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I believe this will speak for itself.
I find it useful to remind myself of simple and true things from time to time. This keeps me from becoming a particular kind of foolish person who I fear very much.
The simple and true thing that I am thinking about now is that blueberries to not come from plastic containers, and they do not cost four dollars per carton.
Blueberries, in fact, come from the dirt, and they are as free as the rain and the sun. And also the dirt under your fingernails and the sweat that drips from the small creases beside your eyes and off your chin.
I think that the world is a very beautiful place. I am reminded that it is also a very delicious place. Blueberries, wild, from Carolina to Massachussetts. Oregon Blueberries. Apples from Washington. Sweet potatoes. Corn. Asparagus. Wild raspberries and blackberries, hiding between Appalachian trees, reclining in breezes and sitting near streams.
The world is a very delicious place. Spontaneously. Even unnecessarily.
And I think that it deserves our wildest protection. Our greatest thanks. Our love, and our disciplined living.
I would like very much for River to live in a beautiful, wild world.
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Beautifully said!
I receive emails/facebook messages almost weekly with questions about cloth diapering. While I do not consider myself a cloth diaper guru by any stretch, I decided it might be easier if I did a post about the basics of cloth diapering since I seem to get the same questions over and over again. The things most people want to know are:
1. Why do you cloth diaper?
2. What type should I buy?
3. Are they hard to clean?
4. What kind of detergent do you use?
5. What do you do about the poo?
So here we go!
Short Answers:
1. Economical, Eco-Friendly and Easy on your baby’s skin
2. Kawaii : http://www.theluvyourbaby.com/
3. Nope! SUPER easy. Just throw them in the washing machine.
4. Crunchy Clean : http://www.crunchyclean.com/
5. If baby is just on Breast Milk you don’t have to worry about anything – just throw the whole thing in the washer. If formula feeding or starting solids an easy thing to do is use a diaper liner: http://www.amazon.com/Kushies-Flushable-Biodegradable-Diaper-Liners/dp/tags-on-product/B000V0QTMC
Long Answers
1. Why do you cloth diaper?
Where do I even begin?
Economical: First of all, it cost us about $300 for our cloth diaper set up and even that is an over-exageration because were given most of our diapers as shower gifts so it cost us very little. I have found various calculations online, but basically the estimation is that you will spend around $2,000 on disposable diapers during your child’s first two years. $300 vs $2,000 …. is that not reason enough? Granted, you do need to factor in washing costs (for us it’s about $.20 per load) we have HE washer, wash on cold and line dry. Detergent is another $.10, so each diaper wash is approximately 30 cents. We are really breaking the bank now!
Eco Friendly: I won’t go all tree hugger on you, but you can imagine how many diapers are ending up in the landfills. I could post pictures and quote stats, but I’ll just leave it at that.
Easy on Baby: My baby happens to have severe eczema so he breaks after just one day of wearing the diapers that claim to be free and clear of all things. “Normal” diaper brands such as huggies, pampers, luvs etc… contain extremely harsh chemicals. Here is a direct quote from http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php
“Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S..1
Disposable diapers contain Tributyl-tin (TBT) – a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.2
Disposable diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, a type of super absorbent polymer (SAP), which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. A similar substance had been used in super-absorbency tampons until the early 1980s when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome by increasing absorbency and improving the environment for the growth of toxin-producing bacteria.3
In May 2000, the Archives of Disease in Childhood published research showing that scrotal temperature is increased in boys wearing disposable diapers, and that prolonged use of disposable diapers will blunt or completely abolish the physiological testicular cooling mechanism important for normal spermatogenesis.18″
So for all of these reasons, we choose to cloth diaper. Cloth diapering is SUPER easy. If you haven’t seen one in a while, forget everything you knew about diapers from the past. Even pre-folds have been updated to the new fancy “like disposable” diapers. I only use All-In-One cloth diapers, meaning the diaper has a pocket to slip in 1 or 2 inserts.
2. What type should I buy?
There are a TON of options when it comes to choosing an All-In-One diaper. The following brands I have tried/have at least one diaper from: FuzziBunz, GroVia, BumGenius, Sunny Baby, Charlie Banana & Kawaii. Why so many different kinds? I’m just that way. I like to try everything out. I bought 4 FuzziBunz (2 Small & 2 Medium) from a store in Fort Worth (The Greener Good) with Groupons because the rest of my diapers were a one size fits all (adjustable) and I wanted to see if the sized diapers fit better. I bought a few GroVia newborn size diapers for when River was super tiny and didn’t fit into his other diapers even on the smallest size. The Charlie Banana I bought because it was on Zulily & it said “Good-Bye Disposable, Hello Cloth” – how could I resist? My conclusion from getting to know all of these diapers is that Kawaii is your best bang for you buck! They all work great and Kawaii is about 1/3 the price of the other diaper brands. My favorite place to buy Kawaii diapers is here: http://www.theluvyourbaby.com/
My favorites from Kawaii are OS Heavy Duty the velcro so you can be super fast at the changing table. I would however NOT recommend buying these if you are not planning on line drying. I have dried these in the dryer a few times and the velcro attaches to itself and quickly starts to show wear and fall apart. If you are going to use your dryer, buy diapers that snap like the Square Tab or Bamboo Minky. I love the Bamboo Minky because they are super soft and fit really well when baby is a newborn.
