Weleda Children’s Tooth Gel Review

Dec 22,2010 / By Maria / 4 Comments

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I was looking for an alternative to the fluoride-free toddler toothpaste my son was using, since it’s rated a “5” on the skin deep cosmetics database. I checked our local organic store and found Weleda‘s Children’s Tooth Gel.

The tooth gel is fluoride free, as well as free of detergents, artifical fragrances, colors and preservatives. It’s rated a 3 on the skin deep database with a 72% data gap. Since the only ingredent that is “yellow” (moderate safety) is limonene, I’m pretty confident that it’s safe for my son to use.

While I didn’t pay anywhere near the $7.00 MSRP, the $4.59 price tag was still a little gasp inducing for a 1.78 oz. tube!

The first little squirt out of the tube looked rather off white, but it’s really a pretty bright yellow. I tasted it, and it has a somewhat strong, natural mint flavor. I wondered how my son would do, since most toddler products are fruity flavored. He wasn’t startled by the flavor and seemed to enjoy it. My almost 6-year old likes it too! Then again, she’s weird, and has always liked minty “grownup” toothpaste!

Unless I find something with a “lower rating” in the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, I will continue to buy this!

FTC compliance: I paid normal retail price for this product, I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

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Motherlove Herbal Diaper Rash & Thrush Salve Review & Giveaway – 2 Winners (CLOSED 12/21)

Dec 14,2010 / By Maria / 4 Comments

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Motherlove Herbal Company makes fantastic products for pregnant and breastfeeding moms, as well as for baby. They have everything from pregnant belly salve to sitz bath spray. I seriously wish I had known about the belly salve when I was pregnant! I was up half the night trying to claw my skin off to stop the itchiness during my pregnancies!

motherlove diaper rash and thrush ointment

Motherlove sent me a jar of their diaper rash and thrush salve to try.

It is cloth safe, and is rated zero (zero toxins) on EWG’s Skin Deep Database.

The simple ingredients are 96% certified organic.

The salve is fairly solid in the jar (I’d expect it to become softer in warmer weather, as a similar product I have does.) The 1 oz. jar seems fairly small, but a little goes a very, very long way.

Lightly rub your fingers on the surface, and the salve melts onto your skin. It doesn’t really have a smell. I practically stuck my nose in it, and it just smells very lightly of the ingredients.

I get terrible eczema in the winter, where my knuckles, the joints of my fingers and the backs of my hands crack and bleed. It’s not bad yet, since winter weather is really just beginning here. For giggles, I thought I’d try the Motherlove salve on one such spot.

It did not sting or burn, so I wouldn’t hesitate to apply it to a sore baby bottom.

The next day, there was a noticeable difference!

We’re lucky that we don’t deal much with rashes since switching to cloth. However, my son does get a bit red sometimes after he dirties a diaper. The other day he pulled what I call “the stealth poop maneuver.” He hates having his diaper changed, and sometimes he manages to hide all evidence that he needs to be changed. I didn’t see, hear or smell anything that made me think he needed a change, and I was surprised with a stealth poop the next time I changed him. I do change diapers about every two hours, but he might have been sitting in it for a while. I applied a thin layer of Motherlove salve, and by the next change, the redness was gone. You could also apply it at every change as a preventative barrier.

The 1 ounce jar Diaper Rash and Thrush salve retails for $9.50.

Motherlove also sent me a sample packet of nipple cream. Breastfeeding my first child was anything but sunshine and roses for sure. Fortunately, nursing my son was far easier (maybe because only one of us was a noob!) but I still had some soreness for a few days. Luckily, he’s a champion nurser now at 18 months old!

Motherlove nipple cream is made with 100% certified organic ingredients, contains no lanolin, and does not need to be washed off prior to nursing. Like the diaper salve, it’s also rated zero (zero toxins) in the EWG database.

Yep, you’re getting nipple cream action shots, tee hee! It has a nice texture, that melts easily into skin, and very little is needed.

Don’t worry, this is my wrist, LOL! A 1 ounce jar retails for $9.95, and would probably last a long time!

Be sure to check out the Motherlove Blog for great articles on herbs, breastfeeding and more.

Giveaway: Motherlove is offering a full size, 1 ounce jar of Diaper Rash & Thrush salve to two winners! I’m offering bonus entries, so in the unlikely event that I choose the same winner twice, I’ll choose again.

