SortaCrunchy

Swag for YOU! A Haute Green Cloth Diaper Giveaway!

Winner is #174 - Kate of Sustainably Kate! CONGRATS!

As I mentioned before I traveled to San Diego for BlogHer, I was invited to attend the Haute Green party hosted by TheEcoChic, KellyWels, KimRosas, KatiesPickles, ClothDiaperGeek, and HauteMommyBlog. I walked over to the Dragon's Den after a day at Pathfinder and then working out registration issues, so I was thankful for some time to visit with women who share my passion for natural living.

It was such a treat to meet not only that list of incredible hostesses, but also Andrea of The Greenbacks Gal, Jill of Baby Rabies, and Jamie of Grumbles and Grunts, and I am sure there are others that I am leaving out! One of my Blogging Rock Star moments was finally meeting Annie of PhDinParenting - a woman I've read and admired for years. She was so gracious and kind and it was just awesome.

This was the party where I first met Morgan and Desiree, and in fact, I just saw this morning that if you click on Desiree's pictorial post of her BlogHer trip, you'll see Morgan and I at the Haute Green party in the second picture. (Morgan is the beautiful lady on the left. I am the one looking bewildered? confused? I don't know. It had been quite the day already by this point.)

So, the sponsors of Haute Green went all out in fixing up amazing goody bags for the Haute Green attendees. I'll be keeping some of this stash of goodness, but some of it is headed to the home of a SortaCrunchy reader. Maybe you? Read on!

First, here is what I'll be keeping:

canvas bag from Conserving Now
Skoy Cloth
cloth pad from Willow Pads
Rockin' Green detergent
Eco Nuts Soap
box of 3 cloth pads from Charlie Banana

NICE HAUL, right? I hope to share more with you about each of these as I have the chance to use them.

But now, on to what I brought back all the way from Sunny San Diego just for one of YOU! Behold, the diaper swag (minus a sweet little diaper from Go Green Diapers. I gave that one to Nicole, remember?):

So, back row:

Green Charlie Banana one-size diaper
Tealish green bitti tutto one-size-fits-most fitted diaper

Front row:

White BabyKicks one-size pocket diaper
Three sample containers CJ's BUTTer from Modern Cloth Diapers
Sample bag of Eco Sprout Soap
Cloth diaper bag tag (pictured in detail in first picture of this post) - Leslie's Boutique
Multi-color stripe Thirsties Size 2 Duo Wrap Snap
Black Change Three Things advocacy bracelet

Wheeeeeee! Fun, right?

So maybe you've been thinking of trying cloth diapers. Add a wet bag and you've got a great little starter kit here! Or maybe you are a cloth diaper hobbyist/addict and you are always looking to add to The Stash. (No shame! I'm only in recovery because everyone here has learned the potty!) Or maybe you have a sister/daughter/BFF/casual acquaintance who enjoys the cloth diapering and you want to gift her with a fun fluffy package - go on and enter!

The ONLY thing you have to do to enter is say something - ANYTHING - related to cloth diapering in the comments. That's it! Easy-peasy.

BONUS ENTRIES (MUST LEAVE ONE COMMENT PER BONUS ENTRY OR IT WON'T BE COUNTED I AM NOT KIDDING ABOUT THIS):

* Tweet about this giveaway. Make sure to mention @SortaCrunchy in your tweet.

* Link to this giveaway from your Facebook page OR just click the Facebook "like" button at the end of this post.

* Visit one of the contributors to the Haute Green swag bag and tell about a product there that piques your interest.

Giveaway will close Sunday, August 21st. Winner will be announced in this post.

uniting with the like-minded

Aliza Joy now: Almost 4 Aliza Joy then: six months old and sporting Becca Bottoms AIO. Look at her face. Is that not classic AJ?

Five years ago, I was a new blogger. I had a precious toddler and an addiction to all things cloth diapering. The first series I ever ran here at SortaCrunchy was on cloth diapering - the ins and outs of it, all our favorite brands, troubleshooting, the whole thing. I was a true cloth diaper hobbyist back then - I was active on message boards, I stalked Hyena Carts, I was a tester for bumGenius 1.0, y'all! I was in the thick of it!

Talking Cloth Diapers - Simple and Sorta

Well.  You all know I can talk about cloth diapering endlessly.  Talking about cloth diapers was actually one of the motivations for starting SortaCrunchy almost five years ago.

In a serendipitously lovely moment, I was scheduled to have articles published at both SImple Organic and Simple Mom this week.  Because Tsh is running a second mini-series on cloth diapering at Simple Mom (her first incredible series ran last year), she asked if I would write something related to cloth diapering.  I took the momentum and ran with it and spilled the discussion over to Simple Organic.

