Author Archives: Maria

Maria is an aspiring "fit mom" of 3 children, writing about cloth diapers, going green, and her life as a single mom. Maria works with many companies within the cloth diaper industry and beyond, providing social media management, product development, and other services.
Cloth Diapers Made in the USA One Size Diapers Pocket Diapers

Peace Bears!

>I already have a Happy Heinys Diaper in the silly monkey print.  I loved the peace bears print and was so excited to get it! It’s adorable as I expected.

It must be a newer version than the other one I have, because the inserts are slightly contoured, making for a better fit.

Also as expected, it fits wonderfully and trim!

One thing I like about HH over other one size diapers is that they have 4 settings.

Extra Small
Small
Medium
and large
The wide, overlapp-able tabs give you plenty of adjustment.  They also come with snaps, and I’d love to try one.  The laundry tabs on this diaper aren’t great, but I have pretty good luck twisting and connecting the tabs as illustrated on their site.
Overall, it’s a bit bigger than the Bumgenius 3.0.  I don’t have any trouble with this diaper!
Edit August 2010: This doesn’t fit my son well and ends up leaking.  It’s in my “laundry day diapers” drawer now, but I hope it will fit again when my son grows.
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Cloth Diapers Giveaway

Huuuuuuge giveaway!

>This is the best diaper giveaway I’ve ever seen!  Diaper Junction is giving $300 worth of cloth diaper products.  The winner gets to choose!  That is enough $ to be able to CD full time!

Win a SMACKER Giveaway: $300 SMACKERS to spend at Diaper Junction!

Go enter!  Go go go!

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Cloth Diapers

Go with the flow

>The best piece of advice I could give for getting started with cloth is to go with the flow. 

People who know me well know how unlike me that really is.  I wish I were easygoing, but I’m just not.  I have to have everything planned, figured out, all scenarios worked through in my head.  It’s only been in recent years that I’ve accepted that I’m wound a little bit tightly and that’s OK.

When I thought about starting cloth, I wanted to know exactly what brand to buy, how many,  and how often I would wash.  I wanted to wash, dry, stuff, fold and put away.  I wanted to have some upstairs and some downstairs.  A pail up and a pail down.  Everything neat and in order.  I wanted a stash in the diaper bag at all times.  Now, I just grab a couple as we’re leaving, depending on how long we’ll be gone, and go with it.  I needed to know exactly what my washing routine would be.  Now, I vary it based on whether they are wet or dirty, how many there are, whether they’re stinky and so forth.

As I’ve been trying new things, my initial intent was to figure out what brand I wanted to stock up on.  I’ve managed to loosen up and take a different approach.  Instead, I am just trying new things and figuring out what I like best.  If there’s something I really like, I will choose that brand if I have a few bucks to spend on diapers, or if there’s a really good sale.  If it’s not my favorite, it will be at the bottom of the pile, in essence a “laundry day” diaper.

While I was expecting my first child, I was worrying about the teenage years, college and weddings.  So when I was thinking about cloth diapering, I was worrying about solid foods and potty training.   I’m working on a post about solid foods and cloth diapers now, but again, right now I am just doing what works for us.

We’re actually using our laundry room as a “diaper pail” right now, either throwing the diapers directly into the washer, or putting them in the utility sink if I am doing other laundry.  If we change one upstairs (usually just one or two a day up there) we just carry it down.  Definitely NOT what my little organized mind wants, but it’s working for us!

I am really proud of myself for being able to stick with what works for us right now & not worrying too much about tomorrow.

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Cloth Diapers

Biokleen Bac Out

>I had noticed that some of my diapers, specifically the BumGenius, had a stinky smell to them.  It seems that “microfiber stink” is fairly common, but the stink I was experiencing wasn’t an ammonia or urine smell, it’s more of a musty, wet towel smell.

Enter Biokleen Bac Out Stain & Odor eliminator.

biokleen bac out

I had read up on it online and found it at my local organic market.  It was $7.99 plus tax for a 32 oz concentrated bottle.  The same size bottle without the sprayer was $1.00 less.

Here is the info as listed on the container:

Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator
with Live Enzyme Cultures:
It seems everyone has a Bac-Out story. Bac-Out’s live enzyme-producing cultures attack pet, food and beverage stains, organic waste, and odors until they are gone, digesting them back to nature, safely and naturally. Bac-Out is safe to use around children and pets, even birds.
• Lime Peel Extract cleaning power
• Destroys the toughest odors so they are gone for good
• Excellent for mold and mildew
• Preferred by commercial carpet cleaners nationwide
It seemed a little spendy, but it is a concentrated bottle and it foams when you spray it.  I wish I could capture that in a photo, but I haven’t been able to.  I figured if it saved my inserts from stink, it would be well worth it, being cheaper than new inserts!
I sprayed each diaper and insert quite liberally and used a good bit of the bottle. 

I didn’t initially realize that I was supposed to soak the diapers after spraying, I washed them right away.  The spray smelled wonderful, a fresh, lime scent, and left the diapers simply smelling clean.

I even sprayed the washing machine itself, hoping it might help with some of the mustiness I’ve noticed.
I’ve got my shower curtain liner soaking now, and I hear it is great for pet odors.  I had used Odo Ban for pet odors in the past, but I’m not a big fan of the eucalyptus scent.

I have to wait & see if it does the trick on the diapers!

Edit August 2010: As of today, the only thing I’ve found that truly takes the ammonia smell out of my microfiber inserts is a dab of bleach.

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Uncategorized

Yippee!!!

>I did some looking and found that Diaper Junction had the Lil Monsters Rumparooz diaper I wanted.  Even better, they had it in the velcro closure, it was $4.50 cheaper and shipping was only $2.05!  I also signed up for their newsletter and got an additional 10% off, yay!  I had some $ in my paypal account to pay for it.

I went ahead and ordered the Rumparooz with snaps in kangaroo print, along with the Planet Wise wet bags I wanted from Kelly’s closet.

I found an authorized retailer on Ebay who is selling the Planet Wise wipe pouch I wanted.  Normal price and free shipping.  I’m “watching” it and I really want to buy it before I can’t find it anywhere!

I’m excited since I will have a total of 15 diapers (if I’m counting correctly) which means I will only have to wash once per day!  The wet bags etc should make things a bit neater & simpler now as well!

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