Finding the Right Cloth Diaper Detergent

If you wash your own diapers, you probably have either found a detergent you love or are searching for that soul mate of soaps. Finding the right method for washing your cloth diapers can be just as overwhelming as starting to use cloth diapers. There are some people who swear by certain detergents and others who have trouble with the same ones. But there is one hard-and-fast rule: your detergent does matter.

Here's why.

Your soap or detergent can build up on diapers over time. This creates a barrier between the cloth and your baby's bottom, preventing the cloth from effectively absorbing urine. What you don't want in your detergent are all the additives. You're trying to clean your cloth diapers, not coat them in a bunch of chemicals and other junk. Here is some residue-causing stuff to avoid:

• Fabric softeners - these cause liquid to repel or wick onto baby's clothes.
• Optical brighteners - these are chemical particles that absorb UV light and reflect back a bluer light, which makes clothes look whiter. These particles can build up and cause residue, and some
• Stain guards - stain guards prevent staining because they coat the cloth. You want your cloth to absorb the stain-causing materials. That's the whole point of a diaper.
• Soaps - this is a little confusing, but soaps are actually different than detergents. Although they are natural, they can react with your water to create residue.
• Natural additives - this is a biggie. A lot of detergents nowadays are marketed as being natural, eco-friendly, etc. That sounds like it would be great for cloth diapers, right? Not necessarily. Many of these contain oil-based surfectants. That means that the soapy stuff is made of oils. These oils can coat your diapers over time, creating a barrier to absorbency. Oils that you don't want to see in detergents are orange oil, citrus extract, and grape seed extract, among others.

Different water types and cloth types react differently to different detergents. If you use an eco-friendly detergent with an oil-based surfectant on microfiber, you could actually ruin your diapers. The way the oils coat the synthetic fibers makes it difficult to remove. It gets all rubbery and gunky, and you may not be able to remove the residue completely.

Using a detergent specifically formulated for cloth diapers can help solve your problems. From a totally objective standpoint, we have noticed that Rockin' Green is pretty popular with cloth diapering parents. Out of all the cloth diaper detergents that are available, this is the one we hear the fewest complaints about. In fact, I don't know if I've ever heard a complaint about Rockin' Green.

If you're still not sure, check out the cloth diaper detergent chart at The Diaper Jungle. This chart gives you ratings and pros and cons for lots of different kinds of detergents and may help you find the detergent that's right for you.

And whatever you do, use lots of water. Lots of rinses don't matter if your water level isn't high enough. Crank up the water, crank up the heat, and get washing.

The Great Cloth Diaper Change

Have you always wanted to be famous? Well, even if you haven't, you now have a chance to be part of a new Guiness world record. On Saturday, April 21, 2012 at noon, cloth diaper advocates are trying to break a record for the most cloth diapers changed at one time.

How is that even possible? We are parents, but we don't have eight arms (although sometimes we wish we did).

The event is organized by the Real Diaper Association, with hosts around the world getting their communities together to participate. As of today, there are 232 hosts in 13 different countries. Each location will have leaders documenting the event and counting heads. At 12 p.m. sharp, everyone will change his or her child into a cloth diaper, and we'll make history. Let's get together and spread the word that cloth diapering is just as easy, affordable, and convenient as disposable diapering--and it's better for the environment.

What does this mean for Wilmington?

Green Baby Diaper Service is hosting the event at Shelter #15 at Hugh McRae park. The park also happens to be holding the annual Earth Day celebration, so you'll be able to join the festivities and really feel like you're doing your part for the environment.

To join the Great Cloth Diaper Change, go to the Facebook page we set up specifically for the Wilmington event and RSVP.

We need 25 people in order to participate. Sixteen people are attending so far; let's get nine more so we can join in this fun and unique event. Also, stay tuned to find out what kinds of fun stuff we have in store for participants!

Sell Used Cloth Diapers and Find Even More Brands!

If you love cloth diapers a little too much, you might have created a stash that you really don't use. Maybe you tried a whole bunch of different brands and styles at first but stuck to one or two types of diapers in the end. Perhaps you prepared for your newborn with a slew of diapers and your baby grew out of them quickly.

Now you can sell your pre-loved cloth diapers at Green Baby, and it's as easy as bringing in a bag full of diapers.

What does this mean if you want to sell your diapers?
Leave your diapers with Liz, and she'll take a look at them. She will call you within five days, at which time you can come back in to sign the consignment agreement, or you can sign it ahead of time and the diapers will go out for sale.

