Cloth Diapering |

Newborn Stash Cloth Diaper Giveaway

Oct 132012

13 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 12:01 am Cloth Diapering, GIVEAWAYS, PREGNANCY Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days to mastering cloth diapering, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, giveaway 9 Responses »

Win a HUGE STASH of newborn and one-size cloth diapers!

Welcome to the Newborn Stash Cloth Diaper Giveaway hosted by Daily Mothering and a group of fantastic bloggers! This incredible giveaway event is sponsored by Kissed By The Moon, a cloth diaper and natural parenting store. Together we are giving away a huge prize of cloth diapers and accessories to one lucky winner!

A little about the sponsor!

Kissed By The Moon offers a wide variety of cloth diapers and other natural parenting products. They provide excellent customer service and super fast shipping, along with cloth diaper rental programs, mystery fluff packages, Kissed Cash rewards, and gift registries. Join their newsletter and “like” them on Facebook for special promotions like coupon codes, sales, freebies, double Kissed Cash, and more!

SPECIAL EVENT COUPON: Shop at Kissed By The Moon and get 8% off your order over $25! Use coupon code nbstash at checkout! Expires Oct 27, 2012. Not valid on bumGenius, Flips, JuJuBe, Sloomb, Bumby, Ergo or Grovia items, as well as items already on sale and Mystery Fluff or rentals.

Giveaway time!

One winner will receive this amazing Newborn Stash valued at $295!

Prizes include:

Fuzzibunz Perfect Size XS Cloth Diaper
2 Swaddlebees Newborn Simplex Cloth Diapers (1 Swirls, 1 winner’s choice)
GroVia Newborn AIO Cloth Diaper
2 Lil Joey Newborn AIO Cloth Diapers
Bumgenius 4.0 Cloth Diaper (Mirror, Aplix)
Bumgenius Elemental Cloth Diaper (Sassy, Snap)
Bumgenius Freetime Cloth Diaper (Dazzle, Snap)
Bumgenius BabyLegs
Rumparooz Cloth Diaper (Limited Edition White with Black Snaps)
Swaddlebees One-Size Simplex Cloth Diaper (Red)
Blueberry Minky One-Size Pocket Cloth Diaper (Dinos)
AppleCheeks Cloth Diaper with Organic Insert
CJ’s BUTTer 8 oz Jar (Warm Vanilla Cake)
2 Pairs of Babee Greens Hemp/Organic Cotton Nursing Pads
White BabyLegs
Jujube Coin Purse and Key Ring

As you can see, there are many one-size diapers in the prize pack too, so even if you don’t have a newborn, you don’t want to miss this giveaway!

Giveaway ends October 20, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST.

This giveaway is open to USA only.

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

Complete the first easy entry to unlock the rest.

Remember, the more entries you submit, the better odds you have of winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Do cloth diapers make your house stink?

Oct 112012

11 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 3:20 pm Cloth Diapering, PREGNANCY Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days to master cloth diapering, cloth diapering, diapers, eco friendly parenting, green parenting, parenting, washing cloth diapers 8 Responses »

I am writing this post today because I was inspired by a recent question asked by another mother-to-be. Doesn’t cloth diapering make your house smell bad? Many people have an aversion to cloth diapering because they have memories from childhood of stinky bleach filled water pails that were filled with stinky poopy diapers. Gross.

I have good news for you! It is not like that anymore! You will not have a stinky home if you use cloth diapers.

Nowadays most people who use cloth use a dry pail system or wetbags. Let me break those down for you.

Dry pail:

Basically is a garbage can that is lined with a reusable and washable waterproof liner. You dump any solid waste in your toilet, use a diaper sprayer to clean off any left behind residue if you so choose, and then toss the dirty diaper in the pail.
When laundry day comes, you just dump everything in the washer (including the liner) and wash as usual.

Wetbag:

A waterproof lined fabric zippered bag that holds dirty diapers. It’s not in any way wet. There is no water involved. Maybe it should be called a “drybag”.
Hang your wetbag from a door handle (or wherever else) and do the same as you would with a dry pail. Dump solids (if needed), spray with diaper sprayer (if needed), place dirty diaper in wetbag.
Laundry day the contents of the bag will be emptied into the washer along with the wetbag and you will wash as usual.

