Jem's Room

And the winner of the Valentine's Day Blossom Pads contest is...

2012-02-15T09:59:00.001-05:00

Comment #12, Jessi from the Green Mama Jama blog! Congratulations Jessi, I'll be emailing you and you have 48 hours to claim your prize!

Blossom Pads Giveaway!

2012-01-21T23:44:00.005-05:00

Here's one for all of you who want to try mama cloth but have been too nervous to take that first step - a giveaway of my favorite ladies' hygiene product, Blossom Pads! To see my full review, go here (and note that the discount code is still valid!)

The winner will receive anything of her choice up to a $12 value from anywhere on the site...this includes the Intro to Cloth package, most 8 or 10 inch pads in any fabric (including organic cotton velour) and all clearance items!

How to Enter (open to residents of the United States):

MANDATORY ENTRY

You MUST be a fan/follower of Jem's Room either on Google Friend Connect, Facebook or Network Blogs...all three will get you three entries (any two will, of course, get you two entries)! Be sure to leave a comment below this blog post for each one or it won't count! Leave your username and email address (or other way of contacting you).

OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL ENTRIES

- Go to the Blossom Pads website, come back and leave a comment to let me know what you would pick! Remember that for most non-clearance options you can customize the color of the flannel or velour, so be sure to specify!
- Like Blossom Pads on Facebook, comment that you have done so.
- Post a link to this giveaway anywhere on Facebook and/or your blog (1 entry for each share). Comment here to tell me where I can find it.
- Pin this blog entry, or ANY blog entry on Jem's Room, to a board on Pinterest. Leave the link to that board in the comments.
- Grab my button and place it anywhere on your blog main page. (Good for three entries). Leave a link in the comments to where I can find it.
- For an extra 10 entries, place an order with Blossom Pads using the 10% discount code 8AO11, and mention on your order form (in the comments section) that you were referred by Alicia O. of Jem's Room. (You must both use the code and mention me in your order or your entries may not be valid, since I will need to confirm your order with Charlene at Blossom Pads). Come back here and leave ten comments with the name you used to place your order and your email address.

The winner will be chosen at noon on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14).

Good luck and have fun!

* This giveaway is courtesy of the Blossom Pads referral program and readers like you! I did not receive any payment from Blossom Pads for my review, and they are not directly sponsoring this giveaway.

Xycobax!™

2012-01-18T12:00:00.007-05:00

Hi all, remember this post from awhile back where I said I'd searched for a toothpaste recipe that used xylitol and baking soda but I couldn't find one? So I made my own, using coconut oil as the liquid? That recipe was published both here and on the awesome community blog Keen for Green. Well, all these months later, I've suddenly started seeing all of these tutorials cropping up for homemade toothpaste, using those exact three ingredients! I'll admit at first I had a moment of "hey, that was MY idea!" but ultimately I'm actually quite pleased that the idea has caught on! And heck, who knows, maybe someone else came up with the idea before I did.

I have, however, actually been improving upon my original recipe. Because my formula tended to alternate between runny and solid depending on the temperature, I added a natural stabilizer. I also toyed with the ratios a bit, and gave my formula a name:
Xycobax!™ (Pronounced zye-coh-bax, it stands for XYlitol, COconut oil, BAking soda and Xantham gum, the stabilizer). Xycobax is quite kid-friendly, since xylitol is recommended as part of a child's dental hygiene routine. I've also come up with an alternate formula that has a bit more oomph, called Xycobax HP™ (you'll see why in a minute)...this is more for adults and less for kids who suck their toothbrushes.

Please note that this recipe is protected under copyright law...while I've chosen to give it to you for free, all I ask is that if you share it on your own blog or website, even if you choose to change the ratios a little bit, that you link back to this post. That's it! You can also drop me a note to let me know you have done so, and I will be sure to mention you and link to you in my next post! I am always happy to reciprocate.

Without further ado:

Xycobax™ Toothpaste recipe (makes approximately 2 tubes of toothpaste)

1/2 lb xylitol, powdered (in food processor or blender)
1/4 cup baking soda
1/2 -3/4 teaspoon xantham gum (may use a tiny bit more if you need to, but don't overdo it!)
5-6 teaspoons melted coconut oil
5-7 teaspoons water
Flavoring oil (optional...peppermint or cinnamon works quite well)

Thoroughly mix the three dry ingredients together. Add coconut oil and water, alternating a teaspoon at a time, until you achieve a nice pasty consistency. Add a few drops of flavoring oil if you like, stir again and put it all in a food processor to finish to achieve a nice smooth consistency (you can use a blender instead, but do this in two batches for best results).

Voila! Xycobax.

So what is the formula for Xycobax HP? It is exactly the same as the recipe above, only instead of water, substitute Hydrogen Peroxide! (You see now why you probably don't want your kids sucking Xycobax HP off their toothbrushes).

Xycobax on my Preserve toothbrush (recyclable and made from recycled yogurt containers!)

Tip: To keep your coconut oil from potentially turning rancid, consider adding a few drops of rosemary oil extract or vitamin E oil to it before mixing it in. For the regular Xyobax formula you might also consider a few drops of grapefruit seed extract. These ingredients are not necessary if you don't have them but should help your final product keep longer!

I have recently discovered Coghlan's Squeeze Tubes...they come in packages of two which is perfect for this recipe, and they are washable and reusable. They work great! I don't, however, know what kind of plastic they are made of...I'm looking into it.

That's it! Now go share the love! Responsibly. :-)

* Special thanks to Sheila at Hiney Lineys for educating me about Trademark law.

Christmas Card Madness!

2012-01-17T22:47:00.003-05:00

Hello friends! Hope you are all enjoying the New Year and relaxing after the rush of the holidays. I imagine most of you have already taken down the decorations, or are in the process of doing so. Me? I'm waiting till the end of January. It only just started snowing here, and I want to make that wintery cheer last as long as possible!

I've been thinking about what to do with all those Christmas cards decorating our kitchen entryway after I take them down...as usual, most of the photo cards will get put on the fridge. But what about the rest of them? I think I've come up with some ideas you might enjoy!

1) Thank You postcards. I've personally always been of the mind that Thank You cards, while a great way to express gratitude, are a bit wasteful...how many of us actually hang on to thank you cards? I'll be honest, usually I read them, say "oh how sweet," and chuck them right in the recycling bin. Much like Christmas cards after the season is over. But wait! If you simply open a Christmas card and cut it in half, taking the message portion off, what do you have? A perfectly reusable picture postcard. Perfect for sending those Thank You notes, without the guilt of wasting extra paper from buying new cards and envelopes! And it'll save you a little on postage too, since postcard stamps are so much cheaper! If you yourself have gotten Thank You cards from friends and family, you can turn those into postcards too!

2) Christmas postcards for next year. We usually send out photo cards for Christmas, since those are more likely to be kept all year and less likely to be thrown in the bin. However, if you go the generic storebought route instead, why not just save the cards you received this year and turn them into postcards to send next year?

3) Gift tags. I cut up one exceptionally unique card we received and turned it into exceptionally unique tags for my hubby's presents. I now plan to do this every year!

4) Ornament crafting. Great craft project with the kiddos. Cut out pictures you like from the card, punch a hole at the top and use some of that Christmas ribbon you salvaged from the wrapping paper heap at Grandma's house to tie a loop. Or, you can use them for something more like these ball ornaments. Creative, right? This idea would work so well with colorful Christmas cards!

5) Scrapbooking! I have never scrapbooked in my life, but I imagine those of you who do could find numerous uses for pretty, colorful Christmas cards, no?

6) Collage projects: picture frames, wall hangings, book covers, even new Christmas cards using cutouts from the old ones. Let your creative side hang out!

7) Bookmarks...cut those cards into strips and stick 'em between the pages of Like Water for Chocolate. Or, you know, whatever you happen to be reading...

8) Photo books: This one is for those photo cards. It's usually the same families every year who send photo cards instead of storebought cards. Why not hang onto those cards every year, and once they reach an important milestone - say, the youngest child graduates from high school, or the couple celebrates their 25th wedding anniversary - give all those cards back to them in a pretty scrapbook or photo album? I guarantee you it will mean a lot to them that you saved them and took the time to keepsake their Christmas memories.

Do you have any great ideas for reusing Christmas cards? If so, please share!

Paying it Forward

2011-12-15T11:17:00.004-05:00

It's Christmastime, a perfect time for paying it forward! Yes, for you guys that means a giveaway! And boy do I have a good reason to pay it forward right now.

On Cyber Monday I found a really great deal on Happy Heinys pocket diapers at Hopper's Baby Haven. I needed a few other things too - some new detergent, rash cream, etc. - so, like many of you probably did, I took the opportunity to get the things I needed at great prices. Not just at Hopper's, but a couple of other sites as well.

Just two days later my order from Hopper's arrived. I eagerly ripped open the package to find my three Happy Heinys waiting for me, as well as the detergent I had ordered, and...a full size bottle of scented CJ's BUTTer? A pair of glow in the dark BabyLegs? Wait a minute, I didn't order these. I had ordered two bottles of unscented CJ's Spritz o' BUTTer Plus. They must have gotten my order wrong!

So I immediately sat down and wrote them an email to let them know there was a mistake, and ask how should I go about exchanging these items for the right ones.

I hit send. Then I looked down at the invoice in the package. And realized my mistake. I had ordered the CJ's Spritz from a different company. Hopper's Baby Haven had merely sent me some free samples out of the goodness of their hearts! Whoooops!

Of course I felt foolish and immediately emailed them again to apologize for my mistake. Irene Hopper was very understanding! Of course, since Jem already has more pairs of BabyLegs than he really needs, and neither of us can use scented lotions, we now have some free products to forward on to one of our lucky readers!

If you have not used BabyLegs before, they are great little legwarmers which, in particular, make diaper changes much easier. Nothing is cuter than a baby scooting around in a colorful cloth diaper and a pair of BabyLegs, staying toasty warm without needing to wriggle in and out of pants! They can also be used as wristwarmers for mama! This pair is black with glow-in-the-dark stars. Very cute. I almost wanted to keep it, but just can't justify hoarding another pair in Jem's top drawer! These are sold for $12 on the BabyLegs website.

As for CJ's BUTTer, it is an amazing WAHM-made product. It contains nothing but natural oils like coconut oil and vitamin e, a bit of lanolin, and, in this case, a bit of fragrance. I have a big tub of the unscented BUTTer that we use on Jem's minor diaper rashes (for his bad rashes we use the CJ's Spritz Plus which has extra neem and sesame oils). For me, BUTTer has been a godsend for my dry, chapped hands this winter. With CJ's I have no more bleeding knuckles! It can also be very effective in treating eczema and chafing, and is even recommended as an oil product for dry, textured hair! I really can't rave about it enough. This particular scent is called My Pixie Pie, and it's in a full 4 ounce tube: a value of almost $7. From the CJ's website:

Named after CJ’s pet name for her little girl…A beautiful mixture of cherries, toasted almonds and finished with a touch of vanilla and coconut, this sweet fragrance is aptly named.

I cannot wait to pass these on to one of you!

How to Enter

All you have to do is be a Facebook fan of Jem's Room. That's it! Once we hit 100 fans I'll be sending these right on out to one random Facebook follower. It also won't hurt to follow Jem's Room on Google Friend Connect...I'll be having a separate giveaway for you guys! More details on that to come!

If you happen to be the lucky winner and you can't use these or don't need them, I hope you will also consider paying them forward to someone who can. I'll be happy to send them to one of your friends, family members, or a child-centered charity of your choosing!

As always, thanks for following, and enjoy all of the holiday preparations!

My New Best Friends

2011-12-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

Hope you're all having a wonderful December! We just celebrated St. Nicholas Day for the first time with Jem on Tuesday...it was so much fun to watch him pull his new little wooden trains and cars out of his stocking. They've been a big hit! St. Nick brought a few things for mommy and daddy too... including chocolate oranges. Yum!

As we approach the end of 2011, I've started to think about the list of my favorite products of the year. Later in the month I'll make a full list of these products, but for now I'm just going to talk about a few recent additions to my cloth diaper routine that I don't know how I ever did without.

First up: Borax. As fabulous as my recent discoveries of Eco Sprout and The Laundry Tarts detergent were, even they were still not quite able to save my thickest diapers from the stink that sometimes remained after the wash cycle. I have battled keeping rashes off of my son from the beginning, particularly with his nighttime diapers. One reason for this, I believe, is that the majority of my inserts are microfiber, which I recently became aware is notorious for getting less absorbant and harder to clean the older it gets. Enter Borax, a natural, cost effective cleaning product, which my mother had recommended months ago but I was hesitant to try. I had heard sodium borate, the chemical name for Borax, can be a skin irritant. However, after reading that, like many other natural cleaning products, it's only an irritant if rubbed directly on the skin and that it washes out completely in laundry, I tried it. The difference in the smell of even my thickest overnight microfiber inserts and my fitted diapers is amazing. There is none! I am currently using 2 Tbsp of The Laundry Tarts (Plain Jane) or Crunchy Clean unscented with 4 Tbsp of Borax. The best part is that, since sodium borate is found abundantly right here in the US (mostly in California), a 4 lb box of Borax only costs about $3. I can live with that!

My next new best friend is Bamboo. Because of not only the stink, but the leakage issues we have battled due to the microfiber inserts, I decided it was time to try more natural fibers. Although hemp and organic cotton are technically more eco-friendly (bamboo must first be made into nylon or viscose fibers before it can be made into fabric, which do not biodegrade as easily as cotton and hemp), bamboo has the benefits of being more absorbant, softer, and it wicks urine away from baby's bottom a bit better than cotton and hemp. So I bought a couple of bamboo inserts from SweetBottomsBaby Boutique. I have been so impressed by the absorbancy compared to the microfiber that I ordered ten more bamboo inserts, this time Doopsy inserts from Etsy (Doopsy inserts are made in the USA). I have a feeling this will not be my last bamboo purchase. In fact, if they continue to work for us I may phase microfiber out of our supply entirely and switch solely to natural fibers!

Next up is a product that may surprise those who've been following this blog for awhile: Kawaii Goodnight Heavy Wetter diapers. I was hesitant to try them because they are made in China, and you know I have that list of USA manufactured diapers I was intent on sticking with. The fact that they cost so little also makes me squirm a little...my first thought when I see a price so low on a pocket diaper is "what are their workers making per hour?" However, Jem's been such a heavy wetter at night lately that even our beloved BumGenius diapers, paired with three inserts (1 bamboo, 1 hemp and 1 microfiber) were not cutting it. I kept hearing the glowing reviews about Kawaii GNHW dipes, and they WERE inexpensive. So I decided to break down and buy just one from Figure 8 Maternity, for $10 with free shipping. I still use three inserts to be on the safe side (two natural fiber inserts plus one of the microfiber inserts the GNHW came with), but so far, Jem has not leaked out of it once. The inserts are all soaking in the morning, but his jammies and sheets are dry. So...I ordered two more of these wonder dipes. Which should be plenty! I do feel bad about not sticking with my list, but I figure it's just a few diapers for nighttime and I can stick with US made diapers for the rest of my stash. Oh, the compromises we make for our sweet babies! For the record, Luvyourbaby Products, the creators of Kawaii diapers, post an assurance on their website that their laborers are treated well and that their prices are low simply because they have no retail locations to pay for. I guess I'll just have to hope that's true!

My last new best friend is that GE Profile HE toploading washing machine I was so excited to get. Yes, I've only had it for a couple of months, so there's still time for it to break my heart. However, what I have here is an energy efficient machine that I can still add as much water to as I need for diaper washing, with a custom-tailored cycle I have programmed just for diapers. This cycle automatically runs with the push of one button and gives me a 30 minute soak, then a nice, hot, temperature-controlled heavy duty wash followed by one normal rinse and one extra "fabric softener" rinse (a more thorough rinse). It's wonderful! And it's kind of hypnotizing to watch it work its magic through the glass auto-lock lid...even my hubby likes to stand there and stare!

Hope you all are enjoying whatever holiday traditions you celebrate! Stay tuned for some fun giveaways coming up!!!

Monkey Doodlez WipeCubes Review (with discount code)

2011-11-28T16:23:00.004-05:00

Hello all, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly did. Jem's all worn out and cranky, adjusting to our humdrum life back at home after a weekend at Grandma's house. Thankfully Monday is just one day!

You may remember my glowing review of The Laundry Tarts cloth diaper detergent. Sadly, I'm almost out of my first bag and having some trouble getting my hands on another one (shipping for a 4 lb bag from Canada isn't cheap), but I've had the pleasure recently of trying a product from the Tarts' partner company, Monkey Doodlez.

These little wipe cubes are much less costly to ship, and a small bag of them goes a long way! I was starting to have trouble justifying all those plastic bottles of alcohol-free witch hazel I was buying to make my own wipes solution. Monkey Doodlez WipeCubes are a great alternative! One of these tiny little cubes mixed with water makes a whole bottle full of solution. Jem has had no problem with them, even though they are scented (lavender and tea tree). They smell great and clean beautifully! Just mix one cube in 2 cups of warm water and either fill a spray bottle or pour over your cloth wipes in a container. (I personally prefer the spray bottle method...just makes it easier!)

My one caution, for those who prefer to use an oil based solution, is that these wipes are meant to be mixed with water, not oil. With the right wipes, however, you can still get a good glide! I find that microfleece wipes work great with these cubes. Monkey Doodlez does not recommend using oil-based products with cloth diapers.

The ingredients are as follows: Ingredients: 100% Vegetable Base Glycerine (Aqua, Glycerin, Sodium Stearate and Sodium Oleate, Sorbitol, Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Sodium Laurate, Sodium Myristate, Pentasodium Penteate, Tetrasodium Etidronate), 100% Pure Aloe Vera Gel, Steam Distilled Lavender Essential Oil, Tea Tree Oil. CONTAINS NO SURFACTANTS OR PROPYLENE GLYLCOL, SODIUM LAURYL SULPHATE OR SODIUM LAURETH SULPHATE.

The best part is that MonkeyDoodlez is offering my readers 15% off any size container of Wipe Cubes for the next seven days with the code JEMS15. So if you're disappointed that Cyber Monday sales are about to end, you can make the savings last just a little longer! :-) Also, Kelly at Monkey Doodlez has told me that their shopping cart is quoting some strange prices for shipping, so just disregard those prices and they'll be properly adjusted on your final invoice.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

An Eco-Friendly Halloween Part II: Greener Treats

2011-10-06T22:22:00.002-04:00

Thank you all for your patience with me! I promised you another Green Halloween post weeks ago. Now it's October, and hopefully as the day approaches you'll find some of these ideas helpful!

Every year, millions of Americans hand out plastic-sheathed, corn-syrupy treats with pesticide-riddled ingredients to costumed tots at their doorsteps. Don't get me wrong, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups have always been a weakness of mine, and I'm sure as Jem gets older he'll be allowed an occasional nibble as well. However, with obesity rates and health problems related to processed foods on the rise, you might be one of the parents who chooses to go a different way this year.

I'm not suggesting you should try slipping carrot sticks and celery into the kids' buckets...we all remember that random box of raisins the neighborhood cat lady sneaked into our bags when we were little, that just floated around, ignored, till all the good stuff was gone. There are, however, alternatives to the big name candy brands that might help to put your eco-conscience at ease. The one you pick might boil down to how much time you have, how much traffic you expect to get going by your door, and how close-knit your community is.

If you live in a small, close-knit, kid-friendly community, you might consider making your own treats. Cookies baked with organic, unrefined sugar and flour, cut into Halloween shapes and wrapped in decorated foil or chemical-free parchment paper could be a great treat in such neighborhoods. Pesticide-free candy apples dipped in organic, fair trade chocolate would be extra special! If you don't have time for homemade goodies or don't live in such a trusting neighborhood, websites like NaturalCandyStore.com and YummyEarth sell organic, vegan and allergen-free candy in bulk (though the prices are, admittedly, quite a bit more than you'd pay for that mixed bag of brand name candy at Wal-Mart).

