Cloth Diapers: Info for the Interested

Thirsties brand velour with a Thirsties brand cover

I can't really point you at any specific site that will give you all the info I wanted when I was researching cloth diapers but here are some things to think about. There is SO much to know about cloth diapering but there is also a great quantity of resources and you can just google it when you feel confused! All in all, I'm REALLY happy that we decided to cloth diaper. David was actually the one who ended up pushing me to do it after I got him interested. We took a cheap educational class on cloth diapers from a local retailer and it was awesome! There are at least 8 different ways to cloth diaper and lots of new vocabulary terms. Also, this blog post helped a lot in making my decision http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/08/the-much-requested-cloth-diaper-post/.

Values: regarding the environment I thought a lot about landfill waste but what cinched it for me was finding out that disposable diapers say in the instructions to flush solid waste down the toilet. Putting used disposables in the landfill is one of the only ways that people bypass sewage treatment so babies' poops go untreated and seep into the ground--icky. With cloth diapers, whether you rinse them or just wash them in the washer, that water gets treated and recycled at the water treatment facility. Same goes if you use a cloth diaper service. Their wash water would get treated also.

Whether or not cloth or disposables use less energy is negligible so I opted to not use that as a factor in deciding what to do.

Health and Safety: The chemicals they use in disp are kind of terrifying and I'm surprised that the government allows people to put them on their children. There is some talk of disp chemicals causing fertilty problems in males but I don't have any details. Additionally, we still use 1 disp a night on Eva since she is less bothered by being wet when she's in a disp. A few times, I have noticed that the gel spheres in the disp have come out of the lining and are directly on her skin and I have to wipe them off. NOT a fan of this.

Time: Cloth requires about an extra load of laundry every 1-3 days depending on how many diapers you have. Figure 12 diapers/day at first then 8 later on. So you'd need 24 diapers doing laundry every other day. My high efficiency machine takes 2 hours to wash a load due to the extra settings. A regular machine would probably just be 40 minutes or whatever. 

Size of your baby: the diapers I had were ridiculously huge on Eva until she was 5 weeks old or about 10 pounds. In general, you have to get used to the bigger look of cloth since disp are so trim these days.

Emotional destruction after birth/tolerance for experimentation: I was destroyed after the birth both physically and emotionally. Think of a crazy topless unshowered person who shuffles around mumbling and crying for 3 weeks. Yeah--the side of birth no one ever talks about. I tried to cloth diaper Eva when she was 2 weeks old and we both wound up in tears. We used only disposables until she was 5 weeks old. I recommend it. After 5 weeks we had figured out breastfeeding and I was wearing clothes again. I also had the emotional bandwidth to learn a new skill.

Budget: We were spending $10 every 4 days on diapers when she was little. She used a shocking amount of diapers. Cloth diapers can be very cheap if you use the prefold old fashioned kind--like $10 for 12 of them and $5-10 for the water proof covers they need. I only buy All in One or All in Two diapers. They can cost up to $25 each so your initial outlay of moolah is a lot more than disp. 

Here is an All in One http://www.peachygreendiapers.com/turquoise-solo-luxe-aio-diaper/. You just snap the thing on and off of her and wash the whole thing. The other kind I use have snap-in absorbent inserts and waterproof shells. Here are the shells, scroll down to see the inserts http://www.myblossombottom.com/products/GroVia-Shells.html. We use the shell several times in a row and just snap in a fresh liner. These are David's favorite.

Laundry Options: In general, the new style cloth diapers take forever to dry in a drier so if you have the ability to have a clothesline that's key and saves some energy too. High efficiency machines are a pain since they use so little water, you can end up having ammonia issues which can get serious if you're not paying attention. That's why my machine takes so long as i have to add extra cycles and rinses to get the ammonia out. Kind of a downfall of high efficiency! People with trad machines rarely have issues. You might also need  a special kind of detergent. Country Save detergent with Calgon if you have hard water and Rockin' Green detergent are favorites in my circles but you could probably use just about anything including Tide if that's how you roll. Actually, I think I read that Tide works the very best out of everything. I'm allergic to Tide so that wasn't an option for us.

Also notable-exclusively breastfed babies don't need their diapers to be rinsed or pretreated before you throw them in the wash. I can't believe how easily it washes out of her diapers. Once they start eating foods, you have to dump the poo into the toilet or spray the diapers off before washing. That's covered in the first link above.