See, easy-peasy. No bleach buckets. No toilet swishing. No ungodly stench.

In my experience with using both disposables and cloth diapers, I can say that my first son’s room smelled to high heaven with that disposable diaper filled diaper genie. That thing was awful! I have never had to worry about my second son’s room stinking because of his diaper pail or wetbag.

So, in short- No, cloth diapers won’t make your home smelly.

Do you want to win a free diaper? Be sure to enter the goodmama diaper giveaway that is still going on!

Prefold and cover demo

Oct 092012

9 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 9:06 pm Cloth Diapering, PREGNANCY Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days to mastering cloth diapering, baby, child, cloth diapering, demo, diapers, eco firendly, green, green parenting, kids, newborn, pregnancy, toddler 2 Responses »

Prefolds can be very intimidating for people who have never tried them, but they are the easiest diapers of all! They are easy to wash, last forever, and are super versatile.

Green mountain diapers has some of the best tutorials and demonstrations for prefolds I’ve come across. Check them out here if you’re interested.

If you’re thinking about using prefolds my only advice is to stay far away from Gerber brand prefolds. They are horrible, non-absorbent pieces of trash. Stick with green mountain diapers (clotheez, also referred to as GMD), diaper rite (my personal fave), OsoCozy, or pretty much anything that is NOT Gerber.

There are so many different folds that work with all different shapes and sizes of babies. I’ve found that most of the time the angel wing fold is sufficient if you’re diapering a new baby boy. The bikini twist fold tends to work well if you’re diapering a newer baby girl. The difference is in where the most absorbent part will be placed.

You’ll want more layers in the front for a boy, and more toward the middle for a girl.

As baby gets older and bowel movements become more solid, or at least more predictable, you can change to a simple tri-fold and place in the cover. That is the point I’m at with my little guy right now. It’s one of my very favorite combos.

I’m just going to give a quick and easy to follow run down of how exactly to use a prefold and cover.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Put it on your child and watch him run off to play!

Have any of you tried prefolds? Are any of you moms to be considering them? Let me know!

Cloth wipes vs. Disposable wipes

Oct 092012

9 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 8:52 am Cloth Diapering, PREGNANCY Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days, 31 days challenge, 31 days to master cloth diapering, 31 days to mastering cloth diapering, baby wipes, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, cloth wipes, diapers, eco friendly parenting, green parenting, wipes warmer 9 Responses »

Thanks for coming back to see what we have in store for day 8 of “31 days to master cloth diapering”! I think now is a good time to talk about the use of cloth wipes along with your diapers. Let me first say that I am currently using disposable wipes, but have used cloth wipes on and off along the way. Actually, I use cheap baby wash cloths that were $2.99 per dozen (I bought three packs of them). They work just fine. I really like my baby kicks wipes the best though.

Cloth wipes are easy to use and store, you can keep a spray bottle of wipes solution (such as kissaluvs diaper lotion potion) or water in your changing area, or even store them already moistened. They make some great wipes warmers that can be used with cloth wipes. One that gets great reviews is the Prince lionheart wipes warmer.

I prefer to keep them dry and then use water with a little bit of thirsties booty luster spray. It’s definitely more convenient to just toss the cloth wipe in the wetbag or pail with the dirty diaper than it is to pile up disposable wipes and have to throw them out or pray that when you flush them you aren’t going to do major damage to your plumbing

I’ve been using disposable wipes pretty much since the middle of summer because they were easier for me to travel with when we were using disposable diapers at the time. I’m currently just using up the giant box we purchased. There is no right or wrong here. If you still prefer the disposable wipes you will be just fine with your cloth diapering journey. That’s one of the great things about cloth, it doesn’t have to be “all or nothing”! As you follow along you’ll see that I feel that way about most all parenting choices. There is NEVER a one-size-fits-all parenting choice.

