Poop: 18-24 months, Joys of a Diaper Sprayer and Fuzzi Bunz

Poop. It happens.

Yes, I've been elbow deep in baby poop now for 18 months. Technically I also pick up dog poop everyday as well, just for the record. Most recently the baby poop has started to change enough (READ: sticking to diaper) to begin to disgust me and think of new strategies...

1) a diaper sprayer for the toilet ??
2) researching the dreaded potty training ??
3) disposables? (HA HA, as if)

I choose the sprayer as I don't think Owen is quite ready to potty train yet, but we will be laying a foundation soon. Heck, he's already obsessed with talking about pooping if you even LOOK at the bathroom or step near it... exhibit A:

(upon stepping into the bathroom yesterday)
"Mommy Pooping, pee pee potty?"

(while Tia Kate tried to have some privacy a couple weeks ago, foiled by the fact that Owen can open the doors in our house)
"Tia Poops? Potty? Pooping?"

(while in living room hearing Daddy peeing in the bathroom -- through a closed door)
"Daddy pee pee potty"

So, potty talk has started. Here it begins. More on this topic later. Let's get back to #1, (no pun intended)

DIAPER SPRAYER: every cloth diapering parent needs one!

So this thing rocks. I got mine at Fuzzi Bunz Store.com. It's the one approved by Fuzzi Bunz, with microban (whatever that is) It basically turns your toilet into a bidet. You get a hose sprayer right by the toilet (with good pressure that is adjustable) and for just $45. If you have a hose that connects from the toilet tank to your end stop valve (where you turn the water off to the toilet) that you can easily disconnect, installing this puppy is a cinch. Leave me a comment if you have something else, I did and I got a $10 part at the hardware store and fixed it easily.

It was getting a little dicey trying to get the poop off the diapers at this point. We did go through the "it just pops off as a log" stage, and then by some unknown food force, the poop starting sticking to the diapers. Don't kid yourself, thrashing your cloth diaper around in the toilet water as you flush IS fairly effective, but it IS beginning to disgust you, no?? Don't fret, EVEN I considered disposables for a split second... but NOT long enough to give up my precious Fuzzi Bunz. I still love them.

Speaking of Fuzzi Bunz... did you know they have a Petite Toddler sizes? Yup! It's for those skinny little babies like Owen who have skinny thighs but are still getting taller and the size large will never fit. He's almost outgrowing his size mediums (15 months of use and going strong). I did have to purchase new inserts for my mediums recently as they were starting to smell slightly urine sented. Yuk. It only cost me $24, though.

Happy pooping.

Small Baby businesses! Save THEM

This is from an old friend from 8th grade who I got in touch with recently on Facebook. Thanks Kristen!

Her friend, Keely Shaw, the genius behind Kiddiewinkles Design and purveyor of all things hip for moms and babies, forwarded this information to me. If it burns you up as much as it burns me up, I hope you'll consider doing something about it:

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (the bit that Congress passed to make less lead allowable in toys and children's products as a reactionary measure following the China craziness last year) requires lead testing on EVERY product for children manufactured or sold in the United States. The level of ridiculousness is so high that EVERY color and type of fabric must be tested separately, and every sub-part on the items. So for a diaper it'd be the microfleece, the PUL, the snap, the tag, and the velcro as well as the inner fabric. On a wetbag, the PUL, the regular fabric, the zipper, the hanging loop, and the tag. Each test (third party) costs upwards of $100.

They're including clothes, shoes, bedding, durable goods (which are subject to a higher standard and must be certified and have the certificate and registry with them or some such crazy shit).

The small businesses and independent toy makers of the US are trying to do something, but the law is so blanket that it doesn't include any stipulations for small manufacturers or home businesses. In effect, you couldn't even sell kid stuff at your local craft fair under this law. It was a hugely reactionary measure, (though admittedly well-intentioned) and passed and put into effect before it was fully understood the ginormous consequences.

Consider that the vast majority of your diapers come from WAHMs (even Fuzzibuns, Happy Heiny's, Drybees, and bumGenius are or were at one time WAHM operations), and the fact that the beautiful wooden handmade toys we all hunt down for our kids will be no more if this is allowed to take effect as written. Not only will we lose out on all WAHM products diaper-wise, imagine what this testing will do to the cost of children's clothing at Target or Gymboree.