Potty Training and Diaper Rash: Diaper rash amongst cloth diapered babies is very rare. In fact, diaper rash was kind of unheard of before disposables hit the scene. Because babies can feel that they are wet, they prefer to have their cloth diaper changed more often which prevents the rash. Being able to feel that they are wet also contributes to earlier potty training since it's a gross sensation that they want to learn how to avoid! I think I read that cloth diapered babies potty train 3-6 months sooner than disposable babies--WIN!

Longevity: You can save your cloth diapers and use them on multiple babies. I've known people whose diapers have lasted for 3 children so they only have to make the investment once. To fully embrace this, buy gender neutral colors and prints. I failed at this and have lots of girly diapers but couldn't resist!

Looks: Cloth diapers are adorable!

The bottom line: read up on it, try to find a local retailer or eco friendly baby store and touch and feel the diaper options they have. Make the best decision for you and your family. Maybe buy 1 or 2 and try them out. If you hate them, you can always sell them on craigslist :)

Do you cloth diaper? What resources did you use to make your choice? What sites do you use now if you have a question about cloth diapering?

On Death and Dying: Composting Series 3: Bargaining

By now I'm hoping that you have sited and built your first compost bin!  If not, I'll be patient.  Speaking of patience, you'll need some of this while you start trying to fill your bin with goodies.  You might be having small bursts of desperation as you try to fill your new bin (especially if you have already raked and disposed of your leaves).  This is okay, you'll be fine.  Some typical thoughts/google searches you might have/do are:

1. How many bananas can a person eat before potassium poisoning sets in?
2. Rifling through the garbage for compostables at work with no one noticing
3. Should I cut down that perfectly good shrub to put in my bin?
4. I'm going to buy that cauliflower b/c even if I don't eat it, I can compost it

A common and useful way to deal with these types of thoughts is bargaining.  You will find yourself looking at apple cores, peels, coffee grounds and wilted lettuce leaves in a whole new way.  At first, you might bargain or scheme in easy and socially acceptable ways.  Maybe you ask a close friend if you have have the shell she just peeled off her hard boiled egg in return for a cookie.  Maybe you slip the coffee grounds from work into a plastic bag and cart it out in your lunch pail.  No one needs to know about this.  Maybe you approach the produce guy at the grocery store and casually ask how you can get your hands on the boxes and boxes of "culling" aka. semi-rotted stuff they pick off the shelves.

You'll find all sorts of creative ways to fill your bin.  You'll probably start eating more fruits and veggies just to have the cores, peels, stumps, etc. for your pile.  You might hit up local coffee shops for their used grounds.  You'll have stiff competition from other composters for these so make nice with the baristas for first dibs.  Coffee grounds aren't called Black Gold for nothing.

The most advanced form of bargaining will be when you plead with your higher power to put in more microbes to kick start your pile.  It will sound something like this, "higher power, please let the microbes thrive in my pile and I promise that I'll volunteer at that soup kitchen/clean out the bottom of the fridge/be nice to my nasty coworker, etc."  You can avoid these types of unhealthy conversations by just buying a little bag of 'compost starter' at Ace Hardware.  This is easy to use and makes you feel in control of the process.

You'll find a lot of info on the ratio of greens (nitrates) to browns (carbon).  Try not to stress over this.  Just do your best to have more browns (leaves, shredded papers, and dead, brown things) than greens (produce waste, coffee grounds/things that are still moist/juicy/any other color).
As you begin to get a substantial amount of stuffs in your pile, do the following every 3rd day to create "gourmet compost."

Turn and mix up your ingredients.  Microbes need air so by stirring/flipping, you'll introduce the needed O2.

Check the moisture level.  It should be damp, like a wrung out sponge.  Not dripping and not dusty.  If it's too try, sprinkle water over it, turn, repeat.  If it's too wet, turn it daily until it get's drier.  If it's extra rainy for more than 2 days, cover it up with a sheet of plastic until it stops raining.

It might steam/smoke/smell like a barn.  These are all signs that things are going well!

Next week, we'll learn how you know if your pile is working and dealing with Depression if it is not.  How's your pile coming?

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On Death & Dying: Composting Series 2: Anger

Welcome back to the composting series!  This week we'll be working through the Anger phase.  Anger during these early stages of composting can crop up in a variety of different ways.  I'll share my points of angst and you can feel free to comment below on your particular points of pain.