If you live in a high-traffic area with lots of kids you don't know dropping by, you might think about opting out of the edible treats altogether and going for something fun instead. How about non-toxic crayons (you can even recycle old used crayons), or coloring pages printed on recycled paper? Marbles are fun and fairly cheap and can be divided up into little paper baggies (though remember they are a choking hazard for kids under age 3). Here's a neat idea: rather than giving the kids more treats, how about giving them a fun way to recycle all of those candy wrappers when they're done with them? Starburst and Tootsie Rolls are very popular Halloween candies, and this tutorial shows how to make chains out of those wrappers that can be used to make jewelry, hairpieces, keychains or decorations for the Christmas tree (I used to make these with gum wrappers when I was a kid). Slipping a little copy of these instructions in a child's bag might help to keep some of those non-recyclable wrappers out of the landfill for awhile longer!

So which of these ideas will I be using this year? I honestly have no idea. I'm thinking coloring pages and the candy chain tutorial might be the way to go for us...though I do hope to at least bake enough organic sugar cookies to give to the kids in the neighborhood whose parents we've already met!

I have bought some felt to make the bottom half of Jem's Halloween costume, and I have a friend with an awesome WAHM-made crocheted hat business, Happy Hats by the Girls, working on the top part (which he can keep using as a winter hat after Halloween is over). So what will he be? Well, I'll give you a hint: we're going to be dorks and we're all going with Harry Potter costumes this year. Hubby and I are planning to be Lupin and Tonks (I'm hoping I can find a natural way to temporarily dye my hair purple...blueberries, maybe?) Jem will be...something in keeping with the theme. :-)

Hope you all have a blast with your Green Halloween preparations! I know I plan to!

The Laundry Tarts Giveaway Winner

2011-09-15T23:00:00.000-04:00

Hi all, sorry I haven't been posting much recently, we've been so swamped with cleaning, unpacking and organizing! We're also still busy clearing out the old apartment thoroughly so we can get our security deposit back. Oy, craziness! Hopefully things will settle down soon and I can get back into the swing of things!

We have a winner for The Laundry Tarts giveaway! She is Olivia L! Congratulations Olivia! I will be contacting you via email and you'll have until next Tuesday to claim your prize.

Thank you all once again for following Jem's Room, and have a very restful weekend!

Olivia L said...

Following you on Networked Blogs
olivia.lasting at gmail dot com

September 4, 2011 4:48 PM

We're On Our Way!

2011-09-06T21:59:00.001-04:00

Moving day is Monday, and we're frantically trying to get stuff done before then! Pulled up some very old wallpaper in a bedroom that will eventually be Jem's, now I have to strip off the glue and apply zero-VOC primer and paint (Olympic brand). We'll use the same cream-colored paint ("crescent moon") that we're using for the half-wall my hubby and uncle built in the living room so that we don't waste any, and a little sample can of a pretty deep blue for the window trim.

Turns out some of the Freecycled furniture we picked up will need some steam cleaning, and one of them will probably need de-mildewing...ugh. I'm hoping it isn't so bad that we need to get rid of it...it's a sofa bed and was a pain to transport! We'll definitely be getting a new mattress for it, but hopefully the musty smell is just coming from the upholstery and not the fill!

Hubby started a compost pile in the backyard with grass clippings (bought himself an electric mower), in some kind of chicken wire pen the previous owners left behind (for all I know they used it for the same thing). I'm wondering if it can be used for vermicomposting... I have to read up on it, but I'm afraid the worms would escape. Hubby thinks they'd stick around for the steady food supply. Anybody have any insight? We used to use a Rubbermaid bin to keep the worms in and the sunlight out, which we'll probably still have to do during the winter!

Back here in our apartment, I have discovered you can clean an oven fairly effectively with baking soda and vinegar, then a second scrub with blue Dawn. It's not perfect, but it should keep the management happy when we move out. :-) Cleaning out the closets has produced a plethora of items for our Freecycle bin. It feels good getting rid of some of the clutter!

Very excited to move into our new home! Once we're all moved in, we'll be hitting the consignment shops for the last few pieces of furniture we need (mostly shelving). And I can't wait for the new washing machine to arrive!

All in all, I am one happy little homemaker. :-) Hope everyone had a happy Tuesday!

An Eco-friendly Halloween: Green Costume Ideas

2011-09-02T21:35:00.003-04:00

No offense to Kermit, Shrek, the Geico gecko, Slimer (remember him?) or the Jolly Green Giant, but they're not exactly what I have in mind when I say "Green Costume Ideas." (Though I'm sure if you're creative enough you could come up with eco-friendly versions of all of those!)

If you're a Halloween nut like I am, you probably started thinking about your child's costume, or your costume, no less than a month ago. If you're not such a Halloween nut, you still may have started thinking about it recently, since the holiday/seasonal marketing campaigns seem to begin earlier every year, and I have definitely seen the topic discussed already among some of my Facebook mama friends. Halloween can be a wonderfully exciting time for your child and for you, but when you consider just how much waste is produced - and, oftentimes, immediately discarded or hoarded away to take up space in a closet somewhere - you might start to feel a bit less excited!

Never fear! There are greener solutions for almost everything, even Halloween. Here are a few greener costume tips to help set your eco-conscience at ease:

1) Reuse a costume. I'm listing this one first because it is definitely the most eco-friendly solution! No more waste will be produced when you reuse one of your own old costumes or someone else's. If you use one of your own, you can always put a new spin on it: if you or your child were a fairy last year, you could be a ghost fairy, or vampire fairy, or a fairy dentist this year. Use your imagination! That's what the day is all about, isn't it? (At least, that's what it's all about these days!) Good places to look for used (and cheap or free) costumes that are still new to you are Freecycle.org and Craigslist. You can probably also find some on ebay or other online marketplaces, but keep in mind there would be packing materials and fuel involved in the shipping process, making this option somewhat less green.

2) Make your own costume. The most eco-friendly way to do this is by using materials you already have or can obtain used (which would make this option just as green as option 1). Old clothes - such as ripped jeans, flannel shirts, pajamas, and old evening gowns - can be transformed into a number of different costumes, like scarecrows, farmers, mummies, prison inmates, princesses and beauty queens. Unearth your favorite old tie-dye shirt and be a hippie for a night (not a big stretch for some of us). Old boxes can transform your child into a TV set, a giant cereal box, a wall socket, even a Lego...the possibilities are endless. If you sew, you might want to try something more fancy or elaborate, or a character not easily made from items you already have...in this case, you could consider buying organic or fairly traded fabrics, or just avoid polyester (plastic) blends. Even if you just buy any old fabric from the local craft store, there's still quite a bit less production waste involved than in buying a costume off the rack from Target, Walmart or a major online retailer!

3. Buy WAHM-made. Don't think you're crafty enough to make something, or just don't have the time? There are plenty of WAHMs and other crafty people with Etsy shops, or even local shops, selling handmade costumes for kids, and even some for adults (though adult costumes can definitely be on the pricier side). Some Etsy sellers are even willing to reuse packing materials and ship via USPS if you ask nicely (and some already do without needing to be asked). If you need it in a hurry via UPS or FedEx, you could have it shipped to your workplace or your husband's workplace or someplace where UPS and FedEx already make daily visits anyway.

Jem in his very first Halloween costume, Dopey, made by Leaping Lizzie of Etsy

4. Buy a costume from an eco-conscious costume company: ecofabulous has some great suggestions for these!

5. Buy a costume you can reuse for other occasions. If your little girl wants to be a princess and you have absolutely nothing you could use, resist the urge to head to the Disney store: maybe it's time to invest in a nice fancy dress she can wear for Christmas, church, weddings, whatever. You don't have to spend a fortune on this, my mother has a knack for finding really great deals on fancy children's clothes at Kohl's and Target, and I've seen gorgeous clothes in great condition at consignment shops. It doesn't hurt to buy a size larger than her current size so that she'll still be able to wear it several months down the road (honestly, who cares if a child's clothes are a bit on the baggy side?) If she MUST have that costume she saw on the rack at Disney and you're out of the energy and willpower to say no, make sure she will keep using it as a dressup costume, and that she knows once she grows out of it that it will be going to another child who can use it!

Which brings me to...

What do you do with the costume after Halloween is over?

Obviously, this depends on the costume. Random pieces of clothing or household items you threw together can be returned to normal use. Store-bought or good quality handmade costumes can be sold or donated if they're not being used for dressup. Keeping a costume stashed way for nostalgic purposes really just takes up space when it could be going to good use elsewhere! And honestly, how often do you take them out just to gaze at them? My advice: take pictures. The memory of your little one or yourself in that awesome costume will be much better preserved that way anyway. If you have, or plan to have, more children who could reuse the costume down the road, by all means store it for them, but once they're done with it pass it on to someone else!

I personally have been a variety of different fairy tale princesses for Halloween in the past several years. This was actually for business purposes: I used to entertain at kids' parties on weekends, dressing up like fairy tale princesses (Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Tinker Bell, Snow White, etc), leading sing-a-longs and games and painting faces. So every Halloween I'd buy a new costume and then use it for my parties. It was a fun and not entirely difficult way to make some extra cash, and definitely put those costumes to good use! They have all been stored in the back of my closet lately, since I intended to get back into the party business this year. That hasn't happened yet. So I figure I'll give myself one more year to get back into it, and if I don't then all of those costumes will go to someone else who can use them!

The Royal Family: Mommy in her reusable, machine washable Snow White costume from My Dress Up Trunk (boy do I look tired here...dealing with a feisty 6 month old will do that!), Daddy in his homemade Prince costume (a cut-up old Snuggie, a bedsheet, and a belt...he's a good sport) and the littlest dwarf.

My last bit of advice is regarding cheap plastic Halloween costumes. You know, the kind they sometimes sell at CVS and Walmart? If you do nothing else to green your Halloween, I urge you to avoid these costumes. First of all, many of them are so cheaply made that they are destined to tear or break before Halloween is even over (or started), meaning they can't be sold or donated and will just end up in a landfill (I think we had maybe one or two of these when we were kids and I don't think they ever even got touched in the dressup box before they got thrown away). Also, many of them are made of off-gassing plastics like PVC that contain harmful phthalates (softeners), which, if inhaled, can contribute to asthma and other respiratory problems. PVC has also been implicated in disorders like ADHD, and recurring symptoms such as headaches and nausea. A good tip: if the costume smells like a new shower curtain or beach ball (which also generally contain PVC), do not buy it!

Trick or Treat! Let's see, here's a candy bar for the TinMan and a migraine for Dorothy! Phthalates and wheezing and chest pain, oh my!

I'll have more Halloween eco-tips in the coming week, so stay tuned! Happy planning! :-)

The Laundry Tarts Review and Giveaway!

2011-08-30T21:39:00.005-04:00

Rounding out Detergent Giveaway Month today, I am pleased to be able to give one lucky reader the chance to try a fabulous detergent that isn't very easy to come by here in the US. The Laundry Tarts is a Canadian company with a limited number of US retailers, but I can only hope that changes soon! I would very much like to see this soap featured on the shelves of my local cloth diaper store!

When I first came across The Laundry Tarts detergent while browsing around on EcoFriendlyGreenThings.com, I was intrigued by three things: first, the eco-friendly list of ingredients; second, the pretty, biodegradable, compostable packaging printed with vegetable inks; and third, the list of scents offered on that website: Key Lime Pie, Lemon Meringue, Orange Dreamsicle, and Plain Jane Unscented. As a woman who will usually only use scented versions of anything if they smell like food, the idea of a detergent company that only uses fragrances you'd find in a bakery definitely appealed to me! And the offering of an unscented version for babies with more sensitive skin is always a plus.

Naturally, I had to find out more, so I went on their website, and was amazed by not only the long list of delicious-sounding scents offered, but the company's clear commitment to being environmentally responsible. Not only do they feature a long explanation of why it's best to use environmentally friendly alternatives in your washing machine, they also feature an "Eco-Corner" with recommendations for eco-friendlier and healthier alternatives for toothpaste, menstrual relief, cleaning products, facial care, so on and so forth. This is a company that clearly is passionate about being eco-conscious!

Also, I can't even tell you how much I love the name and the logo: "The Laundry Tarts" is not only indicative of the delicious smelling pastry-inspired scents they offer, it is also how the founders, Jessy Cooke and Tanja Warren, refer to themselves - The Tarts. At least, this is suggested by the pair of coy, "tart-ish" ladies featured on the package, hanging a gigantic diaper out to dry behind a sudsing, cup-cake shaped laundry tub with a cherry on top. It just doesn't get much cuter than that!

Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), Sodium Carbonate (Soda Wash), Sodium Percarbonate (Powdered hydrogen peroxide), Sea salt, Saponified coconut/canola oil, rosemary extract, phthalate free essential and fragrance oils.

So how well does it work? It works quite well even in our cheapo, lukewarm-water toploader. Every bit as well as Eco Sprout or Rockin' Green, and I must say I have a personal preference for the scents that The Laundry Tarts have to offer (I tried samples of Red Velvet Cake, Peaches 'n Creme, and Brown Sugar Pie...and though I just bought a 4 lb. bag of Plain Jane Unscented, I am sorely tempted to purchase at least a few samples of Cinnamon Bun, Gingerbread, Lemon Meringue, Key Lime Pie, and Mint Chocolate Chip...yum!) They actually put a warning on the package that the detergent is not edible, that's how good it smells! The scents wash out completely, and though heavy stains should be pre-soaked, pretreated and/or sun-bleached (as with most diaper-specific detergents), poopy smells and urine/ammonia smells do wash right out. My RearZ fitteds still do have to be washed twice, but I've basically resigned myself to that...we'll see how they do in our new machine!

I also had the opportunity to try The Laundry Tarts in my mother-in-law's HE front-loader, using half the amount of detergent as I use in my machine (dissolved into a bit of warm water). Her machine is much more powerful than mine (and gets much hotter water), and I was so impressed by the results! There was definitely less staining. I cannot wait to try this detergent in our new HE toploader when it arrives! I'm really just so eager to be rid of our current machine.

The Giveaway - How to Enter
Jessy and Tanja have generously agreed to give away a 12-24 load sample pack of The Laundry Tarts in four yummy scents, plus a Sweet Spots stain remover stick (which I have not tried but am very curious about)! To enter, please use at least one of the mandatory entries below (use more than one for additional entries). You may also use one or all of the optional additional entries, but none of these entries will count if you do not include a mandatory entry! PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH ENTRY. I will never use your email address for any purpose other than to contact you if you are the winner.

MANDATORY ENTRIES (pick one or do them all!):
~ Follow Jem's Room on Google Friend Connect (by clicking the "follow" link at the top of this blog page or going to the GFC box in the righthand column). Leave a comment here that you have done so (if you already do, it counts!)
~ Follow Jem's Room on Facebook. Leave a comment here that you have done so (with your Facebook name).
~ Follow Jem's Room on Networked Blogs. Leave a comment here that you have done so.
~ Follow Jem's Room by email by entering your email address in the box in the right hand column of this blog page. Leave a comment here that you have done so.

Additional optional entries:
~ Visit the The Laundry Tarts website, then come back to this blog post and leave a comment to tell me which of their scents sounds the yummiest to you!
~ Like The Laundry Tarts on Facebook. Come back to this blog post and comment that you have done so (with your Facebook name, please!)
~ Visit The Laundry Tarts distribution partner, MonkeyDoodlez. and comment here to tell me which of their products you'd most like to try!
~ Leave a link to this contest page anywhere on Facebook or your own blog or website. Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find the link!)
~ Grab my button and post it on your blog (on the main page or other permanent page, not in a blog entry). Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find it!) You may use this for 4 separate entries.
~ Add Jem's Room to your blogroll. Leave a comment here that you have done so. You may use this for 2 separate entries.

Sweet Spot stain remover

This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada and will end on Wednesday, September 14. Winner will be picked by a random number generator. Good luck to all!

***I received a small sample pack of detergent for review. No other payment was received for this review, and all opinions expressed here are my own.***

New winner!

2011-08-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to announce that the winner of the NaturOli soap nuts giveaway is #23, kmogilevski from All Natural Katie! I will be emailing Katie and she will have until Tuesday evening to claim her prize.

I apologize for the lack of a random number generator screenshot, I picked the winner from my iPad, and if there's a way to save a screenshot on here I don't know about it yet!

Going to try to pick up some Freecycle furniture today before Irene makes her way here! Stay safe my friends!

Scrub-a-dub-dub

2011-08-25T22:41:00.000-04:00

Hi all! Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day for the Naturoli Soap Nuts giveaway! Low entries, give it a shot! The winner will probably be posted on Saturday.

We'll be rounding out Detergent Giveaway Month with one last review and giveaway this weekend...it's a good one. Hint: they're a Canadian-based company, and they're serious about keeping things green! Trust me, you want to enter this one. :-)

I'll be spending my weekend with the hubby celebrating our second wedding anniversary! That is, if Hurricane Irene doesn't have other plans for us. :-) It's been a wonderful two years! I never thought two years ago that I'd become such a hippy. It's amazing how getting married and having a child will change your life in ways you never expected!

Have a very happy Friday everyone!

Tidy Tidy, Swishy Swashy, Kissy Kissy!

2011-08-23T22:51:00.001-04:00

I need to clean up this blog! I mean, I've known that since I started it, you have to have a good design, right? And I definitely do not. I'm torn between wanting to get creative and try to do it myself (see if I could actually make the image in my head a reality) and having someone do it for me. The problem is I'm cheap, and it's not as if I'm making a profit from this blog to begin with! :-) Oh, I could do the ad thing, but I'm not quite sure I want to take that step...advice from other mama bloggers would be most welcome! Even if you don't have your own blog, I'm definitely open to ideas about blog design from anyone!

In other news, I do believe I have picked an HE washing machine. I'm planning to go with the most updated version of the GE Profile Harmony. It's kind of a leap of faith, since it's gotten rave reviews but they're all very recent reviews from very new users. We will be getting a two year warranty with the machine. I'm thinking we should buy an extended warranty but hubby isn't sure we should cough up so much extra money for it (it is a lot of money to begin with). Thoughts? Experiences? I'm new to this HE machine thing, so I'd love some advice! I know I've been asking for tips more lately than I've been giving them, but it seems when buying a house you start to figure out just how much you don't know!

Well, tomorrow is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday, but I apparently blew Turn-it-Off Tuesday today (it helps when you actually keep track of the days of the week, which for some reason my mommy brain finds increasingly difficult), so tomorrow will be my computer-free day. Therefore I shall leave you with the photo you would have received tomorrow (and I believe this means all you email subscribers will actually receive this photo on Wednesday for a change!) It's an older one, but a goodie! Jem was quite a little guy in this photo. :-) I think Blue is blushing...

Have a wonderful Wednesday, all!

Busy busy busy

2011-08-22T22:04:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted much in the past week, we've just been busy busy busy cleaning the house, building a half-wall in the living room (well, that was hubby's job) and trying to arrange to pick up Freecycled furniture (we need a truck and a babysitter...finding babysitters when you need 'em can be such a challenge)!

