Out of Diapers? Try a Receiving Blanket!

When I started to use cloth I heard a lot about being able to use a receiving blanket as a diaper. I had never tried this and soon forgot all about it. Well for the first time ever Little Pumpkin ran out of diapers. I had put them to wash but before bed I had forgotten to put them to dry, so while diapers were drying I had nothing to put LP in. Then I remembered the receiving blankets! I looked up how to fold a flat diaper and gave it a try, and I have to say using the receiving blanket as a diaper is great! I may try some flat diapers now.

 

I decided to share with you how to use a receiving blanket as a diaper.

 

I hope that your find this helpful! Happy cloth diapering :)

Cloth Wipes - The UnPaper Solution

Cloth Baby Wipes:

If you already cloth diaper this is a common-sense next step. It simplifies laundry and diaper changing because you can just toss the soiled wipes in with the soiled dipes, less mess, less fuss, less fuzz in the laundry.

However, cloth wipes can make sense for anyone, even if your kids are years out of diapers, or you don't have any children at all!

Commonly called "family cloth" and "unpaper", cloth wipes can take the place of nearly every disposable cleansing or hygiene paper product in the house. Replace the facial tissues in your house with a stack for runny noses. Stack some on a kitchen counter for quick spill clean-ups and other messes. Tuck them into your purse or diaper bag for on-the-go cleanups. Leave a stack in the bathroom to replace face-cleansing or makeup removal towels. Or you could take the ultimate plunge and replace your toilet tissue with a stack on the back of the toilet.

Pretty fabrics, and specialty items such as snap-together "unpaper towels" that unroll from a regular paper towel holder makes unpaper easy and appealing. Use a pail storage system and eliminate the "ick-factor" completely. When your pail is full just dump it into the washing machine, no touch, no mess. Wash, dry, restack, reuse.

Replacing even one product in your home such as paper towels or facial tissue can reduce landfill waste, save trees, improve your families health but reducing chemically laden wipes and cleansing cloths, cut your monthly expenses, and on top of all that, brighten your day with cheerful prints and colors!

So How Do I Get My Family to Go For This?

You might find it easiest to "ease" your family into the idea of cloth. Start with something simple like replacing paper napkins with cute cloth napkins. Once that's gone over well, get some "unpaper towels" and replace that roll in your kitchen with something cute that you can sew up yourself or purchase ready-made:

Photo from and Pattern available at: www.ellegarrettdesigns.etsy.com

Who wouldn't want something gorgeous sitting on their kitchen counter instead of those 'printed' paper towels!

Once your family has gotten comfortable with using cloth around the house, you can try for something a little more personal: facial tissue. Replace the puffs with some super soft and comfy wipes like these:

From EtsyClothDiaper member shop: just2cuteaccessories

When it becomes "the new normal" to use cloth for everything, you can take the ultimate plunge and suggest your family try replacing toilet paper with wipes. You might want to begin by offering both cloth and disposable toilet paper until everyone is comfortable with the transition, or you may even continue to offer both, but drastically cut down on your tissue usage. Place a small bucket (1-3 gallon) or trashcan with a lid next to the toilet. This is where soiled wipes will go until it's time to wash them. You can sprinkle a little baking soda in the bottom to keep it fresh and odor-free until wash time, but you don't want to put water in it. When full, just dump it into your washing machine and wash on hot with a frangrance free soap. Voila! Never buy toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, kleenex, cotton balls, baby wipes, counter wipes, etc. etc. again!

Using Cloth Wipes

Cloth wipes can be used wet or dry. I keep mine in a Prince Lionheart wipes warmer in each bathroom and by the changing table in the nursery. To most effectively keep them warm I prefer the wet method, plus this makes them work more like "baby wipes". In the kitchen we keep them dry for mess clean-up.
To use the wet method, you can simply make your own wipes solution in a bowl and pour this over your wipes in your wipes container or warmer. There are a lot of simple wipes solutions that you can make at home with products you already own, or you can purchase ready-made solution or concentrates such as these which you mix with water:

Available from EtsyClothDiaper Team member shop: WeeEssentials

For a great list of FREE wipes solution recipes visit here: http://www.zany-zebra.com/cloth-wipe-solution.shtml. You'll find anti-fungal recipes, chamomile recipes, soothing recipes, soapless recipes and more!

 

Why Use Cloth Wipes?

There are a number of reasons to use cloth wipes and other "unpaper" products:

~ Better for the environment: less trees, less trucking/shipping on the production end, less trips to the store on your end, less solid waste

~ Pretty and customizable to match your decor

~ Less expensive over time

~ Healthier for sensitive skin

~ Customizable scents and cleansing products

~ Simplify cloth diapering

~ Never run out of toilet paper/paper towels/kleenex again

~ Never have to "limit" the amount of toilet paper or tissue used by your family members again

~ Reduce packaging waste in addition to paper product waste

~ Better for septic and sewage systems since you are reducing the solid waste passing through

Contributed by: Amy Washington of MamaBearBabyWear.

