Cloth Diapering in the Summer - Travel

When you think of summer, you probably think of summer vacation. But traveling with a baby or small child can be stressful enough, even before you throw cloth diapers in the mix. You don't have to give up on cloth diapers over the summer just because you're out and about, though. Diaper liners, wet bags, and the good old sun are your best friends when you're back and forth to the beach or even taking a longer vacation.

Diaper Liners

In my last post, I talked about how flushable diaper liners can stick to your baby's skin and exacerbate diaper rash in the hot summer months. If you're traveling, though, diaper liners can make your life a lot easier. Basically, all of the poop sticks to the liner instead of your diapers. This means you can flush the liner, and all you have is a wet diaper and cover to wash. If you're staying in a hotel, that makes hand-washing your diapers pretty easy. And if it's a beach vacation, you can easily throw your just-washed diapers in a wet bag, bring them to the beach, and dry them in the sun. That will help sanitize them and get rid of any smells if you're not the best hand-washer.

Wet Bags

Having a couple of wet bags is really handy when you're on vacation. You can keep dirty diapers in one and clean diapers in the other. If you have a third, it's perfect for carting wet bathing suits and towels around. Planetwise wetbags come in a few different sizes and super-cute designs. It's almost as easy to become addicted to these as it is to become addicted to cloth diapering. Wetbags contain odors from your stinky diapers, too, so you can keep dirty diapers in your hotel bathroom or in your car if you're on a road trip.

Cloth Diapering in the Summer - Diaper Rash

Now that it's gotten a little warmer out and your kids are sitting in wet bathing suits for half the weekend, are you battling diaper rash more often? The warm weather combined with sweat, chlorine, salt water, sand, and less-than-breathable diaper covers can make your little one break out in a rash. Your go-to remedy might not work as well during the summer either.Why? Well, all the stuff I mentioned above provides a moist environment where bacteria can grow. The heat makes it grow faster, and stuff like sand and chlorine is extra irritating. Here are some tips for battling diaper rash in the summer months:

Use Natural Fibers

If your favorite diapers are Bum Genius pockets or Flip Diapers stuffed with a microfiber insert, you might need to find a second-in-command for the summer. Even though microfiber wicks moisture away from baby's skin better than cotton, all of that synthetic material creates a barrier that prevents air from getting to your baby's behind. Covers made of PUL make the problem worse by trapping all the heat and bacteria next to the skin. Switching to cotton prefolds or inserts covered by wool soakers will help air circulate, keeping your baby's butt cooler and keeping the diaper rash at bay. (This is the only thing that worked on my baby's sweaty butt last summer).

Change Up Your Diaper Cream

If you're used to slathering on thick diaper creams (with liners, of course), you might need to lighten up over the summer. Thick creams may provide a barrier to moisture, but they also prevent the skin from breathing, making it feel hotter and giving bacteria a breeding ground. CJ's BUTTer makes diaper rash treatments that are safe for cloth diapers and perfect for the diaper bag.

• CJ's Butter Spritz O'BUTTer - This fine mist spray is light, mess-free, and won't melt in your diaper bag. (It also works great as a leave-in conditioner to smooth out frizzy hair.)
• CJ's Butter Squeeze Tube - This diaper cream is more like a lotion and is a little thicker than the CJ's Butter Spritz. You can use it to treat chapped lips and dry hands as well as using it as diaper cream.

What About Your Diaper Liner?

Do you use flushable diaper liners? Those are convenient for quickly flushing older babies' poop or when you're using a thick diaper cream, but they also stick to baby's skin in the summer, which could make diaper rash worse. Switching to a fleece diaper liner can help your baby's skin breathe while still protecting your diapers from the grosser poops. If you use a fleece diaper liner, make sure to use a breathable cover, like wool, so you don't trap moisture next to your baby's skin.

Put on Baby's Birthday Suit  

When your little one is just running around the backyard or playing in the sprinkler, just take it all off. Exposing baby's skin to the fresh air and giving it a chance to breathe can be the best remedy for diaper rash.

Natural Insect Repellents for Kids

Now that it's getting warmer out--well, let's face it--it's been downright hot for quite a while--the bugs are coming out. And I'm not talking about the toddler pulling on your skirt or the 5-year-old begging you for a snack. I'm talking about the fat, eastern-NC mosquitoes that have been around since February. Has your child gotten a bug bite yet? Little M currently has three. And they are huge and red on his soft baby skin.

I never really loved to use bug spray because I couldn't stand the smell. If you can actually smell the chemicals, it's a constant reminder that what you're putting on your skin isn't good for you. And when I had kids, I definitely didn't use traditional bug spray on them, but I also didn't use it on myself because I didn't want them breathing it in as they nursed or getting it in their mouths as they drooled on my shoulder.

I bought Avon Skin-So-Soft before a camping trip I took a year ago, but it turns out that isn't all that good for you (nor does it work very well to keep the bugs at bay). So if you have kids and bugs happily intermingling in your backyard (or the park or the beach), do you just suffer in silence? Nope. There are lots of natural bug repellents you can use, including some homemade bug sprays for kids.

CJ's Bug Banisher
CJ's natural bug spray is available at Green Baby Diaper Service, so you don't have to blend your concoction in your kitchen. Just pick it up and spray! CJ's Bug Banisher includes a combination of citronella, peppermint, neem, lavender and tea tree essential oils to deter bugs naturally.

Bite Blocker Herbal Repellent Wipes
One review on Amazon.com says these smell like vomit, but the same reviewer said she took her 1-year-old on a trip to the Amazon (the real one, not the virtual one) and he came back without any bug bites. I would rather my kids smell like vomit than use DEET-laden products on them. Besides, don't they smell like vomit anyway? It contains Soybean Oil (2%), Geranium Oil (5%), water, coconut oil, glycerin, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and vanillin. A box of Kraft Mac n' Cheese has more chemicals! Plus, it's easy to wipe the repellent on kids' skin as opposed to dealing with sprays, gels, or lotions.

Homemade Bug Sprays for Kids
Homemade insect repellents may take a little more time, and collecting the ingredients may have you going out of your way a little. So why not join up with a few friends? Have each person grab an ingredient and get together with some spray bottles to do a little concocting. (Click on the titles to go to the website with the recipe)


Crunchy Betty Shoo! Spray Insect Repellent
This one combines apple cider vinegar with a little vodka and some essential oils

Homemade Bug Spray from Fresh or Dried Herbs
Wellness Mama makes a homemade insect repellent with witch hazel, distilled water, and fresh or dried herbs. In her super strong version, she uses apple cider vinegar.

Many herbs repel insects. If all you have on hand is fresh basil from last night's spaghetti, you can rub a leaf on your skin. You can do the same with lemongrass, lavender, peppermint, spearmint, or catnip!

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.