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Mom Guilt?July 13th, 2010I was reading some articles this morning, mostly about parenting-type subjects. One that I came across particularly caught my attention. It essentially was saying that the introduction of modern cloth diapers into the mainstream was adding yet another decision for mothers, thus perpetuating the potential for mom-guilt. Huh? As if Pampers saved our lives back in the 60’s when they came out with disposable diapers? I don’t know about everyone else, but I have some friends that use cloth and some that don’t. To the best of my knowledge both groups are happy with their decisions. If I had a friend that felt guilty for not trying cloth, I would probably suggest she give it a try! (Novel idea, I know!) Why feel guilty about something that is so easy and accessible to all? I have admitted in the past to having friends who will approach someone about not having their child correctly buckled in their car seat or hanging loosely in a sling and on a few occasions in the past I have seen a new mother with a very young baby timidly breastfeeding in public amongst negative onlookers and have grabbed my toddler, sat down next to her and whipped out a boob in solidarity. BUT – I can’t say I have ever been witness to or been involved in a conversation where mothers who used disposable diapers have been looked down upon or made to feel guilty, sounds like another excuse to say something negative about cloth diapering to me. If using Pampers makes you feel guilty…DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Introducing the New bumGenius 4.0!June 29th, 2010The news you all have been waiting for – the arrival of the bumGenius 4.0 which will be replacing the 3.0 that so many people have come to love. These are the new features… (images below!) 2. All new hook & loop closures (also available in refresher kits) 4. Three new colors. Bubble (light lavender), Noodle (light cream) and Sweet (light green). 5. And my favorite new feature… you now have your choice of closures (snaps or hook & loop). Big News at bumGenius!!June 28th, 2010The big news arrived last week via blog from Cotton Babies – they are coming out with something new, exciting and special…BUT that means the retirement of the ever popular and loved bumGenius 3.0 One-size cloth diaper. I was a bit stunned because although they aren’t my favorite, I know many, many people who cloth diaper and use ONLY these. My tall girl grew out of them before she turned 2 in the rise and I ended up needing a whole new stash – so my guess is something that might last a *bit* longer? Here’s a snippet from their entry: “Something fun and new is coming. But that usually means that we have to say goodbye to something else. So, it is with slightly heavy hearts that we have to announce that we have discontinued our highly acclaimed bumGenius 3.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers.“ We still have a limited supply of these at Maine Cloth Diaper, so if you are freaking out or need a gift, get over to the site and put in your order right away or give us a call. Cotton Babies goes on to say how excited they are about their new diaper and are confident that we all will be too. They are planning to unveil the new diaper TOMORROW… So Stay tuned! Recalls, Recalls Everywhere!June 24th, 2010It seems like everywhere you turn another baby/child product is being recalled. As a parent this actually scares me to death!! My daughter was never a lover of the crib and in fact began refusing to sleep there around 6 months and then soon after I hurt my back and began letting her sleep with me full time because it was easier to nurse her and I was having a hard time lifting her out of the crib. Christy actually posted a link on Facebook this morning to an article talking about the new list of cribs that were recently recalled and when I clicked the link, lo and behold, there was a picture of the exact crib that we had inherited from my brother and sister-in-law that I believe both of their girls slept in as well (the Jenny Lind). I guess I am what most people would call a “cynic” and thus am not the type of person that trusts on a whim – my other like-minded friends and I typically find ourselves looking into other peoples carseat without thinking, just to check if the children are properly strapped in, or mentioning to a fellow mom that her baby carrier is on wrong or too loose as well as bringing up subjects such as the lead recently found in juice or BPA or additives in snack. So I don’t consider myself naive, but come on! Cribs? The Jenny Lind crib has been a very popular model and sold since 2000 – they haven’t figured out how to make it safe by now? Additionally, there were some baby carriers by Cybex that have faulty