There is tons of great feedback in the comments of both posts, so I invite you to come join us at

• Cloth Diapering: It Doesn't Have to be All-Or-Nothing (aka how to "sorta" cloth diaper!) at Simple Organic
• Exploring 5 Stereotypes of the Cloth Diapering Family at Simple Mom

Pictured above is AJ rockin her cardinal and straw at five months.

 

Cynthia Rowley has got nothing on cute (at least where diapers are concerned)

Hip. Trendy. Stylish.

These are three words I can promise you that would never be used to describe me.  I subscribe to three magazines : Time, Mothering, and Hobby Farm Home.  If you wanna discuss planting fall squash, natural cures for colic, or the latest Joel Stein column, I can probably hold my own.  If you wanna talk about the latest trends and newest styles, I will probably respond with a polite smiles and head nods that clearly signal my utter ignorance on the topic.

(I seriously didn't know who/what Paul Frank was until that whole Twitter thing happened.)

Thankfully, I can count on friends to keep me sorta in the loop.  For example, this week Gretchen at Lifenut mentioned that Cynthia Rowley will be designing diapers for Pampers.  I suppose that this is their attempt to one-up Huggies and their denim diaper release.  Gretchen noted that she isn't going to shell out more money for "paper madras," and I can't say that I blame her.  They might be cute, but they are destined to become landfill filler.  Cute landfill filler, but it's trash all the same.

Ditch the Disposables Challenge 2009!

Amy of Crunchy Domestic Goddess is rockin' some highly perceptive crunchy ESP lately. 

Last week, I realized we were starting to run low on the Disney Princess (blech) (no, wait.  not blech to The Princesses themselves.  Licensed character stuff, however, offends my children's clothing aesthetic) bag o' Pull-Ups (gag). 

Aliza the Joy is pretty much 100% day-trained now, but for obvious reasons I don't know how much to trust her out of the house in the Big Girl Panties.  So we've been doing the Pull-Ups for errand running and church nursery and at night.  AJ likes The Princesses, but she does not like the Pull-Ups as they seem to be quite itchy.  And scratchy.  Although I have a fully-stocked stash of cloth diapers, I don't have anything in the way of trainers as Dacey learned the potty at nearly three over the course of one weekend. 

So I've been thinking about getting some cloth trainers for her.  I've been shopping around and comparing prices and styles and colors and materials and I got a little overwhelmed and moved it down a notch or two on the ol' To Do. 

Amy's challenge, you see, came along at just the right time to move me from the thinkin' about it stage to the let's do this stage.  (The nearly empty bag of Princess pee-catchers has provided a little extra motivation as well.)  And remember a few weeks ago when I was questioning what direction to take with SortaCrunchy and how I had kind of lost some blogging steam?  In the comments, Robin suggested that I "Take on a new adventure: something you'd love to try, but haven't yet, and chronicle it for us."  Again, perfect timing.

So here I am, embarking on the challenge to make our home more waste-free.  But this challenge won't be just about cloth trainers.  There are several areas where we could cut out our disposable addictions.

Amy started with this list, and here is what we have and haven't done to reduce the waste generated at Casa SortaCrunchy: 

• Paper napkins to cloth napkins Done!
  
• Paper towels to cloth towels Want to do
• Tissues to handkerchiefs Sorta done
• Paper, plastic or Styrofoam plates to your kitchen plates Done!
• Disposable utensils to regular silverware Done!
  
• If you order food “to go” or have food to take home from a restaurant, bring your own container rather than accepting Styrofoam or plastic Um, not ready for this yet.
• Inexpensive plastic “Take & Toss” sippy cups to Thermos or Camelbak bottles or the Klean Kanteen We don't by Take & Toss, so done!
• Disposable water bottles to (again) reusable bottles like Thermos, Klean Kanteen or Camelbak Last year, we took the pledge and we seriously never buy bottles of water anymore, so done!
• Plastic sandwich bags or paper lunch bags to reusable containers/bags Done!
• Plastic straws to glass or stainless steel straws We don't use straws
• Swiffers (or similar products) to a broom and dustpan or mop (or use reusable cloths like cloth diapers/terry inserts in your Swiffer) Done!
• Disposable dust rags to cloth rags Done!
• Disposable diapers to cloth diapers As mentioned, need to get cloth trainers
• Disposable wipes to cloth wipes (inexpensive plain washcloths work really well) Done! (although I do keep some disposables in my bag for out of the house use)
• Disposable feminine products (tampons, pads) to reusables like DivaCup, MoonCup, Glad Rags, Luna Pads, Pretty Pads, or New Moon Pads, among others. You can even make your own pads. Sorta done - more later
• Grocery store bags to reusable bags Need to do for real
• Disposable wrapping paper or gift bags to reusable cloth gift bags Might do
• Single-use batteries to rechargeable batteries Need to do