I've also just been poring over reviews of three different HE topload washing machines: the Fisher & Paykel AquaSmart, the GE Profile Harmony, and the LG Wave. I think I'm leaning away from the F&P at this point but I'm hesitant to take it off the table completely (since I think it's the only one definitely not manufactured in China, and so many cloth diapering mamas love it). The newer GE and LG models both get rave reviews, I think it will be just a matter of figuring out which model gets the hottest water! Very important for cloth diapering! Apparently these days they're making HE toploaders in such a way that many of them don't get hot enough water. I guess it has something to do with maintaining the Energy Star rating, though if your clothes don't get clean because the water isn't hot enough and you have to run another cycle I don't see how that's very energy efficient. Looks like the GE might be the winner in the hot water department, but it's hard to say for sure. Oy, decisions, decisions! Thanks to Virginia Lee for bringing the GE Profile series to my attention! Perhaps one of these days they'll design a washing machine specifically with cloth diapering mamas in mind. Wouldn't that be cool? :-)

Speaking of CDing, my friends over at EcoBabyBuys are having a big diaper giveaway when they hit 9000 Facebook fans! Check out their blog for details on how to enter, and if you don't already like them on Facebook go check them out! I've gotten some amazing deals through that website, and I can't recommend them highly enough (and no, they didn't pay me to say that)!

Have a great, productive week everyone! :-)

It's Official!

2011-08-18T21:25:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday, my hubby and I officially became homeowners! Woo-hoo! I am so excited to get the house ready for move-in day. And of course I'm looking forward to all of the great greening we'll be able to do that we haven't been able to do in the apartment community we're currently in. Figured I'd make a little "Green To-Do List" to help keep my eye on the ball!

1) Paint any areas that must be painted with non-VOC paint. VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are gasses emitted from paint and other household chemicals and are a major source of indoor air pollution and a contributor to asthma and other childhood respiratory problems.

2) Seal the deck with an eco-friendly, VOC-free sealant to limit Jem's exposure to the pesticide-treated wood.

3) Pick up secondhand furniture and wall-to-wall carpeting from Freecyclers. :-) Thank you, fellow Freecyclers!

4) Install HE washer and dryer (I'm thinking of a Fisher & Paykel AquaSmart washer, I hear it's a good one for cloth diapers...any thoughts? I really want to keep using a top-loader!)

5) Make a vermicomposting bin and buy some red wigglers (we had one in our previous apartment but the landlord tossed it on the curb for trash pickup...English wasn't his first language and he didn't understand our label "Compost." Bye bye worms!)

6) Put a bucket under the faucet in the shower to catch access water to use for flushing toilets and cleaning.

7) Install a rain barrel to water indoor and outdoor plants.

8) Plant some fruit trees and start a container garden (someday I might have a backyard garden, but I've never had one before and you have to start somewhere!) I'm also seriously considering planting a soap nut tree. Apparently you can grow them here! It might take a couple of decades to bear fruit, but how cool would it be to have organic laundry detergent growing in your own backyard!

Eventually we also want to install solar panels, but that might take a few years to accomplish! Do you have any other great green suggestions we could try in our new home?

Wordless Wednesday - More Fun with Random Objects

2011-08-17T21:59:00.000-04:00

(Apologies for the blurry cell phone pics)

NaturOli Soap Nuts Review and Giveaway!

2011-08-15T13:16:00.005-04:00

Back from my refreshing little computer hiatus and ready for another giveaway!

Yes, this August is Detergent Giveaway Month here in Jem's Room. We started the month with an Eco Sprout detergent giveaway, which gave me the opportunity to try and review a great cloth diaper-specific detergent. Now I've been informed that the good folks at NaturOli Soap Nuts, a wonderful product I recently bought for my regular (non-diaper) laundry, have agreed to give away one 40 load bag of their product to my readers! Plus a little added bonus prize!

After I bought some of these little gems last month on Amazon and tried them to clean our clothes and cleaning rags, I was hooked, and promptly contacted NaturOli (pronounced "naturally") to see if they'd be interested in doing a giveaway. I was so excited when they agreed, because I really would love for one of you guys to get to try them! For those of you who don't know what a soap nut (also called a soap berry) is, they are actually little "nuts" that grow on the sapindus tree, and produce a cleansing resin called saponin, which literally is a soap: the most natural soap on earth! NaturOli soap nuts are specifically of the Sapindus Mukorossi variety that grow in India and Nepal. They are USDA certified organic by EcoCert! I was very skeptical about how they would work on my laundry, but they actually work amazingly well!

How to use soap nuts: Place a few soap nuts (about 4-6...I've been using five) in the little muslin bag included with your order. If doing a hot or warm wash, throw the bag in the washer before your laundry. If doing a cold wash, first soak the bag in a few ounces of warm water for several minutes, then throw the bag with the water in the washer before your laundry. (I find it helps to place the bag in a zippered mesh lingerie bag, particularly if you are doing a load of whites, so it's easier to find the bag when the wash is done...otherwise it might get lost in a pant leg or pocket somewhere!) The bag can be reused about 4-6 times before changing the soap nuts, making this an incredibly economical choice for laundry! Even more economical is the fact that soap nuts are very lightweight, so shipping costs, no matter where you order from, tend to be very low.

You don't have to pull the bag out of the wash before the rinse cycle. Saponin cleans very well but, unlike most commercial detergents, is not so soapy or gummy that it will leave residue on your clothes. In fact, if you leave it in for the rinse cycle it acts as a natural, non-irritating fabric softener (though some garments may still develop static cling in the dryer...I recommend using dryer balls for this problem)! My clothes have been coming out incredibly soft and clean, and smelling like, well, absolutely nothing!

As with most natural detergents, it's highly recommended that you pre-treat any tough stains. You can do this by soaking a few soap nuts in a tiny amount of hot water and rubbing the liquid into the stains, or you can do what I do, which is sprinkle the stain with baking soda and then spray it with vinegar. Usually works like a charm. :-)

Included with my order of NaturOli Soap Nuts from Amazon was a small sample bottle of their Extreme18X "award-winning, eco-friendly, ultra-concentrated extract," which is basically a really effective liquid version of soap nuts with some other added, natural ingredients. I used this on my whites and yes, even on my cloth diapers a couple of times when I was in a pinch, and I was incredibly pleased with how well it worked! Just one teaspoon cleans a full load of laundry! It left no residue on my diapers or irritation on Jem's bum. I also used tiny amounts of it to clean my dishes a few times, which worked as well as any dish detergent! I am very pleased that in addition to the 40 load bag of soap nuts that NaturOli is providing for this giveaway, they are also including one of these sample bottles of Extreme 18X!

(A note about using soap nuts on cloth diapers: though they can be used for cotton diapers and other natural fibers, like prefolds or fitteds, they are not generally recommended for synthetic fabrics like microfleece and microfiber, since the saponin may clog the diapers over time and cause repelling. Since the Extreme 18X washes out in the rinse cycle I felt comfortable using it on my pockets a few times, but I would not recommend the soap nuts themselves for use on pockets, particularly not for long-term use).

Please visit the NaturOli website for complete washing instructions, other uses (there are many!) and additional product information.

The Giveaway - How to Enter

To enter to win one 40 load bag of soap nuts and a sample bottle of 18X Extreme liquid concentrate, please use at least one of the mandatory entries below (use more than one for additional entries). You may also use one or all of the optional additional entries, but none of these entries will count if you do not include a mandatory entry! PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH ENTRY. I will never use your email address for any purpose other than to contact you if you are the winner.

MANDATORY ENTRIES (pick one or do them all!):
~ Follow Jem's Room on Google Friend Connect (by clicking the "follow" link at the top of this blog page or going to the GFC box in the righthand column). Leave a comment here that you have done so (if you already do, it counts!)
~ Follow Jem's Room on Facebook. Leave a comment here that you have done so (with your Facebook name).
~ Follow Jem's Room on Networked Blogs. Leave a comment here that you have done so.
~ Follow Jem's Room by email by entering your email address in the box in the right hand column of this blog page. Leave a comment here that you have done so.

Additional optional entries:
~ Visit the Naturoli website, then come back to this blog post and leave a comment to tell me one other product of theirs which you might like to try (or have me review!), or any of the other uses for soap nuts that you might try if you won!
~ Like NaturOli on Facebook. Come back to this blog post and comment that you have done so (with your Facebook name, please!)
~ Leave a link to this contest page anywhere on Facebook or your own blog or website. Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find the link!)
~ Grab my button and post it on your blog (on the main page or other permanent page, not in a blog entry). Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find it!) You may use this for 4 separate entries.
~ Add Jem's Room to your blogroll. Leave a comment here that you have done so. You may use this for 2 separate entries.

The contest will end Friday, August 26th. Winner will be picked by a random number generator. Good luck to all!

**Note: I purchased this item myself and received no compensation for this review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.**

Turn-it-Off Tuesdays

2011-08-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

I've decided to take a little computer break for the rest of the week. I think it's good to unplug once in awhile to devote a little more focus to other things, especially when you're mired in bloggyland! :-) In fact, I'm hereby declaring every Tuesday from now on computer-free. So this will be my last Tuesday blog post...ever! I'll catch up with you all again Sunday night or Monday morning, when I'll be announcing a new giveaway! Stay tuned, and thanks for following! Now go stop and smell the roses...or the coffee...or the organic hummus...mmmm....hummus...

Homemade Baby Food: Avocado, Nature's Near-Perfect First Solid Food

2011-08-08T22:53:00.003-04:00

Is your baby ready to start on solids? Congratulations on this milestone! Before you automatically reach for that box of powdered rice cereal, consider this: some pediatricians have now started recommending avocado as a first solid food. It was one of Jem's first solids and my only regret is that it wasn't his very first! He loves it, and it gives him many of the healthy fats and nutrients essential to his little growing body. Many of the nutrients found in rice cereal are supplemental (added) nutrients, which tend not to be as easily absorbed and used by the body as nutrients found in fresh fruits and vegetables.

Avocado is also incredible easy to serve, no cooking required. It can be pureed, mashed or, for slightly older babies, diced and served as a finger food. Even when not organic it is generally very low in pesticides, which is always a bonus when organic options aren't available!

Avocado can easily be combined with other pureed or mashed foods, like applesauce or bananas, for a little extra sweetness. However, it's wise to try all foods by themselves for several days to keep an eye out for sensitivities (allergic reactions, tummy troubles, diaper rashes, etc).

The healthy fat content of avocado makes it a great food for plumping up undernourished babies. If your doctor feels that your baby really needs the extra carbs (for instance, if he or she is losing weight instead of gaining) by all means use the rice cereal! I would, however, encourage you to use the rice cereal in conjunction with avocado or other nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, like bananas, pumpkin, and cantaloupe.

For a full list of the nutritional benefits of avocado, visit WholesomeBabyFood.com, a wonderful resource for learning to make your own baby food! Stay tuned to Jem's Room for more simple baby food tips and recipes!

**Please Note**
This information is not intended to encourage mothers to stop breastfeeding exclusively if that is what they feel is best for their babies. Many babies are able to breastfeed exclusively with no weaning at all, baby-led or otherwise, until they are a year or older. If this is the case for your baby, go for it, you are already giving your child the perfect food! The information in this post is intended for mothers who cannot continue to exclusively breastfeed or were unable to/chose not to breastfeed for any reason.

And the Winner of the Eco Sprout Giveaway is...

2011-08-07T09:04:00.003-04:00

Entry 49, Brittany H. of Lookin for the Good Fluff! Congratulations Brittany! I'll be contacting you and you will have until Tuesday evening to claim your prize. Thanks to everyone who submitted entries! We will have another giveaway very soon, so stay tuned!

Winning Entry:

Brittany H said...

I blogged about this giveaway! http://britsthegoodstuff.blogspot.com/2011/08/eco-sprout-giveaway-ends-86.html

britbakow at gmail dot com

August 1, 2011 8:27 PM

My Cute Green Kid

2011-08-06T10:25:00.002-04:00

Okay, I hate to be one of those annoying braggart moms, but apparently it's been confirmed: my kid is pretty darn cute. As parents we all hear this a lot ("Your baby is the cutest baby EVER!") because, by their very nature, kids are cute! Each one cuter than the next, and if you think your kid is the cutest, then you are right! :-) I just get the additional pleasure today of announcing that Jem was selected as the winner of The Cute Green Baby photo contest over at ecofriendlygreenthings.com, an awesome shop with some very cool green items. They have a big sale going on right now, hop on over and check them out! I have a few choice items there I've had my eye on for Christmas presents. Thanks to the gift certificate we won, I may just order them a bit early. Jem also won a reusable Elmo tote bag from Envirosax. We are all just pleased as punch over here!

Here is the winning photo with the caption I sent (you can click on the photo for a larger view):

"This is my son Jem doing what he loves best, playing barefoot in the grass. He is wearing a Fuzzibunz cloth diaper and a 100% organic "Go Green" onesie that mommy converted into a t-shirt (since it wouldn't fit over the diaper...the leftover fabric with snaps is going to good use as an extender for his other onesies). He is carrying his much-loved "popper" which he received from a nice lady on Freecycle, and a Wonderworld Toys eco-friendly wooden sound block. (He sure likes making noise!) He refuses to keep a hat (or pants) on, but his fair skin is protected by Loving Naturals non-nano zinc oxide sunscreen with organic oils."

Don't forget that our own contest for a bag of Eco Sprout detergent ends today! You have till midnight EST to get your entries in, I will pick a winner tomorrow morning. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Homemade Fruity Goat Milk Yogurt

2011-08-05T22:49:00.003-04:00

Since we started Jem on purees at six months we've been making our own organic baby food. Because I was breastfeeding and had dealt with thrush a few times we'd been using probiotics for both of us (luckily, probably because of this, he never got the thrush, just me...ow), so pretty quickly I decided to start giving them to him in the form of yogurt. Since he'd shown signs of sensitivity to cow milk formula, I decided to try using goat milk to make the yogurt (though even some milk intolerant babies do just fine on cow milk yogurt, I preferred to be on the safe side). Unfortunately I found it very difficult to thicken up the yogurt using goat milk. I tried everything: adding tapioca powder, powdered pectin, gelatin...the only thing I don't think I tried was agar agar powder (an apparently wonderful thickener), only because it was so expensive. The yogurt would thicken up a little bit, but stay pretty much the consistency of kefir.

Then a thought occurred to me. If certain fruits naturally contain high amounts of pectin, wouldn't pureeing them up and incubating them with the yogurt help to thicken things up a bit?

After a bit of experimenting with some of Jem's favorite pureed fruits, I came up with the following recipe, which not only thickens beautifully, it tastes great!

Homemade Fruity Goat Milk Yogurt

Ingredients:

1 quart goat milk (we use whole Meyenberg...evaporated milk does NOT work for this recipe)
1 medium sized banana
1/8 to 1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen...if frozen they must be thawed)
Yogurt starter - Powdered starter, 1 teaspoon storebought yogurt, or 1 packet/capsule Culturelle probiotic

Heat the milk in a pan on the stove just until the milk starts to climb the walls of the pan, not to boiling. Remove from heat and allow to cool to about 100 to 110 degrees F (use a candy or meat thermometer). Pour about half of the milk into your blender. Add the yogurt starter, banana and blueberries and blend well (pureeing the blueberries by themselves first might help this step go quicker). Add the rest of the milk, stir, and pour into sterilized yogurt containers (we either use the jars that came with our yogurt maker or a quart sized pyrex bowl, which fits quite nicely). Make sure your yogurt maker is CLEAN and incubate for 12 hours or more (I usually do about 15).

If you do not own a yogurt maker you can make your own using a heating pad and a cooler, your stove or a crock pot. There are various instructions found online on how to do this, just do a Google search! I have never tried these methods for this recipe so I personally couldn't attest to the effectiveness of any of them, but I do have a friend who has used her crockpot to make cow milk yogurt with great success.

I plan to post more of my favorite baby food recipes and suggestions in the coming weeks! Making your own baby food is so easy and can actually be quite cost effective. Have fun experimenting with yours!

Building Your Own Support System

2011-08-04T14:35:00.000-04:00

This doesn't really fall under the "green" category, but bear with me. In Tuesday's post, I shared with you about how some parents on online forums can be very snarky and hurtful to one another. Around the time I wrote it, someone pointed out to me that the reason behind this is simple: anonymity. On an online parenting forum, particularly the really big popular ones, no one knows anyone. As much as the group's purpose may be about community and support, once the community becomes large enough, with hundreds or thousands of members who don't know one another personally, the rules of social graces fall to pieces. People become less concerned with what they say because, heck, if they say something hurtful, who are they hurting? Some faceless screenname who clearly doesn't share the same viewpoint and therefore must not have feelings?

When Jem was born, we had a rough first few months. Breastfeeding low supply issues, colic, reflux, sleep deprivation, probably a touch of PPD, so on and so forth. I needed a lot of support, but unfortunately my mom and my closest friends lived three states away, my sister worked full time and had kids of her own, and I really hadn't been living in the town we were in long enough to make other mama friends. Facebook became a godsend, because it helped me keep in close touch with my other mama friends who lived so far away. When I had a problem they couldn't help me with, I'd sometimes turn to one of those online forums, and was often horrified by what I saw there.

Then, while chatting with two mama friends on Facebook about flavoring homemade yogurt (recipe to come!) an idea was born. It wasn't a big idea. It wasn't even a particularly novel idea, since I'm sure it's been done many, many times before. It was simply the idea for a private mom's support group on Facebook. The catch was that it would not be anonymous. Everyone in the group had to be invited by someone they knew personally who was already a member. We would have an honors system: only invite other moms you trust to be supportive and encouraging, not judgemental and critical.

I set the group up and went about inviting friends. They invited their friends. Now, nine months later, we have about 75 members with a small group of regular posters. Everyone knows someone else, everyone is "a friend of a friend," and that makes all the difference. And I have to tell you, these women are amazing! Even though I'm the "moderator," I've had to do very little in the way of actual moderating. Moms in the group post about all kinds of topics - problems, ideas, recipes, frustrations, happy and funny anecdotes - all with a great deal of compassion, respect and encouragement. I am so happy and proud to be a part of such a wonderful group of women and to have them as my support group!

We have since moved closer to my mother and many of my mom friends and live in a community with several other moms and babies in the area, and it is a joy to have that interaction. But I know what it's like to feel that loneliness, to wonder where to turn for support without having your decisions called into question at every turn. I would encourage other moms in this situation to reach out for support from people who can be trusted, who aren't faceless and nameless but who will respect you and recognize you are a person with feelings!

One place to start is by looking for moms' groups in your area. Maybe there is a Meetup.com group near you. Your community library may also have information about such groups in your area. Lactation consultants, pediatricians and ob/gyns sometimes will also have some info. Your local newspaper may have ads for such groups in the classified section. If not, you can make your own! Or, if you're like me and transportation can be an issue, you can start an online group. Facebook is a great way to do this, because so many of your friends probably already use it. If you go to your FB homepage, in the lefthand column you should see a "Create Group" link. You can then pick the friends you want to add to the group (I recommend messaging them first to find out if they'd like to join), pick a name for your group and set your privacy settings (our group, ShareMamas, is a "secret" group, meaning only the members can find it and see the posts). Have your friends invite their friends and voila! Your own private parenting forum. No trolls allowed! :-)

I wish you all a world of support, encouragement, and friendship.

Wordless Wednesday - Frying Pan Fun!

2011-08-03T22:13:00.000-04:00

Attachment Parenting with Empathy

2011-08-02T22:17:00.000-04:00

See if you recognize this scenario: Parent A reads up on some tenet of attachment parenting - co-sleeping, breastfeeding, babywearing, natural sleep methods, etc - and decides this is what she is going to do with her baby. She has read all the research in favor of it, read all the research against the alternatives, and decides it's the only way to go. She tries it, it works brilliantly, she and her baby are both happy and bonding beautifully, and she becomes an advocate for that technique. Meanwhile, Parent B, an equally loving parent, also does her research and decides she will also try the attachment parenting technique. She tries. It fails. She tries again, and again it fails. She keeps trying and trying, for weeks and then months, and eventually becomes exhausted and drained. It isn't working for her and her baby, and she feels guilty and berates herself, because now she is going to break down and try the technique she never wanted to try - store-bought formula, the cry-it-out-method, etc. This method actually works! She and her baby are happier, healthier and better rested for it, and it actually improves their bonding. However, her happiness is short-lived, because she stumbles onto an online parenting forum and meets Parent A, who chastises her for her choice and calls her a "child abuser." Does any of this sound familiar to you?

