Mama's Emporium Is Doing a BIG Giveaway!

Mama's Emporium is about to hit 1500 fans on facebook! Check out her facebook page here! The owner of Mama's Emporium is a WAHM who works very hard to get her customers the best products for the best price. She also provides customer service that I, as a customer, would say goes above and beyond!

 

To celebrate this huge milestone, Mama's Emporium is doing a huge giveaway! The giveaway ends Sunday, January 27th at 8pm MST and is AWESOME if you ask me! There are 10 prizes up for grabs in this giveaway! The prizes are:
One of Five (5) Packages of GroVia Organic Cotton Terry Cloth Wipes (12 ct) OR

One of Five (5) bottles of CJ's Carcass Cleaner Wipe Solution!

 

Like Mama's Emporium on Facebook and let her know that Anna from Cloth Diapering, A Hobby sent you!

 

Enter to Win this Giveaway Here!



 

While you are on facebook entering giveaways and liking Mama's Emporium, make sure to like Cloth Diapering, A Hobby on facebook!

Myths and Misconceptions: Babies With Sensitive Skin..

I've decided to do a series of blogs all about common myths and misconceptions about cloth diapering! If you have any ideas feel free to comment here, share on my twitter, or post to my facebook page any myths or misconceptions you have heard, especially ones that really drive you nutso!

 

Myth/Misconception #1

 

Today we are going to talk about one of my least favorite myths about cloth diapering. It's my least favorite because it's just so not true and not only does it discourage people from cloth diapering but it discourages people from cloth diapering who would probably benefit the most from doing it!

 

Cloth Diapering Will Irritate Babies Who Have Sensitive Skin and Will Cause Rash

 

One of the reasons we started cloth diapering and cloth wiping were because my little one has VERY sensitive skin. Every diaper gave him a rash, some more so than others, and wipes especially did it. Every kind of wipes besides pampers sensitive gave him a terrible rash. Yes money was another huge issue but the skin was the biggest reason. I couldn't stand seeing my little one's tush all raw! In all my research I've found a lot of great stories about moms switching to cloth and it helping clear up their rash problems. But recently I've heard a lot of moms tell me on the Internet and in person "My child's skin is too sensitive for cloth diapers, they cause rashes!" This is simply not true.

 

Stay Wet? Not if You Use Something Stay-Dry!

 

One reason people give for them causing more rash is that they stay wet. This also is not true. Yes if you are using prefolds or flats, baby will feel wetter sooner. But you don't have to have a prefold/flat up next to baby's bum! While prefolds still worked for my son we noticed he did still have a little bit of a rash when using them from feeling the wetness, so we switched to pockets. I LOVE pockets, especially rumparooz, because they have a stay-dry layer that sits next to baby and takes all the wetness away, drawing it into the absorbent material inside! You can stuff pockets with prefolds, flour sack towels, flats, or inserts. Whatever works, plus you can customize your absorbency. You can also buy stay dry prefolds. OsoCozy staydry prefolds are my favorite prefolds, and they give us a great fit too. So baby doesn't have to be wet and feel wet!

 

Timely Changes Changes Things!

 

Another thing that can help with the wetness issue is if you change baby often enough. I won't lie, you will probably need to change your baby more than if you were using disposables. But it's so worth it. The natural fibers are so much more gentle on your baby's skin than the scratchy rough paper of disposables! Just try wrapping one disposable around one knee and one cloth around your other knee. You will be able to see quickly just which one is more comfortable. As long as you change your baby often enough, baby won't be irritated by urine. It is suggested you change a cloth diaper baby anywhere between ever 2-3 hours or more if you have a light wetter and/or a very absorbent diaper.

 

Chemical Stay-Dry is Not the Same, so Irritating!

 

Last but not least, disposables tend to dry babies out. Why is this? Because there is gel inside the paper lining that is made to absorb the wetness, soaking it up. That is why a disposable diaper swells when wet. And that's why if you accidentally run one through the washer, you find beads of gel all over everywhere. Not only can the chemicals irritate baby's sensitive skin, but the gel won't discriminate against urine and skin moister, it draws it all out and absorbs it all. This is very drying to baby's bum and it causes rash and irritation.

Does That Mean Your Baby Will Never Get A Rash?

