Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Toddlers and poop
Life with a toddler is never dull. In fact it can be quite stressful. I used to work at a daycare were we primarily took care of toddlers and I loved the job. I thought toddlers were just "so fun!". Then I was a nanny to three girls 2, 4, and 6 and that was also "so fun!". Now I would describe toddlers as just "so stressful!". Right now my son loves poop. Now I know there are plenty of toddlers that do not like poop but I was lucky enough not to have one of those lovely children. Lately he thinks it is so funny to poop in the tub when he is getting a bath. I was doing laundry in the other room one day when I hear a splat! I come in and he is slinging handfuls of poop on to the floor. Then there was the time that I look over and my son is putting his finger in his butt and then putting it in his mouth! Or when I came in to his room one day (this was a while ago) to find that he had taken off his pants and diaper and was dancing all over his poop on his crib mattress. It took me an hour to clean that up. My son is a really sweet boy but there are some days when I just want to say "wake me when it's over".
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Rashes, and other odd things
There are always odd things that come up when cloth diapering. One is the dreaded diaper rash. Some people say that you are less likely to get diaper rash with cloth. I think that depends on why your kid is getting the rash. If you child is sensitive to the chemicals that are in paper diapers then yes, they will get less rashes with cloth. If however your child gets diaper rash from having pee against their skin (like my children) then you may get more from cloth diapers. The solution to this is fleece. You simply get some fleece (from the fabric store or an old blanket) and cut it in to diaper sized rectangles and place them in the diapers. This will keep your child's skin dry and rash free. You can wash the liners with the diapers and reuse them.
For wipes I use white wash cloths. We use white because our other wash cloths are not white so we can tell the difference. I went to Target and for $5 I got a pack of 12 wash cloths. I bought 3 of these packs. Then I just use a squirt bottle of water to get them wet and wipe the baby up with them. They can be washed with the diapers just the same way. Really why not use cloth wipes when you are cloth diapering anyways right?
Some babies are super heavy wetters at night. For them it would be a good idea to get some overnight diapers. Many different bands make them. They cost a bit more but you only need a few of them. I got 3 because I do my wash every 3 days. I got the Happy Hempy pocket diapers. Hemp is very absorbent and works well for overnights. They cost $18 but like I said, I only needed 3. There are other hemp diapers that will work too.
Cloth diapering is really not as hard as it sounds and the pay off money wise and environmentally are huge. So give it a try! If it does not work out you can sell your stash and make back at least some of your money. Some websites even have a "try it" package that will let you return all or part of the diapers and get your money back.
For wipes I use white wash cloths. We use white because our other wash cloths are not white so we can tell the difference. I went to Target and for $5 I got a pack of 12 wash cloths. I bought 3 of these packs. Then I just use a squirt bottle of water to get them wet and wipe the baby up with them. They can be washed with the diapers just the same way. Really why not use cloth wipes when you are cloth diapering anyways right?
Some babies are super heavy wetters at night. For them it would be a good idea to get some overnight diapers. Many different bands make them. They cost a bit more but you only need a few of them. I got 3 because I do my wash every 3 days. I got the Happy Hempy pocket diapers. Hemp is very absorbent and works well for overnights. They cost $18 but like I said, I only needed 3. There are other hemp diapers that will work too.
Cloth diapering is really not as hard as it sounds and the pay off money wise and environmentally are huge. So give it a try! If it does not work out you can sell your stash and make back at least some of your money. Some websites even have a "try it" package that will let you return all or part of the diapers and get your money back.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Taking Care of Your Diapers
Taking care of prefold diapers is really easy. It is one of the reasons I prefer prefolds to other types of diapers. When you get your prefolds (if they are new) they will be flat and kind of rough feeling. You need to run them through the wash three times before you use them. Just run them on hot/whites and put in a little bit of detergent. You can just wash them three times back to back, you don't need to dry them in between. When that is done, dry them and they should be fluffed up nicely and ready for use. You do not need to wash your covers before using them.
Next you will need a diaper pail to put the diapers in. Any kind will do, it is up to you. You do not need to put water or bleach in the pail. In fact you should never soak your diapers in bleach unless you want them to last for all of two weeks and then fall apart on you. I just put a plastic bag in my pail but if you want you can get what is called a "wet bag". This is a water proof, washable bag, that you put diapers in and then throw in the wash with the diapers. You can get them on any web site that sells cloth diapers.