If it does, read on. I wrote the following in my Facebook notes several months ago when Jem was only about six months old, before I started blogging. I unearthed it today and thought it might be appropriate to share with you all. I'm sorry if it seems a bit preachy, I was in a bit of a tizzy that day!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems whenever I go to an online parenting forum for advice or information I run into a series of heated and rather unkind debates, in which one or several parents verbally (or, I suppose, textually) rip another parent apart for a decision they have made or are trying to make for their child. It really blows my mind how cruel and thoughtless parents can be to one another. Shouldn't we be supportive of one another? After all, we're all in this crazy, sleepless state of things together.

Several years ago, my parents became foster parents, and since then our family has had an up close and personal look at the effects of real neglect, abuse and abandonment of young children. I'm pretty sure this gives me a fairly accurate perspective on these topics, so let me tell you right now a few things which do NOT constitute neglect, abuse or abandonment.

~ The decision to use formula rather than breast milk. Yes, I breastfeed and am a huge proponent of doing so, and I wish more mothers would at least try it out, but there are at least a dozen very valid reasons I can think of for ultimately choosing not to do so. Throughout history, our foremothers have always had to come up with some necessary substitute for breast milk for those mothers who were unable to feed their kids at the boob. I personally suspect the way we evolved to stand upright rather than walk around on all fours might have something to do with the human struggle to breastfeed naturally, but that's just a sort of random theory of mine. Anyway, give 'em a break, ladies. Formula isn't my choice, and it may not be yours, but it isn't arsenic.

~ Having your child vaccinated, or not having your child vaccinated. Or choosing a delayed vaccine schedule. However you feel personally about this issue, whatever the research has led you to believe, the decision to do the opposite of what you yourself have chosen is in no way a form of abuse. Beating your child for being a couple of minutes late for curfew, that's abuse.

~ Circumcision. I'm talking about male circumcision as it's commonly practiced in the US. Now some of you guys (albeit a minority of you) claim to miss your foreskin, and I don't begrudge you that. Also, I understand that every surgery has its risks and its resultant horror stories. However, we are talking about a one-time procedure with a low rate of complications in which the baby is almost always properly anesthetized, the doctor is skilled, the instruments are sterile, at least one parent is almost always present before, during and after to provide comfort, and which is actually an effective preventative measure (talk to a mother who has to have her child circumcised at age 9 because he refuses to clean himself properly and gets repeated infections, or the elderly man at the nursing home who has to have it done then. It hurts more for them and they actually remember the pain). The choice not to circumcise is an EQUALLY valid choice. No one really wants to put a little baby through any discomfort, and the thought of removing a piece of an appendage may seem really strange and unnecessary to you. Either decision is usually made with a great deal of love and consideration for the child. So let's try to leave words like "barbaric" and "obtuse" out of it, okay? An abusive circumcision would be one where the instruments are not sterile, the doctor is of questionable skill, there is no anesthetic and afterward the kid is left with a gaping open wound with no treatment or comfort. This does happen in the world. Let's keep some perspective.

~ Using only Western medicine, or only homeopathic remedies. I personally think there is a time and a place for both. Regardless, if a parent is trying as hard as possible to relieve a child's suffering using whatever means they deem necessary and appropriate within their own belief system (by this, of course, I do not mean smothering the child with a pillow to put him out of his misery), I don't see how anyone could possibly claim abuse or neglect. Leaving a sick toddler alone in a playpen with a bottle of Jolt cola while you go out with friends to get high: that's abusive and neglectful.

~ Using the Cry-It-Out method, or variations thereof. I've heard everything which "the research indicates." Let me tell you, there's a lot of research to sift through on this topic, and half of it contradicts the other half. Could letting your child cry so you can get some sleep leave emotional scars and possibly cause anxiety down the road? Maybe. Some studies say yes, some studies say no. Now let me tell you what can really do some damage to a baby: a sleep-deprived parent who has tried everything else he or she can think of to get the child (and themselves) to go to sleep and is gripped, at 4 in the morning, with a sudden urge to throw that child across the room. Do what you have to do, my friends, to keep your child safe and to keep yourself from a lifetime of regret and self-loathing. Do what you have to do.

~ Co-sleeping. Or not co-sleeping. Does co-sleeping reduce the risk of SIDS? Absolutely! Does it also run the risk of a parent rolling over onto the child, smothering the child, or accidentally pushing the child onto the floor? Yes, indeed. The rule here is "know thyself." Are you a fitful sleeper? Do you thrash about in your sleep? Will you even be able to sleep knowing there's a fragile little baby next to you? Can you sleep if you modify your bed properly to make it a safe place for baby? Make the decision based on your own answer to those questions, and remember there are children out there whose parents leave them alone in the house at night, or with dangerous strangers, or for whom the dark of night is a time of unspeakable horrors.

~ Using bumpers, blankets, hats, or stuffed animals at night. Yes, all of these things can pose suffocation hazards. I'd personally love to use a hat on Jem at night, but I don't quite trust him to wake up if it falls over his face (though he probably would). Again, know thyself, know thy baby, make sure if you choose to use them that you can check on your child frequently, and if you choose not to don't rag on the parent who does. There are babies who freeze to death because the parents don't care enough to remember to pay the heating bill, don't clothe the child properly, and don't provide so much as a cuddle for body heat.

Keep everything in perspective, and be forgiving of one another!

...Aaaaand that's my soapbox speech for the day.

New Things

2011-07-31T09:40:00.000-04:00

New guest blog post up on Diaper Junction's Cloth Diaper Blog! Stop by and show me some love! :-)

This week, Jem figured out how to open most of the doors in our apartment. He also learned how to undo his snap diapers (he figured out the velcro ones weeks ago). While he's been mastering these skills, he's also been cutting four molars at once, with all the diaper rashes and crankiness that entails. So in the past week, I've had a whining, thumb-sucking, clingy little monster following me around and chewing on everything in sight, whom doors will not contain and who needs to be strong-armed into his diapers (no easy feat) and then wrestled into clothes immediately after so he does not take off those diapers.

Yep, it's been one of those weeks. It's a good thing he's so darn cute! Parenting ain't always easy. What were some of your roughest moments as a parent so far?

What do YOU think?

2011-07-29T22:37:00.000-04:00

Hello friends! So far on this blog I've offered a lot of information, and shared a lot of my own opinions. However, I am very curious to hear more from all of you! What is your favorite eco-friendly household/baby product? Did you make it yourself? Is it WAHM-made? I'm especially curious to hear about your experiences with things I haven't tried yet, like baltic amber teething necklaces, top-loading HE washing machines, high-tech baby carriers like the Ergo, family cloth, backyard gardens, "gray water" buckets in the shower or under the rain gutters... anything you've tried that maybe you've really loved or found useful! Or even anything you've tried and hated. Leave a comment here on this blog post and your thoughts might even be featured in a new blog post! With your permission, of course!

Also, don't forget to enter my Eco Sprout detergent giveaway, open until 8/06! At this point, the odds of winning are still pretty good, so take a chance!

Thank you all for continuing to follow this blog. Let the sharing begin! :-)

Eco Sprout Review and Giveaway!

2011-07-28T21:43:00.000-04:00

The perfect cloth diaper detergent. Does it exist? I suppose that all depends who you ask. Some people swear by good old-fashioned Tide original. Of course Tide isn't very eco-friendly, and it gives me a rash, so I've never attempted to use it on anything Jem wears. We've been through a good number of the eco-friendly, cloth diaper safe detergents out there - Nellie's, Lulu's, Rockin Green, Crunchy Clean - and there have been things I liked about all of them. All of them have worked for us in certain situations, but not others. Battling the stinkies has never been a particularly easy feat for us, especially since we have dealt with hard water in the past, and now with a water heater we cannot control. Suffice to say I am always eager to try the new "best thing" in CD detergents, and I had an opportunity these past couple of weeks to try the new favorite on the block, Eco Sprout.

A little background: while many of the CD detergents on the market today were formulated by WAHMs (Work-at-Home Moms), Eco Sprout was thought up by a WAHD -- that's right, a Work-at-Home Dad. Awesome, right? I don't know that many dads who even want to do the diaper laundry, much less come up with their own detergent! His name is Jared Edwards, and he wanted to come up with a detergent that was "non-toxic, natural, eco-friendly, sensitive for my boy's bottoms, and got rid of the strong ammonia our diapers always had with other detergents... Eco Sprout detergent is free from dyes, brighteners, enymes, phosphates, SLS, and is 100% biodegradable." Sounds pretty great, doesn't it? I also love that the larger sizes come in cloth bags!

After using it for several diaper washes, I have to agree that it's pretty great. After carefully following the instructions on the Eco Sprout website for switching detergents, I've found it's been able to get out stinkies that our previous detergent wasn't able to!

My favorite of the scented samples is the "Warm Vanilla Sugar." It reminds me of cookies, and anything that smells edible to me is a plus. I always prefer unscented detergents though, and so I personally would stick with "In the Buff" for Jem's diapers. It doesn't smell like anything! The other scents I received for sampling were Baby Powder, Vanilla Sandalwood, and Fresh Linen. Again, I'm not crazy about non-edible smelling scents, but that's just me! I'm more of a "stop and smell the chocolate" kind of girl. However, if you like the smell of baby powder and freshly cleaned sheets, you will probably love these. The scents wash out pretty thoroughly regardless, they're just to make wash day smell a bit more pleasant!

The real test was the RearZ Eco-Kit fitted diapers I bought last month. Because they are so bulky, I have begun to find that they are the hardest diapers in my stash to get thoroughly clean. I have to keep tossing them back in the pail after the first wash to go through another cycle before I'll let Jem wear them again. While this isn't that too much of a problem (there are five of them and we only use them for nighttime), it is kind of a pain. So, did the Eco Sprout get the RearZ clean? Well, yes and no. Some of them come out of the first wash smelling just fine, and some come out still smelling just slightly funky, in a "should I do them again or just leave them be?" kind of way. However, this is a whole lot better than the previous detergent we were using, and I honestly can't blame Eco Sprout for not getting all of these big bulky diapers totally clean in one shot, especially because of our frustratingly lukewarm water (you really need hot water to get things like that totally clean!) It has gotten all of our other diapers smelling fresh and clean, and that's impressive in and of itself! I've also found there is somewhat less staining with the Eco Sprout than with other eco-friendly detergents I've used.

All in all, I am very impressed with Eco Sprout and would definitely recommend it! Thanks to the generosity of Jared and his team, one lucky reader will have the opportunity to try a 24 ounce bag in the scent of his or her choice!

Rules for Entry

Contest is open to anyone in the US or Canada (sorry to my international followers!) There are several different ways you can enter. There is no mandatory entry, pick any one or do them all! Please leave your email address with each entry. I will only use your email address to contact you if you win, I do not spam contest entrants or my subscribers. Email subscribers will have to visit the actual blog to enter.

~ Visit the Eco Sprout website, then come back to this blog post and leave a comment to tell me which scent you'd like to try.
~ Like Eco Sprout on Facebook. Come back to this blog post and comment that you have done so (with your Facebook name, please!)
~ Leave a link to this contest page anywhere on Facebook or your own blog. Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find the link!)
~ Follow Jem's Room on Google Friend Connect (by clicking the "follow" link at the top of this blog page or going to the GFC box in the righthand column). Leave a comment here that you have done so (if you already do, it counts!)
~ Follow Jem's Room on Facebook. Leave a comment here that you have done so (with your Facebook name).
~ Follow Jem's Room on Networked Blogs. Leave a comment here that you have done so.
~ Follow Jem's Room by email by entering your email address in the box in the right hand column of this blog page. Leave a comment here that you have done so.
~ Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find it!)
~ Add Jem's Room to your blogroll. Leave a comment here that you have done so.

The contest will end next Saturday, August 6th. Winner will be picked by a random number generator. Good luck to all!

**I received a free sample of this product for review, however I received no other payment, and I verify that the opinions expressed in this review are my own.**

Gearing up...

2011-07-25T21:21:00.000-04:00

...to do a detergent review and giveaway! But which detergent? Stay tuned!

Hope you're all keeping cool! (Speaking of which, check out this post from Treehugger! What will they think of next?)

Have a happy Tuesday!

Our Recent Freecycle Find

2011-07-24T22:31:00.000-04:00

This one was actually from a month or two ago but I never posted the pic. I was looking for clothes and board books for Jem, and a very nice lady gave us two big bags full of hand-me-down clothes (12m-3T), plus these:

This is actually not even all of it, but I'd already stored all the paperback books away before I snapped this photo. I couldn't believe it when my husband brought it all home. Such a generous find! I thought, he doesn't need all this! I was very happy to have the books and puzzles (especially the four books about trucks...Jem is obsessed with trucks), and I admit I was pleased with the corn popper (we love those but never would have spent the money on one, since we're trying to avoid buying new plastics), but I figured I'd re-Freecycle the walker toy away. Jem had other ideas. As you can see, he wouldn't even take his hand off of it long enough for mommy to take this picture. :-) I don't think we'll need to get him any new toys or clothes for awhile!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Enjoy the week ahead!

Mommy's Touch review

2011-07-23T23:38:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally got to try the Mommy's Touch Easy Clean pocket diapers, and I have to say they get mixed reviews. I ordered two diapers with snaps and one with touchtape (velcro). Although they all have a pretty cool design as far as the pocket goes - they have an opening in front and in back, so the inserts are easier to put in and take out - the only one I'm really loving is the touchtape. The velcro on this diaper is quite heavy duty, which means not only is it slightly harder for my clever son to undo than other velcro/aplix diapers, the laundry tabs (to keep the diapers from sticking together in the wash) also hold up very well. This diaper will likely last us awhile!

In fact, it will probably last us well into his toddler years if need be, because, although these are advertised as one-size diapers, the fit would suggest otherwise. These are not one-size as in "from birth to potty-training," they are one-size as in "from big to huge." The touchtape tabs are meeting in the middle of Jem's tummy! He is a pretty thin little guy, but he's already 15 months old! Even if the top of the diaper was folded down to fit a newborn (see picture below) I don't see how it could fit any but the chunkiest of babies...but I guess I'd have to try it on a smaller baby to get a better picture. The good news is that the loop tape on the inside of the diaper for this purpose is very soft and doesn't irritate Jem's skin at all. We've had no leaks so far in this diaper! Of course, I haven't been using the insert that came with it. It's very long and thin, while the diaper itself is quite wide. Seemed a bit odd to me, so I've been using two wider, somewhat shorter inserts and they've been working great. I've been using the Mommy's Touch insert with our one-size Fuzzibunz, since the Fuzzibunz are thinner. It is a pretty absorbent insert, but I definitely need to double it with another one for my little super soaker.

The snaps are not nearly as easy to use as the touchtape, nor are they as easy to use as the Fuzzibunz snap diapers. I have no experience with any other brands of snaps, but I'm not terribly impressed with the design of these. First of all, even looking at the picture on their website (below) I can't figure out how on earth to adjust them to fit a shorter baby or newborn. Other than that picture they seem to have no other instructions. I'm sure there is a way, but it would be nice if some instructions had been included! Again, like the touchtape, I have these on the slimmest setting for Jem, so I don't know how they'd fit a newborn anyway. These diapers were definitely made with bigger babies in mind! And getting the right fit takes quite a bit of experimenting.

Still, all of these diapers are quite soft and the colors are very vibrant. The snaps don't get points for ease of use, and none of them meet my criteria for a "one-size" diaper, but they don't leak so far and Jem seems quite comfy in them. The fact that they are "easy clean" (the insert supposedly comes right out in the wash because of the double-ended pocket) is irrelevant to me, since I use the "rinse and wring" method before putting every diaper in the pail and manually remove the insert to do so (this method helps to prevent ammonia buildup from letting the urine-soaked diapers sit in the pail). However, I can see how this might be a good feature for other moms who don't rinse and wring. I appreciate that they're manufactured in the USA by WAHMs, and I have a couple more of the touchtape dipes on Jem's wishlist (though our rule now is that he has to wear pants if he's wearing any velcro diaper, or he will work his way out of it). I'll definitely keep all three of these in my stash. But I don't think I'll be buying any more of the snaps anytime soon!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

"Cloth Diaper's Delight"

2011-07-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

I've made a couple of updates to the USA manufactured cloth diapers list. Did a bit of research on Blueberry diapers (and their partners Swaddlebees and Weehuggers) after seeing them for half off on BabySteals today (sorry to report they're already sold out). They've not only made this list, but Jem's Christmas wish list as well! :-)

I have much to write about in the coming days, but I had a couple of margaritas with dinner tonight and my lightweight self is feeling a bit too relaxed and sleepy right now. So I'll just leave you with the following video from the Weehuggers website. I posted it on my Facebook page already, but I thought those of you on my email list and GFC could use a laugh! Although my husband says it's creepy, I think it's hilarious. What do YOU think?

And the winner is...

2011-07-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

Tammy Miliambro Corsini from my Facebook followers! Congratulations Tammy! I will be messaging you to find out where I can send your prize. If it is not claimed in 48 hours I will pick a new winner.

Thanks again to all my readers! 55 in all right now. I feel very blessed to know that many people are interested in what I have to share. Please continue to feel free to share my blog with your friends!

Hope you are all having a terrific Thursday.

Wordless Wednesday (Melissa Gilbert style)

2011-07-20T21:40:00.000-04:00

Greenking Out!

2011-07-19T21:25:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's green geeking out. (How much geekier can you get than inventing a lame new word for that?)

I got a bunch of stuff in the mail in the last two days. Three Mommy's Touch pocket diapers, the new Rearz diaper cover, some Naturoli Soap Nuts to try (right on time, I just used up the last of my laundry detergent last night), a gallon of centrifuge extracted coconut oil, Jem's new stainless steel cereal bowls, and a special "green" little something for a certain someone I'll be celebrating two years of marriage with next month...you'll all just have to wait till then to find out what it is (as will he). :-)

Now, then, what shall I review first? And who shall I Freecycle all of these little shipping boxes to? Decisions, decisions... :-)

I haven't forgotten about the contest that ends Thursday at noon! One of you will win some sweet little eco-friendly bath products! Good luck, and good night.

Freeze the Cantaloupe!

2011-07-18T22:49:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, Jem came down with a severe case of the sniffles. I mean he was congested pretty badly. At first I thought it was a cold. Then I considered seasonal allergies. However, it seemed to come and go throughout the day, and as I tried to pinpoint the timing of it I started to notice it always started in the afternoon, was mostly better by the end of the day, and by the time he woke up the next morning he seemed absolutely fine.

I started to piece things together one day while we were having a little picnic lunch outside. It was a breezy day, but he was showing no signs of stuffiness, so whatever pollen happened to be in our neighborhood air didn't seem to be affecting him. I fed him his usual frozen blueberries (organic blueberries are much cheaper and easier to come by in the frozen food section). A bit of goat cheese. A few organic "cheerios." Then I opened the jar of freshly diced cantaloupe.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Suddenly he was snotty and breathing through his mouth. He still wanted to eat, but it was a bit more of a struggle because his nose was so stuffed up. A couple of minutes later, he started coughing a little. Not severely, but enough that I knew something wasn't right. Against his protests, I put the melon away. How had I not noticed that this was a reaction to the cantaloupe before?

I hadn't noticed simply because usually, at this point in his life, Jem was feeding himself from a tray at lunchtime. I'd give him his food and then keep half an eye on him to make sure he didn't choke or anything, but otherwise just let him eat happily while I attended to other things. So I hadn't realized the stuffiness was starting every time I put the cantaloupe on his tray. This particular day I noticed because we were outside and I was feeding him by hand.

