Frequent Changes

Of course, the common reason for a diaper rash is chronic wetness on your baby’s skin.  Get your baby out of a wet diaper frequently, especially if using prefolds.  Consider using elimination communication, even part time, to help your baby learn to potty out of diapers earlier, or at least become familiar with the potty early on.  Trust me, it works.

Nighttime can be the most common problem, since you are less likely to make frequent diaper changes at night.  This is when we have to incorporate good nighttime cloth diaper systems, and a few other tricks.  A good nighttime diaper system usually includes a doubler or second absorption layer.  This will suck up all that pee.  The other part of a good system is a wicking layer, like fleece.  You can use a fleece liner like Bummis Reusable Fleece Linersor BabyKicks Doubler Liner.

Here’s a Trick:

You could find a fleece blanket and cut strips to lay in between your baby’s skin and the prefold for nighttime.  This works like the liners I mentioned above, but may be more cost effective (of course if you have to buy a fleece blanket it may not be less expensive).

Recommended Nighttime Diapers

Basically, I recommend any diaper with fleece lining.  Note, however, that fleece may invent rashes as well, if not cared for properly.  What you want to avoid is heat and moisture.  Heat and moisture create a breeding ground for micro-bacteria.  Those microorganisms are what cause fungus and rashes.

Fleece allows air to flow, which decreases the heat.  Fleece also acts to wick away moisture.

So, try any pocket diapers like Fuzzi Bunz or bumGenius.  Another to try is DryBees Fleece Nighttime pocket diaper.  Or consider a Rumparooz Reusable Pocket Diaper coupled with a Rumparooz Microfiber 6R Soaker. The Rumparooz pocket diapers are a bit pricier than the FBs or BGs, but they are super high quality.

Detergent

Also be aware that detergents are a big cause of rashes.  You may have to experiment with what works for you, but I recommend Charlies or Rockin’ Green.

I suppose it makes sense that I haven’t included her feelings on the matter because up until recently, she wasn’t verbal enough to let us know what diapers she really wants to wear.  I will say that in all of the other cloth diaper blogs I have read, I rarely hear what the kiddies like.

Color Is MOST Important

It has come to my attention that colors are quite important in a toddler’s choice of diaper.  Actually, it goes beyond color.  Hue and tone seem to be important, though they won’t be able to explain that. They just like like they like, want what they want and let you know in no uncertain terms.

In other words, rich, bright colors are key.  That is why, though we love bumGenius One-Size and Fuzzibunz One Size best, she is partial to the few Happy Heiny’s that we have.

Every time I tell her we have to change her diaper or put a diaper on, she says “Blue bopper.”  Bopper is her word for diaper.  And although we have a few blue Bumgenius and Fuzzibunz, I know every time that she means the Happy Heineys.  If it’s not the blue one, then it’s the yellow one she wants.  The colors on these two are just so nice and bright and deep.  After all, we have blue in the other brands, but she specifically likes the Happy Heineys.

Mind you, I was not thrilled at first with the fit and style of snapping on these diapers.  But now that it has become our go to diaper, I have grown to like them.  They are really soft, and now that she’s a little older, they fit my daughter much better.

Maybe Just A Phase, But She Likes What She Likes

I’m not sure how long this phase will last.  Actually, today she asked for pink, and pointed to one of our Grovia fitteds.  Perhaps she’ll have some new favorites pretty soon.  Clearly, cloth diapers can be fun…

I am talking about the Birth Relaxation Kit.  You may have heard of hypnobirthing before, which is hypnosis designed for childbirth.  That is what the Birth Relaxation Kit is.  It’s a series of hypnosis, affirmations and deeply relaxing music selections with subliminal birthing affirmations.  Also included is a fantastic guide book about eliminating fears and other pain management techniques.

Why My Wife Liked It

My wife wasn’t interested in a birthing class.  This was her second birth, so we already had a childbirth education class.  She was specifically looking for hypnosis for childbirth, and particularly, she was looking for a home program where she could just get the recordings and listen whenever and wherever she wanted.  The Birth Relaxation Kit fulfilled those needs well.

She really found the recordings relaxing.  As noted on the website, the Kit was the perfect way for her to escape her daily stressors.  She also really enjoyed the music.  It wasn’t cheesy either, as often these hypno programs and music mp3s can be.

Most importantly, it worked!  I really think so anyway.  My wife claims she felt very little pain! Granted, I gave her many lower back massages, and she spent a good deal of time in a birthing tub (water is very helpful during labor).  But I can tell my wife was in a much different “place” than when our first daughter was born.