Of course, this all comes to a head when Congress is recessing, but you can still do something! If your Congressperson was re-elected, contact them now! If you have an incoming Congressperson, contact their local field office!

Here are some links that explain more about what will need to be tested:
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/cpsia-what-must-be-tested/
http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

ALSO, if you have a baby and use cloth diapers, you should totally buy up Keely's inventory right now:
http://www.kiddiewinklesdesigns.com/catalog/

cameron's cloth diaper manifesto

For diapering, I knew I wanted to do cloth, but two concepts were stopping me 1) hassle and 2) poop. I'll address both and soon you'll be using cloth diapers yourself.

READ THIS ARTICLE

**Okay I want to preface this post with these facts: #1) I breastfeed, so I don't really know anything about formula fed baby poop so take that into consideration. Baby poop (until they eat solids) is very watery and similar to cottage cheese, only yellow *sorry.* It does NOT smell gross, in fact, it has a sweet smell, a baby poop smell. :) In any case, at first, it just splatters everywhere and absorbs into whatever will absorb it.
#2) when my baby reaches the solid poop phase, I'll post about how that works out with cloth...because I got this toilet sprayer thing that you can hose off the diapers and solid poop but I have no idea how it works.

If you are a first time mom and haven't used cloth diapers (or changed diapers since the babysitter days) you may be thinking to yourself, eeeewwwwwwww, nasty! How do I handle poopy diapers and wash them every day? Secret: YOU don't, the washing machine does. Really, you just throw those guys in there all dirty and nasty, put it on a soak cycle (or front loaders have a pre-wash) with no detergent and voila-- the are ready for the wash with detergent. After soaking (follow your diapers directions) you add some detergent. I use Charlie's Soap it doesn't leave any residue and cleans everything. Another secret, make diaper duty a habit. When I put the baby down to bed for the night, I just gather all the dirty diapers (stored in a dry pal) and toss them in the machine. After they are washed, I hang them to dry and they are ready by morning (alternatively if you don't live in the desert like me, then toss them in the dryer)

Does that sound horrible, hard and inconvenient? I didn't think so. Really, it's great AND you are not constantly buying diapers and smelling gnarly dirty ones.

I did a trial run with some different cloth diapers for the first 3 months as per a recommendation from Mom's at my baby shower. I had four systems. I'll explain each and tell you pros and cons. I chose one system in the end, Fuzzi Bunz, a pocket diaper.

1) gDiaper: love these, but at first when babies are small, the poop gets all over the liner and the diaper with frequency. I still liked them because it's less trash no matter how you shake it. If you get a whole set of these, I can see how they work awesome. I have four and we could make it at least one day. Problem with gDiapers is that their strength is that they are compostable when no poop is present. Paradoxically, you will find, though, that new babies poop A LOT. As they get older you will be able to compost more so I'd recommend these diapers as a support system for another diaper until baby is pooping solidly. Advantage: if you are camping or have a compost there is virtually no trash-- or if you can flush the pee ones. It's hard to flush new baby poop diapers because they are hard to touch since poop goes everywhere. Also they are a bit more "work" in snapping in the liner, unsnapping dirty liners, etc. If you are dedicated, you will like these, if you are looking for 100% easy solution, maybe it's not gDiapers.

2) Organic Caboose snap-able cotton diapers size newborn with Organic Caboose wool covers. I got these as a gift from my baby registry at Zen Baby in town. I found these diapers to work great if you don't mind your baby being WET and you don't want to use pre-folds. Owen didn't care about being wet, but it bothered me a bit. You have to use a cover with these. The wool Organic Caboose covers that I used worked great to keep the wetness in. Drawbacks include IT TOOK FOREVER for both the diapers and the covers to dry and I mean like ALL DAY in the AZ sun and you have to time your washing just perfectly to get the covers washed and dried with the diapers washed and dried. You only have to wash the wool covers once a week, but you also have to buy special wool wash and lanolin wool cure to keep them absorbing well. As a result of the drying issue, I found myself supplementing often with our disposable diapers. I don't think they will fit your baby long unless you have a skinny butt like Owen or a preemie. Also I couldn't fit baby, diaper and a doubler (liner to absorb more liquid) into these diapers. Maybe I just didn't have the right size, but the organic caboose super soakers didn't fit. I see on their site they have newborn size, which probably would've worked.