Not always. My son has had a few rashes since starting. One was due to ammonia buildup which we have since solved, and the others have all been due to being sick and/or teething. We find if you use LuSa Organics Booty Balm with a disposable liner (I like EcoSprout), both of which you can buy here at Mama's Emporium, things clear up pretty quickly, even the nastiest of teething rashes! Using an Amber Teething Necklace we got at Mama's Emporium as well has also helped tons with how much the little one drools while teething and makes things much easier on him and me! If you don't want to mess with liners, I suggest CJ's BUTTer which you can also buy at Mama's Emporium. CJ's can also be used as a nipple cream for nursing moms, for dry skin, eczema, and even as a preventative at every diaper change, every day, or just after the bath to keep baby protected.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is I encourage all mama's with children who have sensitive skin to at least try cloth. Don't just try prefolds either, try pockets, AIOs, AI2s, and other kinds. Maybe try more natural fibers like bamboo and hemp. Experiment till you find something that will work for your baby. I'm sure if you play around, change baby plenty, and use creams as needed, maybe even use CJ's as a preventative every so often, and you and baby's skin will all be much happier!

A Post All About Wipe Solution!

So have you decided to cloth diaper yet? Have you decided to cloth wipe? The reasons to use cloth wipes are much the same as the reasons to use cloth diapers, saving money, convenience of not having to do both, saving the environment, they're cute, and sensitive skin. This may sound like a review from my cloth wipes post but bear with me! Or skip to the recipes, either way is fine with me! 

 

If you've decided to use cloth wipes, you may be wondering...

 

You may be wondering what solution to use for your cloth wipes! So I figured I'd post some recipes and recommendations! Enjoy and please leave comments with what you use, have tried that didn't work, have tried that did work, what you want to try, etc.

 

Water, water, water

 

A lot of people who cloth diaper and use cloth wipes use...ready for the big magical solution? WATER! That's right, plain old water. Some people use warm water from the tap. Some put filtered water or bottled water into a peri bottle. Some people boil water then cool it and use that. Whatever. The point is you can just wet your cloth wipes or baby's butt and wipe. Do I do it? No. I prefer a bit of soap of some sort in my solution.

 

Booty Bits

 

Soap bits, booty bits, and wipe boots are all names for these cool little cubes of premade wipe solution in a glycerin base that you dissolve into warm water, making solution! They are great because it's premade, you don't have to collect supplies, measure, and make the solution, all you have to do is drop a cube into some hot water and stir! This is what I use almost exclusively. 

 

Recipes for clean tushes!

 

Most cloth wipe solutions have a few things in common. Of course they all have water in them. They also usually have some sort of soap and some sort of oil. Some may even have essential oils in it as well. The essential oils are usually for the smell but some have antibacterial/germ fighting properties. The soap is obviously to clean, and the oil is to help keep the baby soft and moisturized. It also helps to "carry" the solution, meaning give it a smoother delivery. Here are some recipes I have found online that sound like they would work well. I have no experiences with these so you will have to try them for yourself!

The great part about all of this is you can experiment and find something that works great for you! You can design your own, adjust amounts of ingredients, use different essential oils, play with combinations, use scented baby oil or different scents of

soap and/or shampoo, different teas, etc. Try a few and play around, see what you come up with and leave a comment telling me about it! You might try adding aloe, witch hazel, or other soothing ingredients. Tea Tree oil and vinegar are both renowned for their antibacterial properties but vinegar should not be used if baby has a rash or is raw, because it will burn and cause discomfort. I honestly don't feel comfortable using vinegar on my baby's bum so I have tried not to include any of the recipes I found online that have vinegar in the ingredients, but vinegar can be a powerful ally in defeating and preventing thrush/yeast so it may be worth adding just a tiny bit to your solution occasionally. 

 

The Most Basic Solution
 1/4 cup baby oil

1/4 cup baby wash (any kind!)

1 cup warm water

 

A Soothing Solution 

1 chamomile tea bag

1 Tsp honey

1 cup water

Boil the water, brew the tea in it, add honey, use as solution. Should sooth a raw read bottom.

 

Soothing Lavender 

1 chamomile tea bag
1 Tsp oil
1 Tsp baby bath or shampoo
1 drop lavender oil
1 cup hot water
Brew tea bag in boiling water, add ingredients. If it were me I would put in a couple more drops of lavender but it can be adjusted depending on how strongly you want it to smell.

 

Lavender Tea Tree Solution 

 1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbs baby shampoo
8 drops tea tree oil
16  drops lavender oil
3 cups water
Don't forget you can adjust how much of each essential oil you put in depending on how strong you want them. For instance if you aren't fond of tea tree oil try cutting that in half. If you want it not to smell as much, cut both in half, etc. Play with it and find what you like best!