And there is one last item on Amy's list that even she, the Goddess of Crunchy, suggest might be a little crazy and is only for the truly dedicated:

Toilet paper to cloth wipes/washcloths (for #1 or #2 too if you are really, really adventurous)

As I looked over the list, I thought about what would be both a great challenge for myself but would still be reasonable and do-able.  Here are my goals for the Ditch the Disposables Challenge 2009:

1) Banish the paper Pull-Ups and replace with cloth trainers
2) Ditch the paper towels and replace with cloth
3) Find a better, less disposable monthly solution for myself (again, more later)
4) Put a system in place so that I absolutely will use my reusable grocery bags (I have tons) and put an end to the voluminous plastic grocery bag collection
5) Do you really want to know what goal #5 is?  I mean, really, really want to know?  Come back tomorrow.  When you aren't eating.

What do you think of Amy's suggestions?  Have you tried any of these in your home?  What was a hit and what was a miss?

On Infant Toilet Training

I am absolutely thrilled to share this guest post with you today from Sean Platt (Writer Dad).  Sean is a gifted writer who shares inspiring, powerful, and profound thoughts on all things family, and today he speaks on much-discussed, often-debated topic in the parenting community - infant potty training:

“Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them.”
~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Considering the countless tons of “disposable” diapers sitting in piles under heaps beneath mountains of trash, each taking an exponent of eons to evaporate, it’s a good thing infant potty training is something that is slowly catching on again in this country.

It’s a slow creep for sure, but with every year that passes, more parents are starting to realize the multiple benefits of starting potty training early. Not just in saved dollars from unneeded diapers, but for the ease of the training and benefit to the child as well.

Getting your child to see things your way becomes exponentially harder as they grow older. Why wait? Why make it harder for yourself or your child? Why continue to change diapers day after day, year upon unnecessary year? Why continue flushing money down the toilet with the expense of diapers, when you could be flushing your child’s elimination instead?

After over four decades of moving in the opposite direction, the United States is now witnessing a growing trend to embrace the potty training principles already displayed by much of the world. Parents are learning a multiplicity of invaluable techniques that allow them to encourage their infants to eliminate inside a toilet, sink or otherwise appropriate receptacle.

Their babies may be too young to walk or talk, but they are certainly old enough to observe and respond. One of the triggers leading to the abandonment of early potty training, at least within the United States, is that it lies in direct opposition to the strategies articulated by the most famous child development expert of all time, Dr. Benjamin Spock.

Dr. Spock spoke the gospel for many American families throughout much of the last century. His final word on potty training was clear - hold off until the child had demonstrated readiness on his own. Something that doesn’t happen before the end of the first year. Early potty training, according to Dr. Spock, would only lead to eventual rebellion, digression and bed wetting. Dr. Spock’s theories are easier to question after decades of distance. 

Humans have potty trained their infants for thousands of years. For 99.9% of that time it was in a tribe’s best interest to get their child trained efficiently, a practice that has continued across most of the globe without the slightest bit of damage to worldwide psyche.

Yet infant potty training has a rich tradition and a wide body of knowledge, experience, and recorded data to articulate the best direction. Parents in over seventy-five countries, including India and China (sharing the largest proportions of world population) wholly embrace the practice of potty training their infants. Chinese babies, for example,  are most often found in split bottom pants that allow for simple squatting and easy elimination.

These countries not only believe in the practice of toilet training their infants, they believe that early potty training helps contribute to early cognition. By stoking the skill set of their children at the earliest possible age, they are adding fuel to a fire they hope to burn in perpetuity.

We never want to force our children into something they are not ready to do, and we mustn’t ever skip our steps. But our children deserve the credit. We should always assume they are able until we find out that they’re not.

Writer Dad writes about family often, and potty training sometimes. Subscribe to his feed or follow him on Twitter.

Infant potty training is also referred to as elimination communication, and it is an approach practiced by a growing number of families in the natural living community.  Intrigued?  Come back tomorrow for more potty talk.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Cloth Diapers on a Budget - Fun Contest!

I am honored to have been chosen by Lisa of the super helpful website Cloth Diapers Made Easy to serve as a judge for the Making Cloth Diapers on a Budget contest! 