Now, I was a little bit confused. I had never seen cantaloupe on any list of allergenic foods. This also clearly wasn't an anaphylactic reaction he was having, it more closely resembled a seasonal allergy. What was the deal? I sent an email to his pediatrician (who had suspected either seasonal allergies or possibly something viral) and then did some Googling.

What I found was surprising, but made quite a bit of sense. Apparently there is a phenomen called "cross-reactivity," whereby people who are allergic to one kind of plant can also develop allergies to other plants (like fruits and vegetables) which have somewhat similar proteins. If your body is already on the defensive against, for instance, a certain type of pollen, then it may mistake other plants that have similar proteins for that pollen and produce an identical allergic response. This is known, in the medical world, as Oral Allergy Syndrome, or sometimes Pollen-Food Allergy Syndrome.

We all know ragweed is a huge allergen for a lot of people, including my dad and others in my family. Well, can you guess one fruit that is commonly cross-reactive with ragweed? Yup, cantaloupe.

Of course I hadn't seen a doctor about this yet, but getting another doctor's appointment for Jem would take a few days, so in the meantime I simply stopped giving him cantaloupe to see what would happen. The next day he was fine, no stuffiness whatsoever. And the next day...and the next...

So did this mean I had to keep Jem away from cantaloupe, a highly nutritious fruit that he loves, forever? Nope. Here's the thing: cooking or freezing fruits and veggies somewhat alters the proteins, usually to the point where they no longer resemble the offending pollen protein and the body won't react to them. Since dicing and steaming the cantaloupe was time consuming and usually turned the cantaloupe into a soggy mess, I started just tossing it into the freezer. Bingo. Jem has never had another reaction from eating cantaloupe, and, like his blueberries, he now has another refreshing, natural, popsicle-like fruit treat for these hot summer days. Or, if it's too cool for frozen foods, I'll let his blueberries and cantaloupe thaw in the fridge for awhile before lunch. Either way the proteins have already been rendered harmless and don't effect him!

So now you know: if you or your child are getting stuffy and exhibiting a mild reaction to a particular fruit or vegetable, the solution may be as simple as cooking or freezing it. However, you should always report such allergic symptoms to your doctor in case there is a need for further testing. Click here for a list of cross-reactive pollens and foods (please note that this list is by no means complete and should only be used as a reference. Also note that not everyone with pollen allergies will necessarily exhibit signs of Oral Allergy Syndrome).

Have a wonderful Tuesday, everyone!

Contest!

2011-07-16T10:22:00.000-04:00

To say thank you to you all for following my blog, I'm giving away a small box of yummy smelling, eco-friendly bath products to one random reader. The winner will be randomly selected from my full list of Google Friend Connect, Facebook, Email and Network Blog subscribers. If you have multiple subscriptions you'll have multiple chances of winning!

I'll be picking a winner this coming Thursday (July 21) at noon (EST).

(Please note that my immediate family members are not eligible for this contest. Sorry guys! I'll get you back at Christmas.) ;-)

Please spread the word, and good luck everyone!

Jem's Goat Milk Formula

2011-07-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

In Tuesday's post about coconut oil, I mentioned that we make a goat milk formula for Jem. My husband and I are both cow milk intolerant, as are many members of our extended family (as well as 60% of the adult population), and as a newborn Jem displayed intolerance to a cow milk-based formula (we were having to supplement at the time due to low supply issues). However, I have used goat milk in the past with great success, since, due to having smaller protein molecules, goat milk tends to be easier to digest. We decided that once Jem was old enough for milk we would try goat milk first, and if he responded well we would keep him on it for some time.

When Jem was 11 months old, he started biting at the boob -- hard -- and although I would usually shriek, pull him off and say "no" very firmly, he thought my shrieks were quite amusing (since he usually did it when he was finished, or bored, or just not particularly hungry, he wasn't terribly upset about having it taken away). I decided it was time to start weaning. I researched homemade goat milk formula, and I found one that I thought was very impressive here. Unfortunately we could not justify the high cost of all of the ingredients involved, and I didn't think it was actually necessary to include ALL of the ingredients, since he was already almost a year old, not the newborn that the recipe was formulated for.

The first sacrifice we made was the raw goat milk. I did find one seller about twenty-five minutes driving distance from us, but she was selling for over $6 a quart, and getting it would involve constant driving back and forth. Too pricey for the amount we would need! My only other option, therefore, was pasteurized commercial goat milk. The only company that sells this, that I'm aware of, is Meyenberg. We'd been buying cartons of this at the grocery store to make Jem's yogurt (hmmm...a recipe for tomorrow's post, maybe?), but since now we would need it in bulk, we started buying evaporated cans of it from Amazon (the evaporated Meyenberg is also fortified with vitamin D and folic acid. Their regular goat milk is not). We used the "subscribe and save" program, which kept the costs low.

Now, which other ingredients did we want to use? Since Jem was already eating solids, and lots of the healthiest organic fruits and veggies we could find -- avocado, bananas, blueberries, peas, spinach, pumpkin, butternut squash, and cantaloupe -- I decided many of the ingredients were unnecessary. I ended up including only three of the suggested ingredients. The first, not surprisingly, was organic coconut oil, which I felt was essential in order to keep giving him the benefits of lauric acid, which he was getting less of since he was weaning. The second was blackstrap molasses, which is supposed to be very high in calcium and iron (though I've found it can be difficult to find one that is actually high in both...most brands are very high in one but not the other). I included the molasses as much for taste as for nutritional content, since evaporated goat milk is not, in all honesty, nearly as tasty as fresh goat milk. The third ingredient I included was a probiotic. After much research, I decided to go with PB8 by Nutrition Now for it's high probiotic content and variety of strains.

Once I'd decided on these, I decided to add my own ingredient. I was concerned about the fact that goat milk is so much saltier than breast milk, and was afraid the extra salt content might be a bit of a shock to my little guy's kidneys. I didn't want him developing a urinary tract infection, which one of my little nieces had had when she was a baby. So I bought some pure, unsweetened cranberry juice, which is great for keeping the urinary tract in top working order. Although I was worried about how this might effect the taste, I found that adding the cranberry juice to the molasses-sweetened milk gave it a tangy taste very much like the yogurt he'd been eating. Apparently Jem thought so too, because he sucked his first bottle of it right down like he'd been drinking it for months.

Jem has been doing great on this recipe! Even though I add a lot of water to this formula, I find that it is still necessary to give him plenty of water on its own throughout the day, if for no other reason than to keep him hydrated and prevent his urine from becoming too concentrated with ammonia, leaving us to battle with cloth diaper laundry stinkies (trust me when I say this is no fun!) Jem seems to have a pretty good instinct for how much water he needs to drink, as long as I have it readily available for him. He has a bottle (with sippy spout) designated just for water and one in the fridge just for milk, and trust me, he knows which is which!

Here is our recipe (not recommended for babies under 1 year):

1 can Meyenberg evaporated goat milk (with folic acid and vitamin D)
1/4-1/3 cup organic, unsweetened cranberry juice
2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses (organic if possible...I usually use whatever brand I can find in a glass bottle)
1 Tbsp coconut oil
3 capsules PB8 probiotic (or preferred brand)
Filtered water

Open goat milk and carefully pour into half gallon glass jug. Open probiotic capsules one at a time and pour into goat milk. Lightly swish the milk in the jug to mix (do not shake too hard yet, since the milk is still concentrated and can get rather foamy). Add blackstrap molasses, then fill the empty milk can with water and pour into jug (this gets any leftover cream residue out of the can and into the jug where it belongs. You want the cream! Little ones need the calories). Repeat. Cap jug and shake thoroughly until there is no molasses residue left at the bottom of the jug. Allow to sit for a few minutes (I do this in order to let the probiotic start feeding on the sugars in the milk before adding the acidic cranberry juice. I have no idea if this actually works or not. You can skip this step if you like!)

Add the cranberry juice, and shake again, lightly.

Heat the coconut oil just to the point of melting to complete clarity of color. Immediately pour into jug, cap bottle and shake like your life depends on it! (This helps to keep the coconut oil from clumping up all in one big mess at the top of the bottle. Keep in mind that the coconut oil will solidify in the cold fridge and rise to the top, however following these instructions should help keep the hard drops of oil separated and easier to pour. Alternately, you can pour the whole mixture in a big blender, but I personally hate dirtying up my big blender all the time.)

Fill the rest of the jug with water, cap, and lightly shake again. You're done!

Lightly shake jug before pouring milk into bottles. Warm to serve (to melt the coconut oil).

We give Jem 3.5 to 4 ounces at a time, 5 times a day. You may choose to give your baby more at one time, but less frequently.

For the full raw goat milk formula recipe for babies under 1 year, please go to Organic & Thrifty's blog here.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone! Harry Potter, here we come! Oooh... I better get started making butterbeer... Guilty pleasure? Indeed. It sure ain't gonna be organic. :-)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-13T11:55:00.000-04:00

Coconut Oil: Not Just for Diaper Rashes

2011-07-12T22:59:00.000-04:00

If you're reading my blog because you're a mom interested in greening her lifestyle, you may have at least heard about using coconut oil as a diaper rash ointment. This remedy is extremely effective for some moms and babies. For Jem (who has very sensitive skin and is prone to rashes) straight coconut oil tends to work only on milder redness. I've found the best remedy for him is CJs Spritz o' Butter Plus, which contains mostly coconut oil but with added sesame and neem oils...works like a charm!

In my house, coconut oil isn't just for rashes. In fact, the last time I bought coconut oil I bought a quart, and next time I plan to purchase a gallon. Why? Well, due to its unique properties, coconut oil (once given a bad rep for containing saturated fats: read about this here) is not only excellent for your skin but in your diet as well. It contains medium chain fatty acids which are essential to your health, in particular lauric acid, which the body converts to monolaurin. Monolaurin has anti-fungal and anti-viral properties and is a component of human breast milk. In fact, as far as I know breast milk and coconut oil are the only sources of monolaurin for human consumption.

Here is a list of what we have been using coconut oil for in our house (other than diaper rashes):

~ Jem's milk: I make Jem a homemade goat milk formula (I'd list all the ingredients, but that's for a future post), and include a couple of tablespoons of organic coconut oil per half gallon. Since coconut oil solidifies and clumps when cold, I still have to serve his milk warm, but I don't mind the extra time it takes to keep giving him the benefits of monolaurin! Especially since I'm only breast-feeding him once a day now.

~ Cooking! Because unsaturated fats like olive oil can convert to hydrogenated (trans) fats when cooked at high heats, we have switched to using coconut oil (a healthy saturated fat) for most of our cooking. We've been using organic expeller-pressed RBD (refined, bleached and deodorized) coconut oil for this because it's mostly tasteless and odorless and made by mechanical processes (versus chemical processes), however we are considering switching to organic virgin centrifuge-extracted coconut oil. This oil retains a little bit of the coconut taste and scent but is a more pure oil. RBD oils are made by first drying the coconut meat in the sun, which can lead to bacterial growth (ew), hence the need for refining and bleaching. Virgin centrifuge-extracted oil uses the fresh, wet meat of the coconut, separating the oils through a refrigeration process. Sounds a bit more appealing, doesn't it?

~ Lip balm: My lips have been rather dry lately, and I'm not a fan of most commercial lip balms (wasted little tubes of plastic filling up landfills, and most of them contain chemicals I'd prefer not to have near my oral cavity). So I bought a little glass roll-on perfume bottle, filled it with coconut oil and a touch of aloe vera and vitamin E oil, and voila, lip balm. Bingo, works like a charm!

~ Massage oil: I may not have mentioned this on this blog yet, but before I became Jem's mommy I was a full-time licensed massage therapist (I specialize in pre-natal massage). Since I plan to get back to work soon (part-time...very part-time) I will need extra coconut oil handy to mix up my own homemade massage oils. Its unique property of being solid at room temperature yet liquid when warmed makes it the ideal massage oil, especially because of its ability to soothe and nourish dry, damaged skin.

~ Toothpaste: If you didn't already check out my toothpaste recipe on this blog, today you can see it featured on one of my favorite websites, Keen for Green! I was so flattered that they asked me if they could include this on their site!

I have a feeling this list will get longer in the coming months. I plan to try using coconut oil to make homemade deodorant soon (as per the recipe I found on My Baby's Green). Does that make me a dirty hippie? Well...maybe. :-) Stay tuned, and maybe pick up your own jar of coconut oil to try!

Exciting Deal on Cloth!

2011-07-11T12:06:00.000-04:00

I was so psyched to open my email this morning and find that Mommy's Touch cloth pockets and AIO's were on sale for 40% off. I've had these WAHM made, US manufactured diapers on my list of "must tries" for weeks! Go here for the deal.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-07-10T00:10:00.000-04:00

Since my in-laws are visiting this weekend and I have less time for blogging, I'll just leave you with the following links to other blog articles that caught my attention this week. Hope you find them as interesting as I did!

The Good: Homemade Deodorant from My Baby's Green. I love this blog, so many great ideas! I am definitely trying this recipe when my Tom's of Maine stick deodorant runs out. If you choose to follow this blog, please leave a comment and let her know you found her here!

The Bad: Organic Gardener Taken to Court (for planting veggies in her own front yard!) from Great Green Idea, article by Jillian Fellows. A prime example of how snooty big-wigs with too much power can twist the wording of laws and codes to fit their own agendas. Kind of infuriating, but good for this lady for fighting back!

The Ugly: What the Heck is Fracking? from Big Green Purse. The more I read about this topic, the more I fear the destruction we humans are capable of. Seriously, what next? Signing the petition linked in this article may or may not help, but it sure can't hurt! Let our leaders know that this generation's dependency on natural gas should not cause so much harm to us, our children, our land, water, animals and all future generations!

Hmmm, maybe I should've put them in reverse order to avoid depressing anyone. Sorry about that. Hope everyone has a happy and blessed Sunday!

I won!

2011-07-08T21:08:00.000-04:00

One might think it's quite a coincidence that today I won a RearZ diaper cover from a contest on the company's Facebook page, since my last blog post was a review of RearZ diapers! You might think that...or you might think something fishy was up. It's actually not really a coincidence and not fishy at all. As I said in my review, RearZ is a rather small Canadian company. Their products and website seem to be undergoing constant renovation right now, and they were likely in need of some customer reviews for some of their newer products. The contest required that participants leave a review for a product they tried, with the opportunity to win a matching product if their review was picked at random. Since I had tried their diaper covers, I left sort of a mini version of the review I had already written. Apparently there weren't a whole lot of participants for that particular product, so my odds were really good! Anyway, I won and I'm psyched! I love the diaper cover we have already, and not having to reuse the same one over and over will be lovely. :-) Especially since this one won't be plain white!

In other news, we swung by the house we're buying today to take some measurements, and my husband found a tag on the (recently rebuilt) deck that said it had been treated with a chemical pesticide which may potentially leave traces on skin when touched. Great. Which means we'll have to completely seal the deck before we use it (probably with something from AFM Safecoat, a company dedicated to formulating more environmentally-friendly paints, stains and sealants). First, though, we have to sand the deck...which means we'll have chemical-treated wood dust flying around. Sigh. Oh, the things you don't think to ask when buying a house. Still, I'd rather Chris and I slap on masks and sand and finish the deck before we move in, exposing ourselves (and, temporarily at least, our lawn) to the chemicals, then have Jem and his future siblings playing out on a chemical-treated deck day after day for the rest of their young lives. We'll just have to try and make sure we take precautions and clean up well. It's too bad we didn't find this house (which we love) before they rebuilt the deck six months ago. We would have made sure it was built with cedar or some other natural pest/moisture resistant wood. Argh. Being thwarted in your greening efforts by circumstances outside your control always stinks. Well, we'll just do the best we can to make sure from now on the house will be as toxin-free as possible! If anyone has any tips for dealing with this situation (other than "just buy a different house"...since this is pretty much a done deal) we'd certainly appreciate it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

RearZ "Eco-Kit" Fitted Diaper review

2011-07-06T22:28:00.000-04:00

Due to our little Fuzzibunz PUL fiasco (which we finally heard back about...Fuzzibunz has agreed to replace them) we were in need of some new dipes, quickly, for a relatively good price. So when a package of five overnight fitted diapers (with cover) popped up on EcoBabyBuys.com for half off ($44.55 including shipping, to be precise), I consulted the hubby and punched in the credit card number.

The diaper package was the "Eco-Kit" from RearZ, a Canadian company which manufacturers both at home and in Pakistan (covers in Canada, diapers in Pakistan). The company also specializes in adult diapers and other personal care products. They appear to be a small company with a growing following. The diapers we bought are unbleached cotton velour with a waterproof layer inside (not sure what that layer is made of...it doesn't feel like there is any plastic inside), and fastened with aplix (hook and loop). We bought them in size large (I believe 24 lbs and up) since Jem will be getting too big for anything smaller in the coming months.

I had never used fitted diapers before, so I admit some trepidation when placing the order...fitteds are thicker and, I presumed, take much longer to dry than my beloved pockets.

I also had somewhat mixed feelings upon opening the package. The diapers were fuzzy and colorful with rainbow trim, and very soft, but some of the stitching on the aplix was coming slightly undone on a couple of the dipes. I also wondered if the diapers were TOO fuzzy. It is summer, after all! I didn't want Jem to be hot.

Upon washing and drying the diapers I found a couple of things to be true: first, they DO take forever to dry. After three times in the dryer I gave up and hung them to finish drying. I have remedied this problem quite simply, however: since they are nighttime dipes and only meant to be used once per day, that means I only end up washing two of them at a time with my other diapers. So I throw them into the dryer once with the others and then let them take their time air drying, since I have three others!

The other things I found while washing them were that the laundry tabs on them are... well, a bit of an afterthought, really. It's as if they just threw some laundry tabs on there because that's the thing to do with aplix diapers, but didn't really think about how best to do this. They are too close together, literally right next to one another with almost no space in between, and since the diapers are so thick it's a miracle if any of them stay properly fastened...they all pop right open in the machine. So if you get REALLY annoyed by aplix chains in your laundry these might not be the diapers for you. Also, the edges of the dipes get a bit frayed in the wash...not horribly so, but enough to be a bit unsightly. Though again, since they're a nighttime diaper and meant to be covered, this doesn't bother me so much. They don't seem to bother Jem at all!

Now let's get to the positives: so far, these diapers work GREAT! I especially love the cover. It's just a plain white PUL cover (with pockets on either end inside if you want to use them with prefolds), but it fits over the bulky diapers perfectly, and we haven't had one leak! After being in them all night, Jem does usually manage to wet through the diapers themselves a bit, but this cover holds it all in...no wet jammies. Considering he's still several pounds shy of the weight specification (30 lbs+) for this size cover, I think that's especially impressive! The dipes are bulky, that is, they're very thick, but that's a good thing for nights, and they actually look rather trim on Jem. So far the aplix on all the diapers has held up fine, and if the stitching becomes looser I'll just attack them with a needle and thread.

I actually love using these as our go-to nighttime dipes right now, which frees us up to use our previous nighttime diapers, BumGenius 4.0, during the day!

I'd love to give you all a link to buy these, unfortunately they appear to have been discontinued, since I cannot find them on the RearZ website or at any of their retailers' sites. (This would explain why they were listed at such a great price, and also the somewhat shoddy stitching on the aplix...clearance!) They do have a new model though, the RearZ Smitten diaper, which appears to be an improved version...it has a pocket (always a plus for me!) and is supposed to be faster drying. I would be very interested to try this new diaper in the future!

All in all, aside from a few annoyances, I really like these diapers and would recommend Rearz for your nighttime dipes!

Grab My Button!

2011-07-05T09:50:00.000-04:00

I finally made my very first grab button! It's not exactly top-notch quality, but it's a blinkie! It's in the right-hand column under the "About Me" section. Please feel free to grab it for your own blog or website. :-) I'll try to make a better one soon!