The Kit Is Great, But So Is Practice

They say practice makes perfect.  Indeed, I believe that to be the case here.  We can only say great things about the Birth Relaxation Kit.  But I think the reason it worked so well is because my wife listened to the recordings every day.  She was diligent.  She also listened to the affirmations mp3s daily.

As I have read subsequently, hypnosis works best when:

• The subject believes it will work.
• Frequent sessions are practiced.
• The subject is willing and open to behavior change.

Price Is Right

Many hypno birthing courses cost well over $100, and as much as $150.  The Birth Relaxation Kit is merely $79.  Honestly, that made it worth trying, even if it didn’t work out (but thankfully it did!).

So if you are the kind of person who is a little (or a lot) scared of birth, fearful about labor and the pain, I highly recommend this as a solution to many of those issues.  They cannot guarantee a pain free birth.  But it can certainly happen.  At the least, you mind (and therefore body) will be put at ease, and certainly there is a mind body connection.

Quick flashback: We have been using disposables at nighttime because we had experienced a few leaks with some of our cloth diaper systems.  One thing to note is that as our daughter weans we expect less peeing at nighttime in terms of both frequency and volume.  At that point we would switch back to cloth.

I had mentioned about Broody Chick 100% Compostable Diapers and how I am very interested in trying them, especially because they got such great reviews.

The thing that held me back from getting them was price.  Our budget has gotten a bit tighter, and we certainly don’t want to spend extra on things that are just getting thrown away.

Enter ATTITUDE Eco-Friendly Diapers.  These are also fully biodegradable and compostable.  They are 100% FSC Certified wood pulp in fluff, and 100% chlorine free Hypoallergenic.  The packaging is even biodegradable.

So what sold me on these?  I’ll be honest: price.  Although Broody Chick gets rave reviews, they cost $17.99 for a 32 count.  Compare that with Attitude which are $18.99 for 40 diapers.  Okay, so not a huge difference.  But when you’re on a budget, every penny counts.

The great thing about Attitude Diapers is that we are able to balance our need to be cost effective with our strong desire to be eco-friendly.

Now, although the reviews were mixed for Attitude diapers, we are finding them to work great and suit our needs.

One complaint was that the tabs ripped off very easily, and often came off when taking them out of the package.  I have never found this to be the case so far.  Perhaps knowing that people complained about that, I have taken care when I remove the diapers from the packaging.  I also take car as I am putting them on (and I make sure my daughter does not open and close the tabs repeatedly as she so often loves to do ).

One other complaint is that they are not soft.  I’m not saying they are super soft.  I just don’t think they are uncomfortable for my daughter.  I am much happier putting a diaper on her that I know is healthy for her.

Final Note: Remember to be truly biodegradable you need to use compostable diapers with compostable bagsor compostable trash bags.

Truly, if you consider putting things in the washing machine, and then into the dryer, work, then it is definitely more work to use cloth over disposables.  I don’t really consider that “work” per se.  But certainly I have better things I could be doing with my time.  After all, there are many weeks that I do laundry just about every day, between loads of diapers, our clothing, my daughters clothing, rags, linens.  It’s kind of never-ending.

So How Often Do I Wash Diapers?

This can be different for everybody, and it may depend on your system, or even your tolerance to stinkage.  In our house, we don’t usually go more than 2 days.  By day three, there is a nice urine odor coming from the diaper pail.  As it is, we use elimination communication (EC) with our daughter, so we actually have few soiled diapers than conventional diaperers.

Still, we are not really fond of having a room smell like pee, not to mention it is unhealthy to breathe that in, especially in a humid summer!

The Cost Of Convenience

There’s an article by the StayAtHomePapa I like called The Cost Of Convenience.  It talks about how with each item of convenience we buy–cloth diapers for example–there is a cost, whether it’s environmental, health, or monetary.  In the case of disposable diapers, there is a cost of all three!

So, the trade-off is, if you use cloth diapers, you will have a little more work cut out for you.  On the other hand, if you use disposables, you WILL spend MORE MONEY, you will POLLUTE more and you will pose potential HEALTH HAZARDS for your baby, the extent of which we don’t yet fully know.

Then one day, I had my daughter at a friend’s house.  She was in their kiddie pool.  Not 1 minute after she got in the pool I started seeing little brown floaters.  Uh oh.  This couldn’t be!  I mean, my daughter, though 18 months, is an EC baby.  Plus, this cloth swim diaper is supposed to be leak proof.

Not so.

