If you’ve ever hunted for information about cloth diapering, you’ve likely run across the instruction to “strip your diapers.” Some sources make this sound like a dire emergency, while other sources ignore it completely. So we thought we’d take a quick look at what stripping is and when it’s useful.

What is Stripping?

“Stripping” merely refers to an easy process that strips any lingering residues from the surface of your diapers.  Residues can build up if you use a detergent that has additives or fabric softeners, if diapers aren’t fully rinsed after each wash, or if you have hard water in your area.

Why Should I Strip? (And How Often?)

Stripping isn’t a routine maintenance sort of thing – it’s only something you need to do if your normally soft and absorbent diapers are suddenly leaking or if there’s an undesirable odor that lingers in your diapers even after they’ve been washed and dried.

So, HOW Do I Strip?

There are various methods for stripping your diapers depending on your type of machine. And obviously, regardless of method, start with non-dirty diapers or you’ll have a whole new set of problems to deal with!

HOT water with no detergent (top-loader): Wash your diapers in the longest cycle your machine will allow using the HOT wash cycle and either HOT or WARM rinse. Lift the lid every once in a while to check for soap bubbles -  you need to rinse until you no longer see soap bubbles or a film on top of the water during the rinse, which may take as many as 3-4 rinses. But once the soap bubbles no longer appear, your diapers are fresh and fully stripped!

Rock-a-Soak (top-loader & HE): This is a super-super-effective way to get rid of lingering funk and residues. In a top-loader, fill the tub with hot water, add 3-4 tablespoons of Funk Rock Ammonia Bouncer, toss in your diapers, and let them sit for an hour or so. After the soak, run them through a hot wash and rinse cycle 2-3 times.

In a front-loader, add your diapers to the basket and put 3-4 tablespoons of Funk Rock in the detergent area of the detergent drawer. Start a quick wash cycle and hit “stop” or “pause” as soon as you notice that the Funk Rock has been washed into the basket and the water has been added in the cycle. Let this sit for an hour or so, then start a long, hot wash and rinse without adding anything else. You will likely need to wash and rinse 2-3 times.

Vinegar (top-loader & HE): You can also add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of vinegar to one of the rinse cycles. This is a gentle way to neutralize the acids and odors lingering on your diapers and it will help lift away the residues. You can add this via the detergent drawer or if you have a Downy ball, just place the vinegar inside and toss it in on top of the diapers.

Dawn dishwashing liquid (top-loader only): In a top-loader, you may also add one squirt of Original Dawn dishwashing liquid to the wash cycle. Dawn has been formulated as a degreaser, so it does very well in lifting off oily residues. (If your child has recently discovered Vaseline or petroleum-based diaper creams and smeared them all over his or her diapers, Dawn is also a very effective way to deal with that laundry issue!) Dawn creates lots of suds, however, so if you want to use this method with a front-loader, you’ll need to scrub the diapers with Dawn by hand and rinse them out before putting them into the washer. As with all the other methods, once the diapers are in the machine, wash on hot and – you guessed it – rinse, rinse, rinse.

So, as you can see, stripping your diapers doesn’t take much more effort than a regular load of laundry and doesn’t need to happen often. The best way to prevent needing to strip in the first place is just to make sure you’re using a long rinse in your normal wash routine or by occasionally adding a second rinse to your routine.

Happy diapering!

Photo Credit – Brooklyn

It may seem from our title that we’re talking about food today, but as is inevitable in any conversation about diapers, today we’re actually discussing poo. (Sorry if we got your hopes up….) As any pediatrician or naturopath will tell you, watching your infant’s stools change from liquid to solid is an important, significant transition, and sometimes that can mean changing your diaper selection as well.

The Newborn Days

In the early days of life, your baby’s gut is immature. For the first few days, it’s excreting all the lovely, tarry meconium that is a by-product of life in the womb, and for the first few weeks is incapable of holding food for long. And obviously, the only food intake is in liquid form, so with all these factors together, you can count on a liquid-y, poopy diaper after every meal. (Diaper liners are a welcome accessory during this period!)

