Diaper changing time can be a special bonding time with your baby. In the first six months especially, incorporating a sense of play and eye contact with your infant while on the change table can be hugely rewarding. But as our wee ones begin to hit all those lovely growth milestones - like grasping, rolling and crawling - diaper-changing playtime can feel more like a day at the fair than a blissful, quiet time with your babe. Here are a few tips to make changing your older baby a bit easier... Have your diapers prepped and preloaded. This most certainly expedites diaper changes. Make sure pocket diapers are pre-stuffed with their inserts, one-size diapers are sized to their appropriate size, and all-in-ones (AIO).  If you are using Bio-Soft Liners for poop management, make sure that your diapers are lined before the event starts. Also, it may also seem obvious, but make sure you lay out the new diaper and have it close at hand before taking off the dirty one! If you have a baby who just can't be bothered with laying down and insists that diaper changes be done on the fly while standing (or running), this is definitely essential.  Side snapping diapers make stand up changes much easier. Have a special toy for change time. This will occupy restless hands and may help a child focus. Always a good thing... Have your wipes premoistened. As with most tasks, preparation is everything. Having your wipes wet and nearby will allow you to do a bum wipe-down quickly without leaving your child squirming and/or unattended. If you have a baby who rolls, choose diapers that can be put on with one hand, since usually you're holding the baby down with one arm and diapering with the other. If you love prefolds, preload them into a wrap-style cover. If you're into AIO's, choose the styles with velcro rather than snaps. Diapers that go on in one step rather than two (AIO's, pockets, All-in-Two's, etc) can be a huge boon at this stage of diapering! Choose diapers that can’t be taken off by toddler hands. Some toddlers never have the urge to figure out how the velcro or the Snappi on their diaper works, but others are only happy if they're nekkid. If you have such a curious tyke, consider using diapers with snaps, which are stronger than toddler strength, or put your velcro diapers on backward so that the velcro strip is away from curious fingers. Do you have any tips and tricks you've learned from diapering your rolling, crawling baby? We'd love to hear them!

For those who cloth diaper with a budget in mind, prefolds are always a lovely addition to your system. But then comes that day when you grab the Snappi to fasten the diaper and can’t quite reach the sides of the prefold around your baby’s waist… But no need to put those prefolds into storage quite yet! You can extend your savings by putting your outgrown prefolds to use in other diapering capacities. Here are 4 great ideas:

1. If you’re someone who uses pocket diapers, consider using your outgrown prefolds to stuff inside your pocket. Prefolds offer substantial absorbency, which is especially welcome as your baby grows (and pees more and more heavily) or for nighttime use. Also, for those wanting to use more natural fibres in your diapering routine, both hemp and organic cotton prefolds add that “natural edge” to your synthetic pockets.
2. Outgrown prefolds can also be tri-folded and laid in a wrap-style cover to extend their life. This is a GREAT way to save money, as covers and prefolds are a very cost effective way to cloth diaper and it most certainly extends the length of time infant prefolds can be used on your baby.
3. Another prefold idea is to lay a tri-folded infant-size prefold on top of your larger sized prefolds to work as a booster. This is definitely a super-absorbent option, but it’s rather bulky and will make your child look like the Weeble-Wobble toys of yore, so it’s an option best utilized at nighttime or on road trips, when a trim bottom end is not a priority.
4. Even once they’re outgrown, having a few infant prefolds on hand as diapering accessories are very handy. They’ll serve you well as change pads on-the-go, big wipes for big messes, or as a protective cover for your boy who tends to pee during diaper changes.

Use your imagination... prefolds have a multitude of uses! Saving money and being frugal is an art in this day and age – we hope your decision to cloth diaper has helped your family to feel satisfied in knowing you’ve saved significantly through your baby’s diapering years!

As part of our Earth Day 2010 Contest, Mary (from our Mom-to-Be category) shares her thoughts on what her choice to cloth diaper means: My partner and I decided to use cloth diapers before we had any idea what that meant.  Before looking into it, the barriers were:

1. the initial cost of getting set up for cloth diapering vs buying jumbo size packages of disposables as needed;
2. buying new products vs used or home-made didn’t quite fit with our values.