If you're following along, you should have surveyed your land and chosen your ideal place for your compost heap.  Now it's time to get serious about this and by serious, I mean you are going to need to go to Home Depot or similar home shop.

Anger Type 1: You will research bins and find that ready made bins cost $75-$200, this is upsetting and inappropriate! So, to build a basic compost bin, you'll need some 2x4s, screws, washers and medium mesh wire "fencing" (total cost $30ish).  Chickenwire's holes are too big so choose a type that has smallish squares or rectangles.  This would also be a good time to pick up a small pitch fork. 
You're basically going to build a frame out of the 2x4's and attach the mesh inside the frame on the 4 sides using screws and washers.  Reference the diagram above for a hilarious depiction of what your bin could look like!

Anger Type 2:  This could occur at various stages during the building of your bin.  You will forget something and have to make multiple trips to the store.  Just come to terms with it now.  You might also realize that your bin is too huge, too tiny or trapezoid shaped.  These will all pose problems for you in the future, so consult appropriate measuring devices to get it right.  You could also incur a host of injuries during this phase so take appropriate safety measures as I can't be held responsible for anything that happens to you or your doting husbands/boyfriends as they try to "help."

Let's assume that you got your bin built.  YAY!  Good job.  If you're not stingy, you could have just bought a nice plastic bin but where's the fun in that?!  Plus, the storemade bin will deprive you of most of the fun interactions you could have with your pile in the future.

Anger Type 3:  Feeling overwhelmed that you now have a giant wooden form but nothing to put in it.  Never fear, stick to these do's and don'ts and you should be well on your way to filling your bin.
DO: Compost anything that grows in the ground, on a tree or similar.  This includes things that might have been 'processed' but not added to during processing (coffee grounds, raw nuts, seeds, egg shells, etc).
DON'T: Compost any meats, oils/fats/bones, human or animal wastes.  You'll find info that says you can compost these things at high enough temperatures but let's just start off safe and avoid them.

Your task this week is to go forth and build your bin.  If you're Type A, Concrete/Sequential or MBTI J's, feel free to google "how to build a compost bin" for step by step instructions.
Blog in soon to learn about Bargaining and what you might Bargain for regarding your compost.

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Neighborhood Trash Service: Stage 1 of Communal Living?

I'm stingy.  About as stingy as they come.  When our weekly trash service company began increasing my rate by $10 a month for 4 consecutive months, I got fed up.   I called around and was thrilled to discover that another company (Waste Management) was nearly 1/2 the cost and provided WAY better service.  This event was coupled with an ordinance in my town called "pay per trash" or something similar.  It basically rewards you for recycling more and throwing away less.  My new trash company offers 3 different sizes of trash cans and 3 different sizes of recycle cans (with lids AND wheels).  My old company offered none of these options and we just got a crummy tub to put our recyclabes in, had to sort it and most of it would blow away every week.

Since the new ordinance passed, I decided to opt for the giant 96 gallon recycle can and the medium sized trash can (about half the size of the recycle one).  I was nervous to use a smaller trash can but with all that room in the recycle one, I figured we were up to the challenge. 

I am very satisfied with my new trash company and we are generating surprisingly small amounts of trash.  Most of our things are recyclable and that combined with composting means that we only throw away meat scraps, oils, non-recyclable plastic stuff, styrofoam and odds and ends like light bulbs.  We haven't taken our trash can out to the curb for 4 weeks now and it is only half full!  Our recycling cup runneth over.  I think I'll switch to the even cheaper 25 gallon trash can!

Your task this month is to find a lower rate and better service for your trash/recycling needs.  If you want to take it a step further: once you find the lowest rate/best service, talk to your neighbors about switching with you.  This has multiple benefits:

1.  Fewer noisy/smelly trucks going down your street each week making it safer for the kiddos running around
2.  Better for the environment: pooling your trash needs to one company will help the company be more efficient in their travels
3.  You might be able to talk the company down even further on rates if you explain that your entire street has switched to them!

On Death & Dying: Composting Series 1: Denial

I decided that I wanted to start composting in our backyard last May.  I researched different containers: ready made vs. build your own, I tried to learn what you could compost and what you couldn't: I refuse to compost nail and hair clippings. I stressed out over how big, how moist and how smelly my pile might be and stayed up night worrying that I wouldn't do it right and would be saddled with a giant pile of stinky mush.  Neighbors would complain, wildlife would be drawn to it to forage, babies and children would cry at the sight of it and so forth.