Here’s how to enter: All entries go in the form below. I love comments, but comments don’t count as entries. Mandatory entries are name, email address and what other ~~Motherlove~~ ~~product interests you. You may receive a bonus entry if you “like”~~ ~~Motherlove Herbal on Facebook. Receive another bonus entry if you follow~~ ~~Motherlove on Twitter~~.

I will accept entries until Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. I will select a winner using random.org’s true random number generator and notify him/her by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is chosen. View my giveaway rules page for complete details. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.

# of entries received as of December 21st at giveaway close: 107

https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dFNQVlAxOERkVUJIM3ZMU2JrNjluYVE6MQ

FTC compliance: The pictured products were received at no charge for review purposes. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

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Planet Wise Changing Pad Review and My New Diaper Storage

Dec 9,2010 / By Maria / 10 Comments

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Until now, I had just been changing my son’s diapers directly on the leather couch. It’s easy to just wipe it off, but it occurred to me that this might be a little gross (ha ha.) The Planet Wise Changing Pad retails for $11.99 and I snagged one for even less with a Black Friday sale/coupon/free shipping.

The changing pad comes in several colors, ~~but I wish they had some of the cute prints the wet bags come in!~~ They do have them in the prints for $16.50, they just don’t have them listed on their site, and of course not everyone who sells the changing pads has the prints. Thanks Samuel’s Momma!

The white side is super soft (I mean soft!) fleece, and the colored side is PUL, so it’s waterproof. Of course, since it’s fleece, it’s not wipe-able like the plastic ones that come with some diaper bags. So, you’ll probably want to have at least two on hand. It is simple to wash with diapers and dries quickly.

The specs say it is 13×21, and that’s pretty close.

Even though it’s not wipe-able, it has a leg up on the old plastic changing pads because you can fold it up really tiny and stuff it in a bag!

This revelation about the possible grossness of couch diaper changing came along with a furniture rearrange in our family room. I used to have my diapers stacked on a ledge by the couch, but we shifted things so that we have a “family room” on one side of the room and a “play room” on the other side. This means my diaper ledge was no longer handy, and I really didn’t love how they looked out in the open anyway.

I ended up at Target on Black Friday (OMG I know, horrors!) because my 11-year old hair dryer decided to die on me while I was trying to get ready for a baby shower that morning. Incidentally, boiling your hair dry with a straightening iron isn’t really all that effective, and leaves you smelling like burned hair.

In any case, I found this “milk crate” size basket for about $17, and it’s the perfect size to hold all my stuff. I’m also able to tuck it back behind the end table, so I can reach it, but sticky-fingers McStinkypants can’t.

Baskets make me happy. Oh who am I kidding? Any organization makes me happy!

How about you all? Did you get anything fluff related with all the great Black Friday sales?

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Rockin Green Funk Rock & Mighty Mighty Marshmallow Classic Rock Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 11/30)

Nov 24,2010 / By Maria / 10 Comments

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In my opinion, wash routine and detergent are the biggest hurdle in cloth diapering. My personal motto is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” If you have a detergent and wash routine that are working for you, stick with it. After trying many different detergents, I’ve been using Tide powder, with an extra rinse and an occasional bleaching.

So why am I messing with it? I was sucked in by the new Rockin’ Green Funk Rock Ammonia Bouncer, thinking that maybe by using it, I could eliminate the monthly/semi-monthly bleaching. I decided to also buy a bag of the mighty mighty marshmallow classic rock detergent to use along with it. Lucky for you, I bought an extra bag of each to give away to a reader!

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Flip Hook & Loop Closure Diaper Cover and Organic Insert – Photo Review and Giveaway (CLOSED 11/27)

Nov 20,2010 / By Maria / 5 Comments

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In April, I reviewed a Flip cover with stay-dry insert. I’m less a’skeered of snaps now than I was then, but I was still happy to learn that Flip Diapers was coming out with a hook and loop (a.k.a. Velcro or Aplix) closure diaper cover! Right now, they are only available for purchase separately for $13.95, but Cottonbabies plans to sell them packaged with inserts, and in day packs in the future. Lucky for one of you, I also bought an organic insert ($7.95 retail) to send along to the winner too!