Once we had done our research, we became excited about cloth diapering because it makes so much sense!  The fabulous environmental and economic benefits aside, cloth diapering allows us to:

1. support a local, planet/ people/pet-friendly company
2. take responsibility for our waste
3. facilitate elimination communication and toilet-training
4. act as ambassadors for cloth diapering
5. resell or gift our diapers when we’re finished with them
6. buy quality products that connect us with a new community

Our decision to use cloth diapers was best supported by the resources offered New & Green, including the awesome information on the website, a helpful conversation with your team at Birthfest, the free demonstration DVD, and the workshops. We’re excited about starting cloth diapering when we welcome our baby in June! *The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the contest entrant and do not necessarily reflect that of New & Green Baby Co.  We wish to thank all of our contest entrants who graciously shared their stories to help further the education and support of families wishing to cloth diaper their children.  Read more about our Earth Day 2010 Contest.

As part of our Earth Day 2010 Contest, Sarah J (our winner in the Seasoned Mom category) shares her thoughts on why cloth diapers have been a good fit for her family:

I can still remember the first day - everything swirling around in my mind - toys, diapers, rashes, feeding, dog barking, my older son yelling and my baby crying AGAIN.  It was like slow motion.  I had tried EVERYTHING.  I  was at my wit's end.  My baby had the WORST diaper rash and NOTHING was helping.  I had switched to every kind of disposable diaper and diaper cream.  I shudder to think of the environmental impact that all of this had not to mention the economical impact that the experience had on my wallet.  I opened my mailbox and found an ad for cloth diapers.  Cloth diapers - the ONLY diapers I had not tried.  So I ventured.  I bought a pack of Bummi's Prefold diapers and pre-washed them three times to prepare them to be absorbent. Skeptical?  Absolutely!  I was at my wit's end remember?  My daughter was colicky and rashy and miserable.  Nothing helped.  Nothing stopped the rash or the crying.  I put the diaper on and waited.  First pee change - rash was less.  Second pee change - rash was less.  Third change - NO rash.  Seriously?  Wow - I was hooked!!  Even my husband who thought my project was crazy, jumped on board with great excitement!  Our daughter never had a rash again and she potty trained at 18 months. Since that monumental moment we have had another daughter who is cloth diapered since birth.  She is also rash free.  She is our cloth diaper tester and has worn most of what is out there.  She certainly has her favourites at 8 months old!! I have pangs of guilt daily that my oldest child was not cloth diapered because I think that it helps to set a precedent for how they will treat the environment - though he is very earthy now helping with his sisters.  It has become a way of life for them!  We wash our diapers in the evening and then my middle daughter helps to hang them on the line.  My middle daughter doesn't know what a disposable diaper is and I hope to keep it that way!  I have talked to many a new mom and mom-to-be about the benefits of cloth diapering.  The biggest EXCUSE that I hear is that it is "too much work".  Honestly I tell them that they can't AFFORD not to try. How much work is a load of laundry??  Start the wash and walk away.  That isn't a lot of work and the benefits to their darling skin, the environment and your wallet are AMAZING!!

*The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the contest entrant and do not necessarily reflect that of New & Green Baby Co.  We wish to thank all of our contest entrants who graciously shared their stories to help further the education and support of families wishing to cloth diaper their children.  Read more about our Earth Day 2010 Contest.

As part of our Earth Day 2010 Contest, Meaghan M (our winner in the New Mom  category) shares her journey to successfully using cloth diapers with her daughter:

We started our cloth diapering experience by attending a Cloth Diaper 101 Workshop by New & Green when I was still pregnant.  The best part of attending this great workshop was my husband's enjoyment of the learning experience.  On our way out he said 'I could have listened to that for another 2 hours!', as compared to the breastfeeding class we had been to that day, which he almost fell asleep in (Kresha was the fabulous instructor at this workshop). After the class we were so excited to pick up or Newborn Rental Kit and check it all out, but we still didn't have a baby...Charlotte came two weeks late, on February 27, 2010.  We used disposables for a couple of days settling in, then jumped full steam ahead into our rental kit, and loved it!  When our time was up with the rental, we (reluctantly) used disposables for a couple of weeks until we had decided on and ordered our own set of prefolds. The first time my husband put the disposable on he said 'How do these things work?', which is a real testament to how easy the cloth were. Now we're two days into using our prefolds and consider ourselves true cloth advocates and aficionados!

*The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the contest entrant and do not necessarily reflect that of New & Green Baby Co.  We wish to thank all of our contest entrants who graciously shared their stories to help further the education and support of families wishing to cloth diaper their children.  Read more about our Earth Day 2010 Contest.