As for color and texture, due to the colonization of the gut with all the good bacteria it needs for nutrient absorption, you can watch the stool go from black to various shades of yellow and green. Your doctor or midwife will likely ask you at some point about the stool’s color and consistency as an indication of the baby’s health, especially if the baby has been jaundiced.

In terms of diapering, all of this liquid stool in the early days means that the most important factor to consider in choosing diapers is containment. You need a diaper or a cover that has good, snug elastic around the legs and waist to keep all the poo exactly where it belongs. Popular choices from New & Green parents tend to be a prefold, Snappi, and cover combo, a Kissaluvs size 0 + cover combo, and the (super cute) TiniFit All-in-One.

Regularity

At about 6-8 weeks of age, your baby’s stools will begin to change. While at the beginning poo tends to be runny, at this point it will begin to hold together and take on a firmer, more tacky texture. The upside to this is that the stool can be easier to shake off into the toilet, as well as that food is now moving more slowly through the gut, so it’s entirely possible that your baby will only move his or her bowels once or twice a day, sometimes at the same time each day. (Wahoo!) And as the months go by and as your baby begins to eat solid food, the poo will continue to solidify.

So as poo becomes more – shall we say, regular – containment is no longer the highest priority for a diaper, but absorbancy. Poo may not be as frequent, but the baby’s bladder is getting bigger and he or she is eating more.

Thus, parents’ favorite diapers tend to change: many still love the prefold + cover combo and the EasyFit All-in-One, but other favorites for this period include the Bamboozle bamboo fitted, the AMP hemp fitted, and BumGenius pocket diapers.

Watching your baby grow and change can be an incredible, joyful experience. We certainly hope that cloth diapering on that journey helps you celebrate the joy of watching your child grow and seeing the miracle of all the changes that your baby’s body goes through, including the myriad type of messy diapers.

And care to share your experiences? We welcome hearing your stories about how you have dealt with your “poo problems,” as questions about how to deal with poop are among our most frequent at our Cloth Diapering 101 workshops and here on the blog. Real-life stories are fantastic!

November 6 – Cloth Diaper 101 Workshop at Gymboree North Van- Register Here

November 14 – Cloth Diaper 101 Workshop at Pomegranate Midwives in East Van- Register Here

November 15- Pregnant in East Van Open House at Pomegranate Midwives in East Van- More Info

November 22 – Cloth Diaper PlayDate at Gymboree North Van – RSVP Here

November 30 – Cloth Diaper 101 Workshop at Optimum Chiropractic in SuterBrook Village, Port Moody – Register Here

A sneak peek into our workshops:

If the topic of laundry fascinates you as much as it does us, make sure you check out our other Laundry Science posts!

C’mon, Baby, Do the Swish

Water Quality – Soft, Hard, or Somewhere In Between

Length of the Wash Cycle (Sometimes a Quickie Isn’t Enough)

The Role of Water in Washing Cloth Diapers

Today’s post in our Laundry Science series is about the temperature of your wash water.

Some may argue that cold water is best for environmental reasons, while others declare that hot water is required for diapers. And a common question at our Cloth Diapering 101 workshops is whether or not it’s required to use the extra-hot sanitizing cycle for diapers. What’s the real scoop? How does temperature affect the cleanliness of the load – and getting out stains?

First off, we should make sure we’re all familiar with the basic wash routine for cloth diapers – a rinse on cold, wash on hot, and rinse on cold. (We know, we know – for most readers, this is de rigueur, but we just like to make sure everyone’s on the same page…. )

Of the three temperature settings available on most washing machines – cold, warm, and hot – each has its particular role and effect on your diapers. For example, cold is great for just getting plenty of water through your diapers while offering good environmental and budgetary savings, but if you’re wanting to get a fresh batch of stains out, you might want to change the first rinse to warm. Why? Because it’s recommended to remove a stain at the same temperature at which it was set, so for ice cream stains on a shirt, you’d want to use a cold rinse, but for diapers, you’d want to use warm, since they were created at body temp!

Also, keep in mind the temperature at which your water heater is set, as your hot wash will be at that temperature. (Although also keep in mind that the water may come out 2-4° Celsius cooler than what your water heater dial says, depending on how much pipe the water has to go through in its travel between the water heater and the washing machine.) Many detergents activate most efficiently between 55-60° C (130°-140°F), including Rockin’ Green, which is also the range at which most bacterias are killed, which is why it’s recommended to use a hot wash to clean your diapers.