Now you need to know how to wash your diapers. There are some people that will tell you that you need to pre-soak, or pre-rinse, and then do another rinse or some such nonsense but I disagree. I think these people are making it sound way to complicated and scaring people away from cloth diapering. All you need to do is set your wash to whites, put in the detergent, and wash them on hot. That is ALL! It is really simple. I should note that I do not know if it is different for front loader washers. I have a top loader. For detergent you want to use about 1/4 of the amount of detergent you would normally use. You do need to be careful about the brand of detergent you use. I know that Tide Free and Arm N Hammer Free both work well and are easily available at most stores.
The last thing most people wonder about is poop. If your baby is not eating solids yet, you don't need to do anything. The liquid they poop can go right in to the wash and will come out just fine. If your child is eating solids then you need to make a decision. You can do poop the cheap gross way or for very little more money you can do it the easy way. The cheap gross way is to get a small bucket and when you get a poop that will not just roll off the diaper, you put the whole diaper in the bucket of water. Then when you are ready to wash, you take out the diaper to wash it and all the poop will stay in the water. Then dump the water in the toilet. The easy way is to either buy a sprayer that hooks to your toilet for about $35 and spray the poop off or to buy a roll of liners for about $6.50. I use the liners. You get a roll of 100 and then just tear one off and put it in the diaper. When your kid poops, you just take the liner and flush it down the toilet. They look about like dryer liners.
Your covers can be washed with the diapers. You can put them in the dryer but they will last longer if you pull them out after washing and just let them air dry. If you go with Velcro diapers, don't forget to use your laundry tabs. These are the little squares of Velcro next to the tabs. You just fold the tab down on the square and then you won't have chains of diaper covers in your wash. Next time I will talk about overnights, diaper rash, cloth wipes and other odd items.
Next you will need a diaper pail to put the diapers in. Any kind will do, it is up to you. You do not need to put water or bleach in the pail. In fact you should never soak your diapers in bleach unless you want them to last for all of two weeks and then fall apart on you. I just put a plastic bag in my pail but if you want you can get what is called a "wet bag". This is a water proof, washable bag, that you put diapers in and then throw in the wash with the diapers. You can get them on any web site that sells cloth diapers.
Now you need to know how to wash your diapers. There are some people that will tell you that you need to pre-soak, or pre-rinse, and then do another rinse or some such nonsense but I disagree. I think these people are making it sound way to complicated and scaring people away from cloth diapering. All you need to do is set your wash to whites, put in the detergent, and wash them on hot. That is ALL! It is really simple. I should note that I do not know if it is different for front loader washers. I have a top loader. For detergent you want to use about 1/4 of the amount of detergent you would normally use. You do need to be careful about the brand of detergent you use. I know that Tide Free and Arm N Hammer Free both work well and are easily available at most stores.
The last thing most people wonder about is poop. If your baby is not eating solids yet, you don't need to do anything. The liquid they poop can go right in to the wash and will come out just fine. If your child is eating solids then you need to make a decision. You can do poop the cheap gross way or for very little more money you can do it the easy way. The cheap gross way is to get a small bucket and when you get a poop that will not just roll off the diaper, you put the whole diaper in the bucket of water. Then when you are ready to wash, you take out the diaper to wash it and all the poop will stay in the water. Then dump the water in the toilet. The easy way is to either buy a sprayer that hooks to your toilet for about $35 and spray the poop off or to buy a roll of liners for about $6.50. I use the liners. You get a roll of 100 and then just tear one off and put it in the diaper. When your kid poops, you just take the liner and flush it down the toilet. They look about like dryer liners.
Your covers can be washed with the diapers. You can put them in the dryer but they will last longer if you pull them out after washing and just let them air dry. If you go with Velcro diapers, don't forget to use your laundry tabs. These are the little squares of Velcro next to the tabs. You just fold the tab down on the square and then you won't have chains of diaper covers in your wash. Next time I will talk about overnights, diaper rash, cloth wipes and other odd items.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Cloth Diapering on the Cheap: Amassing your Stash
Cloth diapering has long been seen as a good way to save money as compared with paper diapers. I will not debate whether or not it is more environmentally friendly then paper (although the WHO has declared cloth the winner due to the ability to wash and reuse on multiple children) but it is almost always cheaper. But how much cheaper is up to you. I started cloth diapering my son when he was born with the idea of being as cheap as possible. Cloth diapers come in many different brands and types, it can be very overwhelming to a newcomer to decided what to get. I will go over the CHEAPEST (in my opinion) way to cloth diaper.
