The Mom Crowd

Happy Earth Week!

Cloth diapering keeps disposable diapers out of landfills and it can save money, so I decided to cloth diaper my second child. Amelia has written about the benefits of cloth diapers before and I always wanted to try it. My problem with getting started cloth diapering was spending the time researching what to buy and spending the money on them. You can’t exactly just walk into a Babies R Us and buy everything you need.

Getting the Supplies

I spent a lot of time figuring out the different types of diapers and where to buy them. There are prefolds and covers, all-in-ones, fitteds with covers, pocket diapers, and so much more. I made my list and added up how much everything was going to cost and put it in our budget. However, every month something would come up and it got moved the bottom of the priority list. Then a lady at church heard I wanted to cloth diaper and very generously gave me a gift of prefolds, fitteds, Thirsties covers, Y-straps, and two wet bags. I also gave her forty bucks to “round out my stash.” She used diaperswappers.com to buy everything I needed. I am very thankful that I didn’t have to spend the time and energy to get everything while I was more focused on having my baby.

Using Cloth Diapers

After getting breastfeeding established with my son I decided to tackle cloth diapering and learn this new skill. We quickly learned that you need to be sure to tuck the all of the prefold diaper under the cover, so they won’t wick out on to his clothes. Also, it is helpful to be organized and set up a station. I bought two dollar store trash cans. One is for the cloth diapers and the other is for wipes and other trash. I only had a few blow outs of poo or sometimes the pee would seep through the cover onto his onesie. I am not very good at changing his diaper very often so I use 2 prefolds inside the cover.

Traveling with cloth diapers is fine as long I am sure to bring everything I need – extra diaper cover, extra prefolds, and my wet bag for dirty diapers. They take up more room in a diaper bag than disposables.

Washing and Cleaning

Once I figured out how to fold them and use them I had to learn how to wash them. It seems that every cloth diaper user has their own system. I went with the one that seemed the easiest. Amelia told me to run them through a cold wash first, then a second wash with hot water and soap. I use an regular detergent like All’s Free and Clear. Washing them is easy and it isn’t too dirty to touch the diapers, because they have newborn poo which isn’t that gross.

What is gross is leaving them too long before washing them. I got sick one weekend and went a few days without cleaning them. One fitted diaper grew fuzzy mold. After that weekend when I went to wash them I let the diapers soak in the washer over night in cold water. Then I ran them the next morning. When I took them out of the washer a few diapers had black mold spots. Either they grew from the soaking or from me waiting too long to wash them. I tried oxi-clean and even bleach, but the mold spots never came out.

Sometimes the diapers come out stained with yellow spots, so I sun them. All I do is hang them outside in the sun and the stains go away. (Those are my diapers in the photo.) I have no idea how this works, but it does! They come back to being perfectly white.

Is Cloth Diapering Working For Me?

I am currently cloth diapering about 50% of the time. I may not be 100% percent all the time cloth diapering, but I still feel like my 50% makes a difference on the environment. My husband changes my sons diapers during the night and in our sleep deprived state I didn’t want to make him change a cloth diaper. Also, I think I may not have enough cloth diapers, because I need to wash them every other day to keep up. I am not very good at washing them often. Also there are some days where I am super busy and overwhelmed so I don’t want to mess with them. We were given many disposable diapers as gifts as well, so I haven’t had to spend any money in diapers for my 7 week old son yet. I think when I have to spend my own money on diapers I will be more intent on cloth diapering more often.

How about you? Have you tried cloth diapering? What were your first few weeks like? Are you like me and always wanted to, but never wanted to spend the money to start?

Happy Earth Day!

The purpose of Earth Day is to promote awareness about the environment and to inspire people to join in the cause to take care of our planet.  There are so many ways to be involved in taking care of our planet that sometimes it can be overwhelming.  It is important to remember that we can all do our part, start slowly, then keep building on the changes we DO make to help reverse some of the problems we have created by NOT taking care of our planet.

For this Earth Day, I want to highlight a book called Healthy Child Healthy World by Christopher Gavigan.  Healthy Child Healthy World is an organization founded by parents Nancy and James Chuda, who lost their daughter, Colette, to a rare form of cancer when she was 5 years old.  They felt like her cancer was triggered by environmental factors and started to research how toxic substances and environmental exposures have an impact on children.  With the help of some friends and family, they started the organization to help educate the public and be an advocate for children and their environmental health. Christopher Gavigan is the CEO and executive director of Healthy Child Healthy World and is comitted to helping families make their homes safer for children.

The chapters cover just about every aspect of making your home a safer, cleaner, greener place for you and your children–even beginning with pregnancy and what you can do to help prepare your home for the baby. First and foremost, the way you eat during your pregnancy has a big impact on you and the baby’s health.  Avoiding preservatives and additives like MSG and artificial food coloring are a good first place to start.  In my birth classes we have one whole class dedicated to nutrition during pregnancy.  Good nutrition is important for everyone–especially when you are growing a baby!

Avoiding chemicals, like phthalates, in (some) lotions and other cosmetics can also help protect the baby. The book offers itself as a guide as you think about everything from baby showers to products to put (or avoid) in the nursery. Gavigan offers specific recipes for replacing the harsh, store bought cleaners with safe, homemade cleaners.  Store bought cleaners have chemicals in them that can cause problems like poisoning, respitory difficulites, organ damage, and deteriorating the freshwater supply.