But what about the sanitize cycle, which super-heats the water above 65°C (150°F)?  There are a few factors that come into play here. One, this high temperature tends to weaken synthetic fabrics, including PUL and elastics, so it’s definitely not recommended on a regular basis and may even void your warranty. (Check out the BumGenius site as an example.) It also adds a significant amount to your energy usage for washing diapers, which adds up on your monthly bill.

The only time we recommend a one-time extra-hot sanitize wash is if your child has had a serious bacterial diarrheal illness, such as rotavirus, or a severe, prolonged yeast infection. Even then, check with the manufacturers of your diapers before you do a super-hot wash if you’re worried about your warranty, as there are other ways to deal with lingering spores as well.

If you’re interested in finding the right balance between getting a good hot wash and not scalding yourself (and your children) at the sink, check out these tips from the City of Vancouver and BCHydro for saving money and making your heater more efficient.

Photo Credit – Thing Three

As your baby moves from those tiny infant days to the big run-around toddler days, different size diapers take care of all your diapering needs. If you’ve chosen to use one-size diapers,  obviously you’ll need to decide when to change the snap settings to get the best sizing at every step of the way. If you’re at one of times, congratulations on this milestone in your baby’s growth!

Here are few things to watch out for to know it’s time to change to the next snap setting:

When the rise falls below the top of the hips, you know the diaper no longer comes up high enough to provide adequate coverage on the front of the diaper. The “rise” is the height of the diaper in the front – this often indicates the the back of the diaper is a bit short as well, so it’s definitely helpful to extend the rise at this point by moving up one snap setting.

When the leg openings become tight, that can also be an indication that the diaper is on the small side. Leg openings should be somewhat snug in order to keep messes where they belong, but if you can no longer fit one finger in between the leg elastic and your baby’s leg or if the elastic is leaving significant indentations in your baby’s skin, then it’s time to re-evaluate.

It should be noted, however, that tight leg openings can occur for other reasons, as well, so you should check out other fit issues before changing your snap settings. If you have a wonderfully chubby baby, the legs will probably become tight before the rise becomes too short, while if you have a long legged, lanky babe, the leg openings may never become too tight before it’s time to switch. Tight leg openings are merely a companion symptom. (Leg openings should never gap, however, so look for a different culprit if changing the snap setting results in gaps around the legs!)

However, if the diaper is tight around the waist and difficult to get on, that’s a good sign that your baby is ready to move to the next snap setting.

If pee regularly starts leaking over the top of the diaper, regardless of the rise, it may be time to change the snap setting. This can be due to a boy who tends to point upward or a girl who sleeps on her front – however, before you decide that changing snap settings is the best way to solve this problem, consider doing some “problem solving” by making sure to tuck your boy downward when you change him or by adding extra absorbancy to the front of your girl’s diaper.

The makers of BumGenius, one of the most popular one-size diapers on the market today, offers a helpful comment to keep in mind as well: Remember, babies change shape frequently as they grow up. You may have times when your relatively young baby is using their one-size diapers on the largest setting. The same child may be on the medium setting several months later due to increased mobility.

Also, one extra note for those of you who use Fuzzi Bunz One-Size diapers: Even though Fuzzi Bunz’s version of the one-size diaper uses elastic instead of snaps to change sizing, these guidelines still apply. However, the elastics allow more settings than snaps do, so you may choose to adjust them more or less often, according to what works best for you and your child. If you ever find yourself trying to find the “right” adjustment for your child, use this handy chart to find suggestions that may work for you.

Here’s the best to all you fantastic mamas as your child grows and hits many milestones in the first few years of life!

As many of us hit the road for summer travel, there’s a common question raised by cloth diapering parents: can I travel with cloth? How do I make it easy?

Along with stories from three veteran N&G moms, Amber, Kelly, and Anne, of how they cloth diapered while on the road (and in the air), here are five tips to make it a trip to (not) remember.

Know What You Like

Being in unfamiliar places and in cramped spaces is not the time to try out the cutest new diaper out there. Bring what you know and what you’re comfortable with so that changes go quickly and easily. If you do want to try out a new style or combo, purchase your diapers far enough ahead of time that you’ve got time to try them at home a few times first.