None of my worst nightmares happened and what I actually discovered is that composting is nearly fool proof.  If you barely tend to it, you'll eventually get compost (like 2 years).  If you tend to it a lot, you'll get compost really quickly (3 months)!

The first of the Death & Dying series will be focused on Denial.  There are many ways to be in denial on the topic of composting.  You might lie to yourself and say, "this banana peel can just go in the landfill, it will eventually break down."  "I don't want to compost because it it gross/smelly/icky/weird/I live in the city/I don't have time/only crunchy granola people do it."  Let me help you get out of denial and take the first step in composting.

1.  No, that banana peel will take forever to break down in a landfill because you're going to throw it away in a plastic trash bag.  Nature won't be able to get to that banana peel to compost it for about 10 years!
2.  Composting is allowed in the city and surprisingly few of nature's creatures will be interested in it.  I am not crunchy but I love composting.  It's the real life version of playing those farm games on Facebook like Farmville or Oregon Trail.  Put down your laptop and go interact with some microbes!
3.  My first batch of compost was so nutrient rich that I accidentally grew some melons in it at the very end of the summer!

Your task this week is to just survey your "land" ie, your backyard and look for a suitable site for your compost pile.  Little effort needs to be put into this step, just choose a location that:

• is roughly 4 ft wide x 4 ft long.  You might dig a hole there or place a container on top depending on which method you choose.
• consider placing your pile behind a shed/fence/shrub etc.  Compost isn't ugly but it's not quite as asthetically pleasing as a flower garden.
• is easy to access from your back door.  You'll need to cart your kitchen scraps out 1-2 times a week so it is nice to have a location that is convenient.
• is relatively close to where you keep your garden tools.  I frequently need my pitchfork, garden gloves and a watering can to tend to my pile.

You're done!  Visit me next week to learn about the next stage: Anger, and what steps you can take to move on with composting.

Going "black"

Would going black be the opposite of going green?  Let's say it is and let's say that I totally blew it this weekend.  I'm going to list all of the things I did today that were in direct violation of a greener lifestyle.  What's worse, is that I was/am fully aware that I was engaging in counterproductive "black" behaviors.  Call me addicted to my lifestyle...I'm coming clean here.

Saturday Morning:

1. I could have heated up yesterday's leftover coffee but dumped it and made a fresh pot and only drank half again.  I've drank leftover coffee before and it tastes identical to fresh.  I ALWAYS make twice what I plan on drinking.
2. Instead of raking my leaves by hand and getting a decent workout, I used our electric leaf vacuum for about 2 hours (no, electric is not great, that energy comes from coal, not jelly beans like people would have you think).
3. To soothe my tired body after a morning of lawn care, I loitered in the shower.  Probably for 20 minutes, I was clean after 3.  Sometimes I turn on a space heater while I'm in the shower.  I don't really need it, I lived just fine without this luxury for the first 29 years.
4. Instead of taking my dog on a walk, I drove her 4 miles to the dog park and she only played for 10 minutes.  The walk would have taken less time.

Saturday Afternoon:

1. The "dog" was craving Wendy's.  Each of my 4 items came individually packaged, in a bag and with 12 napkins and I threw everything away, even the paper, which I know is recyclable!  What is wrong with me?!
2. I washed some clothes on hot instead of cold even though they say it doesn't matter.  I think it matters.
3. Needed shoe therapy and drove 8 miles to DSW.  It was too crowded so I spent 5 minutes and then came directly back home.
4. Drove to CSU and printed approximately 120 pages of text that I need to read.  At the end of my project, I will have only used about 20 of those pages to write my paper which my instructor will demand that I email him and then submit a printed copy. 

Saturday Night:

1. I installed our electric mattress pad heater.  I just turned it on.  It was 65 degrees today.  Later I'll be up there reading a magazine before bed and I want it toasty.
2. I could have made dinner at home but I drove 3 miles to Noodles for carryout and got another load of plastic.
3. I have the tv on right now while I write.  I'm not watching it.  I haven't even glanced up once.
4. The kitchen light is on, I'm not in the kitchen.

So, for anyone who is trying to go green....we're probably suffering from the same habits.  What behaviors do you have that you KNOW you shouldn't be doing?