Readers Questions: Homeopathic remedies for sick babies and how to switch to cloth diapers.

Yay! I got my first couple of reader questions!  Here are the questions and answers.  Please  note, that I am not a Doctor, so this can not be used as medical advice, I am simply sharing my personal experience. 

Please keep the questions coming!  You can email me at Info (at) MamaAndBabyLove.com

Reader Question:
I read that Penelope got sick. What did she have? How did you treat her?

Mama and Baby Love Answer:  She caught some virus.  It manifested first as a fever for about two days , then it went to her chest and she had a little cough.  She would cough mostly at night.  It was a croup-type cough at first, then just a regular cough, that was more dry sounding. All and all, it lasted about a week.  I gave her Tylenol when she had the fever (which was 101.5), and then I got Hyland's cold and cough homeopathic tablets.  I also bought Eldertussin Elderberry syrup that is homeopathic and also had things like echinacea and horehound for immune and respiratory health. Elderberry is helpful for clearing congestion, whether its  in your chest or sinuses.The syrup says its for 1 year old's and up, that are at least 25 pounds.  Penelope is about 22 pounds and 8 months, so I just cut the dosage in half.  My pediatrician. said I could give her Robotussin, but to cut the dosage in half.  I figured if I can give her some freaking Robotussin, I can give her this elderberry stuff.  He also said I could give her Sambucol which also has elderberry in it. Then I took elderberry pills, and upped my vitamin c and d, and of course kept up with our daily Reuteri (I take one pill a day and give her half of half teaspoon everyday in one of her bottles).  I also drank several glasses of Breath Easy tea. Whatever I eat, drink or take as supplements gets to her through my breast milk.   I took several steam showers with her, the first few days when the cough was the worst. Oh, and we bought a vaporizer for the bedroom at night.  Our local co-op has been out of Kombucha, but normally I drink that every day for immune health as well.

Reader Question:
I am considering making the switch to cloth diapers. the problem is that we are in an apartment complex and I do not have access to my own washer and dryer and I don't think it is right to do that in the community ones. My main issue is that I have read a couple places that the harsh bleaches and chemicals diaper services use are just as bad or worse than disposable diapers.  Also, the carbon footprint of the company driving around and such to drop off and pick up the diapers. What do you know about diaper services and despite the downfalls is it better than using disposables?

Mama and Baby Love Answer: 
I agree, I would not go with a diaper service, for the reasons you stated.  You may even be hard pressed to find one.  We do not have one here in Tallahassee.

You might re-think using the community ones.  I wash sheets and other clothes after I wash her diapers, and its a non-issue.  It's not like I have a washing machine just dedicated to diapers.  There is not a cross-contamination issue at all.  If you are super concerned about it, a simple rinse cycle on hot with nothing in it, after you have washed your diapers, would be more than enough.

The company that makes the diapers we use, has a hybrid diaper out.  You can stuff it with an organic cotton insert or a disposable insert.  I haven't used it, but have friends that have, and its a great diaper.  So you could buy the shells, and use the disposable insert until you move and then when you move you could buy the cotton insert.  The disposable inserts are bio-degradable and don't have chlorine in them, so its not like its a Pamper insert in there touching his skin.

MBL also consulted Jen Starks, owner of Ecological Babies, a cloth diapering business, for more information.  This is what she said:

"Great response!  I'd add that if she uses the laundromat that she wipes the inside of the machine with white distilled vinegar  BEFORE she washes the diapers. That way, the diapers won't be affected by any bleach that was previously used in there, fabric softeners, or harmful detergent built in. 

Also, it is a more serious commitment to cloth diapers (certainly not impossible) when not actually having the facility at home.  To make it easier on them, I'd suggest getting enough for a 3 day supply.  That way, they don't feel like they are living at the laundromat. 

Finally, another easy diaper (that I'm going to be selling shortly) is the Thirsties covers with an insert that lays inside it.  It's minimal bulk and super easy to use.  You just lay the insert inside of the cover and put on the baby.  With this approach, they might even be able to extend (and afford) the number of days in between washes."

P.S.  Jen is a local Tallahassee business, but she ships all over the country.  If you contact her, she is more than happy to help answer any and all cloth diapering questions.

If anyone has any other advice they would like to add to these reader's questions, please leave some advice in the comment section!

Why We Use Cloth Diapers

I got Penelope's size large cloth diapers this week and I thought I would take a moment to explain why we cloth diaper in the first place.