Anywho….back to the matter at hand, cloth wipes. They can be easily made from scraps at home if you’d like to try your hand at sewing (or just cut little squares, no one will care what you’re cleaning your baby’s bottom with). A good rule of thumb is to have one dozen more cloth wipes than diapers that you have.

Here are some great products to get your cloth wipes stash started!

What are the different types of diaper covers?

Oct 062012

6 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 5:30 am Cloth Diapering, PREGNANCY Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days, 31 days to master cloth diapering, baby, child, children, cloth diaper challenge, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, diaper covers, diapers, eco friendly, green, health, kids, life, little squishy baby blog, motherhood, parenting, toddlers, wool covers 1 Response »

Even though modern cloth diapers are easier than ever, some do require covers because they are not made with waterproof outers. These diapers are your flats, prefolds, and fitteds. I’ll let you know about your options for covers, and I’ll make it short, sweet, and easy to understand.

PUL: Polyurethane Laminate is used pretty often in the cloth diaper/cover world. These are waterproof, usually have snaps or Velcro, and are pretty trim.

TPU: Thermoplastic Polyurethane is very similar to PUL, the only difference is that it is heat bonded instead of chemical bonded. They are waterproof, also have snaps or Velcro, and are pretty trim.

Nylon: Breathable and waterproof, although not as waterproof as other options (like PUL or TPU). Many of the nylon covers I’ve seen appear to have a lot of extra fabric which can make them a bit bulky.

Ultrex: Similar to nylon. Breathable and waterproof. Cottony fabric that’s coated with a micro porous teflon membrane. Can be pretty trim, especially if you get sized covers.

Wool: Popular for use at night with fitted diapers, though many also use it during the day. It’s a natural fiber and very breathable, while still being very absorbent. Wool is pretty amazing. Wool covers can be a bit on the expensive side, unless you know how to knit your own. If properly lanolized, they don’t require frequent washing. Instead of layering under clothes, many people will use “longies” (or shorties) as pants for the day.

Fleece: A cover made from soft, water-resistant fabric. They are a much cheaper alternative to wool, but not much of a comparison in performance. They have to be washed after every use.

Washing Cloth Diapers

Oct 042012

4 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 12:05 am LIFE & LOVE Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days, 31 days challenge, 31 days to mastering cloth diapering, baby, child, children, cleaning cloth diapers, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, diapers, eco friendly, ecofriendly, family, green, green living, green parenting, health, home, kids, life, little squishy baby blog, motherhood, parenting, toddlers, washing cloth diapers 6 Responses »

One question that always seems to come up when I’m asked about cloth diapering is: “What about poop in your washer?”

Why does everyone think there will be poop getting all over your other clothing? First of all, I’m not stuffing turds in my washer. All of the poo residue is washed off with the diaper sprayer that I use. I also never rinsed any newborn diapers since their poo is water-soluble. I’ve never had an issue with them messing up my washer or not coming out perfectly clean. Washers are made to get things clean. They do their job. The thing is, if your diapers come out clean, then your washer is clean too. Please do not worry that your other clothing will come out smelling like poop, it won’t.

So let’s get to it,

HOW OFTEN SHOULD I WASH MY CLOTH DIAPERS?

My wash routine is done about every 3-ish days at this point. I usually did every other day or every 2 days during the newborn stage.

WHAT IS A TYPICAL WASH ROUTINE WITH CLOTH DIAPERS?

Your wash routine should be something like this: Cold Rinse, Hot Wash, Cold Rinse, Cold Rinse.

TOP LOADING WASHER

Set your washer to the largest load setting (the more water the better)
use your HOT wash/COLD rinse setting
empty the entire wet bag of dirty diapers (wet bag tossed in as well) into the washer. DO NOT ADD DETERGENT AT THIS TIME.
Do a cold RINSE cycle first. If you have an older washer like me, this will mean that you just turn the knob all the way to the “RINSE” cycle and start it.
Once the rinse cycle is finished:
Start the HOT wash cycle and add the desired amount of cloth diaper safe detergent to the machine (this is significantly less than what you would use with normal laundry. You only need about 1/4 of the amount of detergent that you would normally use). I am currently using original Tide powder and it is working wonderfully.
when the entire wash cycle is finished, DO ANOTHER RINSE CYCLE with no detergent. This will ensure that all the detergent and other build-up is completely rinsed.
Dry your diapers according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Front Loader/HE Washers:

Here is a little advice about HE machines and washing cloth diapers. While the HE machines are great for the environment, they are not the optimal choice for washing cloth diapers. Diapers need plenty of water to get clean, and HE washers can make that a bit difficult to find the perfect wash routine quickly.