First you start with what diapers to buy. There are three types of cloth diapers: Prefolds with covers, pockets with inserts, and all in ones. Prefolds are the cheapest to buy, last the longest, and are the easiest to wash. These are what I went with. You simply need to buy a bunch of prefold diapers and wash them three times to get them nice and fluffy and they are ready for use. Prefolds come in Indian and Chinese, bleached and un-bleached. There is no great difference in price or quality, you can get whatever type you want. DO NOT buy Gerber prefolds. These are not meant to be used as real diapers no matter what it says on the package. You can buy prefolds used as well. A good website to help you with this is diaperswapers.com. It is sort of like Crag's list for diapers. How many should you buy? That depends on how often you want to wash. I have three dozen small sized and that is about three days worth of diapers. As for sizes, that is also up to you. I did not bother with the new born sized diapers. My new born fit in to the regular ones with only a few poop blow outs until he was 8 lbs. Then we had no more blow outs unless he was put in to paper diapers.
Next you need to decide what covers to get. This is entirely personal preference. You can buy used covers but be careful not to get them too used. They ware out much faster then the prefolds themselves. Many people choose to get a verity of covers and then decide what their favorites are and buy more of those. I personally love the Bumies Whisper Wrap covers. I love Velcro for middle of the night changes (I can't handle snaps when I am tired) and love the cute pictures on the covers. Some people really love snaps though, it is up to you. I also have some Thirstys that are good too but they are not as cute. Six covers was enough for me to get though three days before I needed to wash. I have small covers (8 lbs - 15 lbs) and medium covers (15 lbs - 30 lbs). My son is almost two and we have not needed to buy the large size even though he is over 30 lbs now. I do not use pins or Snappies but if you prefer, Snappies are the way to go. They are pretty cheap and really easy to use. Just look them up on YouTube for instructions.
If you want a nice all in one package that has everything you need until your baby goes over 15 lbs I would recommend the Bumies Cotton Diaper Kit. You can find it on Amazon or through Thanksmama.com This kit has three dozen diapers, six covers, and a roll of liners for about $150. This is enough to go for about three days before washing. They also have a 15-30 lb kit as well. And no, they are not paying me (although I wish they were!) Next time I will go over the cheapest way to take care of them.
First you start with what diapers to buy. There are three types of cloth diapers: Prefolds with covers, pockets with inserts, and all in ones. Prefolds are the cheapest to buy, last the longest, and are the easiest to wash. These are what I went with. You simply need to buy a bunch of prefold diapers and wash them three times to get them nice and fluffy and they are ready for use. Prefolds come in Indian and Chinese, bleached and un-bleached. There is no great difference in price or quality, you can get whatever type you want. DO NOT buy Gerber prefolds. These are not meant to be used as real diapers no matter what it says on the package. You can buy prefolds used as well. A good website to help you with this is diaperswapers.com. It is sort of like Crag's list for diapers. How many should you buy? That depends on how often you want to wash. I have three dozen small sized and that is about three days worth of diapers. As for sizes, that is also up to you. I did not bother with the new born sized diapers. My new born fit in to the regular ones with only a few poop blow outs until he was 8 lbs. Then we had no more blow outs unless he was put in to paper diapers.
Next you need to decide what covers to get. This is entirely personal preference. You can buy used covers but be careful not to get them too used. They ware out much faster then the prefolds themselves. Many people choose to get a verity of covers and then decide what their favorites are and buy more of those. I personally love the Bumies Whisper Wrap covers. I love Velcro for middle of the night changes (I can't handle snaps when I am tired) and love the cute pictures on the covers. Some people really love snaps though, it is up to you. I also have some Thirstys that are good too but they are not as cute. Six covers was enough for me to get though three days before I needed to wash. I have small covers (8 lbs - 15 lbs) and medium covers (15 lbs - 30 lbs). My son is almost two and we have not needed to buy the large size even though he is over 30 lbs now. I do not use pins or Snappies but if you prefer, Snappies are the way to go. They are pretty cheap and really easy to use. Just look them up on YouTube for instructions.
