Archive for the ‘Workshop Questions’ Category
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
 For those who are trying to decide between using disposable diapers and reusable diapers, the question of convenience is often at the forefront of their minds. So, here’s a run-down on the pro’s and con’s of each, focusing especially on the question we are often asked – “Are cloth diapers more work than disposables?”
Using Disposables
The easy part:
- putting them on
- taking them off
- easy to toss used diapers in the trash
- wipes are pre-wetted and ready
- easy to toss in a diaper bag
The work part:
- going out and buying them, especially if you have to run out late in the evening
- dumping solids in the toilet – solid waste shouldn’t go in the garbage regardless of whether it’s in a disposable diaper or a cloth one
- taking out the trash
Using Cloth
The easy part:
- putting them on, especially if you use one-step diapers like Easy Fits, pockets, or the new BabyKicks 3G. Cloth diapers are becoming much more intuitive, largely because of the popularity of their convenient disposable cousin.
- easy to toss used diapers in the diaper pail
- wipes can be pre-wetted and ready merely by putting wipes under some running water and placed in a travel wipes caddy.
- easy to toss in a diaper bag along with a travel-size wetbag
The work part:
- putting them on, especially if you are using diapers you haven’t gotten used to yet, like prefolds or ones with lots of snaps
- dumping solids in the toilet
- washing – washing is simple, it just takes a bit of time (which you can do while you’re doing other things)
We’re biased, of course, and consider the work of cloth diapering to be quite rewarding. But that may not be the case for everyone – it all depends on what works best for you and your family. Making an informed, thoughtful decision – regardless of what you decide – is always to be applauded!
Posted in Cloth Diaper Tips, Uncategorized, Workshop Questions | 1 Comment »
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
 In the grand discussion of concern for the environment, cloth diapers and high-efficiency washers are two topics that come up often. Yet many wonder if these two – while each a great action to save the environment on its own – are mutually exclusive. Since HE washers run their cycles with very little water, is it possible to use cloth diapers and actually get them clean?
Cloth is certainly do-able with an HE washer – you just need a little creativity. Ironically, washing cloth diapers in an HE washer doesn’t run the washer at its most efficient.
The key to getting your diapers clean, regardless of the type of washer, is water, water, water. Water is the only way to rid them of urine, residues, and odors. Thus, with an HE washer, you want to make sure there’s enough water in the wash cycle to ensure the diapers aren’t just flopping around!
For example, if you look into your wash window when you’re washing a load of clothes, you’ll likely see a couple of inches of water at the bottom of the wash tub. However, if you look in while you’re washing diapers, there’s typically no or very little extra water to see. This is because your lovely diapers are so absorbent that they soak up all the wash water provided. Thus, you need to figure out how to get extra water in the tub. There are a few ways to do this:
Use a no-spin pre-rinse. If your machine can do a rinse cycle without draining out the water at the end, run that cycle right before the wash cycle.
Know how to “trick” your machine. You can also trick your machine into thinking there’s more to wash than there actually is. Add in a pair of jeans or a towel to the wash cycle to get more water added to the cycle – jeans work especially well since they don’t absorb as much as a towel does.
Run multiple cycles. We find that it often works best to run two cold rinse cycles, one extra-long hot wash with Country Save or Rockin’ Green detergent, then two final cold rinse cycles. The first pre-rinse gets rid of urine and gunk, the second pre-rinse preps the diapers for the wash, the wash gets the diapers clean, then the two final rinses ensures there is no detergent or other build-up left on the diapers to keep them as absorbent as possible.
Use diapers that fit your wash routine. Traditional pockets and all-in-ones are the most difficult to keep clean in an HE washer. Pockets like FuzziBunz can be problematic because they’re so light they trigger very little water into the drum. Traditional AIO’s like the AMP all-in-one are difficult because they require lots of agitation to get sufficient water through them to actually get them spankin’ clean. Diapers that work especially WELL in an HE washer are EasyFits, hemp and organic cotton prefolds, the BabyKicks one size fitted hemp diaper, as well as the Bamboozle and other fitted diapers.
Wash often. Most people who use HE washers report that their diapers get the cleanest when they run small loads and wash every day or two. However, in the effort to keep things as efficient as possible, we still recommend washing every two to three days if you can. That way you don’t have to run your machine as often and you don’t have to keep as many diapers on hand.
As you can see, creativity is the name of the game to being successful with an high-efficiency washer – and you cloth diapering mamas are some of the most resourceful, creative people we know! Our hats are off to you!