plastic buckles that were recently recalled. My husband thinks I am crazy when we buy something child related and I am tugging on straps and twisting buckles and hinges to see if they are strong or could break easily. But I don’t have that trust in the manufacturers of these products and more and more is seems like this trust that many parents have is ill placed. Below is a link to the the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s page were they list baby/child product recalls. All the new crib recalls are on this list as well as the baby carrier, some Kleen Kanteen, clothing and shoes that have been recalled for one reason or another – this list excludes toys (that is a whole other post..) We welcome your comments and thoughts. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/child.html Celebrity Cloth Diaper UsersJune 7th, 2010I was reading some celebrity baby blogs the other day (I know I know…) and couldn’t believe now many celebs that either used or are still using cloth on their babies! Not really for any paticular reason was I surprised, but I guess I assumed that it would be too much work or viewed as inconvenient (although we all know better!) Among favorites of the celebs are actually 2 of our favorite brands - Happy Heiny’s and Fuzzi Bunz. I was surprised that none of them were using any fancy-shmancy ones, like Goodmama – but nope (or atleast they didn’t admit it!) After doing a bit of searching I came up with a pretty impressive list of celebrity cloth diaperers…. Dave Mathews Tori Spelling Matthew McConaughey Melissa Joan Hart Ming Na Scott Baio Brooke Shields Denise Richards Terri and Steve Irwin …and those were just the Major celebs that really jumped out at me (there were about 3 times as many on different sites that I found.) I know I used to hear it on pretty much a weekly if not daily basis from other moms (sometimes people I knew and other times even nosey ladies in a public restroom) – “Oh wow, that must be so much work!” or “Ya, I am just too busy for that, I just can’t bother with the hassle.” Others who just looked at me like I was fresh out of a Laura Ingall’s story book! Although I know that very few, if not none of our readers cloth diaper because of trend – perhaps this celebrity serge in cloth diapering will make it “hip” to use cloth thus getting more parents to give it a try. I know I am defnitely going to drop some of these names next time I am having a discussion about how awesome it is to use cloth with those that are hesitant!! Happy diapering Pampers Dry Max Recalled?May 24th, 2010We keep reading about it more and more that customers are calling for the recall of the new and “improved” Pampers Dry Max. Its so sad to hear the stories about raw, blistery bottoms Parents are complaining about red, blistering, raw and irritating rash – some after just minutes of contact with the new Pampers Dry max. Some poor children taking weeks to have the painful rash clear up even after discontinuing use of the diapers. This week the news even hit the headlines that there are at least 9 families that are suing Proctor and Gamble because of the severe, oozing diaper rash that their children suffered as a result of the new Pampers inner design. For more on this story check out the Boston Examiner. More about the Sling ControversyMay 12th, 2010For all of us seasoned sling-wearing mamas at MCDC, it’s heartbreaking to hear the chatter going on in the news about how slings aren’t safe. Since the original warning by the CPSC that slings are unsafe for small babies and those under 4 mos – they have since gotten more specific by recalling the Infantino Slingrider which was the culprit of the 3 most recent sling-related deaths which sparked this media frenzy. The CPSC is currently working with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Infantino, other sling manufacturers, consumer advocates, and test labs, among others, to develop voluntary standards that can be used as the basis for industry-wide, third-party certification. Unfortunately as consumers, we all have to be aware that not all products that are on the market are safe for our families and we have to use our own good judgement and parents’ intuition and hope for the best. Its important to remember that women have been wearing their babies since the early ancient civilizations and is not only practical but extremely beneficial to the child. Not all parents realize how important attachment is – babywearing facilitates breastfeeding, decreases crying, and helps babies sleep better. Studies have also shown a marked difference in the attachment of a child carried in a car seat as opposed to worn in a sling. Here are some general rules of thumb to follow if you are concerned about the safety of your own child when using a wrap or sling.
