Diaper Wish List

Gro Via Poppy
Tots Bots Fox on Dots

Rumparooz Quinn

Sustainablebabyish Multi Fitteds in any color!Rumparooz Quinn Wetbag

Why I love pre folds and covers for newborns {Cloth Diapers}

I never wanted to use prefolds and covers as one of our diaper options, it wasn’t even a consideration. I thought they were old-fashioned and a lot of work. Turns out I was wrong.

After researching all the types of diapers we had decided hybrid style diapers were the best choice for us and we were going to use the tiny g’s as our newborn diapers. Once I figured out that tiny g’s weren’t going to be our day and night solution I needed to find a cheap alternative for the days until she fit into the Gro Via hybrids. If I didn’t find something we were going to be stuck with disposable during the day time. I just couldn’t justify buying a whole newborn stash that she would out grow fairly quickly.

After talking to the staff at our local cloth diaper store I decided about the only thing I could justify was pre folds and covers. I could buy 12 pre folds (the old style cloth diaper) for $12 and I bought 2 Bummies newborn sized covers (used) for $16.00 total So for $28 I had 12 diapers, not bad at all! I started by pad folding (tri-fold/folding in thirds) and it worked great but if I didn’t stay on it she would dirty the cover. So I started doing some good old google searching and found another fold that sealed the deal, literally, incase you hadn’t noticed newborn poo isn’t well…soild.

My solution? The jelly roll fold! It’s so easy, and can be done with our without a snappi or pins (but easier with a snappi.) Just roll up the sides at a tapered angle and you create gussets within your diaper.

Since I’ve started using this I rarely need to wash my covers, of course I still do after a while, but most of the time I just wipe them down and put them back into rotation. The other reason I like this option is because I can keep it trim if I want to. I mostly have one size adjustable covers but I’m planning on keeping one sized cover on hand for those outfits that need a trimmer fit.

So why do I love pre folds and covers for newborns?

• Cost- They are only newborns for a short time and will out grow newborn diapers quickly why pay a lot of money for them?
• Effectiveness- if you use a fold made to trap poo this style is highly effective at containment.
• Trimness- there are newborn sized pre folds that can later be used as a booster (cost savings again!)
• Easy Cleaning/Drying- Because you can fold and unfold them it is easier for them to come clean and they dry faster. Instead of being 12 layers thick in the wash you unfold them and its one single 4 layer cloth.

The downside?

• Pre folds aren’t ‘stay-dry’ (wicking) and therefore need to be changed as soon as you notice they are dirty…but really all diapers should be changed quickly.

 

 

Nursery Craft {Pretty Pails}

I’m not going to lie…I’m super excited about this project….I know I’m weird but when you see how cute a diaper pail can be….

In the LLG house we cloth diaper so that means we have a diaper pail and a diaper genie (for the wipes and the occasional disposeable insert) we have a nice pail liner but other than that they are big white blobs in the middle of her cute striped wall. So what do you do? Cut out a bunch of circles in fun colors and go to town! There are a lot of ways you can do this:

• Scrapbooking circle cutters and punches
• Cricut or Silhouette
• Good ol’ trace around random circular objects and cut out with scissors

Think of all the other cute ways you could decorate… stripes, name/words/sayings, shapes anything you can cut out you can decorate with! Plus with all the fun colors and patterns from Expressions Vinyl there are tons of options.

What do you think?

Tiny gDiapers { What you need to know }

So we are about 1 month in to cloth diapering and I thought I would share a few things that I’ve learned about the Tiny g’s.

The number one thing I’ve learned is that they are designed for the disposable inserts not cloth. This was extremely frustrating for me to find out, not because I was mad about not using cloth (but that was part of it) it was because of how I found out….leaks.  After a lot of reading and thinking that my diapers were faulty I came to find out that it’s because of how they are made, and that this is how the company intended them.

I don’t know exactly why but the tiny g’s have the plastic liner as a part of the diaper not as a pouch. Because of this the velcro is stitched on to the diaper and through the plastic layer this is where everything leaks through, those TINY little holes. When baby puts weight on the cloth it pushes the liquid down and out 😦  However if you use them with their biodegradable inserts they trap liquid much better and you have no leaks!

If you plan on using Tiny g’s don’t bother with cloth , just use the disposable inserts.

As far as the disposables go they are flushable, Just tear off one of the long sides and dump the insides into the toilet then use the swish stick to break it all up and flush.  There are a few things you need to know about this as well:

• Make sure you don’t flush 2 in a row, Use the toilet yourself in between flushing in a ‘normal’ fashion to give it time to clear the fluff completely.
• Make sure you break up the fluff well before flushing with the swish stick. Not just a flick or two but a good stir.
• If I ended up flushing two in a row w/o a use in between I would just shake the fluff in and put the ‘shell’ in our diaper genie.

I did have one over flow but after I started doing these 3 things I never had another.