Since I am not personally experienced with front loading machines I went searching for the best tutorials I could find. I came across some great information on The Stork Wearhouse for washing in HE/front loading machines, and have listed it below:

Load diapers into the washer, then run a “rinse and spin” cycle on the delicate setting, or with “no spin” at all if you have that option. Cold water is fine. This will saturate the diapers. When you start with diapers already soaking wet, the water the washer adds when you run the main wash cycle, will be enough to actually wash the diapers!
Then I add detergent and run a normal hot cycle with an extra rinse (and extra fast spin to minimize drying time).
Dry your diapers according to manufacturers instructions.

Many front loaders have a Sanitary cycle with extra hot water. We don’t recommend using this every time you wash your diapers, as it will shorten their useful life, but using it once a month or so will keep your diapers smelling fresh.

*I personally like to throw the inserts in the dryer in the winter time. I’m not going to lie sometimes I throw everything in the dryer. I haven’t noticed that it made any difference (yet). I do hang dry my shells and covers on a drying rack in front of a window to sun out any stains when needed. The sun is a miracle stain remover! Especially for EBF poo stains. My diapers have been used for two years and have NO stains!

Do you have any cloth diaper washing secrets? Please share!

What’s needed for cloth diapering after the newborn stage?

Oct 032012

3 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 1:18 am LIFE & LOVE Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days, 31 days to mastering cloth diapering, baby, child, children, cloth diaper challenge, cloth diapering, cloth diapering a newborn, cloth diapering an infant, cloth diapering an older baby, cloth diapers, diaper trials, eco friendly, ecofriendly, fun, green, green living, green parenting, green parenting choices, health, how many cloth diapers do I need?, kids, life, motherhood, parenting, toddlers 2 Responses »

Welcome to day 3 of the 31 days to Mastering Cloth Diaper Challenge! Yesterday I touched on what you would need to start cloth diapering from birth, but what if you waited until your baby was past the newborn stage? What if you just want to know what you should have on hand for when your baby outgrows their newborn stash?

Well the good news is, you already have a lot of the stuff you need! If you’ve been cloth diapering since birth, you already have wetbags or a pail with pail liners, CD safe laundry detergent, CD safe diaper cream, cloth wipes, and fleece liners.

I know a lot of things you read out there make you believe that one-size diapers will fit your child from birth, and that you can just stock up on those from the beginning, but that is just not true. I had a huge bay, and he was not fitting into one-size diapers until he was over 12 lbs. So once you do find yourself needing them I suggest adding 18 one-sized cloth diapers. You can also just size up prefolds and order some one-size covers (my favorite one-size covers are blueberry and flip) if you prefer. Some people also choose to do sized diapers the entire time they cloth diaper, and that’s ok too!

These 18 diapers can be any styles or brands that you prefer. I liked having and trying out several different brands in the beginning. It’s hard to commit to one brand at first because you’re not sure if the most popular brand will fit your baby properly or not. I think the best way to go if you’re on the fence about what to try, is to do a diaper trial. Diaper Junction offers a risk free diaper trial, and so does Jillian’s Drawers. These trials are an excellent way to figure out what works and what doesn’t without the commitment of keeping any or all of the diapers. That’s right, you can send everything back if you decide cloth diapering isn’t for you.

As time passes and your baby gets older, you will use less and less diapers per day. This will allow for more time between washings if you’d like.

Around this time you may want to purchase a diaper sprayer. At the time that you introduce solids your baby’s poo is no longer water-soluble, so having the sprayer may come in handy. Most of the time over the past 2 years I haven’t even needed the sprayer, my son’s poo has been plopable. There has never been any scraping or swishing in the toilet, EVER. I have not had to “deal with poo” any more than I ever did when I used disposable diapers with my first son.

