Cloth Diapering...Is It Right For You?

Photo by spiral owl creations

Desiree over at So Fawned is doing a great series on cloth diapers; why use them, how to use them, etc.

Anyone who is a regular reader knows that I've been using cloth since the Mermaid was 8 months old. I started out using them to save money, and will continue to use them because I love how environmental friendly they are and I can't stand the chemicals that they put in disposables.

Today I am over at So Fawned as a guest blogger as part of her cloth diapering series. If you are interested in trying cloth diapers but are overwhelmed by all the choices out there, then head on over....I've written a post specifically for you!

Cloth Diapering...Is It Right For You?

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Celebrities Who Use Cloth

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that I'm a big fan of cloth diapers. They are better for the environment, healthier for my children (no yucky chemicals against their skin!), they don't smell as badly as disposables do, and they are so incredibly cute.

I think it's wonderful when using cloth diapers gets positive feedback in the media. Therefore I was delighted when Celebrity Baby Blog put together a list of celebrities who use cloth diapers. The list includes Dave Matthews, who has recently made public statements urging other parents to use cloth.

I recommend to all parents to consider using cloth. It really isn't "hard" or "gross". In fact, I believe using cloth makes diaper changing duty less of a chore and more fun: I get to pick out which cute diaper to use next. So give cloth a try!

Celebrities Who Use Cloth

Love It

I was perusing the news and I found this great article about cloth diapers. From the article:

In the recent past, only the most eco-minded or penny-pinching parents chose to diaper their babies in cloth. But within the past couple of years, design innovations have led to a renewal of interest in cloth. On parenting message boards, the same moms who buy thousand-dollar strollers get giddy about “fluffy
mail”—slang for mail-ordered cloth diapers. The market for used cloth diapers is lively. In fact, some highly coveted “designer” brands actually appreciate in value. Depending on the maker, fabric, and design, new cloth diapers can fetch
as much as $40 each, although the ones I sold—Kissluvs—were originally purchased for only $12.

I used to have a huge addiction to buying cloth diapers, and now I just have a huge addiction to sewing them myself. :o)

Love It

Fitted Diaper

I barely have time to sew anymore, but I did manage to make the Guppy a new fitted diaper. A friend from LLL very kindly put snaps on it for me..

Fitted Diaper

Smart Celebrities

Seeing celebrities who breastfeed or practice other forms of natural parenting always makes me smile. I can't help but hope that by exposing these parenting styles to the media, it will help make natural parenting more "normal".

Kudos to Maggie Gyllenhaal for using cloth diapers, and Julie Bowen for planning on breastfeeding her baby!

Smart Celebrities

They Really Do Overstay Their Welcome....

....by about 500 years!

As you know, I'm a big fan of cloth diapers. I recently viewed a video put out by gDiapers. Although the video is clearly an ad, I think it got the point across really well: Americans put 50 million diapers in landfills a day! These diapers stick around for about 500 years. That's a lot of dirty trash hanging around for a long time!

For parents who cannot commit to cloth, it appears that gDiapers is a good alternative. Flushable, chlorine free, and perfume free, it just might be the best choice after cloth.

They Really Do Overstay Their Welcome....

Looking Around the Neighborhood

I haven't been posting every day like I said I would try to do. But I think the migraines I've been experiencing have hindered my ability to post. I'm going to try to still post every day.

I read a lot of blogs. Daily. Sometimes I get too busy and I get backed up, and it can take me a long time to catch up. And sometimes, a fellow blogger writes a post that I really agree with, or really like, and I save that post in case there comes a time I can refer to it or forward it to someone that could use the information the blogger presents.

Here are some of my favorite, more recent posts by fellow bloggers:

Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing wrote about the benefits of baby wearing. Because really, with all those benefits, and with all the beautiful slings available, who wouldn't wear their baby?

The author of I Don't Know wrote a fabulous post about the benefits of cloth diapers. Her top three reasons for using cloth are: ease of use, comfort, and the fact that they work better than disposables.

Finally, Angela over at Breastfeeding 1 2 3 gave her readers a heads up on a free video on baby massage. We all know that babies thrive with skin to skin contact, so give it a try!

Those are all my recent favorite posts. I'll try to post more as I come across them. :o)

Looking Around the Neighborhood

Lookie Lookie

Look what I made, a pocket diaper for the Guppy!

Inside of diaper

close up of outside

Lookie Lookie

Sewing Heaven

It's been crazy over here in sewing heaven. At least that is where I am right now. Let me explain. This is what I came home with Tuesday from my LLL meeting:
That's eight, count 'em, eight bags of fabric, including TONS of fabric for making diaper supplies. I'm on cloud nine. This was all given to me by a wonderful fellow LLL member. How cool is that?This is all the fabric arranged in piles in my living room. Can you find the baby? There's a wool pile, fleece, velour, sherpa, flannel, PUL solid, PUL print, and other misc. non-diapering fabrics. So far I've made a wool soaker for the Mermaid out of one of the wools sweaters and I also finished the wool soaker I was knitting for the Guppy.