How much will you get for your gently used diapers?
Green Baby Diaper Service matches the price of Cotton Babies' used diaper buyback. You can even get 10 percent more if you take the payment in store credit as opposed to cash. But Green Baby will take more than just Cotton Babies brand diapers. Whatever you have, bring it in. The diapers are flying off the shelf.

When will you get paid?
You will be paid after the end of every yearly quarter. Remember, if you choose store credit instead of cash, you'll get 10% more money for your used cloth diapers. You can use your store credit for anything in the store or for the service itself.

What does the cloth diaper consignment mean if you want to buy diapers?
Green Baby Diaper Service now has a rotating selection of tons of different cloth diaper brands like Kissaluvs, Fuzzibunz, Little Beetle covers, gDiaper covers, and lots of fitted diapers. Green Baby's cloth diaper consignment gives you a chance to experiment with diapers that you might not have otherwise tried, and you don't have to break the bank. Now you can support a local business but still get the selection that you can find all over the internet.

Bring in your pre-loved cloth diapers, or check back often to see what's on the consignment table. By its very nature, the stock rotates, so you will always find something new. The selection is not limited to diapers alone. You can find wet bags and inserts too. Below is a glimpse of the diaper consignment table. It's pretty sweet:

Poop? What Poop?

About a month and a half ago, I started using Osocozy Bioliners for the first time. I was a little reluctant at first, to be honest. I was already having quite a time dealing with cloth diapering a squirmy baby. The prefold, cover, snappi, and wipe were almost too much to handle as Little M escaped from under my feet. (Yes, I have to pin him down with my feet as I change his diaper sometimes). The thought of adding something else to the mix kind of freaked me out.

But Little M was also eating solid foods. A lot of them. And you know what that means. Either a sprayer, a spatula, or a lot of stink in you diaper pail. One of the great parts about doing the cloth diaper service is that I could just throw the poopy diaper into the diaper pail without even trying to remove the poop. But that led to some big stink issues. And every once in a while--when I went out, for example--I would use my old pocket diapers. If Little M pooped on those, it was a big mess and a hassle to wash myself.

So I started using the liners. I hated them at first, and now I can't live without them. Why?

• Poop sticks to them, so you can just drop them in the toilet, turd and all, and your diaper stays relatively clean. Yes, there is one more step, but I lay my prefolds into my covers and line it with the Bioliner, so everything is ready to go at diaper changing time. 
• I also change diapers on the bathroom floor (I gave up the diaper changing table months ago), so the toilet and diaper pail are right there. 
• When I go out, I can flush the poop, and I have much less of a mess to deal with when I get home.
• My diaper pail doesn't reek by the end of the week when it's time to bring my diapers in to the diaper service. 
• Here's the best part: If your baby gets diaper rash, you can slather it with diaper cream. 

You might wonder if Osocozy Bioliners counteract the purpose of cloth diapers. After all, you're creating a little more waste to go through the sewage system. But Bioliners biodegrade quickly. According to Osocozy, it takes a Bioliner six days to decompose in a sewage treatment system. It doesn't go into a landfill, and it certainly doesn't create the amount of waste that using disposables does.

If your baby has transitioned to solids or gets diaper rash often, think about trying out Bioliners before you think about switching to disposables. They definitely take away some of the "ick" factor when caregivers are changing cloth diapers, too. At $7 for 100 Bioliners, it's worth a try.

New Year Survey

It's a new year, and the ladies at Green Baby are so appreciative of and grateful for the community that has arisen surrounding Green Baby. And in order to make sure they are providing what you, the community, needs, we have put together a short survey. We want Green Baby Diaper Service to become the place where you can really find what you're looking for in Wilmington, whether it has to do with diapers, babies, gifts, support, parenting--or whatever else you can think of.

So now we're handing the microphone to you. What do you want to see more of at Green Baby Diaper Service? (Make sure you scroll down to view all the questions.)

Thank you! We love our customers, and we love your input!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Cloth Diapering Support Group

Like anything in life, if you don't know what you're doing, you're not likely to continue. And if what you see on TV or hear from your loved ones puts you down, makes you feel like you're complicating your life, or makes you feel like the minority, you're also likely to move to something where you have more support.

This happens when it comes to baby sleep habits, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and disciplining your child. How many times did you have a well-meaning friend or relative tell you that their baby slept through the night after three evenings of bawling his or her eyes out? Then, as you sat and rocked your baby to sleep for the umpteenth time, lay him down in his crib, and walk away only to hear him start crying again, did you picture just how easy your life could be if you only let him cry himself to sleep?