So in the end Tiny g’s are not cloth diapers per sae, however they are made with far less crud then most disposable so with that in mind I was much happier putting them on my babies bum. In fact their ingredient list only has 3 things on it Cellulose Rayon Coverstock, Wood Pulp, Sodium Polyacrylate. Sodium Polyacrylate is a moisture absorber and it ‘raises no health concerns’ according to The Good Guide.  I would much rather have that on her than some bleached out chemical filled diaper.

I choose to use it as our overnight diaper (since we still would change once or twice a night) so we could use a diaper cream on her to get rid of the rash she acquired using disposables for the first week out of the hospital. They work great!

Always trust your diaper gut.

So Sunday morning around 4 something, I woke up blurry eyed to feed and change the little one.  All was normal but when I was zipping up her pj’s I thought to myself ‘ something is wrong with the diaper’ but I didn’t check it….dumb.

Woke up to our first soak through 😦 Poor little girl. Wet everything all the way to the sheets. Diaper was un fastened on one side completely.

Always trust your diaper gut.

Earth day is on its way (steals and deals)

Hi guys, well its 7:00 AM my time and there is a lot going on in the news…I’m not ignoring it this post was just already to go. Also just like on Tuesday I might need a little time to process before I say anything. #prayforboston

Yeah, yeah I know its a super lame rhyme but it just kinda happend as I was typing. Please forgive me…

Anyway I’ve been a bad greenie and not talked much about Earth Day this year, Life has been pretty busy around here and FULL OF SNOW. I accosiate Earth Day with growth and grass, not snow, so I don’t think my brain fully believed it was coming.

This year I’m going to encourage you all to make a ‘Earth Day Resolution’ its like a new years resolution but honestly I want it to be easier. I want you to choose something you can really commit to this year. Maybe its something as simple as buying a re-useable bottle and then using it, maybe it way more advanced and you want to add solar power to your home. Whatever it is just make it possiable.

To hold you over till Monday I’m going to start listing the coupons and sales I hear about for eco-friendly items for Earth Day. Check back often to see additional deals and feel free to add your own in the comments below!

Green Baby

• Cloth Diapers- Gro-Via is having a 20% off sale on almost everything on their site (excluding package deals) April 20-22. Just head on over to their web site.

Green Home

• Reuseable Straws- Strawsome has a coupon going through April 24th. Use promo code EARTH2013 to save $10.00 off of a purchase of $35.00 or more.

The Cloth Diaper Decision {What we choose, for now}

So after a revalation on how many types of cloth diapers are out there and some thinking about what we would be willing to do and how far we (specificly hubby) would be willing to go we came to a decision.

We are going to start with hybrid diapers.

We decided that this was the way for us because at least till we get in the swing of things we didn’t want the use of strictly cloth to wear us out. We decided that a mixture of cloth and disposable inserts was still much better than strictly disposable.  Here are the main reasons we decided to go with this option:

•  Travel- We tend to travel quite a bit and while we know that won’t happen as often as it did before we don’t see it stopping. Neither of us really want to do a road trip with cloth at this point so having the option to switch to a disposable insert is a great plan.
• Daycare-We also know that she will be in daycare for 2-3 days a week and that it would be tough to find one that would work with full cloth (I know they are out there, but we have to keep in budget too.)
•  Friends and Family– We don’t want to force those who love us to deal with them if they didn’t want to. If my in-laws are willing to watch her for the night, disposable inserts it is, no problem! Babysitter?, disposiables…you catch my drift?
• Newborn– Lastly the newborn phase, this is our first and I know that I’m going to be just a little overwhelmed 😉 I want to have the option to use whatever I need to in that moment and not feel like I must use  cloth strictly for those first few weeks.

So the next question is which hybrid system?

I’ve heard of a few different system Flip, Charlie Banana (Target,) gDiapers, Best Bottom, and Gro Via.  There are lots to consider between these brands but some of the major things are availability, and fitted vs one size diapers, and perceived effectiveness.

Fitted diapers are more like disposable because there are multiple sizes and you have to keep buying new sizes as your baby grows. While this is more expensive in the beginning, if you are planning on having more than one child these will get used less (since your child will grow out of them) and therefore they will last from child to child (in theory.)

One Size diapers– The benefit of these is that they are adjustable, I’ve heard they are a little hard to fit newborns but after that they just grow with your baby as you adjust them.  This is a great option for us since we are only thinking we will have one  child (adopt another older one later) in diapers. If you wanted to use them from child to child you might have to replace them more often since they will be used more/longer. One size diapers also come with snap for velcro options which affect durability and adjustablity. Snaps are more durable, but less adjustable. Velcro is highly adjustable but wears out faster.

We decided to start with gDiapers (fitted) and Gro Via (one size) what I hope happens is we use mostly the newborn gdiapers (fitted) and then grow into the Grovia one sizes. This way we have options right from the beginning. If one style isn’t working we can try the other right away.  The other reason we choose these 2 specific brands is that I liked their gussets systems, this is what I meant by perceived effectiveness, I just feel like having a gussets system will help prevent blowouts and leaks as much as possible.