The book offers interesting information about the ingredients in our beauty supplies–it is enough to make you consider replacing some of the products you probably use on a daily basis.

The chapter on Child’s Play is helpful and a great place for new parents with young children.  We have all been awakened to the idea that perhaps not everyone has the best interests of our children at heart after all those recalls of toys with high levels of lead in them.  Choosing toys, clothes, and baby products is most helpful early on–and gets more difficult later on if you are trying to avoid large amounts of plastic toys (that is from my own experience).  We have a lot of toys in our house–many of them plastic. If I could start over I would have a lot LESS plastic, and more long-lasting toys.   The chapter even has some recipes in it for safe art supplies!

Pets, pesticides, and indoor air pollution is also covered in the book.  I was surprised at how easy and simple some of the ideas were for minimizing and eliminating pests in the household without resorting to the more toxic chemical solutions.  I’m telling you, this book covers everything!  The back of the book is filledwith TONS of resources of retailers and organizations to help you along in your journey to making your home safer and greener.

If you are interested in having a resource on hand, this is a good one to have.  As you read through it, remember: “No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.”

What “green” things do you already do at your house?  Have you read this book? Heard of it? What did you think?

I have a confession – I am addicted to the internet. My new iPhone isn’t helping my addiction either. I can tweet, update my Facebook status, and find a recipe on my All Recipes iPhone App all while breastfeeding my new son. I secretly think that my husband sabotaged my old phone so it would break and we would have a real reason to upgrade. If he did sabotage my phone, then I am glad because The Mom Crowd is all over the web now!

You can follow my updates on Twitter at @TheMomCrowd. I love it, because I feel like I can tweet about being a mom and other moms are listening with a sympathetic ear. Also, I can keep up with the latest mom news a lot more quickly by reading everyone else’s tweets. If you have a Twitter account feel free to put it in the comments so I can follow you!

Become a fan of The Mom Crowd on Facebook! You can keep up with our latest updates and support our blog. I would really appreciate it!

Have you noticed in our new design how some people have photos next to their comments in the comment section? If you have a wordpress.com or Gravatar account then your avatar associated with your email address will appear. It is easy to get a Gravatar account. All you need to need to do is go to Gravatar.com, tell them your email address, and upload any photo that you want. It’s that easy! Then your avatar will follow you to any other site that uses Gravatar.

If you haven’t joined The Mom Bloggers Club (MBC) yet, then you need to go by and see what is happening over there. All the cool kids are doing it. I have been a member for a year and have watched it grow into a popular place where moms ask questions and get to know each other. It has never felt like a clique and other moms are happy to help. It is really easy to make friends. (You can see my previous review of the Mom Bloggers Club here.) Tomorrow Founder Jennifer James is announcing that I will be one of the new Ambassadors for the MBC over the next 3 months. I am excited about it and hope to see you there!

Recap

This weekend CMT premiered its newest show “World’s Strictest Parents” (WSP). The show documents the experience of two troubled teens adapting to new rules and consequences with a “strict” set of parents for the week. The hope is that the teens will learn respect and come out better people by the end of the week. In the first episode the Vinton family hosts teenagers, Brittani and Ivan.

17-year-old Brittani drinks, parties, has face piercings, smokes, and talks back to her mom. She lives with her brother and her mom in California. Brittani’s mom, Dawn, says that “words are more hurtful than physical abuse” and wonders where the happy, joking daughter she used to know went. She hopes this week will bring some good changes in her daughter’s life.

Next we meet 15-year-old Ivan from Jamica Queens, NY. His single mother, Maria, has a hard time getting him to do his school work and worries about his friends. Ivan also smokes, lies, and hangs out with guys who fight. He claims that “they are not going to change me.”

“They” are Lisa and Scott Vinton who have a blended family and have three kids, Holly – 21, Travis – 19, and Jeff – 18. When Brittani and Ivan first arrive they laid down the ground rules – no lying, no drinking, no smoking, no face piercings, no slamming of doors, no TV or phone after bedtime which is around 9:00 pm, and they have to do chores. As expected the teens don’t like the rules. Brittani gives up some of her cigarettes and Ivan lies about them. Both are eventually caught lying and have to face the consequences. Brittani gets her phone taken away and they remove the door from Ivan’s room. They also ask Ivan for his lighter.

(more…)

A friend of mine recently had her second baby.  She is beautiful, calm, and quiet.

Baby’s older brother, Joe, is struggling.  He is nearly 3, and the family adjustments are taking their toll on him.  My friend shared with me how Joe tends to throw tantrums on a near-daily basis, taking out his frustrations on his dad (since dad is spending more time with Joe than usual).

Joe’s tantrums include yelling, throwing things, excessive crying, and to their dismay, biting.  My friend is understandably concerned.  Joe is a sweet boy.  She knows that this is most likely a phase – but it’s a difficult one to endure.  She said she’s been reading everything she can about how to handle tantrums, but she still finds herself at a loss sometimes.   I have suggested that they share the issue with their pediatrician, and I’ve tried to encourage her that Joe will eventually get used to their family’s new dynamics.

Here are some other resources on the topic of tantrums:

• Home Treatment for Tantrums from WebMD
• When Children Tantrum from The Informed Parent
• Tips from Sprout for Parents about the Birth of a Second Child

Have you dealt with this in your family?   Do you have any suggestions for how to survive this kind of adjustment?