essential to diapering- essential saltes baby

Do you remember when I blogged about Random Acts of Kindness? Well, this right here is what I was talking about. When Snapdragon was a tiny baby, only some 11 lbs and very new to the world, one of my "twitter pals," as Mongoosine loves calling them, Christine, (@es_baby) sent him a fluffy. Now, I want to be very clear about the fact that she sent it as a gift for Snapdragon, and not as a "hey, plug my awesomehood" bribe. Granted, I am kinda a fluffy whore, so I'd have been all about that too, but she didn't. That, and I kinda like having the street-cred that you guys all know that if I say "hey, this is great" I mean "hey, this is great," and if I say "hey, this looks great and here's what folk say," it's because I don't yet know and I'm trying to give you the best info I have.

Got it?

So, now let me continue.

My nephew decided he had to be in the picture too. :-)

I heart Snapdragon's esbaby jungle fluffy. Yes, Mongoosine named diaper. Why did she name the diaper? Because it's that cute!

It has a PUL lining, and a layer of flannel over that which is covered in jungle animals. Now before you say "but giraffes lions and zebras are animals of the savanah," let me point out that Mongoosine has declared them jungle animals and so jungle animals they are.

I was really concerned that the hemp inserts didn't look like they'd hold very much when I first got it, and it looked so tiny. Snapdragon mostly wears OS pocket diapers, so this sized diaper just seemed ridiculously small. Well, it was a size small, so that shouldn't have surprised me. What did surprise me was that it fit him so well. At this point it's getting snug because he's a ginormo baby, weighing in at over 14lbs today, but the legs fit so perfectly, frankly, it's one of my favorites.

That said, it was a learning experience. It turns out that being accustomed to wash and go microfiber, I wasn't yet prepared to venture into the realm of hemp, bamboo, or even organic cotton for that matter. Now, Snapdragon's jungle fluffy is one of the esbaby QDAIO (quick dry all-in-one) diapers. That means the soaker snaps into the body of the diaper, which is lined in a nice fluffy fleece, but it snaps out without having to do the icky poopy pocket fishing that a truly craptastic bowel movement leads to. Thank goodness. And it really is quick drying. The layers of the soaker are sewn together down the middle as opposed to around the edges so that there is more surface area, thus reducing drying time.

Back to the learning experience. With the soaker snapped in place, I couldn't resist just puting it straight on him. I've been sewing for 20 years and figured she'd surely washed all the materials before making the diaper and so surely there weren't any nasty chemicals on it that I needed to worry about. Well, it fit cutely, but within half an hour it was leaking all over the place. I was a little disheartened.

Did I mention that microfiber is wash and go? It never occurred t me that I needed to prep the soaker. Doh!

Well, after I'd washed it a few times it quickly became my absolute favorite. It absorbs like nobody's business, looks cute as can be, and fits so well that he can wear sizes intended for babies his size instead of having to size up to account for fluffy butt! I love that his esbaby diaper means that he has a trim enough posterior that it doesn't look like someone padded his bottom like those funky undies they used to sell designed to give you back where baby had none. This diaper lets baby have just enough fluff to stay dry and just enough fluffy butt to look like a baby.

Perfect.

Beyond my immediate experience with the QDAIO diaper, there are other reasons I'm all squeeful about the awesomeness that is essential saltes baby. As I said during a recent #clothdiapers chat on twitter (Mondays at 8pm, be there or... well.. just be there, okay?) they're cloth diapers art. You can check out her etsy shop, or the essential saltes baby website. The number of outer fabric options is dizzying, and if I had to choose my favorite, I couldn't, because she has some of the most spectacular prints from some of my favorite textiles designers like Amy Butler and Alexander Henry Studios. (I'm secretly a quilting junkie.) Further, on top of the vast array (ever notice how arrays are always vast) of fabric choices, she offers a mind boggling number of different diaper styles with customizable absorbant layers so that you can find exactly the diaper you are looking for, front or side snapping, true all in one, quick dry all in one, quick dry all in two, wrapping cover, or even the "Lights Out" cover with two layers of PUL, just in case. Sound confusing? It isn't. To help you figure it out, she's compiled the best cloth diaper explanatory chart I have ever seen. The cloth diapering overview chart in and of itself makes her site more than visit worthy, and since her diapers are spectacular, you simply must go and look. I highly reccomend buying something while you're there.