Is Your Favorite Body Wash or Shampoo a "Faker?"

2011-07-04T20:25:00.000-04:00

If you've read my earlier posts, you know that I recently started buying clear, natural, synthetic/fragrance-free soap to use as a bar soap in the shower and to make liquid handsoap and body wash for Jem. It isn't organic (maybe next time) but it's pretty darn pure. For shampoo I've been using Aubrey Organics, but I didn't like their conditioner so I've been using the only other two we still have around the house: one by the brand Organix, and one by Giovanni Organics.*

Based on the product names alone, you might assume those are all awesome, all-natural, organic products, right? Wrong. Aubrey's products are, actually, very natural with no synthetic ingredients, though they generally contain very few truly organic ingredients. Of the three companies I named they are by far the most natural. Organix and Giovanni don't even come close. Their names are incredibly misleading considering their products contain hardly any organic ingredients (and those which they claim to be so aren't certified), and are also loaded with synthetic, even potentially toxic, chemicals.

But this is no big deal, right? After all, it's not like we're eating the stuff. It just goes on our scalps momentarily and then gets washed away, right?

Well, not exactly. The first problem here is that your skin, including that on your scalp, is porous and absorbs a bit of whatever molecules it comes in contact with that are small enough to be absorbed. So many of these synthetic chemicals will be absorbed into the skin and then hang around in our bodies. Some may be carcinogenic, some may be endocrine disruptors...the jury's still out on a number of them.

The second problem here is that it is false advertising to claim you are selling an "organic" product if few or none of the ingredients are actually organic and if the product also contains synthetic chemicals. However, in this country cosmetic products are not, nor have they ever been, regulated in the same way that food is...so unless a cosmetic product contains only food grade organic ingredients, it will not be USDA certified, and the company can pretty much get away with putting whatever they want on the label.

That is, up until recently. In the past several months many of these companies have come under fire for false advertising and violating a California state law that does, in fact, dictate standards for organic cosmetics. (Read about this here.)

I applaud the Center for Environmental Health for taking these companies to task for taking advantage of consumers who want to buy truly natural and organic products. (Though I will admit I already knew Giovanni and Organix contained synthetics and non-organic ingredients...I bought Giovanni because there were no better options at the store we happened to be at when I bought it, and my husband just really likes Organix).

Today I stumbled upon this list on a GreenOptions.com forum which, although a couple of years old and possibly in need of some updating, I found to be incredibly helpful and enlightening. The woman who made the list (a mom to young kids, like myself) definitely put a lot of careful research into it, which I appreciate (note that both Giovanni and Organix made her list of Fake Organics, while Aubrey made her list of Real Naturals but not Real Organics). I plan to save this list and consult it the next time I decide to buy a new conditioner or deodorant. I invite you to do the same!

Hope you all had an amazing Fourth!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
* When I went to look up the address for their website, I discovered Giovanni has changed the name of their haircare line from "Giovanni Organics" to "Giovanni Eco Chic." Guess they're taking the lawsuit seriously...though I still find the use of the word "Eco" somewhat misleading.

Field Trip!

2011-07-02T21:15:00.000-04:00

For today's post I'll take you on a little "field trip" over to Diaper Junction's Cloth Diaper Blog, where I've been doing a bit of guest blogging recently. Feel free to take a peek!

We had a great day today with friends at an early Fourth of July town gathering, and plan to spend the day with family tomorrow. Hope you all have a happy and full Independence Day weekend as well!

It Ain't Always Easy Bein' Green

2011-07-01T22:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, I know sometimes I, and my eco-conscious comrades, only show the positive pretty side of living green. And it's true there are a ton of positives! Saving the earth and keeping our kids healthier in the long run and all that. The truth, however, is that sometimes it can be difficult. Really difficult.

I mean part of the reason people have junked up the earth so much with toxic chemicals and pollutants is for purposes of convenience, right? We have plastic stuff because it's easier to cart around and more durable than glass and wood, and lighter and easier to manufacture than steel (and more flexible than any of those materials). Many industrial pollutants came into being because it's easier and faster to churn out goods via machinery than by hand. We have toxic preservatives in food and cosmetics because it's easier to buy things that have a long shelf life than try to keep good organic fresh stuff, well, fresh. Driving and flying sure are a lot more convenient and less time-consuming than walking, bike-riding and taking horse-drawn carriages everywhere, isn't it?

So yes, there are downsides to living green. Cleaning with homemade products and eating homemade organic food require taking the time to make all that stuff, and organic food is, indeed, more expensive (and harder to find). Freecycling and thrift shopping can mean it takes a lot longer to find what you're looking for than running to Target or Wal-Mart. Cloth diapers, as much as I love them, can be a real pain in the butt, literally... while it's true that disposables can be the cause of many diaper rashes, cloth diapers also can, if you're struggling (as I have) to find the right detergent and wash routine for your specific washing machine and water type. While it's easy enough to switch brands of disposables, cloth diapering problems can be a bit trickier.

And so I will confess that sometimes my husband and I buy take-out food and even (gasp!) McDonald's, particularly when on road trips. Planning road trips with the baby can be hard enough without remembering to pack lunch for us too! Sometimes we use disposable diapers with antibiotic ointments and steroid creams to combat the worst diaper rashes, and believe me I have sometimes felt the pressure from well-meaning friends and relatives to switch to disposables altogether (and have sometimes considered doing so). And once in a great while we will still head into Target to grab a pack of batteries or other needed item (and in spite of all their packaging and transportation issues, we are still Amazon junkies). We are certainly not homesteaders or zero-wasters yet by any means (maybe someday)!

The truth is that you do what you feel you must do when life gets a little overwhelming. I'm never really proud of these choices but I try not to beat myself up for them either. Because in the end, we keep coming back to our crunchier ways, and in fact as the months go by we commit to even more eco-friendly, though sometimes harder, choices. That is the (sometimes unfortunate) power of conviction: believing that there is true value in what you are doing for the world around you, for the future of your children and the generations to come. Yes, it might be less convenient, and harder in some ways on the pocketbook (or even occasionally on baby's tuchus), and sometimes it's easier to see the downsides than the often long-delayed or seemingly minuscule benefits, but ultimately it's all worth it. Knowing we're lowering our contribution to the onslaught of chemical carcinogens and hormone disruptors on our son, our land and our water supply, even just a tiny bit, keeps me going when the going gets rough.

After all, we all need something to stand for, don't we?

"Loving" Baby's Skin

2011-06-30T22:42:00.000-04:00

Perhaps this post is a bit late in the game this summer, since it seems most mommy bloggers have at least mentioned the topic already, but let's talk for a moment about sunscreen. Personally, I have mixed feelings on the matter. I believe we all need our sunshine, for the vitamin boost and the mood boost, but our depleting ozone layer and the resulting onslaught of UV rays does give me pause. Particularly when it comes to Jem's uber sensitive skin.

The other thing that gives me pause is the sheer number of toxic chemicals in most sunscreens, especially those marketed for kids. Probable carcinogens and endocrine disruptors? No thank you. Of course I don't want to increase his risk of skin cancer either, or even just a painful little sunburn. And in this heat long sleeves and pants are out (and, sadly, Jem won't even keep a hat on anymore...gosh I miss those cute little hats). So my best choice seemed to be finding a really natural, safe sunscreen. Something specially formulated for kids with a relatively high SPF. Preferably something I didn't have to spend a fortune on.

I checked out the Environmental Working Group's Best Sunscreen list* and picked one with a very low toxicity (1) because it was readily available on Amazon and contained a lot of natural, even organic ingredients. Plus, compared to some of the others, it had a great price tag (and it was on sale!)

The one I picked was Loving Naturals. The ingredients are listed right on their website (also on the EWG list). I couldn't be happier with my choice! It takes a few extra seconds to rub on, since it doesn't quite have the nice glide of your typical sunscreen, but this hasn't caused any irritation of Jem's skin at all. It also has a much milder smell than most sunscreens, which is a plus! It does leave a bit of a whitish-blue tint because it's a bit on the thicker side, though from what understand the company has come out with a new clear version. I don't mind the tint, because Jem's fair skin has not burned once while wearing it, and neither has mine! Thereby debunking the myth that a sunscreen must be full of chemicals you can't even pronounce in order to be effective.

I urge you all to check out the EWG's list next time you're in the market for a new sunscreen. If you're still not sure why you should, read their article "Sunscreens Exposed: Nine Surprising Truths."

Keep all that sensitive skin on your little love-muffin safe, and enjoy the sunshine, everyone!

* I apologize for writing "EPA" instead of EWG when I initially posted this last night. On revisiting this morning I caught my own error pretty quickly! I must've been tired...plus I always mix those two up somehow...

Wordless Wednesday (my first!)

2011-06-29T20:53:00.000-04:00

Link List: Green Parenting "Groupon" Type Sites

2011-06-27T22:58:00.000-04:00

Hopefully the title of today's post is self-explanatory! Going green doesn't have to cost a fortune. I have gotten (or been very tempted to get) some great, steeply discounted green products from the following websites:

~ GreenBabyBargains.com - I just ordered an extremely cute set of stainless steel child's cereal bowls from this site today for 40% off (originally sold at the Life Without Plastic Boutique)... great alternative to plastic bowls.
~ EcoBabyBuys.com - recent purchases: voucher for Tegu Toys and some new fitted cloth dipes to try

~ BabyHalfOff.com - not a completely green site per se but they do feature a ton of eco-friendly and reusable products, especially cloth dipes!
~ Zulily.com - Also not a green site per se, but they're definitely in there. Lots of cloth diapering accessories and such!

More green stuff for everyone, not just the mamas and babies! :-)
~ GreenDeals.org
~ Neerg.com
~ Blissmo.com
~ EthicalDeal.com

I'll post more as I find out about them. Please feel free to comment with any that you know of! :-) Happy green bargain hunting!

Link List: US Made Cloth Diapers (updated 7/22/11)

2011-06-26T22:21:00.001-04:00

Before I get to the list: I've heard a lot of confusion about Chinese manufacturing and why some people choose to avoid all Chinese manufactured items in favor of US made items. Hopefully I can shed a bit of light on this matter. First of all, this is NOT a matter of racism. Nor is it a matter of patriotism (well, perhaps it is a little bit for some people).

The sad fact is that China is known for its sweatshops and for manufacturing plants that churn out shoddy, sometimes even toxic goods for cheap prices. This is not entirely China's fault...there is only a supply where there is a demand, and there is a HUGE demand for cheap Chinese manufactured goods, particularly in developed nations like the US. Many US companies that want to give their customers a good deal will turn to China for their manufacturing to keep their own manufacturing costs low, so they can impart their savings to their customers (and, honestly, some companies just want to keep their manufacturing costs low so they can make more money). Some companies will try to keep close tabs on the manufacturers to ensure they are meeting quality control standards, however this is hard to do from overseas and inspections of these companies sometimes only happen once a month or even just a few times a year. So even if the company means well, the quality of their goods can be pretty hit or miss. Not to mention that the employees in these places are often paid peanuts in horrible work conditions while the owners make out like bandits.

Of course this doesn't mean that there are no sweatshops or questionable manufacturers in the US. There are (though there are certainly fewer of them and we have stricter labor laws here). However, often if a company cares enough to move all of its manufacturing to the US it's so they can keep a closer eye on quality control and fair labor practices. This is particularly true when it comes to products for kids...toys are far cheaper and easier to manufacture in China, but are often rife with flaws that can be hazardous to a child's health, like toxic lead paint and choking hazards.

I recently bought a toy from a purportedly "eco-friendly" wooden toy company that manufactures mostly in China, and the toy was a mess when it arrived. I was very disappointed because the toy was such a great concept, and could've been great for Jem, but I was afraid he might hurt himself on it. I returned it. Another time I received a rocking toy from Freecycle that was really cute but needed some work...the paint was chipping and the wood on the bottom part was not the best quality. I contacted the company that made it and was told that the reason the rocking part was in such poor shape was that the company used to manufacture in China and had a hard time keeping an eye on quality control. After numerous complaints, they moved all manufacturing to the US and updated all of the toys...so unfortunately the part I needed to replace was no longer available (the customer service rep I spoke to was very nice and did her best to help me out though). Fortunately in this case the toy was not unsafe, just a little unsightly at the bottom.

Now I have heard of fair trade companies in China, and many companies claim to have close relationships with their Chinese manufacturers and won't part with them. That is their choice, and may be a perfectly valid one. In fact, any consumer who chooses to purchase Chinese manufactured goods is perfectly within their rights to do so and I would never judge anyone for doing so! In this day and age it is nearly impossible to ensure that all the materials in the goods we buy have been produced ethically and with the highest quality. However, as a consumer I personally have made a recent choice to try and avoid items manufactured in China to increase the chances of buying quality, non-toxic items and decrease the chances of contributing to unfair labor practices. I know others choose US manufactured items to support our economy, and while this is a worthy goal I'll admit supporting fair trade practices and quality products are my main reasons for doing so.

Unfortunately this is not always an easy practice, particularly for moms trying to choose items like say, cloth diapers. To make this particular task easier for others I am providing the following list of US and Canadian manufactured cloth diapers (gotta give our northern neighbor Canada some love too!) Please note that I have actually only personally tried two of the diapers on this list. I do plan to try more of them, and I will review them for you when I do!

~ Knickernappies
~ Mommy's Touch
~ Happy Heinys
~ Blueberry (Fabrics sourced in the US and occasionally Turkey, manufactured in US. We have two of their laundry/wet bags and they're great! Would love to try the diapers eventually!)
~ Swaddlebees
~ Weehuggers
~ Bottombumpers
~ Hiney Lineys (these have a very intriguing design! I'm very curious to try them)
~ Best Bottoms
~ DryBees (I own one of these and I like it...though I'll admit a preference for pocket dipes over all-in-ones)
~ LolliDoos
~ SustainableBabyish wool knits (I have visited their store in person and was impressed by the knowledge and passion of their owner, Erin, though I have yet to work up the courage to try wool dipes!)

~MonkeyDoodlez - manufactured in Canada by WAHMS!

~ BumGenius - diapers sold in the US are manufactured in the US, all others are manufactured in Egypt. We have several of these and love them, particularly for overnight use.
~ Thirsties - manufacture in the US and I believe Canada (I may be wrong about this, but I do know they do not manufacture in China)

I have also heard that Kissaluvs manufactures mostly in the US, but have been unable to confirm where the rest of their materials are manufactured.

This is not a complete list by any means...I will try to update as I confirm the manufacturing practices of other CD companies!

I will also advise those of you who take this kind of thing seriously to beware of claims like "90% manufactured in the USA." I saw one such claim on the website of an increasingly popular diaper company, however when I asked about this I was told that everything except the diaper covers were US manufactured...the covers themselves were, unsurprisingly, manufactured in China. Since covers are probably one of the most essential and most popular diapering items, I found this claim to be highly misleading.

Hope this list was helpful to some of you! Good night all!

Wonderworld Toys

2011-06-26T01:05:00.000-04:00

In an earlier post I believe I mentioned how much Jem loves his Wonderworld Wooden Stacking Rings.

Well, he still does. At 8 months he loved to bang the rings around and teethe on them, and they are durable enough that they didn't chip or show any signs of wear. Within a month he was taking the rings off the stacker like a pro, and by 10 months he was learning to put them back on. Now at 14 months he's a pro at this and sometimes I swear he's intentionally putting them back on in creative patterns (okay, these patterns may be coincidental, but proud mama finds them amazing just the same).

I love how well made these rings are, and that they are just the right size for little hands!

What I really love, however, is that Wonderworld toys are a truly eco-friendly company, one of the few toy companies that uses wood from older rubber trees that can no longer produce latex. The company is committed to replanting one tree for every tree they use...this is in addition to those already replanted by the farmers who provide their rubber trees. They use only high quality, non-toxic, water-based paints in basic primary colors. They are a fairly small company based in Thailand (no Chinese manufacturing) with only about 500 employees (according to their website), and the literature enclosed with the stacking rings spoke of their commitment to fair wages and working conditions for those employees (sadly I didn't keep this literature for the specifics). Packaging is minimal and 70% recycled content, and of the three Wonderworld toys we own I don't remember any plastic used in the packaging.

I loved the concept of this company, and since the stacking rings (which he received from his Grandma for Christmas) were such a high quality we bought Jem the Wonderworld Posting House Shape Sorter for his first birthday. Another great toy! While he has not advanced enough yet to figure out the shapes on his own, he does like to take the blocks out of the hinged lid and hand them to me so I can position the shapes over the proper hole and let him push them in. I know soon enough he'll be having great fun doing this on his own!

A friend of ours (knowing how much I liked this company) also bought Jem the Wonderworld First Sound Blocks...some of these are bright, durable, colorful blocks in three basic shapes filled with wooden beads to make different rattling sounds when shaken, and the rest are very basic natural wood building blocks. Like the other toys, these are extremely safe, non-toxic and well-sanded.

Overall I am highly impressed with this toy company! Although I am definitely a big supporter of Freecycling and buying secondhand toys whenever possible, I know sometimes you just want some high quality wooden toys in your collection from eco-friendly, ethical companies that will last for generations. I believe Wonderworld Toys is one such company. While most of Jem's Freecycled books and toys will be re-Freecycled when he is done with them, these and other favorite wooden toys will be stored for our future children and, most likely, for their children as well!

***All toys reviewed in this post were bought by myself, friends and relatives, and I have not been paid in any way, shape or form for this review.***

"Mama Cloth" Blossom Pads Review (with discount code)

2011-06-23T15:41:00.001-04:00

Note: The following blog post contains a review of a feminine personal hygiene product. If you're the kind of guy (or gal) who gets squeamish about such things, I suggest you mosey on down the page and check out some of my other posts instead, or wait till tomorrow for a new post. :-)

--------------------

I've been using cloth diapers on Jem since the day after he was born, and so it was only a matter of time before I made the natural transition to using cloth personal products for myself as well. Oh, I could get really adventurous and try, say, the Diva Cup... but never having been a tampon kinda girl to begin with I just personally didn't find that idea too appealing. The challenge for me was finding a product that was not only functional and eco-friendly but also had a low initial cost...let's be honest, some of these products are a bit on the pricey side, and since you do need quite a few of them to get through 5-7 days (or more for some ladies), the initial cost can be as intimidating as the thought of using a non-disposable pad in and of itself. Of course I could make some myself, and do intend to eventually, but since my refurbished sewing machine is still experiencing some technical difficulties I turned to the web.

Many Google searches led me to a great little company called Blossom Pads. They had a special deal on sets of three flannel pads of varying lengths (you can pick your own absorbency for no extra cost), and I easily found a coupon code to defray the cost even further. You just type in your color preferences and let Charlene (the owner) do the rest.

When my custom designed 10 inch pads came in the mail, two things caught my attention: first, minimal packaging. Always a plus for us eco-conscious mamas! Second, they were so pretty!

After using my Blossom Pads, I have to say that I love them! I have found them comfortable and not too bulky, even with the extra absorbency I chose. They hold up extremely well and don't move around a lot. I find I'm able to wear them for several hourse at a time, even overnight, with no issues. They are super easy to clean, just rinse after wearing and throw them in the wash (if you're a cloth diapering mama like me with a diaper sprayer and diaper specific detergents so much the better, but if not just rinse them in the sink and toss them in with your normal wash...this really is not as gross as it might sound). If you need to change them in a public bathroom they also sell nifty, discreet little bags you can keep in your purse which hold in wetness and odors, so you can rinse and wash when you get home.

Overall I am extremely pleased with Blossom Pads and am eager to try more of their products!

If you'd like to try them for yourself, use the code 8AO11 to get 10% off your first order of $15 or more!