If anyone has any questions about babywearing or any sling/wrap in particular, let us know. If we don’t know the answer we will do our best to point you in the right direction toward finding it! Happy Earth Day!April 22nd, 2010Greetings earth lovers! We wanted to extend a Happy Earth Day to all our readers – its ironic how people have been asking all day long what we are doing for Earth Day. As users of cloth diapers, recyclers, conservationists and more – everyday is earth day for us and as it should be. Without our mother earth where would we be? Its amazing how much can be wasted when you don’t think about the things that are consumed in the average everyday life – things like food packaging, disposable diapers and wipes, excessive paper towels and napkins…..toilet paper even. In observance of Earth Day, if each of us can find one thing that we are used to using and throwing away and replace that with a reusable alternative, think of how much less trash there would be. If each of us could plant a tree or a plant or clean up some trash from an area near us – just for this one day a year. Unfortunately in most communities Earth Day is not a major holiday, we can all change that for the future. You don’t have to be an activist if you do not choose, but do be active and help preserve our mother earth for generations to come. Happy cloth diapering and happy Earth Day everyone! Cloth Diapering 3 Kids!April 14th, 2010
I read a post on a message board that I frequent today. The poster was talking about how she is due with her 3rd in a few months and the oldest would be 2.5 at that time so barring any potty-learning miracles, she would have 3 in cloth diapers for at least 6 months….WOW. Knowing me, I would be the same way and everyone that I know would be trying to have my committed to the looney bin! Well, except for the fact that I could NEVER handle 3 kids so close together, hats off to her! In most of the replies to the original poster, people were talking about how easy and cheap prefolds and covers are and while I totally agree on some level, I just remembered the epiphany that I had when Amelia outgrew her smalls and I replaced them mostly with medium pocket diapers. I used the small/newborn prefolds tri-folded as inserts and to double up for night time as well. I am sure one size pockets must have existed (this was the summer of ‘07) but I certainly didn’t know about them! I couldn’t help but think how much I wish the the Hugga Buns One-Size Pocket was around back then (and how awesome they would be for this lady!) I could have saved so much money and time – a couple dozen of those and I would not have had to buy diapers again! Unless of course I saw something super cute that I NEEDED… For the above mentioned message board poster, they would be perfect since they are sizable, come without an insert AND are such a great price. Now that Amelia isn’t in diapers anymore all these great diapers are coming out. Almost makes me want to think about having more kids……….. Dry Max….huh?April 2nd, 2010So has everyone heard about the buzz surrounding the new Pamper’s Dry Max Diaper? We were talking about it around the store – definitely not in a good way though. Supposedly they have been able to improve upon the “core” of the diaper so that it absorbs so well that they were able to remove all of the wood pulp and a few of the extra cushiony layers, including the mesh. After having a few conversations with other cloth diapering moms, I decided to surf around the net to find out exactly what they did to this “magic core”. Well to my surprise, but I am not sure why….I can hardly find a thing!! They have definitely done a great job of saturating the google organic search results with mommy bloggers that they have either paid or offered free product to who are doing so-called “reviews” and “giveaways”……after scrolling through 15+ pages of search results I still had not found one thing that talked about exactly how they improved the absorbancy. I can only image some crazy souped-up version of those toxic polyacrylate gel pieces – making these beasts even more toxic then the rest of the disposable diapers on the market. The only negative things that I could find were irrate parents who were mad that the first batches of this new diaper were marketed in the same packaging as their old diapers as well as an overwhelming number of parents claiming that their child had gotten terrible diaper rash and blisters from these “miracle diapers”. How sad… Many parents said that they came to realize that what appeared to be their same old pampers had changed, when their child developed the rash and they took a closer look at their most recent pack of diapers and contacted Pampers. The other note from many of the blog comments I read was the overwhelming chemical scent, which only makes me think my original theory is probably correct. I hate to judge, but if something smells THAT bad, do you really put it on your baby? I certainly wouldn’t and think its tragic that people have come to trust big business so much that they would. Every day I read or hear something that makes me even more proud to say that I cloth diapered my daughter – I only hope to be able to encourage others see the light. We welcome your comments and thoughts! |
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Even sadder still that these are products approved for sale in our civilized country and no one seems to be forcing Proctor and Gamble to recall them. Here is a very active Facebook page where parents have been sharing their thoughts and issues.