You might have to try a few different fits to see which fits your child the best. River fits well in almost all of his diapers. The only brand that didn’t work out for him was Sunny Baby, I can guarantee a leak if he has on his Sunny Baby diapers. So far all Kawaii diapers fit him great.
So far we have established you should buy an All-In-One but what about sizing? I recommend buying One Size diapers. One Size can be adjusted to fit your growing child. If you notice above River’s are actually on the middle size right now. Some people buy each size diaper (small, medium, large) but that is a really expensive way to go. Here is an example of a size small Fuzzi Bunz diaper:
The only adjustments you can make to single sized diapers is around the waist as you would a disposable. You cannot make the diaper longer or shorter by adjusting height straps. I have a few single size diapers and they are slightly less bulky but nothing noticeable. I bought them thinking they would be easier to fit under pants but I honestly can’t tell. The only difference between this fuzzy bunz single sized diaper and the Kawaii diapers is about $15. No kidding, the fuzzy bunz run about $20 a piece. When buying your Kawaii diapers look at their package deals. If you are wanting to try out different diapers on your baby before ordering a lot, that is understandable. If you are like me and you are wanting to have the diapers ready before your baby and cross your fingers that they will work out, I would recommend buying a package deal. These change almost weekly, but right now they have one going on for 24 OS Heavy cute for $145! Makes me want to order some more just for kicks…
3. Are they hard to clean?
NO! Really, I’m being totally serious, they are super easy to clean. I’ll take you through our cloth diapering process and prove it to you.
Step 1: Starting with a dirty diaper, pull out the insert and put both the diaper and insert into your wet bag. We keep out wet bag hanging on the side of the changing table. We unzip before starting the diaper changing process and then rezip when we’re done. We use Planet Wise’s Wet/Dry Hanging Bag. I would highly recommend it and you will see why in a minute.
Step 2: Your wet bag is full so you need to do laundry. No problem. Take the wet bag to the washing machine and inside out it into the machine. Because you have already pulled the inserts out of the diapers there is no need to touch or even smell those nasty dirty diapers! I put everything including the bag directly into the washing machine and start my load. That’s right, I NEVER TOUCH THE DIRTY DIAPERS.
I use Crunchy Clean Diaper Detergent for Hard Water. 1-2 Scoops depending on how large of a load I’m washing. It’s very important that you use a diaper detergent that is specific to cloth diapering and that you do not use other laundry soaps that can build up residue on your diapers. This will make them soak up less and become highly ineffective at doing their job quickly. Also avoid using liquid fabric softener in your machine.
I wash on Cold/Cold, Normal wash with an autosoak and spin on High.
Step 3: Diapers are clean but wet, time to line dry. Because you do not use bleach or other harsh chemicals while washing the diapers it’s important to line dry them. This will sanitize and sun bleach them. People have asked me if sun bleaching really works and I simply must emphasize, YES IT DOES. I took a picture below of what River’s poo diapers look like after the wash. After a few hours in the sun they are sparkly white again.
Step 4: Take down and re-stuff. You’re ready to start the whole process over again!
4. What kind of detergent do you use?
Yes, I answered this above but I want to re-emphasize the importance of using only a detergent specifically for cloth diapering. You CAN NOT just use Tide or ALL from the store (yes, even “All Clear” which I hate to break it to you, is actually not free and clear of very much at all). If you don’t want to use Crunchy Clean, that’s fine. I’m not brand specific, but do use a diaper detergent. Also, I mentioned briefly to avoid using liquid fabric softener in your machine. I mean, EVER. It can build up and leave a residue on your clothing and specifically diapers which will make them ineffective at soaking up liquids.