If you have a helpful tutorial on how to sew your own cloth diapers that you would like to share with others, or if you just want to enter a contest to share pictures of diapers you have made, I encourage you to enter this contest.  There are some really great prizes for the winners (grand prize - $150 gift certificate to Baby Cotton Bottoms!) and what a wonderful opportunity to encourage others in the art of diaper construction.

All of the contest details can be found on the contest page.  Please note the deadline for entry is July 21, 2009. 

Lisa is such a friendly, helpful woman who has put so much time and energy into Cloth Diapers Made Easy - I am hoping there will be a great turnout for this contest!  I look forward to getting to see all of the entries.

Lisa and her husband Don are also the owners of a fantastic little shop called Chubbas 'n Boop featuring "handmade toys for creative play" - all handmade by Don!  I'm constantly drooling over their selection of natural toys.  If you are shopping for beautiful, quality handmade toys, I know you will not be disappointed with Chubbas 'n Boop. 

(pretty dyed prefolds picture by Ja-nelle)

 

SortaCrunchy Recommends: Cloth Couture fitted cloth diapers

 Via the magical, wonderful world of twitter, I was able to connect with Allison Vaughn of the brand new cloth diapering shop Cloth Couture (located at Hyena Cart).  Even though when we use cloth diapers these days I generally reach for our pockets, I have been wanting to pick up some new fitteds for the summer.  In the summer, I like to use fitteds either coverless or under wool covers because the natural fibers are so nice and breathable (unlike the polyester covers of most pocket diapers).

Allison offered to send me a diaper to review and I was all too happy to take her up on it!  After looking carefully at the diapers offered in her last stocking, I decided we needed a large rather than a medium.  It's important to remember when shopping for cloth diapers to look carefully at sizing charts as one company's medium may fit like another company's large.

Look at this little cutie I got to pick out!

  

That's a little bonus cloth wipe tucked in the package.  One of my favorite things about receiving made-by-hand diapers are that the packages generally contain thoughtful notes and sweet little extras.  I have to admit this really makes my day and makes me feel so valued as a customer.  Inside this package from Cloth Couture there was also a sample of Crunchy Clean Detergent.

Here's the diaper on its own:

You can see from the inside that this particular kind of fitted has a snap-at-the-top soaker.  This is my FAVORITE style of fitteds!  Some fitteds have sewn-in soakers which does make laundry just a smidge less complicated (no matching up soaker to diaper when they come out of the dryer or off of the diaper line), but I find that sewn-in soaker fitteds take forever to dry.  I much prefer a snap-in.

I was super impressed right away by the workmomship of this diaper.  The sewing is absolutely impeccable and the fit is spot-on.  I love that the edges of Cloth Couture fitteds are turned, not serged.  Plenty of people make great fitteds with serged edges, but I love the clean, neat look of turned under edges.

 Both of my girls have been heavy wetters, and I think as they move closer to potty learning they tend to hold it in more and let it loose all at once.  At this stage, I find a prefold with a doubler is going to soak through very quickly, the Cloth Couture fitted was barely even damp on the outside.  PERFECT for going coverless around the house in the summer!

I asked Allison a few questions about her new business and here is what she had to say:

How and when did you start making diapers?  Well I started making diapers in January, I think. I started small but it became an addicting passion. I became tied down (in a good way) to my machine.

What is your vision for your shop? I really want to introduce cloth diapering to a new parents as a trendy alternative to disposables. I would like to bat down all the negative rumors about cloth diapering and help contribute to its comeback.

Allison has been extremely helpful and accommodating to work with, and her fitteds are very, very reasonable.  As it just so happens, she stocked her shop today and has a gorgeous offering of fitteds, all-in-twos (hurry!  only one left!), and fleece soakers, and for you wool junkies out there, she even offers some hand-dyed wool!  AND she has two free-for-shipping lotteries going on, including one darling hand-made outfit for an older sibling who has already learned the potty!

Because she is so generous, Allison is offering free shipping to SortaCrunchy readers good from today (May 8th) until May 13th.  Use code freeship506 at check-out to get FREE SHIPPING on your Cloth Couture order!

Allison, thank you so much for the chance to review your lovely work.  Cloth Couture fitteds definitely work for me!

Now y'all get to shopping!  Happy diapering!

Diaper Chatter: SortaCrunchy's Cloth Diaper Picks

Sheila of Momfessions is a looooooooong time SortaCrunchy reader and just one of the sweetest mamas you'll ever meet.  She's hosting a Diaper Chatter blog carnival today, and I'm happy to play along!