Remember that these 18 diapers are in addition to the other items that I highlighted in this post from day 2.

This should be a great foundation to your cloth diapering adventure! Next week I’ll get into more specific brands and share some reviews of my favorite diapers.

What’s up with cloth diapering?

Oct 012012

1 October, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 12:22 am LIFE & LOVE Tagged with: 31 days, 31 days challenge, 31 days to mastering cloth diapering, baby, child, children, cloth diaper challenge, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, eco friendly, goodmama diapers, green, green parenting, green parenting choices, health, kids, life, love, modern cloth diapers, motherhood, parenting, toddlers 21 Responses »

Welcome to the first post in the series of my 31 day challenge! I’m very excited (and nervous) to blog about cloth diapers for 31 straight days. Many of you may be wondering why in the heck I would choose a topic such as this to focus on for an entire month; well let me tell you. Because cloth diapering is awesome, that’s why! It’s cute, convenient, eco-friendly, easy, and affordable.

Cloth diapering isn’t a new thing, but it’s definitely morphed into something completely different from what our parents, or most likely grand parents, remember. Long gone our the days of using flats, plastic pants, and pins. Not that some people don’t use any or all of those things, they do. It’s just that there are so many more options available now.

With the environment being a large focus for many parent’s reasons to use cloth, it is not the only reason. Some people choose to cloth diaper to save money, some save no money what-so-ever and use cloth diapering as more of a fashion statement/hobby/endless money pit of buying, selling, and trading. Cloth diapering has become something of a fad, it’s trendy, and even an unhealthy obsession for some

Over the next month I’m going to share everything that I know about cloth diapering and how to become an expert regarding all things cloth. I’ll be including some reviews of my favorite brands, pictures of my personal stash, and some of my favorite online resources for all things cloth diapering. There will even be the chance to win an awesome goodmama cloth diaper! So be sure to stick around for the entire series!

This post will serve as a directory for each topic covered throughout the 31 day challenge hosted by The Nester.

31 day challenge

Sep 182012

18 September, 2012 Posted by Jen@TheLaughingGal at 6:44 pm LIFE & LOVE Tagged with: 31 day challenge, 31 days, babies, baby, child, children, cloth diapering, cloth diapers, diapers, ecofriendly, family, fun, green, health, home, kids, life, morning sickness, motherhood, parenting, photos, pictures, pregnancy, random, story, toddlers 14 Responses »

During the month of October I’ll be participating in my very first link up, and I couldn’t be more excited to do so. Thanks to a fellow blogger, I have come across the 31 day challenge hosted by The Nester . All through the month I will be blogging daily about the same topic.

After throwing around a few ideas I’ve finally decided to settle on “31 days to mastering cloth diapering”. If you know me, you know that one of my obsessions is cloth diapering. It’s a BIG part of the small ways that I try to be green

In the nearly two years that I have cloth diapered my son I have come to learn so much. I have tried just about every type of cloth diaper or cloth diaper product that is out there. I have become somewhat of a cloth diaper connoisseur, if you will. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but really, beep beep.

I’m hoping that my posts will help to inspire people to try cloth diapers, or if they already use them, maybe branch out and try something new. Some of the topics I will cover are:

- How to get started.

- How to get your spouse/family on board.

- What makes a good stash?

- Packing the perfect diaper bag, cloth diaper style of course.

- Wash routine.

- Benefits.

- Different types of cloth diapers.

- A peek at my current stash.

- Storage.

- Buying and selling.

- Cloth wipes.

- My favorite brands.

And so much more!

This challenge will be good for me, because if I’m being honest, I have totally slacked this summer with cloth diapers. I have purchased more Target brand disposables than I care to admit. I have gone weeks at a time where Cal hasn’t had cute, soft, fluffiness next to his tush. This will throw me right back into something that I’m actually really passionate about, but have somehow fallen off the wagon. I’m blaming morning sickness.

*Don’t worry, it won’t be all cloth diapers all the time. I will still continue to blog about the usual life, love, parenting stuff that I normally do too!