Earth Friendly Baby Stuff

A week ago was Earth Day. In honor of that I decided to do a few posts about what J, B and I do to help the environment. Yes I know I'm starting this way late but I have a teething daughter and I'm working from home. That makes it difficult to blog.  :) What we do may not be much to some people but every little bit helps.

First and foremost we Cloth Diaper. I have mentioned it a few times but never really our reasons for doing so.

1. CDs are soooooo much better for my girls little tushie. CDs cut down on diaper rash like crazy!

2. The price! Holy Savings!!! Did you know that the average cost for 1 child in diapers until 2.5 years old is approx. $3-4,000! Yes that's right THOUSAND! To CD Brynn with our 24 diapers it has cost us Less than $500! And these diapers will be used for any future children as well. So lets say we have 3 kids (not that I am planning on 3 it just gives good numbers) Disposable diapers on the cheap end of things $9,000! Cloth Diapers $500! Now yes you will add in detergent cost but that is so minimal that I don't take it much into consideration.

3. Sooooo much better for the environment! They say that every.single.diaper that has EVER(!!!) been used is still in a landfill somewhere. It takes over 100 years for a diaper to decompose. That is sick!  

4. They are sooooo cute. Here is a pic of B's cute little tushie while she was doing the "mowgli" as a good friend calls it.


And a flashback to her newborn photoshoot. Soooo teeny!


We get our cloth diapers from our local store Cutie Poops and Bottoms. There are several (hundred) places you can get diapers from online but we like to support local small businesses plus if we only go to the store when we are in the area it saves on fuel cost for shipping. It also saves on packaging.

I'm going to go off on a little tangent quickly because it was so cool. In honor of Earth Day there was a World Wide Great Cloth Diaper Change last Saturday. Cutie Poops hosted one of these events and world wide there were 10,000 people changing a cloth diaper all at the same time. This was done to raise awareness about the awesomeness of CDs. And to hopefully teach people about what a long way they have come since my generation (and before) were CDd. It also was done to set a Guinness World Record. Cutie Poops put on an awesome event with tons of raffles (sadly we didn't win anything. haha). They also had the Easter bunny for photos. Their was a fire truck and someone doing car seat inspections. They go all out when they host events.
It was so cool to be a part of something bigger than us and to see all these people who do similar things that we do as parents.

Oh and since I know you will be wondering where it is ... ;) B's pictures with the bunny! (And from the event all together)




Me & my girl by the firetruck.

Waiting for the whistle to blow to start the diaper change.

Waiting for her diaper change. :)




Next up: Making your own baby food (and following baby led weaning.)

xoxo... P

Cloth Diaper Detergent

Hi! My name is Paige and I'm addicted to cloth diapers.

That being said I have a review on a cloth diaper detergent. Let me preface this by saying I HATED RockN Green. It was terrible! I would seriously want to die when I opened the bag or even just took a diaper off of B. The ammonia stink was terrible. I NEEDED something new.

Then I heard about this great new product made by a WAHD (Work at Home Dad)! It is called Eco Sprout and people at my local CD shop Cutie Poops and Bottoms RAVE about it. (For sale in store and online.) Also availible direct from Eco Sprout.

(Side note: Cutie Poops may be my most favorite store ever. They carry great products, offer amazing classes, and have the nicest most knowledgable employees. Oh and the owner has tons of experience cloth diapering since she has cutie pie twins!)

The WAHD really wanted a NATURAL and Eco Friendly detergent that could be used to cover anything he needed it to. From the daily family laundry to the baby's clothes to the ammonia stench filled cloth diapers.
Each batch of Eco Sprout is hand made and mixed, ensuring a pure batch.  They want families to know that small changes can make a big difference! Changing to an all natural detergent that is highly concentrated limits waste. And seriously who doesn't want something that isn't over processed and chemical filled on their baby's teeny tiny tushie?

So I got my sample from Eco Sprout to review on here and let me tell you it smells Oh My God Ah-Mazing! I got the Cinnamon Stick Seasonal Scent and I LOVED the way it smelled. I was impatient to use it right away but I had just done diaper laundry the day before so I had 2 days to wait to use it! (I may or may not have smelled it multiple times during that 2 days.)
So the night I did laundry I held my breath dumped in the diapers and did a regular wash cycle. The directions say to do a soak but I wanted to see what it did without.
I'm sad to say that was a big mistake. My diapers smelled great coming out of the wash and I was so hopeful.... then I put them on her. Still had the ammonia stink. BOOO. I was disappointed but wanted to give it a couple more chances to test things out. I actually went to Cutie Poops and got another sample even though I could do 3 more loads with my sample I had. (The scent they had availible was Warm Vanilla Sugar - I HATE vanilla but this stuff smelled good - I was pleasantly surprised.)

So I used all of my first sample doing 4 regular washs and had no luck with the stench. :( Then I wanted to try the soak. I FINALLY got around to doing that this past weekend.

I let the diapers soak for almost 12 hours in 2 TBSP of the detergent (Recommended is 3 but I have soft water so I always use less detergent). Full wash cycle with no detergent and then one more full wash cycle with no detergent, then for good measure to make sure the detergent was really out I did a cold rinse. The results....

still have the smell. I'm disappointed about that of course. But what I am most upset about is something I didn't mention until now DIAPER RASH. B never had a rash with the other detergent and every time she has a diaper on that was washed with Eco Sprouts she gets a rash. Right now she actually has a blister. :(

Needless to say I won't be using Eco Sprout but I know several others who will use nothing but. I think it is worth a chance at least. Hopefully you will like them.

And good news is in the mean time I did find a detergent that works amazingly well for us. Baby Dropps. After 1 wash the smell was gone and the rash from before started to clear up.

Hope this helps someone.
xoxo... P

Cloth Diaper Giveaway (not here)

But it is HERE!

Chubby Cherub Cloth Diaper Naturals has an awesome BYOD (Build Your Own Diaper) option that I'm dying to try. Look how cute these ADORABLE paisley prints are!!!!

Anyway the deal - Check out their facebook for a chance to win $1000 Shopping Spree.

I think that since I told you about this awesome opportunity if you win you should spilt your winnings with me, if I don't win that is. Agree? ;)

xoxo...P