And knowing what you like doesn’t just apply to the diapers themselves – if it’s possible, pack your diapering supplies in baskets or pretty bags that will make you smile each time you see them. The comforts of home and feeling organized and stylish go a long way to the sense of satisfaction and relaxed-ness that should accompany a good trip.

Know Your Storage

No matter how you’re traveling – car, train, boat, RV, or airplane – you want to be judicious with your use of space. Pocket diapers, such as the AMP Duo, with microfibre inserts or Joey Bunz inserts are a great thin-yet-absorbent option. Covers with prefolds are also very trim. Plus, prefolds can be rolled up like socks and stuffed in between other items, making for very efficient packing!

The FLIP diaper is also one that excels in a travel situation, because it was created with versatility in mind – it’s a trim cover with your choice of three inserts: organic cotton, microfibre, or a disposable biodegradable insert. For example, if you have a 14-hour plane ride to Australia in your near future, the flexibility of the biodegradable disposable insert may be just for you.

Know How Often You Can Wash

If you won’t have access to laundry facilities and will be hauling a week’s worth of diapers home, you’ll obviously pack differently than if you’ll be staying in someone’s home and can plan to wash every day or two. Be sure to think through your trip and then plan for the longest stretch you’ll have to go between washes. If you’re camping, you can wash in the campsite and save space on the number of diapers you have to haul around.

If it’s going to be more than 3-4 days between washes, be sure you have a large, zippered wetbag to haul the dirties, plenty of diapers and wipes, and some Rockin’ Green Shake It Up! pail powder if you’re worried about stink. (Stink really only becomes an issue if there’s lots of solids left on the diapers or if diapers are left for several days in a hot location.  However, in close quarters, like a car, adding a deodorizer to your wetbag can be a way to feel extra-secure that no one will be able to complain as you cross the miles – at least about stink, that is.)

Be Prepared

In French cooking, it’s called mise en place (“everything set in place”), but in everything else, it’s merely “preparation is everything.” Before you hit the road or head to the airport, have all your diapers and accessories ready to grab – pocket diapers stuffed, prefolds folded and placed inside their covers, all diapers prelined with flushable diaper liners (for especially easy poop management), water bottles filled, and wetbags packed. That way, no matter where you end up doing diaper changes, you can change quickly and neatly. (Other parents will marvel at your calm demeanor and obvious skill….)

Prepare for the Worst

There’s nothing worse than not having diapers when you need them, say, if the airlines lose your luggage (the ones where you packed all your diapers) or you run out of diapers in your carry-on – that makes a normally stressful situation hit Level 5 in no time flat. Be prepared for the worst by having diapers available in multiple bags and locations, with wipes and small wetbags too of course, so that should stressful events happen, figuring out how to Get Diapers Right Now won’t elevate the stress level.

If you’re still leery of traveling with cloth, be sure to check out our whole series on Cloth Diapers on Vacation. There you’ll find more tips and strategies on cloth diapering away from home, including Cloth Diapers on Vacation :: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Cloth Diaper Laundry on Vacation, and Cloth Diapers on Vacation :: Camping.

We’d love to hear from you too – what ways have you made traveling easy with cloth diapers?

Up until now in our series on cloth diaper fabrics, we’ve covered the most common natural fibre fabrics – cotton, bamboo, and hemp.

But there are some very popular synthetic fabrics used as well within the cloth diaper industry – today we’ll look at microfibre.

Microfibre is popular due to its very absorbent nature (it can absorb up to 8x its own weight) and the fact that it dries very quickly. It’s usually made of a blend of polyester and nylon and is spun into ultra-thin threads, thus the name “micro-fiber.”

While microfibre is not biodegradable, it is considered an eco-friendly fabric because of its extreme durability and the fact that it’s designed for repeated use. And, of course, since that’s the whole premise of cloth diapering, it’s a “natural” fit.