Posted in Cloth Diaper Tips, Dealing with Poop, Uncategorized, Washing Cloth Diapers, Workshop Questions | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
 Diaper pails. Ah… diaper pails. Nearly every parent wonders at some point about the stink factor involved in diapering – heck, there are even entire industries dedicated to keeping disposable diapers from stinking up a home. (Think Diaper Genie and all the variations thereof…) So, what about cloth? Does it stink? The answer – NO, it doesn’t have to. Granted, if you stick your head in the pail, you won’t be smelling roses, but the heart of the question is – will my home reek of urine all the time? And to that, the response is a definitive “no.”
Let’s look a few ways to keep your baby’s room and your home smelling fresh:
Use a pail with a lid. This seems, perhaps, like obvious advice. But it still needs to be stated for the record that this is the best way to keep odors contained where they belong. Keep your lid on tight and away from toddlers and pets who can get in and make a mess. You can also use a large hanging wet bag since it has a zipper.
Do your laundry regularly. As long as you’re washing your diapers at least once every three days, the smell in your pail is minimized. If you let it sit longer, then the ammonia from the urine will begin to degrade and react with any poo in the pail and the stink factor will grow exponentially. (Trust us – we know. We’ve done it.)
Use a deodorizer. There are several ways to deodorize:
- You can use plain baking soda sprinkled at the bottom of your pail and over the diapers every once in a while, or you can use new Rockin’ Green Shake It Up! pail deodorizer in the same way (which is way more fun).
- You can put several drops of an essential oil, like tea tree oil or lavender oil, on a cloth wipe to mask any unpleasant smells.
- There are bamboo charcoal deodorizers that do an excellent job of absorbing odor.
- You can spray bumGenius odor remover spray onto each diaper to control bacteria before they grow.
- You can place a Pail Pal deo disk under the pail lid.
- Or you can place the pail outside where odor control will never be an issue, although this usually involves trekking through the house with dirty diapers in hand – usually not worth it.
So, be confident in your cloth diapering decisions. Be assured that your home will be the welcoming haven that you want it to be – or at least, that is, no one will be scared away by diaper odor.
Posted in Babies in Cloth, Cloth Diaper Tips, Dealing with Poop, Uncategorized, Workshop Questions | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
 “Does it matter what kind of detergent I use?”
This is one of the most common questions asked at our Cloth Diaper 101 workshops by new and expectant parents.
The answer is “yes,” but that doesn’t mean you’re specifically limited to a specific detergent. You just need to know what’s in the detergents you buy to determine their long-term effectiveness on your diapers. Since detergents that have fabric softeners, enzymes, or other additives can lead to residue build-up and leakage issues, it’s both helpful and necessary to know what ingredients make up your favorite laundry products. While we wholeheartedly vote for Rockin Green as THE detergent to use for cloth diapers, there are others that may work for you, too.
Enter the Detergent Determinator. This is a handy little tool put out by the Real Diaper Industry Association and for the most part, it’s quite helpful.
The strongest feature of this database is the customizable search function. You can search either by detergent name (e.g. Tide) or by detergent type. For example, you can search for a detergent that doesn’t have fragrance, is in liquid form, is suited for high efficiency washers, and is available in Canada. Once you receive your search functions, you can scroll through the list to compare and contrast the results according to their additives.
The only downside we’ve been able to find is that it’s not always easy to get search results by a name search. For example, we typed in “7th Generation” with no results, then “Seventh Generation” with no results, and finally just “Generation,” which finally populated a list and we realized that their exact spelling of the name is “Seventh (7th) Generation.” It also didn’t find every detergent we searched for, but overall we were very pleased with the thoroughness of the dozens upon dozens of detergents it does include in its database.
If you’d like to know what’s in your detergent or if you’d like to figure out which detergents will work best for you, check out the Detergent Decision Tool!
Posted in Chatter, Cloth Diaper Tips, Uncategorized, Washing Cloth Diapers, Workshop Questions | 2 Comments »
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
 One of the questions we are asked most often at our popular Cloth Diaper 101 Workshops is “How many diapers will I really need?” And what surprises most new parents is that they’ll need to count on using about ten diapers a day in the early newborn days. Yes – newborns pee and poo that many times each day! The old adage about “what goes in must come out” really holds true…
So, what do diaper changes look like in those early days?
Since you’ll be changing your baby often – including when you’re groggy in the middle of the night – it’s important to have plenty of diapers and covers on hand so that you don’t have to spend time scrounging up what you need right at diaper changing time or run short just before laundry time. It’s really a pain to have to hand-wash a cover in the middle of the night or have to dig through the diaper bag to find that one last clean diaper while your baby is crying on the change pad. Have everything ready and at hand and the experience will be a downright pleasant one.
Also, your midwife, family doctor, or pediatrician will likely want to know how many times a day your baby is peeing and pooing. These are indications of how your baby’s system is settling into life outside the womb and can be important indicators of how well your baby is feeding. Since disposable diapers absorb and wick away your baby’s pees, it can often be difficult to tell when your baby has voided, but with cloth it is much easier to know, so one could even argue that cloth diapers contribute to the health and well-being of your infant!
