The article does a great job of covering why it is challenging and why I also love doing it.

Check out this article about my cloth diaper business.

Mamas Froggie Girl - BumGenius

Eva’s vocabulary is growing fast. So far she says: bread, bottle, diaper, Grandma, Daddy, Mama (only when she is mad!), ball, yes (nods her head and says “sssss”), and a few other words. She just got tooth number 3, with tooth number 4 on it’s way soon.

I have to admit we are still really enjoying cloth diapering. Eva still has not worn a single disposable since she was still in the hospital. I just need to find time to sew some more medium diapers for her. I have so many tester diapers now, you’d think I have enough, but I really want to make her some more all in ones like the happy face diaper on my Twitter account. So far those are my favorites.

The BumGenius diapers still fit her really well, though we are on the largest snap setting now. She is so long and thin. She was sick for three whole weeks (can we say sleep deprivation!) but now that she is feeling better she is eating like a horse. Last month she would only eat a few tablespoons of food a day. Suddenly she is eating 4 ounces at a sitting 3 times a day. I need to get my baby food site working.

This week I have been sidetracked working on a diaper cake site. http://www.diapercakebakery.com.

I have too many web sites, but I keep finding cool stuff to make sites about.

So soft on the tushie!

Had to share how cute Eva is in her new Drybees Gone Natural bamboo diaper. It was tough getting this pic though cause she keeps rolling onto her back when I put her down on her stomach. I managed to catch her mid-roll!

I love bamboo diapers because they are so soft and absorbent. I just got these in stock today, so I haven’t really field-tested it yet, but they look awesome. Nice and thick where it is needed but trim fitting overall. The fold out soakers mean fast drying. This is good, since I have no patience for any diaper that won’t dry fast.

 As you can see, she finds this bamboo diaper very comfy!

Rocky Mountain Diapers one size pocket diaper offers adjustable leg elastic so you get a one size diaper without the bulk in the front like front-snap-down one size diapers. The elastic inside the leg casings offers 4 different snap settings to take your baby from X-Small (5 pounds or so) through Large (30 pounds). To adjust the diaper, you just reach inside the pocket opening and pull up the elastic. Then snap the elastic at the setting you prefer. No need to adjust the settings until your baby grows into the next size.

This arrangement makes it easy to fit these diapers on even a very small newborn with a snug fit around the legs and no added bulk in the front, but may be less convenient if you are using the same diapers on more than one size child at the same time. The leg casings create a ruffled effect on the legs when set on smaller sizes. The smaller the size setting, the more ruffly the legs.

Because these are pocket diapers, you can add absorbency as needed for your baby. The outer layer is waterproof polyurethane laminate (PUL) and the inside stay-dry lining is buttery soft suedecloth. You do not need a separate cover, though you will need to buy pocket diaper inserts. The pocket opening is inside the back of the diaper just below the waist elastic.

Rocky Mountain Diapers come in a handful of cute colors with contrasting suedecloth inner lining colors. I love suedecloth lined diapers because they feel dryer inside than fleece diapers and they resist staining better than other stay-dry diaper linings. The suedecloth inside is cuddly soft! My model is wearing a pink grapefruit Rocky Mountain Diapers one size with lemon suedecloth inside.

Learn More about Rocky Mountain Diapers

Thousands of small businesses that create simple, SAFE items like handmade toys, cloth diapers, baby slings, and unique baby clothing are going to be forced to test and retest products already known to be safe. As the law is written, I have to test every single type of product I make – even if the only difference is in sizing.

If I make 3 different size diapers from the same bolt of fabric and the same color snaps, I will be required to test all three sizes – even though the materials are exactly the same in each diaper! Even more bizarre, I have to test these products even though the manufacturer of the fabric and the manufacturer of the snaps have already completed these tests. And the next business has to test those exact same materials again, since my results don’t help them at all. This does not make kids safer, it only makes it impossible for very small businesses to keep their doors open.

How expensive is this testing? While I have seen estimates all over the map, one of my colleagues shared her test estimates. She uses the exact same materials I do for making my pocket diapers. Both the maker of the waterproof fabric and the maker of the snaps have already tested them for lead and found NONE. The testing lab wants 6 of each size and color of diaper from her. Her diapers come in 3 sizes and 14 colors. That is 252 diapers that will be destroyed for testing. Then, they want to test front and back snaps (made from the same plastic), and each of the fabrics and the thread and elastic. End result? $58,800 plus the loss of 252 diapers all to prove that the fabric and snaps we already know to be safe is still safe – and those tests will need to be run by every other diaper maker who uses the same safe materials. There are hundreds of us using these same materials. Stupid is the nicest word that comes to mind. This does not help make kids safer, it only limits choices in the marketplace and it is going to make everything a lot more expensive.

What can you do? In addition to writing to Congress and the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) you can vote at Change.org by January 15. Click here to vote. While the voting mentions the handmade toy manufacturers, the end result will help all of us.  Toy manufacturers will be hit the hardest on February 10, but all of us will feel this by Augut when the final parts of the rule go into place.

For information about how to contact Congress and the CPSC, along with suggestions for what to say, go to WAHM Solutions (my business blog).

Little for Now is offering huge discounts on cloth diapers and natural parenting items on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Click here for Black Friday Cloth Diaper Sales and click here for Cyber Monday Sales.

You can find more kid related Cyber Monday deals here.