When you were breastfeeding, did your mother-in-law tell you that a little formula wouldn't hurt and would help your baby sleep through the night? Did your friends urge you to give your baby a bottle because you needed a girl's night out? Did your husband encourage you to use the free formula sample from the hospital so you could get a good night's sleep?

Or maybe you were adamant about not saying "no" too much as your baby grew into a toddler, but your mother told you that she said "no" plenty of times, and you turned out fine.You are against spanking, but your friend tells you that a little pop on the hand is what every little kid needs when they misbehave. Your preschool teacher makes you feel as though your son's separation anxiety is a discipline problem.

When it comes to parenting advice, sometimes a little bug in your ear can make you change your whole tune, whether you meant for it to happen or not. The devil on your shoulder is pretty persuasive. If everyone you know thinks you're crazy for nursing your baby to sleep every night, it's not hard to just try letting your baby cry it out one night. If you have a sample of formula lying around, it's easy to fall back on that when breastfeeding gets tough. If you're encouraged to use a less-than-gentle form of discipline on your child, you might end up following that advice, especially when you're frustrated and short on patience.

Cloth diapering is very much the same. Maybe you have your routine down pat, but your husband has no idea how to get a prefold onto your squirmy baby without pinching himself with the snappi. You go to visit a friend who thinks cloth diapering is dirty, and she isn't too keen on you using her washing machine to clean your diapers. You keep a stash of disposables in the house for when your mother-in-law watches your baby, because you feel guilty asking her to learn how to use cloth diapers and watch your child.

And if you keep the disposables in your house, chances are, you'll use them. You'll tell yourself, "just for emergencies." And then that pack runs out, and you cringe at shelling out more money for more disposables, but you buy yourself another "emergency pack." And before you know it, you're using fewer and fewer cloth diapers and wasting money on disposables (not to mention adding significantly to your household waste, filling up landfills, and supporting not-so-environmentally friendly manufacturing processes).

It's just like the mom whose free sample pack of formula sabotaged her breastfeeding relationship. The lack of support combined with the general consensus that everyone is doing it a different way than you are can make you join the pack and drop your way of doing things, no matter how adamant you were about doing things your way at the beginning.

Green Baby Diaper Service doesn't only sell and wash diapers; it's also a place where you can get support for any of your cloth diapering challenges. Just when you feel like you've tried everything and are exhausted from lack of sleep, tired of holding down a squirmy baby with your feet, and confused about how to handle your baby's diaper rash, Liz will come up with a new piece of advice you've never heard before. Or another customer in the store will share her story, giving you new ideas about how to manage your cloth diapering needs.

We have also started a cloth diapering support group on Facebook. If you would like to join, friend Liz (Elizabeth Soffera) or Gaby (Gaby Merediz) on Facebook, then send one of us a message letting us know you would like to join the group. It's a closed group, so no one outside the group can see your posts, and although it doesn't have to stay local to Wilmington cloth diapering mamas, many of the group members are right here in town. It's an easy place to post a question, a tip, or talk about a new style of diaper you've come across that you would like to be able to buy locally. Feel free to chat about anything. Hopefully it will help us all push through hurdles and find out things we never knew about cloth diapering.

Cloth Diapering is the Easy Part About Having a Baby

Get the chance to win 12 bumGenius All-in-Ones by leaving a comment below the post! Scroll to the end of the post for details.

If you did any kind of research before you had your baby, you probably decided long before your baby was born where the baby was going to sleep, what brand of car seat to buy, what outfit you and your baby would wear home from the hospital, and whether you were going to breastfeed or give your baby formula.

But when it came to diapering, were you overwhelmed? Do you remember all the choices that were available and how impossible it was to remember the difference between a pocket and prefold, all-in-one or all-in-two? If you ended up cloth diapering, now you probably spout out terms like that just as easily as you say slice of pizza or cup of coffee.

You were probably also overwhelmed by the thought of having a newborn in the days and weeks before your due date. What would you do all day with a helpless infant in your arms? Would you bond with the baby? Would the baby cry all the time? And now, looking back at those early days, you remember some challenges, but you wonder why you worried so much.

Change is overwhelming. It's hard to wrap your mind around a completely new experience like having a baby or cloth diapering. When you only have a few options to choose from (bed, crib, or cosleeper; breast milk or formula), it's easier to make a decision than when you have a multitude of options (prefold, pocket, cover, hook and loop, snaps, snappi, microfiber, organic, etc.)