There are very few diapers that are made completely of microfibre, however. Since it is so absorbent, it can dry out a baby’s skin if left in contact for extended periods of time. Thus, it’s usually used as a absorbent core inside an all-in-one diaper, such as the Easy Fit (where it’s paired with bamboo – talk about a no-leak combo!) and the AMP AIO, or as an insert in a pocket diaper, as in the Bum Genius and Fuzzi Bunz diapers. If it is designed to be directly against the baby’s skin, it’s usually topped with a layer of suede fleece to provide a soft, stay-dry barrier between the fabric and the skin, such as with the Flip diaper microfibre insert.

Microfibre is certainly versatile and diapers are only one of its many applications. Do you use microfibre in your home for cleaning or in diapers? Do you like it in diapers? What’s your opinion of diapers using synthetic components – is it the best of modern technology or should diapers only contain natural, renewable fabrics? We’d love to hear what you think!

Today is the third installment in our series looking at the fabrics commonly used in cloth diapering. You can see other posts in this series by clicking here.

Bamboo is one of the most popular fabrics for cloth diapers and definitely one of the most chic. It’s luxuriously soft, eco-friendly, and very absorbent. In fact, tests have shown that rayon from bamboo absorbs moisture on contact 70% more quickly than cotton and dries 20% faster. And for softness, it’s known for mimicking silk, cashmere, or french terry fleece.

It’s also with good reason that bamboo has such an eco-friendly rap:

Bamboo retains water, thus requiring very little irrigation.

It puts down deep roots, thereby supporting riverbanks and hillsides and avoiding erosion.

It is naturally anti-microbial, thus needing no pesticides or fertilizers.

It absorbs five times more carbon dioxide and releases 35% more oxygen into the environment than a stand of trees covering the same acreage.

It’s a very sustainable crop, as it doesn’t need replanting for years at a time and it grows very quickly. Once a mother clump of bamboo has taken root – generally about three years – it only takes one growing season of 3-4 months for the shoots to be ready for harvest. In fact, if the growing conditions are just right, bamboo can even grow more than a metre in one day!

When it comes to making bamboo into a textile, there’s a vast difference between conventional and sustainable practices, however. The fibres in a bamboo stalk are very short and cannot be knit directly into a yarn as with most other textiles, so they must be softened, pulped, and stretched like taffy to create the fibres. In the conventional process of turning bamboo cellulose into the silky-soft rayon we know and love, several caustic chemicals are used to soften and break down the fibres, which has a severe environmental impact and destroys the antimicrobial properties of the bamboo itself.

However, sustainable companies, such as the ones whose products we carry here at New & Green, are committed to creating their rayon in environmentally responsible ways. For example, Tots Bots, the makers of the Stretch Bamboozle and the Easy Fit, make sure their processing is done within the strict international environmental standards of ISO 9000 & 14000. The finished product also falls under the coveted European Oeko-Tex standard. And as an added bonus, viscose rayon made from bamboo is more biodegradable than other similar fabrics, including organic cotton.

In the end, organic, sustainably produced bamboo diapers are one of the best choices you can make. Make sure you check out the Bamboozle, the Easy Fit, the BabyKicks 3G, and the AMP bamboo flats!

Photo credit

There’s not much point to using fantastic, soft, lovely cloth diapers if you don’t have a cover that successfully keeps the baby (and you) warm and dry. Here’s a quick rundown of the different types of covers we offer here at New & Green and how they compare so that you can choose what will work best for you and your baby.

(For space, the table has been broken into two parts. Be sure to scroll down to get all the info or click here to view it as one page.)