If you want a nice all in one package that has everything you need until your baby goes over 15 lbs I would recommend the Bumies Cotton Diaper Kit. You can find it on Amazon or through Thanksmama.com This kit has three dozen diapers, six covers, and a roll of liners for about $150. This is enough to go for about three days before washing. They also have a 15-30 lb kit as well. And no, they are not paying me (although I wish they were!) Next time I will go over the cheapest way to take care of them.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Amara Mae is here!
Our daughter was born at home March 13th 2010! She came at 8:59 pm (PST) after just 8 hours of labor and 18 minutes of pushing. Thanks to Hypnobabies and my wonderful midwife, the labor was calm and went very smoothly. Amara is doing super and I am feeling pretty good myself. Now we are just adjusting to life with two kids and trying to get sleep whenever possible. I am so glad not to be pregnant anymore and that I will not be getting pregnant ever again (hubby is fixed).
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Boy pee-pee
So how come no one told me that when you are potty training a boy, one of the biggest issues is finding boy friendly potties and getting them to not pee on the back of their undies when they sit on the potty! When I started out potty training my son, I had no idea that (little) potties are not unisex. There really are boy potties and girl potties. Do they mark this on the packaging? Do they give you any clue whatsoever? NO. I had to go through three potties before I found one that works to keep the pee from spraying over the edge every time.
First I should state that I have no idea if my son is normal. He can not only pee about 4 feet but also pees almost horizontal. He has easily peed over 3 inch pee guards. He hates when I touch his penis while he is peeing so I get one chance to aim it and that is it. He will not do it himself. He also loves to watch himself pee so he angles his hips upwards making it even harder to keep the pee going down. This has led to many embarrassing times at friends houses. "Oh I am so sorry but my son peed on your shower curtain!" This does not make people want to invite you back to their houses. It is also embarrassing having to change my son's pants when he DID go pee on the potty but managed to get most of it on the back of his pants.
I did finally find a potty at the Dollar Store that has a very high back. My son straddles the chair backwards and that solves the peeing over the top problem when we are at home at least. When we go out I keep a wash cloth handy for catching the stream before it hits his pants.
First I should state that I have no idea if my son is normal. He can not only pee about 4 feet but also pees almost horizontal. He has easily peed over 3 inch pee guards. He hates when I touch his penis while he is peeing so I get one chance to aim it and that is it. He will not do it himself. He also loves to watch himself pee so he angles his hips upwards making it even harder to keep the pee going down. This has led to many embarrassing times at friends houses. "Oh I am so sorry but my son peed on your shower curtain!" This does not make people want to invite you back to their houses. It is also embarrassing having to change my son's pants when he DID go pee on the potty but managed to get most of it on the back of his pants.
I did finally find a potty at the Dollar Store that has a very high back. My son straddles the chair backwards and that solves the peeing over the top problem when we are at home at least. When we go out I keep a wash cloth handy for catching the stream before it hits his pants.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Baby Sprinkles
I am planning my own sprinkle for our baby girl. Sprinkles (I am told) are what you throw when you are having your second child. I hope that it is not too tacky to throw my own. I figure that because I have not registered anywhere and have put in the invites not to bring gifts that it is ok. I felt so proud of myself because I sent out e-vites without messing it up and everyone received them. It sounds silly but I am always afraid of messing things like that up the first time I do things. I am very impressed with how many of my invitees responded the day I sent them out. So much faster then sending invites in the mail. With my son's baby shower, my sister in law insisted that she throw the shower. She is normally a very organized person, and I really trusted that she would do a great job, but she really dropped the ball with my shower. First of all, no one received the invites until a week before the shower and some people did not receive them at all. Then for the shower, there was no games or entertainment just cake and ice cream. It turned out that her whole family had had a very bad flu the week before and she just could not get things together. I wish she would have just told me. I would have been happy to help. It did work out and turned out to be a good party but some of my friends and family were hurt that they did not get an invite. So this time I am going to take care of it myself. My friend has offered to bake us a cake (and she always does a great job) and I have found some games online that look like fun. The only theme will be girl. I am really looking forward to it.
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