The Cloth Diaper Whisperer: 2010-09-26

Cloth diaper fans are going gaga over Rumparooz release of its two latest prints: Eco Owl and Robotronic.

The Eco Owl comes in both a snap and aplix fastener options and is super adorable for your super fly little girl. The diaper comes in a soft lavender color and has thumbnail-sized colorful owls patterned throughout. It also has the expression, “Whooooo” written across it. Your daughter will love looking at the bright colors and learning to say, “Whooo, whooo!” Get ready for giggles during those diaper changing rituals!

The Robotronic comes in snap and aplix closure options and is super cool for that special little guy in your life. The diaper is designed with a variety of funky space creatures and robots and contains

splashes of light blue, blue, grey and neon yellow colors throughout. Your baby boy will be mesmerized by this fun new diaper print – he may want to play robots with you versus wear the darn diaper – buyer beware!

Both Rumparooz prints are in stock and available at Kelly’s Closet while supplies last!

Rumparooz Releases Two Adorable New Prints!

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Fluff Friday
2-BabyKicks 3g One-Size Cloth Diapers in new Chocoholic Series!
(exclusive to DiaperShops.com!)

Question/Comment of the week: How many cloth diapers do you currently have in your stash? Leave your comment before Thursday, Oct. 7th at 7pm EST. (You can only answer the "Question of the Week" ONCE PER GIVEAWAY, NOT PER DAY.)

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Tweet @diapershops fluff friday @babykicksusa #clothdiapers giveaway Enter at http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/. Then come back and comment that you tweeted AND the exact tweet (not tweet id status).
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Leave a product review at Kelly's Closet and return to the blog and comment which product you reviewed.
Start a thread about our giveaway or comment on a thread that is about or giveaway on any chat room (http://www.diaperpin.com/, http://www.diaperswappers.com/, etc) . Post the name of the thread AND the url of your comment.
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Have questions?? Visit our FAQ's.

How? We will draw one winner randomly with an "Online Number Generator" and will make a post with the winner on Friday, October 8th. It is the responsibility of the winner to contact us to claim their prize.

Who can participate? US Residents are welcome!

Important note about the winner: If we haven't heard from the winner by the closing time of next week's giveaway, we will choose another winner that will be published TOGETHER with next week's winner.

Good luck, and don’t forget to tell all your family and friends about the giveaway! In case that you don't win, what a better person to win than a friend of yours!!

Fluff Friday 99

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This week's Fluff Friday winner is Melissa N.!

She will receive:
1-Little-to-Big Organic Cotton Velour Diaper aplix (Special Edition Jitterbug Red)
1-Little-to-Big Organic Cotton Velour Diaper SNAP (Special Edition Jitterbug Red)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! Please, contact us ASAP so we can get your winnings out to you!!!

Fluff Friday 98 WINNER!

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We received really cute submissions for this month’s theme, “Mama’s Helper.” Looks like your little fluffy butts are helping busy mamas lighten the load everywhere!

It was excruciating to decide among so many creative submissions. A BIG congrats goes to Andrea Hamilton for submitting the winning picture of her adorable daughter, Elaine, helping with the window flowers while wearing her Kissaluv Marvels AIOs. Andrea and Elaine get a $15 coupon to Kelly’s Closet! Please email Sarah@diapershops.com to claim your prize!

Check out all the babies helping around the house in this fun video.

Next month’s theme is: “Baby BOO”. Share with us any pics that show your little Halloween ghouls! One picture submission per family, please! Submit photos to sarah@diapershops.com by Thursday, September 23rd. Winning submission gets a $15 gift card to Kelly’s Closet.

Note: By submitting a photo for this contest, you consent that Kelly’s Closet and Diapershops.com has the right to use the photo of your child and his or her first name in future newsletters.