Black Friday Deals include 20 percent off Drybees, Wahmies, Happy Heiny’s, Little for Now, Sheepish Grins, Thirsties clearance items, Fuzzi Bunz and more. 20 percent off sale applies to in stock items only and is from 6 am to noon Eastern time. These companies rarely allow sales like this, so it is a great time to stock up on cloth diapers. Think about your cloth diaper needs for the next year, as well as the next few months.

Be sure to look at the clearance items as well as special Cyber Monday deals on custom made cloth diapers, bamboo diapers and more cloth diapering items. You’ll find wet bags and other cloth diaper accessories as well.

Cyber Monday cloth diaper deals are a great chance to get custom made cloth diapers and baby items in time for Christmas. Little for Now bamboo one size fitted diapers will be on a special deal and you can even score a free pocket diaper with purchase. Little for Now pail liners and wet bags are included.

FuzziBunz detergent is sold only by FuzziBunz retailers and comes in a 48 ounce bottle good for 96 cloth diaper wash loads. At regular retail, FuzziBunz Cloth Diaper Detergent costs about 16 cents per load.

 So, after knowing many of these women online for 2 years or so, I am finally going to get the chance to meet a bunch of them in person. Some are fellow retailers, some are my Sheepish Grins wholesale customers, and some are wholesale companies I buy from (such as Wahmies/Drybees and BumGenius). The ABC Kids Expo is a way for wholesale companies to get the attention of a lot of retailers at once, and this year there are about a dozen cloth diaper companies exhibiting in addition to those of us who are attending. Pretty cool for a line of business that still gets a “You sell what?” response from most people.

 Of course, in addition to meeting others in the industry, I’ll be on the lookout for cool products to add to my store. I am not looking forward to all the walking -since walking this pregnant isn’t exactly fun – but I am sure the event itself will be a great opportunity.

Yes, traditional cotton is grown with WAY more chemicals than most people would ever believe. However, we don’t wear
paper shirts to avoid conventionally grown cotton t-shirts. Either we spring for the more expensive organic, or we reduce, reuse, recycle. It is still more environmentally responsible to reuse a cotton diaper 200 times than it is to throw away a petroleum/wood/chemical disposable.

Yes, cloth diapers do use water to wash, but we don’t suggest that adults start using disposables to avoid flushing the toilet. Flushing the toilet throughout the day uses about the same amount of water as washing cloth diapers, but again, no one
suggests we refuse to potty train a toddler for fear they will use too much water.

What this question really ignores though, is that disposable diapers do not grow in stores. One little disposable diaper looks so clean, white and harmless. Then realize that each baby will use about 6,000 or more diapers in two years. Now, think about the fact that when those diapers are thrown away they are no longer so clean! With billions (really!) of disposable diapers being used in the US each year, we are looking at wasting massive amounts of space in landfills for our convenience.

Manufacturing a disposable diaper requires someone to drive out into the woods, cut down a tree, haul oil from across the ocean, create bleach and whatever other chemicals they use including sodium polyacrylate (those gel beads). Haul all that stuff to various factories to make it into raw materials. Haul the raw materials to another factory, make the diapers. Truck the diapers to a warehouse, then to another warehouse, then to your grocery store, then you drive to the store to buy them. Meanwhile, 300 pounds of wood products, 50 pounds of petroleum, and 20 pounds of bleach have been used to produce enough diapers for ONE baby for one year. Then, after you use the diaper, the encased human waste (cause almost no one actually flushes it like they should) is trucked to a landfill where it will sit for 250-550 years or so. That is a whole lot of chemicals and whole lot of petroleum used to truck around that diaper.

These diapers, in turn, expose your baby to asthma inducing chemical off-gassing, dioxins, high heat in the diaper area that has been linked to male sterility, and choking hazards from diapers that tear (yes, kids choke on disposable diaper parts and on the gel inside them).

Many cloth diapers these days are made from artificial fibers. Again, the environmental impact of the fabric, manufacturing, shipping, etc., is there, but there is no comparison to what goes into making the same number of disposable diapers that would replace one cloth diaper. Most synthetic diapers have the added advantage of offering a “stay-dry” lining that can help prevent rashes and require less frequent changing than cotton diapers.

Polyester is more environmentally friendly in some ways than cotton. Polyester washes and dries more quickly than cotton, so over the life of the item it can actually take fewer resources to produce and care for a polyester diaper than a cotton one. When you look at the lifetime impact of any item from a t-shirt to a cloth diaper, there is a lot more to look at then just how it was made or grown.

A few questions to ponder:

* How was the fiber in this product made or grown? (organic cotton is better than conventional cotton, but for some products man-made fibers may be better than organics)
* How did it get here? How efficient/fair was the manufacturing? (made in the USA or shipped overseas? buy local or from across the country? sewn in a sweatship or made by a work at home mom?)
* How long will I use it? (single use, multiple use, or heavy use – depending on the type, a cloth diaper may last through 100-300 or more washes)
* How will I clean it and dry it? (line drying has the least environmental impact)
* How will I reuse or recycle the item? (cotton cloth diapers may be used as rags, for instance)
* How will I dispose of it when I am done with it? (bamboo, hemp, cotton are all biodegradable)

More research needs to be done to help us make wise consumer decisions, but as a general rule I think we can rely on what our ancestors said:

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!”

No matter what type of cloth diapers you choose, you can rest assured that using cloth makes just as much environmental sense as wearing cloth underwear instead of paper!