Surprisingly, cloth diapering has actually been a very pleasant experience. I thought it was going to be much more work. It is more laundry, but other than that, its pretty convenient. I do a load of diapers about every two days. About once a month, I hang the stained diapers outside on a clothes line to dry and it magically gets all the stains out. I have about twenty diapers in my stash. I do a dry pail system where I just throw the dirty diaper into a trashcan with a pail liner. When its time to wash them, I put everything in the wash, liner included and do one rinse cycle on cold and then a wash cycle with detergent on hot. I have to do two cycles in the dryer to fully dry them. We use a diaper called Dream Eze by the Natural Baby Company and they are a type of diaper that are called an All In One or an AIO. That means I don't have to stuff any additional inserts to use the diaper. These types of diapers are most like disposables in that way, but they are also some of the more expensive cloth diapers on the market. I just put them on, snap her up and Penelope is ready to go. Even Peter is a pro at putting them on her. I used a Pocket diaper when she was a newborn, until she was about three months old. It was a diaper called Pocket Change by the same company, but they don't make them anymore. I really liked those diapers, even though I had to spend extra time stuffing the inserts, because they were so trim. But I have really grown to love the Dream Eze diapers, and even though they are a bit bulkier than the Pocket Change, it's not that bad, the only thing that she has a hard time fitting into are jeans. The company has discontinued the Dream Eze style as well, but has come out with a similar style and it's a one size fits all. That means you have snaps in the front and the diaper "grows" as your baby grows. The concept seems great, especially considering you save lots of money by buying only one size diaper. But I am glad I have three different sizes. I hate big bulky cloth diapers and the one size diapers seem like they would be pretty bulky, especially on a newborn, but I don't speak from experience. I also use cloth wipes and make my own wipe spray, which is a piece of cake to make. I spray the solution on a cloth wipe and wipe her like normal. We bought all our diapers locally from a business called Ecological Babies. The owner, Jen, was super helpful and helped me picked out the diaper that was right for me. I never once felt overwhelmed.

Ok, so back to what I was originally wanting to write about: why we cloth diaper. My biggest reason is not because of the environment or to save money, I am most concerned about what touches my daughter's skin. I have done no real research at all, but to me, the chemicals that a disposable diaper has in them to make them so absorbent just can't be any good. Now, those chemicals may or may not give her cervical cancer or exzema, but they sure aren't doing any good to her skin, so I want to avoid it. I like knowing that what is touching her skin all day and all night is organic cotton. Makes me sleep better. Well, not really, since Penelope gets up every hour but you know what I mean. And she has never had a diaper rash in her life and that is always great.

The next biggest reason we cloth diaper is for the environment. We are greatly reducing our carbon footprint by choosing to cloth diaper. Even when you calculate in the washing and drying of the diapers (this is not the case if you use a diaper service). I saw a great article the other day that said it takes nearly 3.5 billion gallons of oil to produce the 18 billion throwaway diapers that Americans toss each year. To put that in perspective, that's more than the amount of crude we import annually from Kuwait. The article went on to say that it takes 2/3 cup of petroleum to make just one disposable diaper. Pretty nutty, huh? To that, I say NO Thank You, this is not OK and I will not participate in that much petroleum consumption.

The third reason we cloth diaper is to save money. Now, we have already spent almost a grand on about 64 diapers, two pail liners, 36 cloth wipes and a shower sprayer that connects to our toilet (this is for later when her poo is solid and I have to dump it in the toilet before putting it in the pail). So we are not seeing any savings this first year, as that is about the amount that we would have spent on disposables her first year, but next year we will see some ROI. And when we use all the same diapers again for baby number two, that's when the savings will really add up!

I will use a disposable here and there, I am not a Nazi about it. If all my diapers are in the wash, on goes a disposable. If I am running a bunch of errands, then I will take one cloth diaper and a couple of disposables because the cloth diapers take up so much room in my diaper bag. I also never use cloth wipes when I am out, I don't want to deal with the hassle of pre-soaking my wipes then forgetting about them and having a mold issue. The wipes and disposables that we do use in a pinch are from Seventh Generation have the least amount of chemicals possible.

Has anyone wanted to try cloth diapers but felt overwhelmed? The Natural Baby Company has recently come out with a really great product that has flushable liners that would be a great cloth diaper with training wheels that you can check them out here (but if you actually buy them be sure to do so locally from Ecological Babies!)