We also recommend (read: highly recommend) using liners for your newborn, especially in the first few weeks of life. Newborn poo, as well as meconium, can really stain like the dickens, so in order to keep stains to a minimum, just line your diapers with fleece or silk (or even an extra cloth wipe if you’re in a pinch). And if you do have some staining after your routine washing, remember that the sun will do wonders at removing bio-stains!
We hope your journey through the early days of babyhood is a joyful one – and even more, we hope your choice to cloth diaper makes the experience even more satisfying. Let us know if there are any ways we can help you through this time of change and discovery!
For more tips on diapering your newborn, check out what we used with our first child.
CHANGING A NEWBORN :: YES, THAT MANY TIMES!
One of the questions we are asked most often at our popular Cloth Diaper 101 Workshops is “How many diapers will I really need?” And what surprises most new parents is that they’ll need to count on using about ten diapers a day in the early newborn days. Yes – newborns pee and poo that many times each day! The old adage about “what goes in must come out” really holds true…
So, what do diaper changes look like in those early days?
Since you’ll be changing your baby often – including when you’re groggy in the middle of the night – it’s important to have plenty of diapers and covers on hand so that you don’t have to spend time scrounging up what you need right at diaper changing time or run short just before laundry time. It’s really a pain to have to hand-wash a cover in the middle of the night or have to dig through the diaper bag to get the one last clean diaper while your baby is crying on the change pad. Have everything ready and at hand and the experience will be a downright pleasant one.
Also, your midwife, family doctor, or pediatrician will likely want to know how many times a day your baby is peeing and pooing. These are indications of how your baby’s system is settling into life outside the womb and can be important indicators of how well your baby is feeding. Since disposable diapers absorb and wick away your baby’s pees, it can often be difficult to tell when your baby has voided, but with cloth it is much easier to know, so one could even argue that cloth diapers contribute to the health and well-being of your infant!
We also recommend (read: highly recommend) using liners for your newborn, especially in the first few weeks of life. Newborn poo, as well as meconium, can really stain like the dickens, so in order to avoid using copious amounts of stain remover and to keep stains to a minimum, just line your diapers with fleece or silk (or even an extra cloth wipe if you’re in a pinch).
We hope your journey through the early days of babyhood is a joyful one – and even more, we hope your choice to cloth diaper makes the experience even more satisfying. Let us know if there are any ways we can help you through this time of change and discovery!
For more tips on diapering your newborn, check out what we used with our first child.
Posted in Babies in Cloth, Chatter, Cloth Diaper Tips, Newborns, Uncategorized, Workshop Questions | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
 So, perhaps you’re new to cloth diapering or even just starting to consider it, or perhaps you’ve been using cloth for years but want some new ideas for your washing routine. Either way, washing isn’t what it used to be – it’s fast, it’s easy, and in most situations you never even have to touch the dirties. (Unlike the grandmother in our picture, who undoubtedly spent hours with her hands in the wash bin to get her diapers clean and white…)
There are just three steps to getting clean, ready-to-use diapers:
First, get yourself a big pail with a lid – you don’t need any specially-designed “diaper pail,” just anything with a lid will do. In many of the New & Green mamas’ homes, all you’ll find is a standard garbage bin with handles that flip up to keep the lid in place. You see, nothing special. Inside that pail, place a waterproof pail liner – this is what makes the process especially easy. Now your diaper pail is set up and waiting.
The second step is the diaper change itself. If there’s only pee on a diaper, there’s no need to do anything special – just toss that diaper in your pail. If there are any solids, simply knock them off into the toilet and then toss the soiled diaper into the pail. Note: Poop from a breastmilk fed baby is not considered “solids” and does not need any special treatment. Just throw it in the pail with the peed on diapers!
After two or three days, it’s laundry day!
Take the liner with all the dirty diapers in it to the washing machine. Dump everything into the machine, followed by the bag, then do a rinse on cold, a wash on hot (with detergent), then toss everything in the dryer or hang them up to dry – and you’re done! There need not be anything more to a regular washing routine than that. And you didn’t have to touch the dirty diapers since the time they were taken off the bum of your wee one!
Beyond routine, the only other considerations when it comes to diaper laundry are detergents and the added cost on your utility bill due to the increased energy usage.
Regarding detergents, there are a few detergents recommended by diaper manufacturers, which you can read more about on our “Diaper Care” page. And while there are a few no-no’s when it comes to which detergents to use, don’t let the decision stress you out. You won’t ruin your diapers by using the “wrong” detergent – the worst that can happen is that residue from some detergents will stay behind on your diapers and cause them to leak. In that case, throw some vinegar in a Downy ball, add it to your next few loads to strip off the residue (the diapers won’t smell like vinegar – we promise), then switch detergents and your diapers should be good as new.