One problem I found with the Swimmi, is that it retains water a bit too well.  The water collects and weighs the diaper down.  The result is that the elastic around the legs stretches, leaving room for the mess to get out.

While this may be a flaw in most cloth swim diapers, I decided to try the I-Play, which had gotten fantastic reviews on Amazon.

What’s Great About The I-Play

Okay, so while the white iPlay Swim Diaperis sorta plain, the design is great, and so far, no leak (although we’ve only had one real test ).

Well, the completely waterproof layer is what prevents leakage.  They fit really well, which is what I know really prevents leakage.  It also has a cool design, with side-snaps.  They are durable, and so far we have only good things to say about them.

Okay, so they’re made in China.  I’m not thrilled about that.  But sometimes you have to accept these things in order to not have poop leak out in your friend’s pool!

Others Agree About The IPlay

Indeed, I’m not the only one who is happy with the Iplay.  Others on Amazon are saying things like, “”Most important – THEY DO HOLD IN POO!” and “The iplay brand is the only one we found that absorbs on the inside and keeps waste from getting out at the same time.”

Enough said.  I’ll keep you posted on any other good swim diapers I find.

This is far from a failure.

First of all, at the heart of EC is communication. There is no doubt that our daughter communicates with us many times when she has to pee or poop.  There is no doubt that she understands (and has for a long time) what we are talking about when we talk to her about pottying.  Talk with her about going to the potty from an early age has opened up communication in ways that we aren’t fully aware of.

Okay, so that’s the philosophical spiel.

Here are the hard facts:

• She pooped mostly in the potty in the first 6-7 months (before solids were introduced…you know, when there were NO solid poops and they were really messy!).  We literally only had to change a poopy diaper a handful of times then.
• Currently, she either lets us know that she has to go, or lets us know right when she has gone (which is much less messy to clean).
• Many times, if we leave her diaper-free, she will go to the potty without help or being told.  So many times I have simply noticed that the potty has pee in it, and she’s off playing already.
• We do not battle over potty time.  If she doesn’t want to go (usually because of a developmental/growth phase, or being too into playing), we let her be; we might just change the diaper.  We do this knowing that there are plenty of times that she does go willingly.

Reminder: she is a year and half old, and most kids are pushing 3 years before potty training, with some still wearing diapers close to age 4.

Okay, so there are times when we have her diaper free and she pees on the floor.  We have even had poop on the floor.  I will tell you that it’s still easier to clean than a soiled diaper.

Her are some tips we have learned in our experience:

• Have an open-door policy.  If you keep disappearing behind a door, how is your child going to understand what you’re doing in there?  If they see you going to the “potty,” they will be encouraged to go.
• Never force them to go to the potty, even if you know they have to go (and there have been times when she went on the floor right after struggling not to be on the potty!).  It will only associate the potty with struggle.  That’s exactly what you don’t want.
• Offer potty opportunities before and after sleep, and before and after an outing.
• Never get mad if you have then diaper free and they go on the floor.  I’ll admit there have been a few instances when I got a little annoyed.  But remember, you want this all to be a positive experience.  If it happens that they pee on the floor, talk about it.  Remind them gently that pee goes in the potty.  ”We all pee on the potty…”

This journey continues.

Feel free to ask me any questions.  I love answering them!

I was recently told about a cloth diaper company I previously hadn’t heard of: Charlie Banana.  So who is this eco-friendly monkey who doesn’t monkey around when it comes to baby and children’s products?

They are a global enterprise, including a workforce of Canadians, Americans, French, British, Chinese and Nepalese.  They keep their carbon footprint small while also keeping shipping costs down.

Although they focus on eco-friendliness, the also “design products that anyone would feel confident using on themselves and on their babies, and that they would recommend to their friends. We wanted products that make you feel good on so many different levels,” (from the Charlie Banana website).

Charlie Banana Cloth Diapers

Okay, so let me talk about Charlie Banana cloth diapers.  As someone that uses BumGenius and Fuzzibunz, I find the Charlie Banana one size totally comparable.  They cost just a little bit more.  A Charlie Banana one size is between $19 and $25, whereas the others are between $17 and $22.

Here are some of the pluses of CB cloth diapers:

• There is an interior flap (unlike Fuzzibunz) so you can put in the typical cloth insert, but you could alternatively put in a disposable insert, which is great for when you’re out and don’t want to deal with carrying a wet bag full of soggy diaper inserts.
• I think they are softer than both BumGenius and Fuzzibunz, although they’re all pretty nice.
• The fit is great, especially around the legs.  This, of course, helps prevent leaks.  This must be why they cost those few extra dollars per diaper than the BumGenius.