Cute Baby of the Cloth

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Things I have learned about cloth diapering a newborn. When my son, HB, was five months old, I had to put away all his newborn diapers. As I did this, I kept thinking about all the trials and errors that I’ve had with cloth diapering. Here are some of the things that I’ve learned:

Gussets are awesome! Because breastfed stool is so runny, it can easily squish out of a diaper.
Your Birdseye prefolds aren’t really prepped until there’s very little lint in your dryer.
You don’t have to fold diapers but you might want to so that you can put them on the baby correctly in the middle of a long sleepless night. You avoid lots of accidents and get more sleep that way.
Prefolds must be all inside the diaper. Any part of it sticking out leads to leakage. And make sure that all-in-ones or pockets haven’t folded over in the back. This can also cause leaks.
Get a supply of inserts or doublers, which are really the same thing. I had heard you needed them at night for older babies, but never realized that because newborn stool is so watery it can seep through the prefold into the cover.
All-in-ones don’t seem to dry completely in the dryer so they may still be wet in the evening. It maybe worth it to use prefolds with a cover or prep a pocket diaper for night time instead. They dry better.
You are not a horrible parent if you diaper pail stinks when you open it. The odor will only get worse.
Babies can outgrow newborn sizes so quickly. Investing in an adjustable diaper or diaper cover is a good idea, but many will only fit babies 10 lbs or more. Thirsties duos are the exception.
If it says it will fit 8 lbs plus, go ahead and buy the smaller size (5lb-10lbs) because they will fit better and leak less. Refer to number 8 if money is tight.
Snappis are great! HB managed to wiggle his prefold out of place if it was laid inside the diaper cover.
Read the fine print on detergent. I didn’t realize that it had a built in fabric softener.
Even though newborns grow at lethal speeds, you will still need a lot of diapers in the smaller sizes because you will go through a lot of them in the course of a day. They can always be used on another baby or can be resold if they are in good shape.
A good rule of thumb for buying covers is that you buy a cover for every three or four prefolds you purchase. Since you will probably need three dozen prefolds to get started, that means you need 9-12 diaper covers. This is if you are washing every other day. If you have a small budget, you can buy less and wash more. If you have a bigger budget, you can buy more and wash less, but I would not go more than three days without washing diapers.
Men can learn how to change a cloth diaper. My husband can use prefolds very quickly now. You just have to show them how and be very patient.
Make sure you remember to put on a diaper cover. Keep it close to you while changing the baby, and you might have a better chance of remembering it when your really really tired.
White diaper covers do get dingy. The inside of diapers or prefolds will stain. Don’t stress yourself over having a bright white look on your baby’s bottom. Get diaper covers will colors instead and hang the prefolds outside.

By Laura W.

Things I Have Learned about Cloth Diapering a Newborn

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Thank you for visiting The Cloth Diaper Whisperer Blog!

Congratulations to Sarah Hull! Sarah please contact us here to claim your prize! In the subject line please write "30 Minutes of Fluff-9/28 Winner". You have until 10/1 10pm est to claim your prize.

We are starting a new way of doing giveaway's thru social media called "30 minutes of Fluff". In a nut shell we will randomly put up giveaway's on our blog where you can enter to win free diapering products.

Make sure you follow DiaperShops and The Cloth Diaper Whisperer on Facebook.

We will keep the giveaway open for 30 minutes for people to get their entries in.

Today's giveaway: 2-bumGenius 4.0 one-size stay dry diaper (in your choice of colors & closures)

Their are 4 ways to enter (Entries are only taken on the blog as comments to this specific post):
1) "Like us" as a DiaperShops Facebook Fan. Post a comment with your facebook id as a comment to this post.
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3) " Like" Kelly Wels, founder of DiaperShops.com on Facebook
4) Post a thread (or respond to an existing thread)on any parenting or cloth diapering forum telling others about our new "30 minutes of Fluff". Post a comment with the exact url and the name of the forum.