As for the added energy costs, we find that the average for Vancouver and the Lower Mainland is an additional $15 on your utility bill each month if you use both the washer and the dryer for each load, assuming you wash every two days. If you don’t use the dryer, the you’ll drop your cost per month closer to $5-6.
Do you have a routine that works for you?
Posted in Chatter, Cloth Diaper Tips, Dealing with Poop, Newborns, Saving Money, Uncategorized, Washing Cloth Diapers, Workshop Questions | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
 One of the unknowns about cloth diapering is whether or not your home will smell like an outhouse if you have a diaper pail with we and dirty diapers in it while waiting to be washed. There are two things that you can do to virtually eliminate any lingering smell in your pail and markedly decrease the work of keeping your diaper pail clean. We’ve tired many methods and routines and found a solution that works for us. It works because it keeps the smell down, really cleans the diaper pail, it’s quick and non-toxic.
The two part system involves using a diaper pail liner and giving your pail a quick wipe every time you take the diapers out to launder them.
What do you need?
- 1 diaper pail (any garbage can of sorts with a lid will do)
- 2 diaper pail liners
- Spray bottle filled with a 50% vinegar, 50% water solution – add some drops of essential oil if you don’t like the smell of vinegar
- Cloth wipes
The How To:
- Remove diaper pail liner bag #1 from diaper pail full of dirty diapers
- Spray down the inside of the diaper pail and lid with the vinegar and water solution
- Wipe down the inside of the diaper pail and lid with cloth wipe
- Toss cloth wipe in to the dirty diaper bag
- Line Diaper pail with fresh diaper pail liner
That’s it. You’re set for your next change and ready to throw the diapers in the wash. It was quick, easy and you have a fresh smelling, disinfected pail.
Happy (fast and easy) Cleaning!
Posted in Chatter, Cloth Diaper Tips, Workshop Questions | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
 One of the most common questions we’re asked at our New & Green Cloth Diapering 101 workshops is about cloth diapering at daycare. Do daycares allow cloth? Which diapers are best? Do I need any special equipment?
From the bit of research we’ve done, it seems the vast majority of daycares in the Lower Mainland are happy to accommodate cloth-loving parents, provided the process is made easy for the care providers. We definitely recommend that you “know before you go” – call your daycare (or prospective daycares) and find out what they specifically prefer so that you don’t end up buying diapers and supplies you don’t need. Also, check out the Real Diaper Association’s excellent tip-sheet for some great info.
Basically, when it comes to cloth diapering in a daycare, it boils down to this:
KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly): Make it as easy for the care providers as possible.
- Use diapers that are most like putting on a disposable – either an All-in-One or a pre-stuffed pocket diaper with Velcro closures. Velcro closures make diaper changes both easy and speedy!
- Considering using Bio-Soft liners and pre-line all your diapers. This way, poop is easy to deal with for the care provider and you’re less likely to have super-poopy diapers coming home for you to deal with later! (Always a plus!)
- Remember that some daycares require that everything belonging to the child must be labeled, including cloth diapers. You can either stick these labels right on the diapers or hand-sew a little tag onto the diaper to hold the label so that you can easily remove it later. Laundry-safe labels can be found by searching online for “children’s clothing labels” (or some such variation).
- If you want cloth wipes used as well, consider having them pre-wetted in a travel-size disposable wipes container so they are easy to grab and ready to use.
Be prepared: About 93% of the daycares we surveyed on the North Shore stated that they would be happy to use cloth diapers, provided they were shown how to use them. At your first meeting with the provider, bring along samples of everything you’ll be sending with your child and be prepared to show them how to use it. It often helps if you’re upbeat and positive, emphasizing how easy the process is!
Be flexible: If your daycare isn’t quite sure about cloth diapering – even after your enthusiastic tutorial – perhaps propose a trial period, say three weeks, in which to try cloth. Likewise, choosing a different type of diaper may help the daycare as well. Be flexible in accommodating their needs as well as your own – some of them may never have seen modern cloth diapers.
Be happy: We believe that choosing cloth is a wonderful, fun, and sustainable choice for you and your family. Extending that choice to other people who care for your children can require courage, wisdom, and knowledge – you should be happy knowing you’ve prepared yourself for this journey and your child will reap the benefits. Hip hip hooray!
Tags: All-in-One Diapers, Bio-Soft, Care Provider, Cloth Diaper Workshop, Daycare, Flushable Liners, How To, Tote Bags, Wet Bags
Posted in Chatter, Cloth Diaper Tips, Uncategorized, Workshop Questions | 5 Comments »
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