The Mermaid in her new wool soaker.

The Guppy in her new knit wool soaker.

I also sewed another soaker for the Guppy out of one of the other wools sweaters I got. I'll post a picture when I can.

Sewing Heaven

Round and Round the Virus Goes...

When will it stop? Soon Please!!!

The Knight was home sick from work on Friday. Then the Mermaid got sick. Then last night the Guppy started to get congested and I started to get a sore throat.

Oh boy.

Thankfully the Knight was well enough to go to work, the Mermaid seems to be better, my sore throat went away, and the Guppy's congestion is only slight.

Meanwhile, I made some delicious sugar free apple walnut muffins and was able to sew up a Mama Bird pocket diaper for the Guppy using materials I got from Diapercuts.

And, proof that dreams really do come true....both my girls are taking a nap at the same time. I haven't had a moment to myself in so long I don't know what to do!! ;o)

Round and Round the Virus Goes...

Cloth Diapering News

An article describing the benefits of cloth...and yes, cloth is better for baby's skin! From the article:

Comfort for your baby comes first, and with the menace of harmful chemicals in disposable diapers, cloth diapers seem the only solution. Comfortable, hygienic, eco-friendly, durable . . . with so many merits, it is no wonder cloth nappies are replacing disposable diapers everywhere.There can be no doubt that cloth
diapers are so good for your baby!

And for those who are interested, you can find the written history of cloth and disposables here, and an illustrated time line of the history of cloth diapers here.

Finally, I came across this article that describes the "benefits" of disposable diapers. According to this article, the chemicals in disposables are a good thing because they help prevent diaper rash. And the best part is when it states:

Since urine by itself is not irritating, mildly wet diapers do not need to be changed immediately. Industry studies show that most parents change a baby's diaper six to seven times per day on average.

Right. So now it's ok to let your child sit in his or her own urine. grrr.

That's all for Cloth Diapering in the news.

Cloth Diapering News

Cloth Diapering

This past Friday I went to a Mother's Tea hosted by my midwife. The topic of the meeting was babywearing and cloth diapering. There were three pregnant women there and also other children. The Mermaid really enjoyed herself, although she did fall down some steps and got a bloody nose. My midwife couldn't get over how big the Guppy had gotten and loved holding her.
It was really fun to sit down with other like-minded women and discuss cloth diapering. In our experience, we first started using cloth diapers to save money. When we discovered all the other benefits, we decided not to switch back to disposables, even when though we could now afford it. It really amazed me that I prefer cloth over disposable, and it really makes me think of finding alternatives to other disposable products, and how those alternatives can help to lessen the impact on the environment that our disposable society causes.
Here are some links about the cloth vs. disposable debate in general:
The Top Ten Myths About Cloth Diapering
The Disposable Diaper Myth
The Cloth vs. Disposable Debate
So to those mommas out there who use cloth, why did you start and would you ever go back to disposable?

Cloth Diapering

A couple news-worthy items...

I really did like my college professors. However, I wish I had a professor who told us this:

"Taste some infant formulas sometime. Why any kid would drink this is beyond my comprehension, this stuff tastes awful. And if you ever get the chance you should taste some breast milk, I'll have to tell you that this stuff tastes delicious."

Dr. Jordan Finkelstein: Biobehavioral Health 101

Thanks for Angela over at Breastfeeding 1-2-3 for the heads up on that funny quote.

Another cute little breastfeeding video that I found over at YouTube. It's pretty corny in the beginning, but the end has a cute little kick to it.


And finally, a news article on the cultural impact in a woman's decision to breastfeed vs. bottlefeed. From the article:

"A lot of our cultural confusion about mothering and raising children comes to a point at the breast," says Gale Pryor, author of "Working Mom: Nursing Mom." "Society brings all its confusion and lays it on breastfeeding mothers, who end up weaning not simply because breastfeeding is such a headache, but because dealing with the world as a breastfeeding mother is such a headache."

They're not alone. The woman who chooses to bottlefeed has to face her own set of critics. This includes self-described "bad, bad mother" Tish Durkin, who received many nasty letters after writing in the New York Observer that she chose to forgo nursing for a variety of reasons -- including a desire to get some sleep. On the other hand, she got some fan mail, too: "From bottlefeeding New York mothers who are scared to death to reveal their true identities, lest some marvelously nurturing lactivist haul them out and have them stoned."

It's a shame that mothers are too busy fighting each other over these issues to fight together for mother's rights in general.

Another neat thing I read about in the news lately is how women are sending their breastmilk over to Africa to help save babies there. How cool is that?

I also read a positive article on cloth diapering, and finally, an article on a truly ignorant women who removed her seven year old child from class because they were learning about childbirth and breastfeeding. From the article:

And she is reported to have questioned why Startforth Morritt Memorial School,has lessons in breastfeeding, saying "it's disgusting".

Well that is it for now. Ciao!

A couple news-worthy items...