***I bought this product myself and have not been paid in any way, shape or form for this review.***

DIY "Snack Trap"

2011-06-22T09:10:00.000-04:00

I've been getting just a wee bit tired of popping into the backseat to feed Jem snacks every time he gets cranky on car trips, but if I let him feed himself he'll just get his Cheerios everywhere (and then get upset that he can't reach them). Hence, I've had a want ad up on Freecycle for weeks now, looking for a used Snack Trap. You know, those little cups with the slotted lid that kids can reach into to grab a Gold Fish cracker or dry cereal without spilling all over the floor. So far, no luck. I searched Amazon and Ebay to see if anyone was selling one used. Nadda. Since I have a very hard time justifying any brand new plastic purchase to myself these days, I decided to see if I could just make one myself, using stuff we already had around the house.

A Google search turned up one interesting result. One mom made something similar to the Munchie Mug by stretching a couple of pieces of stretchy fabric over the top of a cup and securing it with a rubber band. Great idea, but I saw two problems with it: 1) Jem would figure out how to remove that fabric and rubber band in two seconds flat and 2) the rubber band would then become a choking hazard. It did give me a great idea though. I thought I could use the same kind of method with a mason jar ring instead of a rubber band. Unfortunately I couldn't find any plastic containers around the house that fit my mason jar rings, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to hand my 14 month old an actual mason jar.

The only other things I had that might work were wide mouth baby bottles. We use Pura stainless steel bottles, but since we only have three and we're still using them to transition Jem to a sippy (the nipples can be interchanged with Avent sippy spouts) I decided instead to use the lonely plastic Avent Magic sippy cup someone gave us that we never use. I should have Freecycled it away by now, but since I didn't I figured I'd give it a shot!

My biggest concern was that the hole at the top might be too small for Jem to fit his hand into, and it is. Luckily he's a pretty smart little kid and figured out how to get the Cheerios out by tipping the cup and using just his second and third fingers to fish them out. I figure anything that forces him to use his brain and develop fine motor skills is a plus! So overall, it's been a big success and a big hit!

This is how I did it:

Materials:

~ 1 small wide mouth bottle, plastic or stainless steel (can also use a plastic container with a mason jar ring if you can find one that works!)
~ 2 pieces of stretchy fabric big enough to fit over the mouth of the bottle (I cut up an old bathing suit top that didn't have a bottom)
~ A knife or pair of scissors

1) Fill the cup with dry snack pieces. Jem loves his Cheerios (well, we buy an organic version).

2) Using the knife or scissors, cut a small slit into the center of each piece of fabric.

3) Place one fabric piece over the other with the slits criss-crossing and place over the mouth of the cup.

4) Screw the ring back onto the bottle over the fabric, being very careful not to overstretch the fabric or the slits will become too wide and the snack pieces will fall out when tipped. You might have to play with this a little.

You now have your very own Snack-Trap-Catcher-Munchie-Mug-thingamajig! Hold it upside down to make sure the pieces don't fall out. Some will likely fall out of you give it a good shake, which is okay. This is just to contain the worst of the messes!

Give it to your child and see what he or she does with it. It might take a couple of minutes for them to figure it out. You may have to help them. Once they get the hang of it, hopefully your car rides and snack times will be just a little more peaceful too! :-)

"Green Giveaway Roundup"

2011-06-21T21:07:00.000-04:00

Tonight I was going to post all about the DIY "snack trap" I made for Jem today, but I realized the camera needs to be charged. So I shall post tomorrow. For now I'll just leave you the link for one of my favorite things, "The Green Giveaway Roundup" hosted by Diaper Junction's Cloth Diaper Blog!

Good night all! And good luck winning some "green!"

Cloth Diaper sale!

2011-06-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

EcoBabyBuys Diaper Sale

I haven't tried these diapers (though I just might!), but I'm intrigued by the design and like that they're made in the US. Note that the inserts must be bought separately. Still, the math comes out to around $16 for each completed diaper if you buy the pockets plus the inserts. Which is about average for a pocket dipe!

DIY Peg Dolls!

2011-06-17T14:52:00.000-04:00

Since my baby showers, I had been saving scraps of ribbon and other trim from gift boxes and such. Some of it I had reused for gifting, but most of it stayed in a box in our bedroom, slowly piling up. I decided I was going to use it for a fun project. I just had to find that project!

It came to me whilst surfing Etsy for a wooden birthday toy for Jem a couple of months ago. I stumbled upon several collections of peg dolls from various sellers. Yes, peg dolls, those little wooden do-it-yourself dolls somewhere between a clothespin doll and a retro Fisher Price Little People figure (I know you remember those). What a fun and perfect project! Easter was coming, and though peg dolls are still potential choking hazards for Jem, I decided to fill the Easter baskets of my four-year-old twin nieces with princess peg dolls. (They've been in the princess phase since about age two with no end in sight!) This was a particularly fitting project since we had just given them a Melissa and Doug deluxe folding wooden princess castle for their birthday. The peg people would be a perfect fit. I bought a whole bunch of unpainted female figures (and a few males for princes and Peter Pan) for around $8, including shipping.

When they came I was so excited to have a truly crafty, girly project to work on I almost peed myself. But I didn't. Instead I whipped out my supplies and got to work, having a great deal of fun during Jem's naps (and during those rare times when he actually sits and plays quietly with his toys).

SUPPLIES (all of which, except for the peg people themselves, I already had handy)

~ Wooden peg people
~ Ribbon scraps, felt scraps, silk flower petals, curtain trim, an unmatched black sock, other various odds and ends (recycling and creativity are the names of the game! Yes, apparently the game has two names.)
~ A needle and various colors of thread
~ Non-toxic Craft Glue (I used Aleene's tacky)
~ Non-toxic glitter paint
~ A fine-point sharpie for the faces (not non-toxic, but I didn't think the girls would be putting these in their mouths)

Here are my accomplishments. Look familiar?

Little Tinker Bell did end up looking rather like a demonic version of Mimi from the Drew Carey Show, but I was quite happy with the rest of them. I think I had the most fun with the hair. For all the black hair I used pieces of the unmatched sock, and for the curly hair I unwound bits of the curtain trim I used to decorate our Christmas stockings!

I had so much fun making these and get a huge kick out of hearing how the girls are enjoying them. My finishing touch was to make two little twin girl figures and a baby Jem figure (sadly I didn't take pics of those). They got a big kick out of them! I can't wait till I save up enough scraps to make more!

Happy Thursday!

2011-06-16T15:29:00.000-04:00

Trying out this Technorati thing... let's see what happens! :-)

JE5CM9K9M6AT

DIY Furniture Polish, Soap, and Toothpaste

2011-06-15T21:38:00.001-04:00

Recently I decided that it was time to start phasing out products in our home with unnecessary chemical additives. We've already been cleaning the counters, bathrooms and carpets with vinegar and baking soda, with great success. I've got a big bag of cleaners that we haven't used in over a year which I fetched from under the sink, all ready to go out to another Freecycler.

However, I realized that without that bottle of Pledge, the beautiful China cabinet we got from Freecycle wasn't gonna start lookin' any younger. So I set out to figure out what could be used as a natural wood polish. After reading several articles online about this topic, I decided to go with a mix of equal parts distilled white vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. I put it all in a clean glass molasses bottle and shook vigorously. After wiping the china cabinet down with a microfiber cleaning mitt, I poured a small amount of the mix onto the other side of the mitt and rewiped. The cabinet looks shiny and bright, but not greasy. I don't know how long the mixture will last under the sink before the olive oil goes rancid, but I guess we'll see!

My next project was making my own soap. Not my own bar soap: I'm not that ambitious yet, and I'm a bit leary about doing anything in my kitchen that requires gloves and goggles with the baby around. I did, however, order two lbs (8 bars) of very natural, very clear soap from a lady on ebay for about $10. I've been using one bar in the shower and I like it, it's so slippery! Does leave my skin feeling just a tad dryer than I'm used to afterward, but only for a minute or so...the natural glycerin in it does help retain moisture.

My project was making the bar soap into liquid soap. I kept reading that I needed to use a gallon of water for one bar of grated bar soap. Heat the water to steaming, not boiling, add the soap, stir (or blend with a hand mixer), let sit overnight. Then stir/blend again, let sit for awhile longer, stir blend again... and you have liquid soap.

Well, apparently the 1 gallon of water was too much for this particular bar of soap. I kept having to reheat the mixture to steam more of the water out, because the soap was not getting thick. Finally, after two days of periodic steaming and mixing, I reached a consistency I could live with, and poured some into the bathroom soap dispenser and the rest into a clean gallon vinegar jug. I had decided not to add any fragrance or essential oils, but now I'm thinking I might. Natural liquid soap, it seems, has a mild yet distinct, not entirely pleasant smell (for some reason I don't notice this smell with the bar soap, but I do remember the bar soap from high school chemistry classes smelling similar). I'm not sure what to add though. I hate floral scents, especially on Jem or myself, and don't want to use anything that could irritate his sensitive skin. Anyway, the liquid soap is largely a success, but not perfect. Next time I'll use half a gallon of water and adjust as needed. It works pretty well as a handsoap and as a baby soap for Jem, but I can't wash his hair with it like I could with his other baby soap. At least not easily. I have, however, recently discovered that some people wash their hair using nothing but baking soda and water. Next experiment...? Probably wouldn't work for my finicky hair, but for Jem's super-fine baby hair and Chris's straight thick hair it just might.

Today's project was making toothpaste. I found all kinds of recipes to do this online, none of which I decided to use. I had my heart set on using both baking soda and xylitol, two excellent natural dental cleansers, but couldn't find a recipe that used both. So I decided to wing it. I started out stirring together about half a cup of baking soda and half a cup of powdered xylitol with several tablespoons of water and a tiny bit of peppermint extract. Apparently this was too much water and too much baking soda, because what I ended up with was a very runny, mildly pepperminty salt solution. So I added more xylitol... and more... and more... until I went through the entire 1 lb bag. So I ended up with a lot of toothpaste, but that's okay. The problem was that the texture turned out kind of weird... the baking soda/xylitol mix kept clumping up at the bottom and was all watery at the top. I went out on a limb and followed the advice of one of the other recipes I had looked at and added about a tablespoon of melted coconut oil. Mix mix mix, stir stir stir... Finally I had a nice looking, and tasting, baking soda toothpaste. I tried it out immediately and it worked great! I mean we'll see how it's working six months from now, but for now I'm happy with it. A few hours after I put it in the bottle (a clean Thayer's witch hazel bottle) I did notice that it started to look kind of liquidy again... I wonder if that has something to do with the heat in our apartment re-melting the coconut oil. (See updated recipe below!) Anyway, once again I guess the moral of the story is use far less liquid than you think you'll need and add more as needed. Still, I'm happy with my toothpaste!

And with my soap...

...and with my furniture polish. I feel thrifty, resourceful and quite crunchy. Best of all, I know I'm introducing fewer potentially harmful chemicals into my home, and I feel good about that!

Recipes (these are mostly approximations and may need improvement. I'll be sure to update with further experimentation!):

Furniture Polish:

Equal parts white distilled vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. Store in a clean bottle in a cool place. Check for oil spoilage and shake well before each use. Apply small amount to preferred cloth or sponge and wipe down wooden furniture thoroughly.

Liquid Soap:

1 grated bar all natural clear glycerin soap
Approx. half gallon water
Several drops of your favorite essential oil or fragrance (optional)

In a large pot, heat water till steaming and add grated soap. Remove from heat and stir well. You may use a hand mixer once mixture has cooled a bit. Let sit several hours or overnight. Stir or mix again. If too thick, add more water a small amount at a time, stirring constantly. If too runny, reheat mixture and steam off some water. Allow to sit again for awhile. Keep stirring and letting it sit until you've reached a consistency you like. Pour into clean bottles. Store in a cool place.

UPDATE: I decided to steep/strain one chamomile tea bag in the soap I had put in the bathroom soap dispenser. The difference is amazing. No more smelly soap! Just a mild, pleasant chamomile scent.

Toothpaste (bulk recipe... adjust as needed) - UPDATED

1/2 cup baking soda
1 lb xylitol, powdered (I used my blender to powder)
1-2 Tbsp coconut oil
Peppermint or cinnamon extract (optional)
Water or hydrogen peroxide (use sparingly...optional)

In large bowl, sift together powdered xylitol and baking soda. Mix in coconut oil a tablespoon at a time to achieve pasty consistency, and add several drops of flavoring (optional). If you're having trouble getting the consistency right add water or hydrogen peroxide half a teaspoon at a time. Don't overdo it, remember oil and water don't mix well, and water doesn't absorb xylitol the way it does sugar. Store in clean container in a cool place. May be suitable in pea sized amounts for children, but large doses of xylitol may cause tummy troubles. Please keep away from dogs, xylitol is more toxic to them than even chocolate.

Thanks Mama store gift certificate contest

2011-05-06T11:38:00.001-04:00

http://www.keenforgreen.com/b/giveaway-15-gift-certificate-thanksmamacom

Good luck! :-)

Adventures in Cloth Diapering Part 2: The Diapers

2011-05-05T22:57:00.000-04:00

There was a Part 1, there has to be a Part 2, right? :-)

I wish I could say we've tried as many diapers as we have detergents. Unfortunately no one told me to experiment before I bought my dipes, so I just put a whole bunch of one kind, Fuzzibunz One-Size Pockets, on my registry, bought a whole bunch more, and then, as an afterthought, threw some BumGenius One-Size pockets onto my Target registry. Wouldn't you know, I got every diaper on my registry. :-) Then a friend loaned us a bunch of her gently used Perfect Size Fuzzibunz (small). So I can comment on both types of Fuzzibunz, one kind of BumGenius, and a DryBees hook and loop all-in-one pocket (yes, it's an all-in-one and a pocket!) which I got as a souvenir from the Great Cloth Diaper Change (I'll try to remember to talk more about that soon).

I love that the Fuzzibunz one-sizes have grown with Jem since he was a wee newborn and will continue to grow with him until he's out of diapers. We tried using them as soon as we got home from the hospital, but since Jem was short they covered his cord stump and gave him "smelly button." So we switched to prefolds and plastic pants (which I don't love doing, but they serve their purpose) until the belly button was completely healed. We put him in again at about 3 weeks, and he was a tiny guy at that point (under 7 lbs) but they fit fine. Very fluffy, but very cute! I love the convenience of the snaps, and while I don't really love adjusting the leg elastics (which takes some experimentation) I love that I CAN adjust them. The colors are cute... we bought gender neutral colors. Stuffing them can be a bit of a pain, especially for my husband, who has bigger hands than I. You really do have to buy bigger inserts, the ones they come with only last so long before baby starts soaking right through them in one pee... they could stand to be a bit wider. I like that they wick moisture away from baby's skin... however, I think BumGenius might actually be better at this. We have had leaking issues off and on, due to not adjusting the elastics just right, our infamous hard water fiasco, and the inserts bunching up. So they aren't foolproof. But I still like 'em.

The Perfect Size Fuzzibunz are better for preventing leaks, in my opinion, at least with the inserts our friend loaned us to use with them. Jem was able to wear them from about 2 or 3 months until almost a year... again, he's a small guy, so other babies might not be able to wear them that long. We really had no complaints with these, except that now we have to return them to our friend! :-) I still don't know if I'd want to buy them... they have to be replaced with a larger size eventually... one size diapers seem like a better investment to me!

The BumGenius pockets are our go-to diapers for nighttime. You can stuff them with as many inserts as you need (usually 1 to 3). Unfortunately the inserts they came with are terribly small and flimsy, so it's wise to buy or borrow other inserts. We bought some super absorbent hemp inserts, and use one of those with two smaller microfiber inserts now that he's older and a heavy wetter (I couldn't tell you what brands of inserts we've bought, none of them have tags and I just don't remember). I believe we have the BG 3.0 dipes, the hook and loop (velcro) kind. Hook and loop is easier for babysitters and grandmas to get the hang of, but can get tangled in your laundry, so we only own six of them. I'd LOVE to try the BGs with snaps! Another friend of ours uses them and loves them.

Lastly, I just got this DryBees All-in-one pocket, size medium, with hook and loop. I really like it! It's fits Jem like a glove. I do have to stuff it with an extra insert since Jem is not a light wetter, but it works very well. My only complaint is that the laundry tabs for the hook and loop don't seem to work very well. I make sure they're secure before they into the diaper pail, and when they come out of the dryer they're undone and stuck on something else. This also happens with the BGs occasionally, it's not a big deal. Just kind of annoying.

I just discovered some other diapers I'd like to try, and am working on obtaining some. If I manage to do so I will certainly post about them here! Thanks for reading!

----

PS ~ We have switched back to Nellie's All Natural detergent. For now. The Lulu's was nice but ultimately not strong enough for our weak washing machine and lukewarm water. Hopefully when we get a better machine and move somewhere we can control the water temperature we can give it another try!

Cloth Diaper giveaway contest

2011-05-05T21:48:00.000-04:00

Interested in trying Hiney Liney diapers? I am! Go here! :-)

One of those days

2011-03-01T21:24:00.000-05:00

After a long weekend in which he napped very little and was around lots of little kids, and in which daddy and mommy both fell under the weather, Jem finally has developed his first illness, complete with a fever. We gave him acetaminophen and fed him dinner, and he promptly took a spill from the couch, falling on his head for the first time, and threw up all over mommy. I guess it was a day for firsts, unfortunately not very good ones. Just one of those days! We're watching him very closely tonight to make sure he's okay. As long as his fever doesn't go up any more and he doesn't throw up again we should be able to avoid the ER tonight. Ah, the joys of parenting! Still, it was inevitable that he would get sick at some point before his first birthday, and ten months in isn't bad at all. I'm just praying my little dude has a better day tomorrow!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering Part 1: Detergents

2011-02-22T23:24:00.000-05:00

We wanted to cloth diaper Jem for a few reasons. First and most importantly, to keep disposables out of the landfill, as well as to save money (disposables aren't cheap and add up quickly). I won't go into all the facts about disposables, but you can find some good info here. I haven't gone through every fact on this page to verify the accuracy of all of them, but it should give you at least a general idea of why cloth is a good idea. Of course I certainly understand the choice to use disposables, with everything else you have to do as a parent, who has time for extra laundry too? To be honest though, it hasn't been as time consuming as I expected it to be, and not having to lug an extra bag out to the trash disposal center every day or two has actually been quite nice!

Which brings me to another reason for choosing not to use disposables: the smell. As a former nanny, I know how disgusting the plastic garbage bag full of disposables ends up smelling at the end of a day or two. I had read that cloth diaper pails actually smell less, and so far that is absolutely true. Why is this? Well, disposables are made of plastic. Garbage bags are made of plastic. Plastic can't "breathe" the way cloth can, and everyone knows that to take up less space in the garbage bag you have to roll the disposables up into tight little balls: tight little smelly, non-breathable balls. No matter how hard you try to keep that diaper genie smelling fresh and clean, when you go to open up the pail to remove the bag you are hit by a death smell that forces you to hold your breath while frantically scurrying to tie the bag and run it out to the curb as quickly as possible. At least, that's how it's been in my experience. Especially because, although all bags of diapers print instructions to dump solid fecal matter into the toilet, it's easier just to roll the poop up in the diaper and toss it in the bin. That's why the bin is kept next to the changing table, right? How many parents actually dump every poopy disposable into the toilet before trashing it?

So, naturally, cloth diaper pails tend to smell less. It's not that they don't smell at all, but they smell much less. Cloth diapers can breathe. Cloth pail liners can breathe. And it's imperative to dump solid poop into the toilet before throwing the diapers in the pail, because otherwise laundry would be a nightmare. It is possible to get certain funky smells. Ammonia, for instance, or a strong urine smell if baby has an infection or ate something that didn't agree with him that week. But overall, the smell of our diaper pail has been quite bearable in comparison to diaper pails I've dealt with in the past.