	Bummis Super Brite	Bummis Super Lite	Bummis Super Snap	Bummis Whisper Pant
Can be used with…	*Prefolds with Snappi *Prefolds w/o Snappi *JoeyBunz and other inserts *Fitted diapers	*Prefolds with Snappi *Prefolds w/o Snappi *JoeyBunz and other inserts *Fitted diapers	*Prefolds with Snappi *Prefolds w/o Snappi *JoeyBunz and other inserts *Fitted diapers	*Prefolds with Snappi *Fitted diapers
Fabric	PUL with wipe-clean interior	PUL with wipe-clean interior	PUL	Nylon
Closures	Velcro (tabs can be overlapped)	Velcro	Snaps	—
Wrap or Pull-on?	Wrap	Wrap	Wrap	Pull-on
Leg Gussets?	Yes	No	No	No
Fit	Trim (ideal for long, skinny babies)	Trim	Roomy (especially good for chunky babies)	Roomy (ideal for bulkier fitted diapers)
Newborn Option?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Washing	Machine wash	Machine wash	Machine wash	Machine wash
Drying	*Dryer *Hang to dry	*Dryer *Hang to dry	*Dryer *Hang to dry	*Dryer *Hang to dry
Made in…	Canada (using North American materials)	Canada (using North American materials)	Canada (using North American materials)	Canada (using North American materials)
Daytime/ Nighttime?	*Daytime *Nighttime	*Daytime	*Daytime *Nighttime	*Daytime
Recommended for Going Out?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No, due to lightweight-duty
One-Size or Sized?	Sized	Sized	Sized	Sized
Multiple Designs?	Yes (6 designs)	Yes (4 solid colours)	No	No

	Bummis Super Whisper Wrap	FLIP One-Size Cover	Aristocrats Wool Cover
Can be used with…	*Prefolds with Snappi *Prefolds w/o Snappi *JoeyBunz and other inserts *Fitted diapers	*FLIP inserts and other inserts, such as Joey Bunz	*Prefolds with Snappi *Fitted diapers
Fabric	double-layered PUL	PUL and Spandex	Wool
Closures	Velcro (tabs can be overlapped)	Snaps	—
Wrap or Pull-on?	Wrap	Wrap	Pull-on
Leg Gussets?	No	No	No
Fit	Roomy (fits most babies well, but is especially good for chunky babies and bulky fitted diapers)	Roomy and Trim (wide cut to accommodate various inserts, but still maintains trim profile)	Comfortable (very bulky but fits well over any diaper)
Newborn Option?	Yes (for larger newborns)	No	No
Washing	Machine wash	Machine wash	Hand wash
Drying	*Dryer *Hang to dry	*Dryer *Hang to dry	*Hang to dry
Made in…	Canada (using North American materials)	Egypt (with responsible materials and labour)	British Columbia (using wool sourced & spun in Canda)
Daytime/ Nighttime?	*Daytime *Nighttime	*Daytime *Nighttime	*excels at nighttime
Good for Going Out?	Yes	Yes	No, very bulky under clothing
One-Size or Sized?	Sized	One-size	Sized
Multiple Designs?	Yes (8 designs)	Yes (5 solid colours)	No

Be sure to check out our Toolboxes to keep cloth diapering simple and easy!

It’s time once again for one of Vancouver’s premiere “mom to be” events – the Bellies to Babies Celebration! Don’t miss this spring’s show THIS SUNDAY, April 10. All the fabulous details can be found at the event website – www.belliestobabiescelebration.com.

The Bellies to Babies Celebration is a one of a kind event, offering a unique opportunity for new and expectant parents and grandparents to explore and shop for trendy baby fashions, décor and so much more! Community resources and support services will be on hand to answer questions for new and expecting parents.

New & Green will be on hand to answer questions, show off our favourite diapers, and let you in on the latest and greatest in the cloth diapering world. Make sure to come find us at Booth #42.

And best of all, in amongst all the other fabulous exhibitors and demonstrators, we’ll be on the mainstage at 1:00 with “Cloth Diapering 101″ – a FREE mini-workshop, just like our popular Cloth Diapering 101 workshops.

Because this is such an popular event, pre-registration is recommended, so check out the various ways to register today. And there’s no set admission fee – admission is by donation to The Greater Vancouver Food Bank “Basics for Babies” Program. In lieu of admission, donations of monies and baby supplies will be accepted.

Mark your calendars now and we look forward to seeing you there!

PS – We have an awesome draw happening at our Booth.  Come by and enter to win.  You will love it!  And did we mention the prize is worth more than $375?!

Today is the second installment in our series looking at the fabrics commonly used in cloth diapering. You can see other posts in this series by clicking here.

Organic Cotton

Cotton is one of the world’s most in-demand crops: more than 3% of the world’s agricultural land is covered in cotton. That’s larger than the entire country of Germany and approximately the size of all of Central America combined. Yet, organic cotton makes up less than 1% of that total.