The other Flip I bought came with a cardboard “wrapper” so I hadn’t planned on taking photos of the hook & loop Flip, since I didn’t want to give away an opened item! I was a little surprised to find that both the diaper cover and the insert came without tags, wrappings or packaging, so I’ve done a little photo review. The winner will receive the butternut color cover and organic insert pictured in this review however, we do not have pets (unless you count the kids) and the items were only on my laundry room counter, which is very clean, and my hands were clean as well!

Some of us were wondering whether the hook & loop would be the “old” Bumgenius 3.0 style, or the “new” Bumgenius 4.0 style. Fortunately, it is the new style!

The “new” style laundry tab velcro is actually grippy, instead of just the fuzzy fabric of the 3.0s. If you haven’t had the pleasure of trying the 4.0s, the laundry tabs will touch baby’s skin, but they are very soft, and haven’t caused my son any irritation.

The hook & loop cover has the same, easily wipeable PUL inner as the snap closure Flip. My snap flip has the same white fabric, but only over the closure snaps, not the rise snaps. I assume it’s to keep the PUL from leaking where it was punctured to attach them.

Here it is on the small setting, folded and stretched:

Medium setting folded and stretched:

Large setting folded and stretched:

The organic inserts are made from 100% Oeko-Tex® certified organic cotton. Cottonbabies sells them for $7.95 each; $6.65 each if you buy 3 or more. Buying a cover with an organic insert adds just $6 to the cost of the cover alone.

I was surprised by how soft this is! Granted, it is new and hadn’t been washed but wow, it is baby blanket soft! Since this hasn’t been washed/dried/prepped, you can definitely expect it to shrink a bit. You simply fold the insert along the long or short side to fit inside the insert.

Here it is measured along the short side:

flip diaper organic insert width unprepped

Measured along the long side:

flip diaper organic insert length unprepped

In the cover on the small setting:

flip organic insert in diaper small setting

In the cover on the large setting:

flip organic insert in diaper large setting

As you can see, the hook & loop and flip covers are very much the same. Of course, mine was purchased 7 months ago, so small changes wouldn’t surprise me anyway! One difference is that the Hook & Loop cover stinks! I noticed a very strong, plastic-y/chemical smell that gave me a headache, as soon as I opened the mailer it came in. I have never noticed this with any other diapers I’ve purchased. My guess is that others begin with the same smell, but they’ve sat in warehouses and been shipped back and forth enough to air out before I get them! Hopefully it will do the same before I ship it to the winner!

Here’s a side by side of the small organic insert (remember, it hasn’t been washed/dried so it will shrink!) compared to the small stay dry insert, and the same for the large.

Hooray for hook and loop! Now when it Cottonbabies going to come out with newborn versions of their pocket diapers and flip covers? Hmm?

Giveaway: One winner will receive the Butternut (sorry, boring, but I wanted it to be gender neutral!) Hook & Loop Closure Flip Cover (ARV $13.95) and Organic Insert (ARV $7.95) pictured. Combined value $21.90 if my brain is working.

Here’s how to enter: All entries go in the form below. Mandatory entries include Your name and email address. I always email winners, and I do try to look for them before giving up on them! However, if you want to be sure it’s you when I announce the winner, please use a middle or last initial, or nickname, so you’ll know it’s you. I do announce names just as you enter them! I’m offering a single bonus entry for following this blog. You may choose GFC, RSS feed or email. If you prefer, you can elect to “like” ~~me on facebook~~ or ~~follow me on twitter~~ ~~instead. Whatever will bring you back! 🙂~~

I will accept entries until Saturday, November 27th, 2010 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. I will select a winner using random.org’s true random number generator and notify him/her by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is chosen. View my ~~giveaway rules~~ ~~page for complete details. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.~~

I’d love for you to leave a comment (also a great way to just remind yourself that you entered) but comments don’t count as giveaway entries. I will update the post daily with the # of entries received!

# of entries received as of November 27th at Giveaway close: 241

https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dG5JR3RiU3ZHbko2TE96N1Q2ZVgxY1E6MQ

Please note: This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, approved by or affiliated with Cottonbabies, Flip or any cloth diaper retailer.

FTC compliance: I paid normal retail prices for all items pictured. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

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