Anyway, I'm digressing from what I really wanted to talk about in this post, which is detergents. You're not supposed to use regular soap detergents on cloth diapers, because the soap and other additives can quickly build up in the fibers of the diapers and cause leaking and repelling issues, particularly if your diapers contain synthetic fibers like microfleece (which is often used to line cloth diapers to help wick moisture away from baby's skin). So I decided to set out to find the most diaper-friendly, eco-friendly and dermatologically-friendly detergent possible.

It was important to me to find a detergent that listed every ingredient right on the label. I tend to be suspicious of "proprietary ingredients." I understand that companies like to keep certain ingredients secret in order to prevent other companies from stealing their formulas, but when it comes to my baby's skin I want to know what's in it. If he were to have an allergic reaction, I'd want to have a good idea why. And I've recently become aware that some companies will purposely choose not to disclose ingredients that they know to be harmful, controversial or suspicious.

After much reading and research about different brands, and coming very close to deciding on Country Save (because it's cheaper than other brands and can be bought in large quantities on Amazon), I instead decided to try Nellie's All Natural. To be honest, I loved it and have no real complaints about the way it worked. It kept the diapers fresh and clean, and it's unscented so you can really tell they're clean. The ingredients were listed as "sodium silicate and coconut oil-based surfactants." I researched sodium silicate and found it to indeed be natural and eco-friendly, with a history of not causing rashes. I already knew what coconut oil was, it's great for soothing skin, so anything made from it had to be good, no?

Well... after I'd bought the bag, I made a discovery. Nellie's website stated that the "coconut oil-based surfactants" were actually Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, or SLES. (Update: Nellie's website has now started using the term "coconut based (LAURYL) Ethoxylated fatty alcohol" instead of SLES... I am unclear whether or not they have changed the ingredient or if they've just become more vague. A conversation with a customer service rep left me feeling that I'd been given the runaround). I'd learned of SLES two years ago when I developed a strong sensitivity to regular brands of toothpaste and had to switch exclusively to Biotene. SLES is a powerful foaming agent, often derived from chemically altered coconut or palm oils. It's found in industrial-strength floor cleaners. It's also found in many detergents, hair products, body washes and in almost every brand of toothpaste (it's what makes things foamy, and since we've been trained to equate "foamy" with "clean," manufacturers like to include it in any cleaning product). It's been found to be just abrasive enough in small quantities to cause or exacerbate canker sores and skin rashes in highly sensitive individuals, like myself.

What does this all mean? It means that SLES has developed a bad name, not for entirely unfounded reasons, though it certainly won't hurt everyone. Would it cause a skin reaction on a little baby wearing cloth diapers that were washed in Nellie's? Probably not, since the detergent is designed to wash out entirely and not leave any traces on the diapers. Jem didn't have a problem with it. However, like I said, I don't like it when manufacturers don't disclose their ingredients. I understand why they probably do it (though I admit I can't say for certain): I would think other customers are also wary of purchasing baby products containing SLES, since babies tend to have such sensitive skin, and they might lose some business if they wrote the proper name on the label. Why risk losing business if the product works, doesn't cause rashes and is, indeed, eco-friendly? But it left me feeling just a little bit cheated, like I'd been lied to a little. I'm a full disclosure kind of gal. So I decided when the bag of Nellie's was finished, I'd try another brand. If I didn't find any other that I liked, I could always come back to it.

I considered Rockin' Green, a formula used by one of my friends and by many in the CD community. However, now I was being even more careful. Two of the ingredients listed in RG are "natural chelating agents," and "bio-degradable surfactants." Since the bag didn't actually say what those chelating agents and surfactants were, I emailed Kim, the founder and owner of RG. She was very nice but could not tell me what those ingredients were, since they were proprietary. She only said they were indeed natural and eco-friendly, and did not include SLES or any coconut-based ingredients. I thanked her, but decided to try something else first.

I decided to go with Crunchy Clean. A family-run business founded by a mom in her kitchen, Crunchy Clean has only three ingredients: sodium carbonate (washing soda), sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and sodium percarbonate (oxygen cleaner). It is indeed about as environmentally and dermatologically friendly as they come, and I loved it almost as much as Nellie's, if not more. It didn't quite get stains out of my diapers as well as Nellie's did, but that was okay with me, I just laid the stained ones out in the sunny living room window and the stains bleached out naturally. I was happy. I felt truly crunchy. :-)

And then, alas, about five or six months in, our diapers started repelling and leaking like crazy. Jem was constantly waking up wet and uncomfortable. Was this due to the diapers themselves? They'd never done this before. Was it the Crunchy Clean? How could it be, since CC doesn't contain soap or brighteners or anything that could junk up the diapers? We discovered the answer after noticing a chalky white film on our shower head. We had hard water. The minerals in the water were clogging up the fibers in our microfleece. What to do? Buy new diapers? Heck no, those things were expensive! We'd have to find a way to soften the water, which meant either special ordering a case of Calgon water softener along with the detergent, or switching detergents.

First we had to strip the diapers of the minerals that were already in them. For that I used RLR Laundry Treatment (which I bought at Diaper Junction because, including shipping, they had the best price I could find). I have no idea what's in it. They claim to be eco-friendly and all natural, but since all the ingredients are proprietary, who can say for sure? However, since it's only meant to be used once a month at most (I only used it that once), and I'd heard good things about it, I bought a few packets for less than $2 each. Whatever is in it has a very powerful foaming agent, so you have to rinse the diapers about seven or eight times after using it, but it worked.

Since the only hard water diaper detergent I'd really consistently heard good things about was Rockin Green's Hard Rock formula, that's what I went with. It worked quite well, and we even stopped getting stains. I still don't know what all the ingredients are, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It was a few dollars more than the CC I'd been using, but you do what you've got to do! We did start having some ammonia issues (not kind to baby's bum) which probably didn't have anything to do with the detergent, but I can't be entirely sure.

And then we moved. I made sure to find out what the new town's water was like, and though it's still on the hard side it's not nearly as hard as in the town we moved from. So I decided to save a few dollars I'd try a new detergent I'd started hearing rave reviews about, Lulu's in the Fluff. It lists the same three ingredients that CC does, but according to "Lulu" the actual chemical makeup is somehow different. Not being a chemist I have no idea how. But I CAN tell you that it works quite well in our water so far. Somehow it's formulated to work in moderately hard water. We are getting a little staining, perhaps not quite as much as we did with Crunchy Clean. But again, a little sun bleaching and the stains are gone. "Lulu" was also quite helpful in suggesting we start rinsing our diapers before throwing them in the pail to help clear up the ammonia issue. We'd started using a fish tank ammonia neutralizer which had only been helping reduce the smell somewhat (yes, you can do that...if it's safe for fish, the most sensitive creatures probably on the planet, it's safe for baby diapers. It works great for some people, just didn't work too well for us). After buying a diaper sprayer and getting accustomed to ringing out the wet diapers by hand (not quite as gross as it sounds), the ammonia buildup is almost entirely gone. :-) Thanks Lulu!

So, that's where we stand so far. I've tried Nellie's, Crunchy Clean, Rockin' Green and Lulu's, and I've liked them all. Nellie's and RG seem to be a bit better with reducing stains, CC and Lulu's are probably the simplest and most truly eco-friendly. All of them use minimal packaging, which is always a plus! If I try anything else I'll be sure to post about it here!

My favorite baby products thus far...

2011-02-21T00:11:00.000-05:00

... are as follows:

~ Primo Infant Bath Seat: Okay, yeah, it's plastic, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a bath product that isn't. At least this one is small, simple, functional, and a great hand-me-down! It fits perfectly in our sink. It fits perfectly UNDER our sink. Works just as well in the tub. I love it, Jem loves it. I do lay a towel down over it to make it more comfy. Not a huge fan of the piece that sticks up into the crotch area, but Jem doesn't seem to mind it at all! If you have a good sized kitchen sink (that can be cleared of dishes fairly easily), don't waste any money on expensive baby bath tubs that you can't store anywhere. This is all you need! Search for it on Amazon, the reviews are all glowing (except for those from a few unfortunate people with tiny sinks).

~ Merry Muscles Jumper: Yeah, it's expensive and so's the shipping (it ships from Canada), but it's awesome. First of all, you can use it starting at about 2 months, provided baby can lift his/her head. This is 2 months sooner than any plastic jumper. Of course I debated about buying one till Jem was 4 months so we lost out on that feature, but he was so strong he totally could have. It's the only jumper on the market designed to be ergonomic (they sell a larger version for special needs children to help with Physical Therapy). It contains very little plastic (mostly heavy duty fabric with steel parts and a bungee cord). It's lightweight and compact (comes in a cardboard box about the width/height of an LP cover and not much thicker...minimal packaging is always a plus). If you get an extra hook (or "Kling Klamp," if you need to attach it to a door frame), you can just install that at Grandma's and easily transport the jumper back and forth with you, rather than get two big, plastic jumpers that you're constantly tripping over. Stick it on a shelf in the closet when you're not using it. Cons: like I said, it's expensive! Also, not nearly as easy to get baby in and out of as your traditional plastic jumper. There are no toys, bells or whistles (though it's easy enough attaching link toys and watching baby try to "catch" them!) But overall, the pros far outweigh the cons! We love it, and so did Jem (now he prefers cruising on the furniture... but he can use it till around age 2, so maybe he'll want it again at some point!) Search for videos on YouTube of babies in the Merry Muscles jumper. So sweet!

~ Fisher Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper: Also contains some plastic (they say you can't stick the plastic part in the washing machine, but I did anyway in our top-loader and it worked fine... just don't try putting it in the dryer), but it was the only baby bed on the market that tilted upward to reduce reflux and the risk of SIDS. Firm but padded and comfy. Be sure to start using the buckle as soon as baby starts rolling over! I loved that sometimes Jem would start to wake up, and the gentle rocking he created just by moving his arms or his head would lull him back to sleep. Not always, but, you know, sometimes. When he wasn't really hungry. :-) We've retired this, as he is now in a crib, but this was so great to use instead of a bassinet to have him at arm's reach. It also folds and is very lightweight and easy to pack in the trunk for trips to Grandma's (or anywhere else). But sturdy! Note that this is in no way an eco-friendly product. So keep that in mind. Maybe get one used?

~ The Miracle Blanket: at first Jem was a bit too small for it (crept up over his face a bit), but after about a month or so it became a godsend during the worst of his colicky phase. Also, after my anti-PVC packaging email spree to baby product manufacturers, The Miracle Blanket people sent me a very nice note to assure me their packaging is regularly tested and is PVC-free, phthalate-free and lead-free. Apparently they initially wanted to use cardboard packaging but it kept getting crushed during shipment from the factories. They weren't able to answer my question about what they do use to soften the plastic, but I give them points for taking my concerns seriously. And you can at least feel a little better knowing that the worst of the potential additives aren't present in this product.

~ Pura Kiki Stainless Steel bottles: We switched from Born Free Glass (since we discovered chipping on one of them that rendered it useless). Can be used with Avent, Born Free and Think Baby wide nipples, and probably any other wide nipple. The flow of the nipple it comes with is a bit fast for a newborn, and I'm not sure if they sell a slower one. Even now we use the Born Free nipples with these for a slower flow. The only other "flaw" is a curled lip at the bottom of the nipple ring that collects a tiny bit of water while you warm it up (probably not a problem if you're using a bottle warmer instead of warm water). My husband thought the bottle was leaking on his hand but it was just this little bit of water. Otherwise we haven't had any problems, they don't leak and are durable and come in bright, pretty colors. Easy to clean too (just make sure you dry that little lip well). They're expensive (about $40 for a 3-pack of 5 oz. bottles) but worth it!

~ Silicone pocket bib: I swear this was actually my idea back when I was nannying, and someone beat me to the patent office (more power to them, if it had been left up to me it would have stayed an idea forever, I'm not terribly motivated about such things). We have the Summer Infant Bibbity, which is actually made of TPE (mix of plastic and rubber). I put it on the registry thinking it was silicone, and if I had it to do over I probably would have gone with one of the Ulubulu Silly Bibs (100% natural silicone). But the Bibbity does work great and is cheaper. Just not as green!

~ Sophie the Giraffe: For a teething toy, she's ridiculously expensive, but now we know why. She's awesome. I call her "Jem's girlfriend" because he's constantly sucking her face and nibbling her ears. She's 100% natural rubber, and although the squeaking was annoying at first, now that Jem's at an age where he gets excited about toys that make noise it's worth it. Important note: She's basically a dog chew toy with baby-friendly appendages, so if you have a dog be forewarned!

~ Uncle Goose Wooden building blocks: The best blocks around, made in the USA with very safe, non-toxic paints and very durable: so far no teething marks, and Jem sure has tried! He loves knocking these down!

~ Wonderworld Stacking Rings: "Made from environmentally friendly rubberwood, non-toxic water based paints as well as biodegradable fabrics" (from Amazon.com). Oh, and I believe they're a fair trade product, or close to it. Bright, colorful, tactile... one of Jem's favorites!

~ Evenflo "Cozy" glass bottles with silicone sleeve: We mostly just use these for storage. It's the sleeve I really love. Easy to take on and off, and makes freezer storage much safer (imagine dropping one of those babies without one?) Cons: Not the best bottle for feeding (babies seem to generally prefer something wider, especially if they're usually breast fed. Pouring the milk out of these is sometimes a pain if you're only trying to pour out an ounce or two... spillage can occur. Update: they seem to have started making the sleeves out of some kind of plastic. Bummer. Well, as an alternative, Born Free does make a silicone sleeve for their glass bottles, as well as a pump-to-bottle attachment! Much more expensive though.

~ Breathable Bumper: I've used it before and I admit I love it. Reduces suffocation risk while still keeping little limbs out of the space between crib slats (poor Jem had a couple of rough naps before we put this on). Easily washable and doesn't rip easily, so if you can find one used you can avoid the dreaded vinyl packaging and just throw it in the laundry!

~ Bumbo Baby Seat: We got ours on Freecycle, and have every intention of paying it forward, so I have no guilt on this one. Never caused any spinal issues for Jem. My nieces also had 'em and their spines are also fine, thank you very much! Of course, the Bumbo MUST be used only on the floor, preferably a carpeted or padded one, since eventually babies will learn to wiggle out of it. This is just a great place to sit baby while you're in the room doing other things. Not a place to leave baby and walk away.

~ Fisher Price Papasan Cradle Swing: Um, yes, lots and lots of plastic. I would not recommend this as an eco-friendly product in any way, shape or form, as we put this on our registry before we got really serious about going green. But for almost two months it was Jem's favorite place to be in the world, and helped him get to sleep during some really rough spots. Then he decided he didn't want it anymore. But that's our finicky baby! Now they've apparently made it even better (swivels in all three directions, not just two). Of course any baby swing might've worked just as well. Who knows? This one was a gift from Grandpa, and we liked it. Folds to be somewhat compact, if storage space is an issue. Again, getting one used would be my recommendation! Once we're done having kids, ours will be up for grabs! :-)

~ The Da Vinci Emily White Convertible crib: It's gotten mixed reviews because it's made of pine, a soft wood which nicks easily. But that's what I ordered rail guards for! It's very sturdy and pretty, I love that it converts to a toddler bed, and it's gotten excellent safety ratings.

~ Fleece crib rail guards: I ordered ours from BabiesRUs, unaware (though I should've been) that they were packaged in PVC (and this packaging was particularly potent). The waterproofing on them is polyurethane, which is safe for babies but, well, it is still plastic. I love how they look and I know they will save the wood on the crib once Jem stands up and starts biting the rails. I would, however, recommend either making them yourself or buying them handmade on Etsy. I don't really think the waterproofing is entirely necessary...

Things I could've loved, but...

~ South Shore White Cotton Candy changing table/dresser: I love the style. I mean, I LOVE the style. So convenient in every way, and I love that the top part can be removed as baby grows up and outgrows the changing table. But I didn't know the awful truth about particle-board and formaldehyde until just after we bought it. We debated sending it back, but ended up buying an eco-friendly sealant instead, which (hopefully) is keeping it from off-gassing. If this was made of real wood, I would be in love. But I sadly now have mixed feelings about it. It's also apparently very difficult to put together, and some parts were broken/missing when we got it (though they were replaced for free without having to send anything back). Luckily, my husband loves a project.

Where'd you get that cool plastic toy?

2011-02-17T11:22:00.000-05:00

In my home, the answer to this will usually be either "It was a gift" or "We got it from Freecycle." The larger the item, the greater the likelihood of such an answer. After all I've read about the toxins produced and dispersed into the atmosphere during the production of plastic products, I try as hard as I can not to contribute to further production waste, and that means getting plastic items secondhand when we need/want them. As an added perk, we also get to keep someone else's "trash" out of the landfills! We also ask our family members to only buy Jem wood or stainless steel toys (you know, for Christmas and other special occasions) or to get them secondhand. So far they've been wonderfully cooperative!

Here are a few of the items we've found on Freecycle. I'd say that so far we've saved several hundred dollars this way - talk about an added perk! Sorry about the poor picture quality, I can't seem to find the camera, and my cell phone camera is not exactly the greatest substitute...

This exersaucer is in excellent shape! A little vinegar and it was clean as new.

Save $40-50 dollars on a Bumbo that's in new condition without the excess packaging? Yes, please.

These giant Brik "legos" sure are fun to knock over after Mommy builds a tower with them!

Little Tikes Country Kitchen. Missing a few things - the fruit bin, dishwasher basket and phone - but all Jem really wants to do at this point is open and close the doors anyway! It was quite a mess the day we got it, but we left Grandma to babysit and by the time we came home she'd given it a good vinegar scrub, and now it looks almost new!

Jem likes to run over mommy's feet in his walker. He's really good at getting through doorways, over carpets and around corners. Best part is that it folds up for easy transportation.

I have no idea what this toy is supposed to be, the people who gave us the exersaucer and the walker threw it in when my husband went to pick them up. Some kind of standing entertainment center is my best guess, but the supports that help keep it upright are missing, as are some of the pieces on its face. Jem doesn't care, it still lights up and plays music just fine. I took two of the legs off so he wouldn't try to pull himself up on it and topple over. As you can see, I had trouble pulling him away when I took the picture.

Okay, this isn't plastic. It also wasn't from Freecycle, it was an $80 purchase from Craigslist. But considering what it was originally worth and the great shape it's in, plus how much more comfortable it is than similar models I tried out brand new in stores... It was a steal and I was happy to give it a new home. It also came with an ottoman which we are no longer using.

Hello!

2011-02-16T23:21:00.000-05:00

I am just a mom who is doing her best to reduce the impact of production waste and environmental toxins on her son and on the planet. I do this by cloth diapering and carefully researching the ingredients in the detergents I use on those diapers; making my own organic baby food and breastfeeding; buying toys, bottles and dishware made of wood, stainless steel and glass with non-toxic finishes (wood toys and glass bottles, not vice versa!); using organic, non-toxic soaps, lotions and ointments as often as possible; cleaning toys and household surfaces with earth- and lung-friendly substances like vinegar and hydrogen peroxide; and by obtaining needed or wanted plastic items secondhand, usually on Freecycle or Craigslist. Jem is my son, and though like most babies he suffers from the occasional diaper rash and tummy troubles, he has otherwise been healthy as a horse so far. He's never even had a real cold (knock on wood). I like to think that is at least in part to the effort his father and I have made to keep our home as non-toxic as possible while still allowing him to have enough exposure to germs to build up his little immune system.

This blog is a place for me to review my favorite baby-friendly products. It is NOT an attempt to put down mothers and fathers who choose to do things differently than my husband and I. We understand that other people have to make different choices based on their own circumstances, and we fully support those choices. I will never make judgmental statements about other parenting decisions in this blog. As far as I'm concerned, all parents who love their children and are determined to do the best they can by them deserve one anothers' full support. We're all in this together!