In order for cotton to be considered “organic,” it must be grown with non-genetically modified seed and can use no agrochemicals, such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, or fertilizers. Considering conventional cotton uses approximately 25% of the world’s insecticides and about 10% of the world’s pesticides, this is a major departure from conventional farming methods. For every T-shirt or diaper manufactured with conventional cotton, between 1/4 – 1/2 lb. of chemicals have been used. This has obvious ramifications for those with sensitive skin or those just wanting to limit their exposure to chemicals and other toxic materials.

Cotton – regardless of growing method – is a beautiful plant. It grows as a medium size bush, blossoms with delicate flowers, and then produces a ball of cotton as the blossom matures.

Cotton is an especially difficult plant to grow, and even more so when the farmer has chosen to grow organically. Insects are commonly drawn to cotton plants (thus the heavy usage of insecticides in the conventional methods) and an organic farmer must be both creative, persistent, and innovative in their methods in order to have a successful crop. Often “trap crops” are used, as well as soil amendments such as compost are used to encourage biodiversity among the plants, which allow other bugs to “take care of” the unwanted guest pests. Cotton also depletes soil of minerals and nutrients more than it filters back in to the soil, so in an organic system it’s an especially important crop to rotate every few years in order to maintain a sustainable operation and profitable harvests.

There are various standards for declaring cotton fabrics to be truly “certified organic,” and among the most stringent of those certifications is the European Oeko-Tex 100. Oeko-Tex is unique because it not only tests the cotton in its raw state, but it also tests the product in its final state for more than 100 toxic substances, as dyes and fabric additives can leave toxic residues on the fabric, including heavy metals, phthalates, and phenols. But good news! – nearly all of the cotton diapers offered at New & Green are organic and many of those are Oeko-Tex 100 certified, including Bummis prefolds and the Flip organic cotton insert.

What questions do you have about organic cotton or what have you discovered in your research about cloth diapering? This post is just the beginning – we’d love to hear from you!

Want to know more? Be sure to check out:

Ekopedia

Organic Trade Association

Sustainable Cotton Project

AboutOrganicCotton.org

Eartheasy: Solutions for Sustainable Living
Storchenwiege
How Eco is Organic Cotton? The Facts on 7 Questions | Gaiam Life

Cotton plant photo credit

Cotton blossom photo credit

Welcome to a new series here on the New & Green blog highlighting the fabrics that are used in the wonderful array of cloth diapers that exist on the market today. Many parents at our Cloth Diapering 101 workshops want to know the benefits of using natural fibres and are curious about synthetic fibres, since they make cloth diapering so easy! Thus this series was born – through the year we will highlight several of the fabrics commonly used in the diapers that don your babies’ bums.

HEMP

Hemp is one of the world’s oldest plants and one of the ones that has been most used through history. It is earth-friendly, versatile, and renewable.

Though it’s a sibling to marijuana, which is grown for the use of its blossoms and leaves, hemp is grown mostly for its seeds and its fibrous stalk, which breaks down easily with very few chemicals during processing. It is known as a very eco-friendly plant, as it grows quickly, requires little water, improves soil nutrients rather than depleting them, is an excellent anti-erosion crop, and is naturally pest-resistant, which eliminates the need for pesticides. It’s also very easily grown without the use of herbicides or fertilizers.

All in all, it is a very “green” crop and can be easily made into thousands of different kinds of products with fewer chemicals than its counterparts. (e.g., in paper making, hemp requires fewer chemicals than wood; in the production of fabrics and other textiles, hemp requires fewer chemicals than conventional cotton; etc…) The end product when made into a fabric is naturally anti-microbial and very durable.

There is a serious downside to hemp, however. While it is now legal to grow hemp in Canada, there are no textile mills able to deal with raw hemp. In the US, not only are there no hemp textile mills, but it’s still illegal to grow the crop. Thus, it’s still necessary and more cost-effective for diaper manufacturers to import finished hemp fabric from other nations, usually China. This certainly increases the “eco-footprint” for any hemp diaper.

There’s also the factor of softness. Hemp is a very sturdy, durable, absorbent material and until recently, most hemp diapers were more practical than swoon-worthy. However, both Annie Marie Padorie of AMP Diapers and BabyKicks have been among the first to use luxuriously soft combed hemp fleece in their diapers – we invite you to pick one up and feel the difference! They’re almost down-right cuddle-worthy…

Mamas (and papas) – what has been your experience with hemp diapers?