Seems like so many others agree that they are a bit superior to BumGenius and Fuzzibunz in the leak department.  I’m not ready to trade in my whole stash of BGs and FBs, mainly because we already have them, they work well and I don’t want to spend all the extra money.  But we now have a couple, and I’m considering going back from our disposables-at-night-system.  Charlie Banana may be a contender!

• Use cloth diapers as usual and just deal with laundry, detergent build-up in someone else’s washing machine and soiled diaper odors while on vacation.
• Use disposable diapers (this is what we recently did, and what caused me to research other solutions because I don’t like the chemicals and the environmental repercussions).
• Use disposable liners in PUL diaper covers.

In fact, in the last article I wrote about disposable diaper liners, I mentioned Broody Chicks as another solution.  I had not yet tried them, so I made the mistake of lumping them in the disposable liner category, when in fact they are diapers, not liners.

They are disposable diapers.

But they are super-disposable diapers, because:

Broody Chicks are 100% natural, and they are 100% compostable!

In review, they are as absorbent as Pampers and Huggies.  They don’t have awful chemical or perfume smells.  They are not rough. They are a true solution to travel and disposable nighttime diapering.

They do cost more than a regular disposable.  But often the eco-friendly thing to do has either a monetary or time cost.

I also highly suggest buying compostable bags with these, either from Broody Chick, Gdiaper or anyone else that makes them.

To truly be eco-friendly and compostable, you need to put them in a compostable diaper bags.  If you just put them in a regular trash bag it defeats the purpose of being biodegradable.

By some Amazon reviews, they tend to run on the big side.  This won’t be an issue for us, as we’re dealing with a year and a half old toddler.  Most of the people who had complaints about size were dealing with newborns and infants.

Price Comparison With Huggies Pure and Natural

Broody Chicks are $17.99 for a 32 count on Amazon.  Huggies Pure And Natural are around the $20 mark on Amazon, for a 60 count.  Clearly, you wouldn’t be buying Broody Chick for the price.  And, of course, add in a pack of disposable bags.  A 50 count of the Broody Chick compostable diaper bags is a little shy of $8.

Again, this is an eco- and health-friendly choice.  This isn’t about price.  Ideally, this is for families who use cloth diapers but need a disposable alternative for trips or nighttime.

• We knew there would be detergent residue in the washing machine at our friends’ house that we didn’t want on our daughter’s diapers or sensitive skin.
• We didn’t want to deel with washing diapers or doing laundry at all for those 5 days (it’s vacation after all!).
• We didn’t want stinky diapers in the car during long 8-10 hour car rides to and from our destination.

So, we used disposables.  Reluctantly.

Now I’m doing a face palm, realizing that we could have used disposable insertsinstead.

How Disposable Inserts Work

Disposable inserts, also known as flushable liners do just what they sound like they do.  You simply lay the liner in the diaper and flush it away when it is soiled.  They are biodegradable.

For example, we use Bum Genius and Fuzzibunz pocket diapers, so we would just lay the disposable liner in there, rather than stuffing the pocket.

Brands Worth Checking Out

GDiapers are very popular.  They are also truly biodegradable and compostable.  They will decompose in about 6 months.

Grovia disposables are another option, although the sticky tabs that hold it in place become a sticky mess, so I’m told.  However, if you read the instructions, you’re only supposed to use the sticky tabs in underwear, not on PUL covers.  For PUL covers just lay the insert in the diaper and you’re good to go.

Some other options are Flip, Charlie Banana and Broody Chick 100% Natural Fully Compostable Diapers.  The great thing about Broody chicks is they are completely natural and compostable.  They are chlorine-free, hypo-allergenic and super soft.  They also have 3 layers for absorbency.

Advantages Of Disposable Inserts Over Disposable Diapers

Okay, so why would we use disposable liners over disposable diapers?  I mean, either way you’re throwing them away.  Not so, as the liners like Broody Chick and g-diapers are truly compostable.  So, you are definitely not adding to the mass of disposable diapers in landfills.

Of course, truly use them right you cannot just throw them in the garbage.  You need compostable diaper bags made by GDiaper, Broody Chick or Nature Baby Care (What you would do is put your diapers in the compostable bags and then put those bags in a dumpster–don’t put them into another trash bag or it defeats the purpose!!!).

The disadvantage is the cost.  It would be cheaper to use disposables.  But it is the eco-conscious way to go for travel, which is why I’m sold.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes on our next trip!