 

Dry Skin Solution

1 Tbs Baby Oil (try scented baby oil!)

1 Tbs baby soap of your choosing

1 Tbs baby lotion

1 cup water

 

Good luck! Let me know what you find that works!

GroVia Diapers: A Review!

I started out cloth diapering with simple prefolds, one snappi, and econobum covers. Since the beginning of my cloth diapering journey I have constantly been trying new things out. I know when I first started I had no clue what to get or where to start, what was good, etc. I will say what is good for one person is not what is good for everyone, you have to find your own groove and what works for you. The same goes for different babies. What works for one of your children may or may not work for the next, so I am a firm believer in experimenting and trying a little of everything, then when you have your next baby (if you have another baby) you will already have one or two of everything you tried before to try on them. For instance I didn't think that what worked for others may not work well for us. I got a BUNCH of sunbaby diapers (china cheapy) They worked alright, but as I tried more (Alva, JCTrade, OsoCozy, etc) I realized that while they worked OK, they were not what was best for my son. So I sold all except a few that I keep on hand for laundry day and my future children, then I invested in other things that work better for him.

 

GroVia

 

GroVia is a cloth diapering company that makes a wide range of products. I love their wipes and the mighty bubbles laundry aid for stripping so I thought, why not try their diapes? I recently got a GroVia diaper and snap in insert (AI2) from Mama's Emporium. When I first tried it out, I will admit, I HATED it. It has a mesh inner and is water proof, then there are snaps you snap the insert into. The insert is kind of small and funny shaped, and because I have a boy who is a heavy wetter, I wasn't loving it! I tried it a few more times and hated it more and more with each turn! Then I won a GroVia Organic Cotton Booster from a Mama's Emporium raffle. I thought "Great, something for the stupid Grovia that doesn't work!" My husband urged me to prep them and try just in case, since I got it for free from the raffle, it might make me love my GroVia or it may make no difference and then there was no harm done! Well I tried it and LOVED it! My son had a massive poopy right after I put it on him and the booster contained the poop and he wasn't soaked like previous times! There wasn't even a slight leak. I was over the moon! I tried it another time and, like I've mentioned before, he is a heavy wetter, we still had no problems. We won a two pack and have only used the one.

 

Final Verdict/Bottom Line?

 

Final verdict is I love GroVia, but only with the organic cotton booster. I have heard they work better for girls but I have no complaints once I used the booster. You can buy them online at Mama's Emporium. Try them with the Organic Cotton Booster or not, but if they don't work for you alone, try them with, it may just work better than you thought it would! 

All About Accessories: Cloth Wipes

Well the time has come for us to discuss cloth wipes! Cloth wipes are very versatile, they can be used with cloth diapers or disposable diapers. They can be used as wash cloths, cleaning rags, whatever. I have tried many many types of wipes since we started using cloth wipes.

Why Cloth Wipes?

I use cloth wipes because when my son was only a few weeks old we ran out of the sensitive wipes the hospital sent us home with. I had bought the same wipes I've used since birth for my oldest son, Huggies cucumber scented  ones. Love them for my son, they smell great and do the job well, but my little baby got a horrible rash! I switched back to sensitive and all was well. We were cloth diapering and I was having to put the wipes in a separate bag and take them outside no matter what time of day or night, no matter what weather, because it was that or stick them in the kitchen trash can! (no thanks!) So I switched to cloth wipes for two reasons. 1. Because it was better for my son's skin. This is the big one. I had to find something that would keep my son clean and not hurt his skin. Could I have bought sensitive wipes? Yes I could've. That brings us to my second reason. 2. It was easier. Seriously, it was way more convenient than buying regular disposable sensitive wipes. I would much rather wipe with a cloth wipe, toss it in the diaper and spray it off with the diaper then put it in the wet bag with the diaper and wash it with the diaper than separate the stuff into disposable and reusable, bag up the disposable wipes, spray the diaper and put it in the wet bag, then go back and put the bag of dirty wipes in the outside trash. No thanks, too much work, too many steps! I like to keep things simple. I also have one other big reason. 3. It saves money. Sure it cost me money to buy the wipes but you know what? Totally worth it! I was spending $22 a month on wipes. I now don't buy wipes, if I do it's the occasional $2 package. That's $22 more a month in my pocket. Sure it doesn't seem like too much but when you are struggling, it's a lot! That is $11 more towards Christmas presents, towards groceries, towards clothes and shoes for your children, towards eating lunch out or whatever you want it to go towards! That is your money, why are you wiping poop with it and throwing it away?

