Soap Nuts

I've been hearing about the benefits of soap nuts for a while now and finally about two weeks ago I decided to give it a try. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical of their cleaning power because it's just a the outer shell of a seed from a tree grown in India or Nepal. But I have to say, I'm so impressed with them! They work so well at my regular laundry that I tried them with cloth diapers and soap nuts work even better than detergent on cloth because you don't need to do a final rinse. Think of all the water and energy being saved from skipping a final rinse!
For a load of laundry, put 4-6 soapnuts in the cloth bag that is usually provided when you buy a bag of soapnuts from your health food store.Toss the bag in with your wash load and do laundry as you normally would. Just make sure to remove the bag before putting your clothing in the dryer.
I've been reusing them only twice because I want to make a liquid concentrate from the used soapnuts (I've been reading that you could use them up to four times and then compost the used soap nuts.). You can use soapnut concentrate for a lot of different things: shampoo, dishsoap, add some to a bath for clearing up eczema or psoriasis and general household cleaning. I'm eager to make up a liquid concentrate when I have enough soapnuts to do so. I found this website to be so helpful. There's tons of great information and ideas on how to use soap nuts.
The only negative I can think of for soapnuts is that they aren't effective at getting rid of stains but I usually pretreat my stains with some oxyclean anyways. Also, laying your stained clothing or diapers in the direct sunlight for a few hours will get rid of almost any stain!
I definitely recommend giving soapnuts a try. I'm glad I finally did as I will not be going back to man made detergents again. :)

Understanding Cloth Diapers

(the kids are still napping so why not throw in another blog post today!)

Deciding to use cloth diapers was an easy choice for me (see previous post). Deciding which cloth diapers to use wasn't so easy! The easiest way to get started is to explain the differences in diapers out there.

• Flats These are the diapers your mothers and grandmothers probably used. It's a big square of flannel or cotton that is folded to fit your baby. It's fastened with either a pin or a snappi and requires a cover.
• Prefolds A rectangle piece of layered cotton (can be hemp or bamboo as well). Gets folded into thirds and either pinned or snappied together or placed in a wrap-style cover as is. Requires a cover. Also great to use as an insert in pocket style diapers.
• Contoured Prefolds Same idea as the regular prefold but is more shaped and imo, easier to snappi. Requies a cover.
• Fitted Just as the name suggests, this is a diaper fitted to your baby's shape. No folding required but a cover is needed. Usually closes with snaps or velcro although some require a pin or snappi to close.

• Pocket Diaper This is a two piece system that comes with an insert (absorbant part of diaper) and a cover. There is an opening so that you can stuff the insert into the diaper. It closes with either snaps or velcro. Can be stuffed with multiple inserts to tailor absorbancy needs.

• All-in-one This is as close the ease of disposables as you can get. No need to stuff with inserts. Just put diaper on as is. Closes with either snaps or velcro.
• One Size Typically fit from birth to toilet learning. These can come in pocket, all in one and even fitteds. Usually sized with snaps that you can adjust as baby grows.

• Covers Used over flats, prefolds and fitteds. There is a lot of choice out there in covers: PUL is in most covers and especially in pockets and all-in-ones. But you can also get covers in wool, fleece and some people still use plastic pants.

To get started here's what you need:

• Pail or hanging wet bag To store soiled diapers until washing.
• 24-36 diapers I suggest going with 36 so you don't need to wash every day. Don't forget covers depending on type of diaper.
• Wash cloths If you're using cloth, you might as well use cloth wipes too.
• Wet bag To put soiled diapers in when out and about.
• Snappis or Pins Depending on what type of diaper you are using, you may want to use these.
• Diaper friendly detergent I always use Country Save laundry soap. Doesn't cause build-up and is bio-degradable. Remember you only need 1/4 to 1/2 scoop!
• Oxyginated Bleach Powder Gets rid of stains and boosts your laundry detergent. Optional.
• Tea Tree Oil and Lavender Oil Both of these essential oils are great for cloth diapers. A few drops on a cloth dropped into your diaper pail eliminates odours. A few drops added to the rinse cycle will help disinfect your diapers. Optional.
• Diaper friendly diaper rash cream You'll find that your child doesn't often get a diaper rash but it's handy to have around. Be sure it's diaper friendly (such as Bum Bum Balm) and use sparingly to avoid build-up.

For laundry soap suggestions, I found Diaper Jungle to be really helpful: http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html

Reasons To Choose Cloth Diapers

I have lots of pregnant friends right now who are asking me about my experience cloth diapering 3 children (two of whom are currently still in diapers). I'm so happy to see cloth diapers becoming more and more popular and even happier to see the great changes made to cloth diapers since I started using them on my oldest nearly 14 years ago!
Cloth diapering is the obvious choice for my children for many reasons. Some reasons to consider cloth diapering are:

• Less of an environmental impact than disposables. The average child goes through between 6000-7000 diapers. That's a lot of garbage if using disposables. Only 30% of disposable diapers are actually biodegradable and what's worse is that a heavy majority of disosable diaper users don't bother to flush fecal matter so that gets sent to our landfills too. Many people don't know that you aren't actually allowed to throw human waste into the garbage because the viruses that can be found in fecal matter can make it's way into our water system. And that's just nasty! Also less energy is required to make cloth diapers. Choose a diaper made from a renewable resource and you're being ultra friendly to our planet!
• Cloth diapers are healthier for your baby! Male infertility has been linked to disposable diapers because it's believed that the gel warms up a boy's testicles and can stop normal growth. Also, consider the chemicals that are used to make disposable diapers: Tribulytin has been found in Pampers Baby Dry (Greenpeace, May 2000) which harms the immune system, is a hormone disrupter and is speculated to cause male infertility. Traces of dioxen which is a known carcinogen has been found in disposable diapers. The gel in disposable diapers is made from Sodium Polyacrylate which is linked to Toxic Shock Syndrome. And yet another health reason to switch to cloth: It's been shown that disposable diapers can cause asthma in children!
• Cloth diapers will save you money! Do the math! If a child goes through an average of 6000-7000 diapers the costs add up! On average, cloth diapers can cost you $500 over 3 years including laundering expenses. Disposables can cost on average $2000. That's already a savings of $1500... just imagine how much you'd save if you went on to have more children! And cloth diapers have an excellent resale value so you could easily get half your money back.
• Children potty learn at a younger age. Because cloth diapers do not hide the feeling of wetness, children tend to use the potty at a much younger age.
• Less diaper rashes and skin irritations. Disposable diapers tend to cause more skin irritations and diaper rashes than cloth diapers due to two reasons: the chemicals are irritating to the skin and because children feel dry parents tend to change their children's diapers less frequently.
• Cloth diapers are just cuter! Cloth diapers have changed so much in the last few years... they now come in adorable prints. No one will argue that cloth diapers beat out disposable diapers in the cuteness factor!