Ultimate Diapering

Okay so I know I have been MIA lately but I am a momma to twins so that happens sometimes! I wanted to write a quick post sharing what I have learned about cloth diapering and how to do it with multiples. If you look at my last few posts I talk about having ammonia issues with our diapers. That battle lasted a while! After I wrote that post I tried using Grovia diapers for a while but then I met some wonderful crunchy mommas and ended up falling down a diaper rabbit hole!

 Grovia's Were Not the Answer

The Grovia diapers worked well for long car rides and over night but I began to notice that if I used them all the time my girls would develop a rash. Preemie babies tend to be sensitive to just about everything (for example, I can't use wet wipes either!) so I thought maybe it was the baby diaper laundry detergent. Then I did some research about Grovias and found that they are full of PUL. For those of you who are new to the idea of cloth diapering PUL is a plastic lining used to make cloth diapers water proof. The obvious benefit is very few leaks, the down side is the diaper does not breath at all which is one of the main reasons why we cloth diaper. Just as I was discovering this fact and wondering what to do next I met some lovely mommas who take cloth diapering to the level of an art form.

Down the Rabbit Hole...

Goodmama Diaper

This new type of cloth diapering involves fitted ALL cloth diapers which have no water proofing at all. Then you add a diaper cover or wool of some sort to wick away moisture. They showed me a diaper called a Goodmama and I was hooked! The diapers are so gosh darn cute and I noticed that my girls rashes went away with in a day. The options are endless with adorable designs, soft fabrics and stylish wool covers. You might be wondering about leaks so here's the skinny...

 Leaks

they do get compression leaks but not dripping all over the place leaks. Every once in a while I will pick baby up and notice that her wool longies seem a little damp and I just take that as a cue to change her diaper. I have noticed that I am much more comfortable with the idea of pee then I have ever been in my life! At this point I would rather know right away that baby needs a changing if it means I can avoid a nasty rash later. 

Covers, Woolies and Longies...Oh My!!!

Cloth Diaper Club - Etsy

There are two fibers that work really well with cloth fitted diapers, my favorite is wool but if you or baby is allergic you can use fleece. I wish my knitting skills were awesome enough to pull off knitting my own longies, skirties and covers but alas they are not. Instead I buy them from SAHMs on Etsy or I get them second hand on diaperswappers.com. We use almost all wool here because they are SO cute and feel great this time of year. You can also buy fitted diapers made of wool if you want to skip the extra step of adding a cover. Honestly, I also let the girls go coverless and put baby legs on them to keep them warm. Those diapers are way too cute and demand to be seen!

A Side Benefit

One of the reasons we jumped on the cloth diaper wagon was the potty training aspect. The idea is baby hates to be wet and cloth diapers let her feel the wet so she will potty train faster then a baby who can't feel the wetness because it is absorbed with a synthetic gel.

Gooseberry Knits - Etsy

Wrap it Up

I have SO much more to share but the babies are over letting me type right now so I have to run. Feel free to ask any questions and I will add more later!

The Battle of Stinky Cloth Diapers - How to Solve Ammonia Issues

Cloth diapers are better for your baby, right? Right? A few weeks ago I was changing my daughter and noticed a foul ammonia smell coming from her diaper. Honestly, my first thought was that the kitty saw an opening for the 2 minutes I was gathering dirties and decided the girl's pile of dirty laundry looked like a litter box so I threw it back in the wash. The next day my other daughter's diaper smelled the same way. This was a strong cleaning product smell that burned your nose! I tried taking all the diapers at once into the laundry and ran the water super hot with an extra rinse cycle. The next day my daughters developed ammonia burns and the cloth diapers, for now, had to go! I temporarily switched to paper Nature Babycare diapers. 

I went online and discovered that cloth diapers, even when washed properly, can build up stink. When the urine mixes with what the diaper is holding it creates ammonia. Different sites had different tricks, here are some that I came across and tried...

1. Soak overnight in Bac-Out. This product is by Biokleen and is a natural safe stain and stink remover. Good product but it didn't work.

2. Sun dry. Ya, like I have time with twins to wait for the sun to appear in my coastal beach town! However, did try it and it failed.

3. Boil for 30 minutes then wash with a special detergent for my very hard water. This sort of worked but I had to do it after every use...also will not work with twins!

After trying all these and finding no solution that was manageable with twin 5 month old babies I started asking locally for advice. I finally found a diaper guru who explained that the hemp in my gDiaper inserts holds on to stink strongly and suggested changing to an all cotton or a cotton/wool combo. Finally I did not feel crazy anymore!

So here is what I learned...

1. Cloth diapers are great but make sure you always start with a diaper detergent that is formulated for your type of water. Our hard water here hastened the process of developing a stink problem. In this process I tried 3 different brands and fell in love with Hard Rock by Rockin Green. The have formulas for soft water and middle of the road water as well as an Ammonia Bouncer (which I wanted to try but everyone was sold out, it must work!)