In my SortaWhat? description of myself, I mention cloth diapering.  I have to confess, however, that we haven't been faithful in the cloth diapering department since last summer.  Living with my in-laws last summer kind of threw me off track (although my mother-in-law completely supported me using our cloth diapers, it soon just became too much of a hassle to try to get our system going in someone else's house), and I have never been a good winter cloth diaperer.  In fact, I've come this close to selling our stash and just accepting disposables a reality, but something has urged me to hang on to them a bit longer.  We'll give it another go once the weather warms up.

From time to time, readers will email me asking me what I recommend from the myriad of choices available in the world of cloth diapers.  I first ventured into cloth diapering when Dacey was eight months old (September 2005), and believe me, I've tried just about every diaper and every system since then.  When AJ was born, I got the chance to try out cloth from the beginning, and that experience proved to be quite a fun adventure. 

So when readers ask, what do I recommend?

Cotton Babies bumGenius one-size pocket diapers.

(This is a completely unpaid, unsponsored endorsement.  Although I've had brief email communications with the owner of bumGenius - I was a tester for the 1.0 version of bumGenius - that was years ago and I've been quite out of the cloth diapering loop since then.  I'm not affiliated with Cotton Babies at all.  Just love their diapers!)

What I would personally recommend is to invest in eighteen of these diapers to begin with.  At today's prices, that would be just over $300 if you buy one twelve pack and one six pack.  This sounds steep, but let's look at the math.  Currently, I spend about $36 a month at Sam's Club for a big box of Huggies for AJ.  The bumGenius diapers would pay for themselves in the first nine months of use.  Let's say your child learns the potty at two-and-a-half.  If that is the case, you will have saved over $750 by using cloth instead of disposables.

(gulp.  maybe I better get those cloth diapers back out sooner rather than later!)

I think bumGenius are the easiest, most daddy/babysitter/grandparent-friendly system.  Cheapest?  No.  If you want cheapest system, you need to look into prefold diapers and covers.  But if you just want the benefits of cloth with the convenience of disposables, I think bumGenius are the way to go.

If you tend to have little babies (I don't!) you may want to look into some extra small Fuzzi Bunz for the early months (these lasted AJ about two months, and she was 8.8 at birth) until you can get just the right fit in the bumGenius.

That's my diaper chatter for today!  Sheila is asking that you share any diaper stories for today's carnival . . . dirty diaper stories, diapering advice for new moms, and cloth vs. disposable thoughts or anything diaper related.  And there are prizes!  Three very fun prizes that you will be eligible for just by playing along in today's Diaper Chatter.

I'll be responding to any questions or comments in the comment section rather than email today so we can all learn from each other's diapering knowledge. 

Of Earth and Poetry

Happy Earth Day everyone!

What will you do to celebrate? 

Sometimes the idea of going green or saving the planet can be a little overwhelming.  Sometimes it seems too big, and it's much easier to just be content to let others make the changes.  (And I can be Queen of the It's Too Hard, so I am speaking primarily to myself here!)

But there are lots of little things we can all do to make little changes.  And you know what?  Lots of little changes can motivate you to make some big changes.

Here are some little changes we've been working on:

* Almost 100% kitchen cloth use instead of paper towels and paper napkins.  One roll of paper towels (that I use primarily for wiping up meat juice messes) lasts for weeks and weeks and weeks around here.

* Switched to  Country Save detergent.  It's the best stuff I've ever used - safe for cloth diapers and safe for the earth!

* FREECYCLE - we've been known to nearly fill a dumpster after a round of spring cleaning or pre-move decluttering.  Now I try to list any and everything we want to get rid of on Freecycle.  It is uhMAZing what people will be happy to take off your hands for you!

* And one BIG, HUGE change we are about to undertake - getting rid of the plastic water bottles!  Yes, ya'll, I think we are about to take the pledge.

Want some great ideas on how to celebrate Earth Day as a family?  Go visit Crunchy Domestic Goddess's Making Earth Day a Family Day for an excellent list of ideas.

*********************************************************************************

Now, on a slightly different note . . . did you know that April is National Poetry Month?  Yes, it is indeed.  I was wondering . . . would anyone want to join me in celebrating?  I thought maybe we could do a bloggy poetry read-along next Wednesday, April 30th.  You could share your favorite poem(s) either on your blog or in the comments.  Self-composed poetry would be welcome, as well as favorite poems from your favorite writers. 

Anyone? 

If there's enough interest, I might try to do the Mr. Linky thing, so let me know if you would want to play along!