Now I hear you thinking "but I only like one size diapers" or "but my baby is about to outgrow diapers so I really don't need any more." Well you should go look anyway because I keep hearing rumors (from the source even, so does that make them rumors?) that an es baby one size is in the works, and she also makes wet bags and cloth pads for mama! While you're there, check out the custom cloth wipes and adorable little doll diapers. Admit it, you'd love to diaper your little baby girl and her dolly in matching diapers. She also has a line of organics that are more than well worth a gander. See? So there is a reason for you naysayers to go have a look too.

Sustainable Baby & His Eco-chic Cheeks

Butt cheeks, that is.
Sometimes you have to ask yourself just what kind of eco-friendly you are being. Eco-green or eco-cheap? Well, sometimes you're being eco-green, and that's my favorite.
What does this all have to do with Snapdragon's bottom? Well, I've had a few epiphanies. That might be an overstatement, but nonetheless I've had some thoughts.
Baby wipes are A) expensive over time B) a waste of raw materials C)expensive to transport, and D) yet another avenue for human waste (and I do mean poo) to wind up in landfills where it doesn't belong. Clearly cloth wipes are the solution. Reusable to the nth power, and without all the questionable chemicals on that unscented wipe you can still smell from two feet away.
But, ewwww you say? Its no more grosstastic than wioing down your baby's newest abstract mustard art creation with a thin sheet of porous papertowelesque fibers, is it? If you're already using cloth diapers (fluffies is what we call 'em in our household) then you're already rinsing and washing, so these are actually easier. No more hunting for a trashcan near the grocery store enterance, wipes in hand after Mt. Babybutt's latest carseat explosion or peeling them out of the fluffies to throw away when you get home.
But greening baby butt wiping isn't so easy. We are easily seduced by the convenience we've been trained to believe disposable wipes are. So if you're having a hard time making the switch, here's a greener and cheaper way to do disposable while weaning yourself to cloth:

When you pull that wipe out of the container, rip it in half and put half of it back.

I'm not saying don't use the other half if you need to, by all means be clean about it. We don't want any rashes on any soft & sweet little bottoms, but make yourself use that first half til it is good and fully used. Then use the second half if your LO's bottom, legs, feet or any other part still needs it, heck use another half if you need to, but just remember to rip it in half and use them like you're serious about it. You'll be surprised how many fewer wipes you're suddenly using.

But if you're ready to take the risk and switch to cloth, you've still got options.

Eco-green: Buy some nice WHAM-made (not mega-corp commercial, while yes they're more efficient, I think the planet is also benefitted by supporting the WHAMs of the world who aren't commuting 2 hrs a day each direction too) cloth wipes. They're so pretty you'd never think of throwing them away, althiugh it might be tough to wipe that runny goo with some of the absolutely gorgeous fabrics that these wonderful ladies use to make their wipes, in the end you can wipe with a light green kind of pride.

Eco-cheap: Make your own wipes. Its pretty straightforward. They're typically two layers of a pourous and grabby material (flannel and terrycloth are pretty popular) about 7 or 8 inches square, surged or zigzagged copiously around the outer edges, or trimmed neatly with piping or bias tape. My mom is keen on sewing them inside out, right sides together, and turning them, pressing them, then topstitching. Viola! You have your own cloth wipes and didn't have to have them trucked to you.

Cheap-Eco-GreenER: make your own wipes out of t-shirts you stained and won't rewear or flannel pjs that you wore til they grew holes. Instead of sending the worn out yet wipelike materialed clothes to the big closet in the sky, give them a new lease on life as infant... er, bathroom attendants. You'll not even feel bad about botching your stitches on these. They're nearly free, prevent old clothes from hitting the landfill, and reduce future waste. Awesome.

Cheap-Eco-GreenEST: here's where the epiphany comes into play. Disposable wipes are just one layer of paper or quasi-cloth. Not too. Double your homemade wipe stash by making them one layer whenever doing so wouldn't bee too ridiculously flimsy. One layer of flannel is probably plenty. You don't double your washcloth to clean your bottom, why not turn that ratty towel into wipes that don't need to be doubled either? Waaaay greener. Just be sure to finish the edge if its a material that's given to fraying.

But what about the wetness of the wipes. Honestly, most of the time you could probably get by with just some water, but the interwebz are full of homemade wipe solution recipes.
So green it up a little already. Your baby's bottom will than you, becaise let's face it, would you rather get scrubbed with cotton or a damp paper towel?