Photo credit

At our popular Cloth Diapering 101 workshops, many parents are eager, or at least interested, to use cloth on their babies. However, the “deal breaker” question many ask first is, “But what do I do with the dirties?”

No fear – the days of lugging heavy pails full of sloshing, acrid water to the washing machine are far behind us. These days, diapers are designed with ease of cleaning in mind and you don’t have to even touch the dirties once they’ve been placed in the diaper pail.

A diaper pail is a good place to start. You can read more about choosing a diaper pail that will work for you in other posts around our blog, but basically any container with a lid that is big enough to hold 2-3 dozen diapers will work just fine. Place a pail liner in the pail and you’re ready to go.

When it comes time to change your baby, there are only a few steps. If the dirty diaper is merely wet, you can toss it straight in the pail. Make sure you keep the cover and hang it to dry, as you can reuse it several more times before wash day.

If the diaper has poo in it, you can deal with it in various ways. If you are exclusively breastfeeding, the diaper can be tossed straight in the pail, poo and all. If the baby is receiving any formula or is old enough to be eating solids, as much of the poo as possible should end up in the toilet. You can shake the poo off if it’s solid, do the Four Corner Dunk and Swish (popularized by our own instructor, Bonnie) if it’s a bit more sticky, or you can pre-line your diapers with a bio-liner that gets flushed, a fleece liner that gets washed, or a raw silk liner, which can also be tossed in the wash. Once the poo is in the toilet, toss the cover and the diaper together into your diaper pail.

If you’re using pockets, make sure to put out the innards as you put the diaper in the pail, as this will ensure that you don’t have to touch the diaper again. (Always a good thing….)

On wash day (we recommend every 2-3 days), take the pail to the washing machine, pull out the liner, dump all the contents plus the liner into the machine, do a rinse on cold, a wash on hot with detergent, a second rinse on cold if you so desire, then toss everything into the dryer or hang them on a line – and you’re done!

And as always, if you’re worried about smell in your diaper pail, there are lots of great ways to keep odors at bay.

And that’s it – just as easy as taking out the trash (but lots more fun…)

Introducing our newest Cloth Diaper 101 location in North Vancouver, the Notable Kids Kindermusik Studio on Lonsdale, just off Hwy 1.  The owner of Notable Kids, Carolyn, has been a part of my life for the last four years.  I started taking our first daughter Ella there when she was still a wee babe, not yet crawling (and still doing those explosive breastmilk poops!).  I remember our fair share of signing and laughs and diaper changes in the early days.  We continued along and learned lots together and we now go to Family Time – Ella, Clare and I and I get a workout bouncing two kids on my lap!

Beyond the musical influence this program has had on my kids, I really value the inclusive participation and respect for both children and adults in the classes.  Carolyn has always recognized and respected each child’s sensory thresholds and physical development, offering ways to adapt the moves or participation to suit your child.  Nursing, diaper changes and running off steam was always just a part of class, never viewed as an interruption.  It has been a place where I can create joy with my children.

I’m sure all moms (and dads too) can see value in this, but there is more for me.  As a mom who works a lot from home, there is the tempation to try and “do it all” at home – play with the kids, cook for the kids, keep the home, do the laundry, answer email, answer phone calls and the list goes on.  My time at Kindermusik is protected and very special.  It is focus time.  No distractions.  Pure play.  I wish I could do that more at home but I think I need to develop a tad more discipline.

The Studio is a new home for Notable Kids and we are honoured to be sharing space to provide Cloth Diaper Workshops there.

Carolyn is an amazing mom, teacher and fellow business woman.  I recommend you all check out her services and jump on her free class offer.  You’ll have a musical time!

Our first workshop is on February 22nd.  Join us if you want to learn more about Cloth Diapering.  Of if you have a fence sitting friend, send them along, and we’ll show them that cloth diapers are a doable option.

PS – that cutie with the blond ponies and blue eyes on the front page of the Notable Kids site, that is my sweetie Ella (quite a while ago, now).