a list of the things I’d still like to do with my kids before summer 2012 is over for good. There is definitely still time to accomplish most of these.
I’m making a commitment to our summer to-do list for the last few weeks of summer (and probably into September). I’m printing it out and posting it in my kitchen for inspiration, especially on the days with nothing on the calendar.
My kiddos, especially my son, are at an age that they are starting to appreciate learning and have a little longer attention span, but I think this is a great concept and can be tailored to any family, any age kids and any time frame.
So here goes:
- Stargazing. We are visiting my parents for a little vacation in an area where the stars are so much brighter and more visible than they are at home. I’m planning to let my 4-year-old stay up late one night to go out and look at the stars. He’ll be amazed.
- Summer time capsule. I love Jenn’s idea at the Clean and Scentsible Blog for creating a time capsule of the Summer of 2012. I think it has the potential to be a summer tradition for years to come!
- Use the pool. While I am pretty sick of slathering on sunscreen and chasing two energy balls around the pool, I think it’s necessary to continue using the pool and getting my kids in the water as much as I can while the weather is still warm. Swimming is a life-skill that they both still need to master and I think the more time we spend in or near the water, the better.
- Practice shoe tying. It’s time. My son is ready and wants to learn. We have more time to focus on it in the summer.
- Line dry the dipes. I always say I love the way my diapers look and feel after drying on the rack in the sun outside, but I can usually find an excuse not to haul them downstairs and outside to actually do it. My to-do list includes getting them out in the backyard, in the sun on a regular basis, before winter makes it impossible.
- Bubbles!
- Visit grandparents. I have still have two living grandfathers. One is almost 101 and the other is 90 and they both live several hours away from us, which makes it difficult to visit them when the rhythm of the school year gets the best of us. I think it’s very important for my kids to get to know their great-grandfathers and important for me to spend time with them, so we’re road-tripping it this summer!
- Watch the Olympics. It’s a great chance to talk to both of my kids about geography, different cultures and especially to expose them to different sports. Not to mention the dedication and physical commitment the athletes have made to their sport and their country. We have the DVR set!
- Nature scavenger hunt. Saw this one on Pinterest too from Chrissy at The Taylor House. Such a great idea, especially while we are visiting my parents in a more remote, rustic part of the country. And will be fun for both my preschooler and my toddler.
- Paint rocks. This is sort of a selfish one, but I’d love a little homemade décor for the garden, so I’m planning to enlist my über-creative kids to get painting, gluing and creating!
- Make s’mores. Preferrably over a campfire.
It’s not a huge list, but definitely doable for the remainder of the summer. Yes, there is still time! What will be on your end-of-summer to-do list?
Sarah is a mom of two and blogs about her adventures in motherhood, cloth diapering and everything in between. Catch her “Cloth Diapering Unwrapped” series on the FuzziBunz blog every week.
Tags: Cloth Diapering Unwrapped, cloth diapers, summer fun
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