3) Nature Care Baby (buy at Target stores or Diapers.com) These are so called "biodegradable" disposable diapers created by some mother in Sweden. We also buy their wipes for backup (yes I use cloth wipes too). They work almost as well as the Pampers, which makes me suspicious but they are a bit kinder to the planet (not by much). Owen wears one when he goes to bed or if we are caught out without a cloth diaper. If he sleeps through the night, these will hold it all. I don't feel AS BAD throwing these away because they breakdown eventually but alas, it's still trash and I hate TRASH and landfills don't biodegrade anything as is discussed at LENGTH in this article.

We are down to one Nature Care Baby diaper per day.

4) pre-folds with cover. I tried these and didn't really like folding them all the time. I have about 6 friends who LOVE their pre-folds and use them exclusively but for now they were more hassle on the changing table then I was willing to battle 8-12 times a day. I will say, when I did use them, they worked and they are easy to clean and they dry fast and are easy to pack in a diaper bag.

5) Fuzzi-Bunz (pocket diapers) You put an absorbent soaker (foldable insert) inside the diapers and take it out for washing. I might also like an "all in one" type cloth diaper but I bet they take forever to dry. I ended up choosing to purchase a set of Fuzzi-bunz (I bought two to test run). I got a set of 10 and got the "second quality" because they were $13.99 rather than $19.99. In the future, I'll buy the first quality ones because you get a micro-terry insert in the 1st quality but not the seconds, plus a warranty. I like these diapers A LOT. They are easy to wash, easy to use, they WORK, they fit and they dry super fast. They wouldn't have fit Owen until 3 months because he had a skinny butt and legs but now he's in the tightest snap on the size small so I think these will fit awhile. Their website has tons of info regarding diapers and how to wash them, etc etc. Follow the directions because I'm told if you don't wash these properly they will stink and lose their absorbency. I have heard that bamboozle diapers are also great. I might buy two of them to check them out. I hear they take a long time to dry (huge issue if it take longer than 8 hours or 1 hour in the dryer).

Seventh Generation: work well, at least you are supporting a company who strives to do the right thing but they still have a fair amount of that plastic like absorbant substance (so do gDiapers).

Pampers: I admit on vacation for a week I used Pampers. I hated them. They stink funny with urine and give the baby a rash and you are constantly throwing them away. I couldn't WAIT to get home to my Fuzzi Bunz.

Get rid of excess catalogs

Most people probably don't know this about me, but I really hate junk mail, phone solicitations, and spam...I especially despise the *real* junk AKA catalogs you don't want that end up in a landfill or even at your local recycling facility. I'm practically CRAZED about calling the companies and getting off the lists. Just ask Matt. It's one of the reasons he loves me.

What to do? I usually call the number on the catalog and ask to be removed from the mailing list. This takes an extraordinary effort considering the number of catalogs we seem to receive. Every Tom, Dick and Sally is selling my address, apparently.

So I was reading Sunset magazine and well, low and behold, a great new website has emerged to solve this very problem. Just go to

and set yourself up to decline all your catalogs. When you get them, you can put in your customer number and let them do the rest or just simply try to decline using your address. It's really cool. You might notice the link on this blog.

American Consumerism

I hate stuff. I like to reuse things. I hate lots of trash. I love this video about The Story of Stuff. Please click here to watch a great video that explains why I live in a small town that cares about the environment.

Here are 10 things you can do.

I can say honestly that I do the following religiously... I use my own bags at the grocery store, use my own coffee mug at the coffee shop (or ask for a mug 'for here'), ask at restaurants for tin foil instead of a "to-go" box of Styrofoam (if you know me, you know I HATE Styrofoam), I use cloth diapers and biodegradable diapers, I power down my computer and unplug unnecessary devices, buy local foods, I don't shop at Wal-Mart and I recycle glass and electronics, plastics and paper. Oh and when possible I support green companies like Patagonia, ship everything GROUND instead of overnight, live in a community where I can use alternative transportation: ride my bike and walk.

Things I should do: get a compost bin and compost food (every gardener should have one), buy an outdoor laundry line, purchase used clothing, get a plug-in hybrid vehicle, have an awesome garden with my own veggies, install solar panels in my home and have a rain water collection system.

Things I do that I know are bad that I try to do less of: fly in airplanes, use my car, buy things at big box stores, ship express packages, replace electronics and vehicles.

If we all try really hard, we can change things, slowly.