5. What do you do about the poo?
If you breastfeed, baby’s poo is completely water soluble. Yet another reason to exclusively breastfeed! However, if you formula feed or are introducing solids the poo will need to be addressed. We are actually going through this issue currently with River. Right now it has not been too much of a problem. We use Kushi’s flushable diaper liners to catch the unwanted solid poo and then flush that down the toilet. Truth be told, I don’t line the diaper every time. I’ve figured out when River usually poops so I just line around that time. I have missed a few poos and when that happens I just try to get the majority off the best I can. Right now it has not been an issue, I can usually just pick it up with a wipe. (We’re getting really into it now!). I have heard of moms using a spatula to scrape caked on poo into the toilet. I probably need to go out and get a 50 cent poo spatula. I would just recommend keeping that in by the toilet as to not confuse it with the cooking spatula!
There were many little details that I left out here and there and I am sure there will be follow up questions. If I missed something you are dying to know feel free to comment below or email me at kate{dot}leverenz{at}gmail{dot}com and I’ll try to answer them in a follow up post soon.
Three cheers for cloth diapering!
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Dearest friends and family. The days are warm, the garden has run out of floor space and has taken to a wild kind of clambering, and all the gaps and empty spaces of a spare winter are filling in with green and growing things. In accordance with spring’s great thickening, our Little River is now a sturdy, brimming, giddy thing who has flooded this house with exactly six months of the purest joy that this bearded and bespeckled father has ever experienced.
Today, River is six months old.
And daddy had the day off.
The good Lord, in his wild Creativity, was first to send River a gift, by way of an absolutely anarchic, lawless storm that shook these creaky floors to their wooden bones in the middle of the soft night. He poured the oceans themselves on our trees and our gardens, and every great blade of grass and leaf was wider, taller, stronger this morning than we have seen since our arrival in June.
The birds were next, grateful for still branches, singing sweet morning songs to the boy as he drifted awake, babbling to himself for a while, mentioning a secret list of things he might like to do on a day like this.
And then beautiful mama, out of bed like the breeze, swooping to her strong son and kissing cheeks, whispering unquenchable love in his small ear.
What to do, on a day like this?
One of our favorite memories of these past six months is taking River to the Aquarium. I remember spending more time watching his glowing guppy face than the fish themselves. He was mesmerized by the soaring fish and turtles and seahorses, glowing in their rippling blue tanks, his mouth and eyes and nose and ears all wide open, hardly looking away. We couldn’t wait to see how he’d like it a second time, so we got him all packed up, plopped a floppy khaki hat on his head, and headed back. As mama reminds me, this is actually his third time to visit. The first time, he was a tiny thing in her warm belly, and I suppose this counts as much as it did when took him “skiing,” his strong mama fighting nausea and mountainsides.
And sure enough, he absolutely loved it. He made eye contact with every fish in the place, danced at the bird show, and jungled all over me to get a better view at his favorites. To be clear, River has arrived at the age when he will roll, push, climb, stretch, spin, twirl, and clamber over anything in his path to get to what he wants, and it was all I could do to keep him in my arms in front of some of the tanks. Thankfully, he doesn’t quite have the coordination to make many of these maneuvers particularly successful, but it won’t be long before he’ll be toddling around the place on his own two legs, smashing his little nose on the glass to see the turtles.
There must have been a lot to figure out at the aquarium, because the poor kid was practically unconscious the minute he landed back in the car seat for the ride home.
Time to make the cake.
I have been telling River for months that he would be getting a sweet potato cake for his birthday, and mama must have overheard me, because she was all aflutter in the kitchen, whipping up a sweet potato puree for the special day. I think it’s worth mentioning that this particular sweet potato was picked up at the inaugural jamboree for a beautiful little farmer’s market here in town, grown by a real live sweat-stained man, leaning over to show his little girl how to add up the cost of all our sweet potatoes, key limes, and onions.
So far, this is what we know: River loves peas. River loves barley. River loves squash. Also carrots.
Sweet potatoes, however, are a different story. Bright eyes became brighter, giddy arms reached farther, waiting mouth opened wider. What was left in the aftermath, when the vegetable debris had cleared, was an orange creature that could only be recognized by the whites of his eyes and a certain kind of satisfied squeal that I know no other boy to make.
River LOVES sweet potatoes.
Of course, there was a photo session, the consequences of which are posted here. Mama has a way with the camera, I do declare.
Happy birthday River. We love you so much. I hope you can feel it in your bones.
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Daniel, your words brought happy tears. They are so descriptive, we feel like we experienced all this, too. Your writings, Katie’s beautiful pictures, River’s sweetness are gifts to all of us! We love all of you so much. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely beautiful – from all perspectives. Love from us to you all.
Hey, Daniel, we loved reading this. You continue to write beautifully and we are so glad you have an outlet for your gift, amidst a world of hospital clinics, patients, boring patient charting requirements and record keeping. We love you guys.We love watching River grow.
Hey there friends and family. Here are River’s 5 month pictures! Nana and Grandpa make appearances as well…
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Pure joy!
by Daniel
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