2. Hemp = Bad! For cloth diapering stay away from hemp. Anything that holds on to stink is your worst enemy! 

3. It may be a good idea to "strip" your diapers clean every now and then, that means boil for 30 minutes. Sometimes detergent becomes lodged in the fabric causing diaper rash and ammonia issues. A good test is to take a diaper and immerse in water, if it does not absorb evenly right away or has patches that do not seem to absorb then you need to strip it clean. 

4. When laundering your diapers pick the hot water setting, add an extra rinse cycle and only use half of the amount of detergent you would normally unless you have the Rockin Green, they got it down so follow their directions. 

5. Pick cloth diapers that are "All in Ones". When I became frustrated and thought it might be the gDiapers I started to check out other systems. I fell in love with the Grovia hybrid system for a few reasons. First I love that you can still "cheat" with flushable inserts when needed. Second, they are all organic cotton with NO hemp! And third, their shells fit from infancy to potty training with a series of Velcro and snaps. They fit my little ones really well and I am very happy with that system and prefer it over the gDiapers. We were already growing out of our small sized gDiapers and had to upgrade anyway so I chose to upgrade now to Grovia so we do not have to buy a whole other set of larger diapers later!

Resources

Rockin Green: http://rockingreensoap.3dcartstores.com/Hard-Rock-4590-Loads-Remix-_p_74.html

Grovia: http://gro-via.com/

Cleaning Home for Baby

With twins I have only tiny moments here and there to clean (or do anything, right now I am doing the one handed typing while holding one and bouncing the other with my foot in a bouncy chair!). When I can clean I make sure that I am not doing more harm then good. Traditional cleaning products contain allergy triggers, anti-bacterial agents that cause super bugs or irritating fragrances. 

Here is how I have simplified green cleaning!

Basic Cleaning

For a green switch to cleaning all you need is baking soda, vinegar, lemons and essential oils. I buy baking soda and vinegar in ridiculously large packages from Costco. I have a glass bowl and scrub brush designated just for the purpose of cleaning. Into the bowl goes the baking soda, next pour some vinegar and watch the fun volcanic eruption of foam (be warned that this foam will be about twice the height of baking soda). Don’t worry about the smell of the vinegar, it will disappear after a few minutes and will not leave your bathroom smelling of a tossed salad. To create a better smell you can add lemon or essential oils to the baking soda. I like tea tree oil because of it’s antiseptic qualities, eucalyptus has a nice fresh smell and lavender smells pretty and calming. That mixture will work for kitchen, bathroom, floors and even laundry (see more on that below). A side note, make sure you buy biodegradable sponges so we do not add to landfills in our green cleaning process! There are natural sponges that work just as well as their evil counterparts. Old rags work wonderfully instead of paper towels.

Laundry and Cloth Diapers

Okay, confession time. I use my washer and dryer for cloth diapers. With twins I just have to go with electricity. Big time kudos to the mommas of twins who have the time and energy to line dry but this gal sure does not! So if you are a momma of multiple children like myself here is how I do laundry in the most eco-friendly way as possible. I like the Biokleen product, you only need a tablespoon measurement for a full load and for diapers I always add about a cup of baking soda and run the cycle on hot. To get that yummy out of the dryer smell I use Nellie's dryer balls with lavender essential oils. For whites add some vinegar into the bleach deposit in your washer, but don’t do that for colors because it does act like bleach and will fade your clothes. Ta Da! Clean clothes that are cost effective, earth friendly and clean!

Carpet

I hate carpet! It traps allergens, tracks the outside inside and gives dust mites a place to hide. Other then a warm floor in the morning when I get out of bed I have no positives to this invention. Sadly, our house has carpet in the living room and all the rooms upstairs so I had to learn to call a truce. Baking soda and vinegar will also work for carpet stains such as coffee, red wine, oil and grease. Just scrub the mixture into the carpet and rinse with water, after it dries vacuum a few times over the spot going in different directions. To get rid of carpet smells dust baking soda on the carpet, leave for a few seconds and vacuum. If your carpet is a darker color make sure you wash out the baking soda and vinegar or it may fade your colors. You can use this same combination in your carpet cleaning machines instead of the chemical filled cleaners at the store. I have a whole post on how to clean your carpets with a carpet cleaner!

Dishes

After the girls came home I graduated to a dish washer. It has been such a help when it comes to cleaning all those bottles! We use the Seventh Generation soup but I add a little vinegar to it because we have really hard water here. I make sure to only run full loads to cut down on our water use. For spot-free clean dishes from the sink I like Mrs. Myers products. For heavy grease you can use...YEP, baking soda and vinegar! Make sure to skip the lemons or anything with citrus for dishes, it can break down the metal on your silverware. I fill one side of my sink with about two inches of warm water, 1/2 cup of baking soda and a splash of vinegar. The nice part about using vinegar is it makes all of your glass spot free and shiny.

Resources

For more information on cleaning green for a happy baby home check out my favorites, no new mom should be with out these books!

Green Babies, Sage Moms by Linda Fassa

Ecoholic by Adria Vasil

Healthy Child Healthy World by Christopher Gavigan