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 Detergents Diaper Cream

Take Two

>So my daughter never really got a “diaper rash” to speak of.  A handful of times, she got a tiny bit red, we put some butt paste (which my Mom got as a joke but turned out to be awesome) on it & she was good as new.  So, arrogant first time mother that I was, I assumed that if a baby had diaper rash issues, it must be (diaper) operator error (i.e. the parents).

Well, I sure got my comeuppance with my son.  His pediatrician has commented that he is “rashy,” and it’s true.  He has had baby acne, bumps and redness galore, and his bottom is no exception.  That combined with a rasp he’s had since birth makes him suspect eczema.

That gave me a renewed determination to make cloth work for us.  I found another detergent chart that had other detergents listed, and we were able to find two of them at a local organic market.

Satisfied that I’d be able to safely wash them, I ordered three Bumgenius 3.0 one size pocket diapers and eagerly awaited their arrival.

Share on Pinterest
There are no images.
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers One Size Diapers

That new baby smell

>Fast forward a bit and I’ve effortlessly given birth to my 6 pound baby. 

No, not really.  My son was born at 40 weeks 6 days, after a rash of ridiculous 90 degree days in freaking May, weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz.  My husband said he should have cut the umbilical cord a little longer to make it an even 8 pounds! 

8 pounds may not seem like a “big baby,” as I’m always hearing the story of the woman who had an unassisted childbirth and had a 25 pound 3 year old in their bathtub (not really but you know).  In any case, he was big for me.  I am 5 feet tall on a tall day, though my license says I am 5’1″ (hey, I am with shoes on darn it!) and was maybe 100 pounds soaking wet pre baby #2.

I figure his weight was solely because of the ginormous case of newborn diapers I’d bought.  My 6 pounder was the result of my having purchased none, and the newborn diapers being out of stock at nearly every store in the county.

So anygiantheadedbaby, had I known I was going to have an 8 pounder, I may not have been quite as eager for the drug free childbirth AND I would have gone ahead and bought those one size diapers!

Share on Pinterest
There are no images.
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers Detergents Washing

I’m too poor to have convictions

>I had found this calculator to help determine the cost of cloth diapering vs. disposables.  Because our new house has a well, there’s no cost for the water itself.  We have an HE washer so when using hot water, it’s not more than absolutely necessary.  I don’t know how much the electricity to run a loan (ha typo but it’s funny so it stays) through the washer costs, but I doubted it was excessive.

That left the detergent.  I had gotten a crazy deal on method baby detergent, and that combined with the HE washer and our soft water meant that I barely had to cover the eensy teensy cap of the 3x concentrated detergent in order to wash a load.

Unfortunately, I discovered that there are a lot of ingredients that are no-nos for cloth and that only certain detergents are cloth-diaper safe, none of which seemed to be locally available to me.

Since I am used to paying a maximum of $3/bottle for our detergent, or up to $6 for baby detergent, $15/bottle BEFORE shipping put me off.

I wanted to cloth diaper so I wasn’t putting chemicals on my baby’s butt or diapers in the landfill.  The potential savings sounded great too.  Even if cloth cost the same as my rock bottom price for disposables, I’d still be interested.  But more?  Not so much. 

I’d have to order 4 bottles to bring the price down to $12.50/bottle (more than double what I’d usually consider paying for baby detergent) and I simply didn’t want to invest that much in my little cloth diaper experiment, since I didn’t even know if this would work out.

My hubby and I joke that we are too poor to have convictions.  If it were my choice, I would shop locally, organic, do everything green and so forth.  Unfortunately, we just don’t have the financial resources to do so.  We pick & choose and do what we can afford and what’s most important to us.

With that, I pretty much figured I was done & wouldn’t get to try them.

Share on Pinterest
There are no images.
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers Detergents Washing

Maybe just 3, just to try.

>I had spent enough time on the diaperswappers forums to know that well cared for, high quality cloth diapers had decent resale value.

I also discovered that diapers.com sold bumgenius 3.0s, and that 3 of them would add up to enough to get free shipping.  So, I figured I’d order 3 and try them.  If I hated them, I’d resell them and at least I could say I’d tried.

Before I ordered, I started researching washing methods, which led me down the sudsy, convoluted road to detergent land.

Share on Pinterest
There are no images.
Read More
 
Cloth Diapers

OK maybe later

>I had decided on one size pocket diapers, where the rise and the inserts snap down to size, to fit babies starting around 8 pounds, potentially through potty training.  Specifically, the BumGenius 3.0s

Some reviews indicated that the diapers didn’t quite take their children through potty training, but since my wee little bit of a thing was only twenty something pounds when she potty trained, I figured we’d be fine.

Since my daughter was a wee 6 1/2 pounds at birth, I assumed I wouldn’t be able to use the one size diapers right away.  Plus I wasn’t sure about throwing in a cloth diaper curveball into the whole new mother-o-two game.  If only I knew what I know now, but oh well, water under the bridge right?

So, with the new customer hook of $10 off, combined with $5 off, combined with free shipping and manufacturer coupons, I ordered a case of wee little newborn diapers for the wee little baby I was expecting (ha!)

Share on Pinterest
There are no images.
Read More
 
1 565 566 567 568