Cloth Diaper Tip: Wing Droop What It Is and How to Prevent It

Most of us have experienced wing droop even from diapers that claim not to have wing droop. Wing droop does not discriminate. Chunky babies or thin babies can all get the dreaded wing droop which can lead to gapping and leaks. Lets start with a simple explanation of what wing droop is, for those new to cloth and those who have yet to deal with it. Wing droop is when the front end of the diaper, typically were the soft side (the loop) of the Velcro is or the Socket snaps are located, dip down below the wings of the diaper. It looks like the picture to the right. 

There are a few reasons wing droop can happen. The first possible cause, and the most common, is that the diaper is too big for the baby. One Size diapers can have this reputation because One Size diapers are meant to fit on larger babies more easily and securely. One size diapers also rely on the fact that younger babies move less. However, some of us have little ones that decided crawling at 6 months or walking by 8 months is a great idea. Take my children, my oldest one didn’t walk until right around a year while my youngest walked right before 8 months which lead to us having more issues with wing droop.

Avoiding OS diapers and buying only sized diapers could help solve some of the wing droop issues. Unfortunately, OS diapers, for most of us, are the most economical choice buying lots of sized diapers means buying more diapers in general which can get pretty pricey. On that same note, it is advisable to purchase more than one type of diaper as 29 Diapers Green Baby on a Budget strongly suggests. Its a great idea to have a mix of diapers to help you find which diapers work out the best for you and your little one. The great thing about having a variety is that sometimes as baby grows a diaper that worked great when they were 6 months might not work as well at 12 months and the diaper that didn’t fit a few months before fits great as they get older. Variety is also good for when different people are watching your little one and changing their diapers. I personally have always liked pockets the best while my husband thought changing AIOs was the easiest.  Check out all the variety available from our Etsy Cloth Diaper Team!

Another cause of wing droop is simply that the diaper is being pulled too tightly. When there is back elastic you can easily pull the wings much further on the baby than it needs to be causing the wings to pull from where the diaper is snapped, typically in the middle. Let the back elastic do its job! It is there to help hold the diaper to the baby’s waist it doesn’t need to be pulled so tight. If gapping happens because it is Velcro (or even on Snaps) simply add a prefold diaper folded trifold style to help fill the diaper. By adding the prefold it should help eliminate the worry of leaks coming from the top.

A few other suggests are to make sure the wings connect straight across and not at an angle, meaning the back of the diaper is not sitting much higher on the baby. If the rise is too high use the fold down snaps to lower the rise or if that is not an option invest in a few cloth diaper safety pins. Not to mention get creative! Try arranging the snaps in different ways to get the best and most convenient fit. If that means creating some folds then by all means create some folds! Trial and error will be the best solution of wing droop. Here is a great little video (only a 1min and a half long) that shows how to be creative with the snaps! Good luck with tackling wing droop and hopefully you won’t abandon those diapers that have been giving you problems. Save some money and be green by being able to use all of your diapers. Happy Diapering.

*Picture from Cloth Diaper Shops Blog

Eco Tip: Line Drying Everything!

Eco Tip:  Line Dry More Than Just Diapers

    Summer is here!  Warm breezes and sunny skies make it perfect for line drying cloth diapers.  Many of us know the benefits of line drying cloth diapers such as preserving PUL in AIO or Pocket diapers.  However, many of us over look the benefits of sun drying our everyday clothes.  And one of the great things about the warmer weather is the softer and nicer the clothes seem to feel.
    Line drying clothes is an easy way to help cut the electric bills during the summer months.  A few different sites quote the savings around $156(1) a year or about $25(2) a month for electric dryers.  The lower your electric bill the lower your family’s carbon foot print is.  Its a great way to get outside and get some sunshine especially with a continual rise of  Vitamin D deficiency.  The summer months are especially great because the warm weather keeps clothes from getting stiff and they will feel just as soft as if they were in the dryer.  Another good reason is that clothes last longer think of all that lint, which is a sign of the fabric being worn down. 

Here are some tips to get the best results when line drying:

1.  hang the colored clothes inside out to help maintain clothes
2.  shake the wrinkles out and smooth as many as you can with your hands.  Reduces any need for ironing
3.  hang heavy jeans folded over then half way through drying flip and shack out wrinkles to optimize drying and helping to prevent stiffness

A helpful hint when line drying sheets fold over and allow to blow in the breeze like a sail to promote even drying.  Another good hint is if you want to hang out your “intimate” items hang them in between two layers of regular clothes creating a few walls to hide them behind.(3)

In our house, to help us remember to hang and dry our darker clothes inside-out we just inside them out when we take them off.  Its also better for the clothes to be washed that way.  We also try to wash most of, if not all our clothes in cold water.  This will help maintain your clothes and fabrics longer.  65% of Americans use hot water or warm water to wash clothes(2) lowing that percentage could help the environment as well as your personal pocket book. Cold water cleans most clothes just as well but if you plan to use warm or hot water save it for visibly dirty items.  Its even better to use cold water when cleaning cloth diapers, make sure to do a good soak ahead of time, especially with PUL which gets worn down from the rough hot water and then being heated in a hot dryer.

These are just a few of the many reasons that hang drying clothes can be great for you and your family.    

(1)http://gogreeninyourhome.com/how-to-save-electricity/save-money-doing-laundry-drying-clothes/

(2)http://www.laundrylist.org/en/line-drying

(3)http://www.momadvice.com/money/line_drying_clothing.aspx