We do moderate comments so your comment will not post right away. You MUST have a blogger profile. Entries submitted by "anonymous" cannot be approved. Also, due to security reasons we cannot approve comments with full email addresses. We kindly ask you not to place double entries because you don't see your original entry showing up. This GREATLY slows down the approval process and delays the posting of the winner.

After 30 minutes we will randomly draw a winner from eligible entries! We will post the winner's name as an update to this post and then mark the giveaway as CLOSED. Once the winner's name is posted the winner has 48 hours to contact us to claim their prize. If the winner doesn't claim their prize we will re-post the giveaway.

CLOSED 30 Minutes of Fluff- Win 2-bumGenius 4.0 !

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We need your help! We only received a few submissions for the October cute baby of the month photo contest. So we're extending the deadline through September 30 (5pm ET). We're also extending the theme to incorporate more types of photos beyond Halloween ones. We're looking for photos that fit into "Baby Boo" but also ones that shows off nature - your baby playing in the yard, sitting under a tree or use your imagination! It is our celebration of the end of the summer - so make 'em good! One picture submission per family, please! Submit photos to sarah@diapershops.com. Winning submission gets a $15 gift card to Kelly’s Closet.

Submit your cute baby pic for October's Cute Baby of the Month!!

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It all began when I was introduced to the world of cloth diapering with my 15 month old. A friend used them, they were cute, and it saved money! So, I ordered my first three pack of Fuzzibunz.

It was love at first sight...and smell...and touch! I soon began ordering more, stalking the online shops and making room in our budget for more cloth, so that I'd have enough cloth diapers and never have to buy disposables.

When I had enough for my 15 month old, I realized that I was still buying disposables for my 2 1/2 year old for night time and naps, and discovered I was pregnant, again! I soon put cloth diapering on hold, and got rid of the stash I had acquired. I felt like I was wasting money on cloth, "special" detergent, and electricity by just cloth diapering one of my soon to be three children. I didn't have the money at the time to buy enough cloth to fully diaper three kids.

Sometime in mid pregnancy, after reading my brains out about cloth diapers and how to make it work with all of my children, I decided that I was going to make it work. I was determined to be a

cloth diapering family, from newborn to toddlers.

I started over, regretting ever stopping and letting go of my dear stash. I started with diapers for the baby on the way, since she was going to be using them the most! With all of the coupons Kelly's Closet has, I had her stash ready in no time! From pocket diapers, pre-folds and covers, wet bags and detergents, we were set! Except...the toddlers. Remember, all of the kids Shay, stop wasting money on disposables! After more research, I ended up purchasing a few large Thirsties covers and some pre-folds for my 32 and 35lb toddlers. They only needed them at nap time and night time. A week later, all of our children had their own diapers and we had enough to stop buying them! Two weeks later, we ran out of disposables and we have yet to buy any more!

We were finally a 100% cloth diapering family! Even Daddy will change the diapers, knowing that we are saving a good amount of money, x3! Our toddlers love picking what color diaper they want before bed, and I love changing, washing, drying, smelling and admiring them! Here's to no more disposables!
By Shay

A Family Affair

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We travel. A lot. Not very far usually, but long enough that it takes some planning. This Labor day weekend we traveled home to visit family. I almost brought a package of 7th generation disposables, but DD has been on antibiotics for a double ear infection and subsequently had some gastro issues we were dealing with which meant 2 things.

1. She was pooping a LOT more than usual and
2. It was of the even runnier than normal variety. This led me to choose cloth diapers instead. They hold SO much better and I REALLY didn't want to be 5 hours from home and have to wash the car seat cover.

Cloth on vacation isn't any harder than disposables, but it takes a little bit more thought. Not much though.First, assemble your supplies. Make sure to have enough diapers to get you through until you can wash again. For this trip, I wasn't planning to wash until we got home, but because we didn't have enough room for 70 diapers (she's going though about 15 a day right now with the gastro problems), I took enough that I'd wash half way through (Saturday night)

I took BumGenius FLIPs with Grovia Biosoakers as backup. Both functioned beautifully, although with the runny poos we did end up handwashing the covers several times.
Small wetbags hold the diapers during the day and then when we returned to "home base" (either my mom's or the in-laws) I'd empty them out into the pail liner. I washed Saturday night in my mom's machine (not like my machine at home). Any time I needed to hand wash the covers, I did so at night and they were dry by morning. It literally took me 5 minutes a night.