How's it work?

Well it can work any way you want it to! Like most things cloth diaper related it's all about what works for you and your family! It's all about experimenting and finding what works best for you. A lot of people keep pre moistened cloth wipes in a wipe warmer. Some keep premoistened cloth wipes in an old plastic disposable wipe container or a huge zip lock bag. Some people keep them dry and just get them wet with water. Some premake solution from scratch and keep it in a spray bottle or peri bottle and squeeze it on the bum or wipe then use the wipe. Some people use booty bits, soapy bits of wipe solution you dissolve in water and moisten the wipes that way, either ahead of time or when it comes time to clean the mess!

What Solution to use?

It is all about what you prefer! There are tons of different recipes for homemade solution. It seems they mostly contain a little bit of soap, a little bit of oil (olive, baby, coconut, etc) warm water, and/or essential oils (tea tree, peppermint, lavender, etc) Some people just use plain water, and others yet use booty bits. I can't speak to the other two because I've never experimented with either way of doing things, but I use booty bits. Booty Bits can be called soap bits, wipe bits, etc. Basically they are tiny tiny cubes of soap that you dissolve in warm water. I prefer Crow Mountain Craft's booty bits and it has worked so well it's all I use. A little goes a long way. Suggested use is to dissolve 2 cubes into 2 cups of hot water or 1 cube into 1 cup water. I have cut the cubes in half before (but I don't anymore because it's very time consuming and difficult as they are already small to begin with!) and dissolved 1/2 a cube in 1 cup water and it's worked just fine! I love them because the smells are better than anything I'd ever be able to get when making my own, a little goes a long way, and honestly it's easier. See I'm not a stay at home mom, I work. I also have two kids, a dog, a husband, and a house to care for. I teach my son's preschool co-op once a month and have other various church, social, family, and friend responsibilities, plus I have to sleep sometime! So I go for what is easy and works. These booty bits are easy and work! My favorites are Pink Sugar and Leather and Lace. I keep mine in a peri bottle or other squeeze bottle and squeeze some onto the wipe then wipe the tuchas. Super easy!

What wipes to use?

Cloth wipes can be a little overwhelming. Do you want terry, flannel, bamboo, micro fleece, what? I simply started with baby washcloths. You know those small thin ones you can get cheap at walmart? Those are the ones! I bought two packs of 5 for $.98 a piece. I thought it was brilliant and while they did work they didn't absorb the solution like I felt they should. But they will do in a bind and I haven't gotten rid of all of them now that I've moved on to bigger and better things. Next I tried sewing squares of flannel together. I had heard that if you cut up receiving blankets and sewed the squares together they made great wipes. Having never sewed I went ahead and did it. It was super easy and they did work, but not as well as I liked. I had my eye on some cloth wipes that were part flannel and part terry cloth but I didn't want to splurge. Lucky me, Super Green Label started making those types of wipes and they were much more affordable than the ones I had been looking at. Everywhere else I was finding them for about $2 a wipe which seemed so unreasonable to me, but SGL had them for just $1 a piece! That was more reasonable and I was able to swing some. BEST. IDEA. EVER. I have never regretted my purchases from SGL, and the wipes were no exception! One side is flannel and the other terry. They work as wash cloths and baby wipes and we use them as both. They are very absorbent and where I was going through 3-5 wipes a change with the baby wash cloths and homemade wipes, I was using 1-2 for even the messiest diapers! Plus they are way cute!

These are my actual Super Green Label wipes! Very well constructed, cute, and affordable! They work great and are my absolute favorite wipes!
I have also come across GroVia wipes. I found them at Mama's Emporium. I heard they were good so I got some to try. These wipes are Organic Cotton Terry Cloth Wipes and let me tell you, they are soft! I especially love them for pee diapers but they are very absorbent! I thought they would be about the same as the infant wash cloths but I was very pleasantly surprised. So now I reach for SGL wipes first, Grovia wipes second, and the homemade/baby wash cloths last.

I Recommend

Super Green Label 2 sided wipes found here.
GroVia Organic Cotton Cloth Wipes found here.

Bottom Line

Bottom line is you have to play around and see what is right for you but I highly suggest Super Green Label  and Mama's Emporium for wipes. Try a few different wipes and solutions and see what works for you! I recommend storing wipes dry and wetting them with solution right before you use them, and I suggest Crow Mountain Craft's Booty Bits for the solution.