So when it comes to cloth diapering, the thought of the unknown can make you shut down. When faced with a tough decision, it's easy to decide to do what's familiar.

Let me tell you, the process of cloth diapering is much easier than making a decision to cloth diaper. In other words, it's the decision that's hard. But putting on a cloth diaper, taking it off, and tossing it in the diaper pail--that's just as easy as using a disposable. By the time you've reached that point, the hard part is over.

So how do you get over the hurdle and decide whether cloth diapering is for you?

• Get information from a good resource -There are thousands of cloth diaper resources out there. Forums where cloth diaper addicts (yes, once you start it's hard to stop) discuss everything from cute colors to stain removal can be helpful, but everyone has an opinion, and they may contradict one another, leaving you just as overwhelmed as you were when you started.
  
  Stop into Green Baby and ask Liz any question in the book--I can assure you she can help you out with any cloth diapering challenge you have!
  
  If you're looking for an online resource, my favorite is Cotton Babies. It's a little more streamlined. It has several different styles of diapers to choose from--just enough to give you a wide range of options when it comes to style and price, but it doesn't leave you feeling like a kid in a candy store. Cotton Babies also has a comprehensive How-To page where you can easily look up the answers to any question you may have.

• Borrow a stash - Do you have friends who have used cloth diapers? Ask them if you can borrow some of their stash. Try out different styles and types of diapers. Get firsthand experience with them. Once you've seen how simple the process is, become addicted to the adorable prints and colors, and witnessed how cloth holds in poop explosions like nothing else, you'll be donating your disposables and starting your own stash. Because I started my own stash this way, now I've become a pro at using all kinds of cloth diapers. Give me a prefold and a snappi and I'm good to go, but I prefer to leave all-in-ones when I'm leaving my babies with Big T or a babysitter. I loved Fuzzi Bunz for the adjustable leg elastic when my newborn was having breastfed-blow-outs. I have a stash of one-size pocket diapers that I could quickly adjust to put on Baby T or snap to a smaller size when diapering Little M.

Once you've started cloth diapering, it's hard to go back to disposables. Many people start in an effort to help the environment and reduce their level of household waste. By the time their kids are out of diapers, though, they will likely tell you that they cloth diapered because it was cheaper and easier than disposables.

Look ma--no pants! (See how cute cloth diapers can be?)

Easier?
Yes! 
 I can't tell you the number of times I've had to change Little M's entire outfit because he leaked while wearing a disposable. In fact, that's one of the main reasons I started cloth diapering him so early. He hated getting his clothes changed, so blowouts were a miserable experience for both of us. When I go out, whether I'm traveling by airplane or just going to the store, I know I'm not going to have a mishap if I throw a cloth diaper on him. If I'm using disposables, I feel like I'm playing Russian roulette.

Cheaper?
Yes!
I still have to send the kids to daycare wearing disposables, so I have to buy a box periodically. I can't tell you how much I cringe when I have to pay money for disposables, knowing that I'm basically investing in crap--something I'm just going to throw away. If you wash your own diapers, you may spend extra money on your water bill, but you're saving money by avoiding weekly diaper runs. If you use a diaper service, you may be spending money weekly, but at least you're saving on the cost of buying disposables, gas, and laundering your baby's clothes every time there is a "pooplosion." And you have all the cute covers to sell when your baby has begun to use the potty. (Not to mention the tons--yes, literally tons--of diapers you are saving from ending up in a landfill over the course of your child's diaper "career.")

Still undecided? That's because change is hard. It's a new year. Take the plunge into cloth diapering. Once you try it, you'll be hooked. The hard part is making the decision. The easy part is doing the cloth diapering. Yes, there are some challenges. But isn't showering, doing laundry and vacuuming challenging once you have a newborn? Isn't washing every outfit that's on the receiving end of a disposable "pooplosion" challenging? Parenting has its fair share of challenges, yet we love it. Cloth diapering is much easier than parenting!

Little M wearing cute wool soakers

I received no compensation for this post, but I have entered it in a contest at http://jenniferlabit.com/2011/12/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-to-tell-the-world-about-cloth-diapers/. You can be a part of the contest, too! Leave a comment below this blog post telling me why you think cloth diapering is so much cheaper and easier than using disposables. If this post is chosen as the winner, one commenter will win 12 bumGenius one-size cloth diapers!