As far as the diaper bag goes, I used my regular one stuffed full. All the extras are in a large reusable shopping tote, but any duffel oe small suitcase would work too.

A few tips:

Always pack a few more than you think you'll need.
Keep diapers accessible in the car on the ride over. You don't want to be digging through luggage trying to find a diaper and wipes.
If possible, set up a small changing area in the car. Changing on a sloped vehicle seat is a challenge with any baby. I prefer to change DD in the back of my small SUV. This is possible because I set up a small Fuzzibunz changing pad in the back with 3 diapers and a package of wipes and a small wetbag. If anything is packed in that spot (thanks to well-meaning children or helpful husband) I move that particular bag somewhere else (even under a child's feet) so that I have my changing area. It's a lot easier. For wet diapers though, I change her in my lap if needed. (Never change your baby in a moving vehicle).

As soon as we returned home, I washed the diapers and we were set. Easy Peasy and no blowouts!!

By Shanee W.

Traveling with Cloth

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I don’t know about you, but I am never much for Spring Cleaning, but when fall is near, I love to clean and get organized. Not just the house, but literally closets, pantries, drawers, you name it. I also prepare the children’s clothing for consignment and handing down to other younger children/families that will be ever so grateful for a few new things. As I prepared my items to give away, I located from the attic some clothing that was passed along to my son and it got me thinking…..”Is there Hand me Down Etiquette?” If not, I think it is time we put some general guidelines around it. I have a friend that passes along her son’s wear, and I will say that she has it down. Here are some thoughts based on how I receive, and now in turn give:

Ask Permission:
Be sure to ask permission of the parent as to whether they would like any gently used items. Some people just aren’t into receiving used clothing. Ask first, otherwise if you just show up with a bag of clothing, it could make for an uncomfortable situation.

Be Fussy
Ask yourself, if this item still fit my child, would I ask them to wear it in public? If the answer is no, then recycle it elsewhere. Your friends and family will be grateful for your “donation”, but not if it is covered in stains, holes and pilling. Over the years the consignment shops have always suggested to review the clothing under a bright light, good advice even for hand me downs.

Wash/Fold/Store
It is all in the presentation, and be sure the items are clean. Sometimes people may turn away gently used clothing when it arrives in a crumpled plastic bag. Psychologically it sends a message of “this is no good for us, but maybe it is ok for you”. Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t think you need to go out and purchase a new container or anything, just be mindful of how you package the clothing, even if you choose to present it in a plastic bag. My friend recycles large paper shopping bags to pass along her items and sometimes even throws a freshly scented dryer sheet.

If you are the recipient –
Send or call with a note of thanks. You may even choose to send a gift card to a children’s clothing store as a thank you. That same friend most likely will pass along any purchases to your child again in the future. Remember, that large bag of clothing you just received probably cost more than $150-$200.

And for all of you Cloth Diapering, you can also follow a few simple rules when handing down your gently used diapers:

Treat them with the best care during use, Never use bleach!
Wash fairly often so they don't mildew and stains can be easily removed
Close all snaps, tabs, Velcro, etc. so they don't stick to other diapers in the wash.

You might be thinking, if I am giving someone free clothes, why should it matter how I prepare them? Well, in my opinion it all comes down to respect and pride. If you take a few minutes to care for the items you are donating, your heart will be that fuller when the recipient receives- and the thanks will be even greater.

Do you have any tips when putting together and/or receiving hand me downs?

By Kelly- aka “The Cloth Diaper Whisperer”

“To give is to receive” - Hand me down clothing etiquette

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