Cloth Diaper Retailer Cooperative: 2010-06-27

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Designer Diapers (and a Giveaway - CLOSED)

By now most of us have probably seen the new Huggies Jeans diapers and Cynthia Rowley's new designs for Pampers. As soon as I saw the little baby strutting his stuff in his disposable jeans diapers I immediately wondered if it was the disposable diaper company's answer to the super cute print cloth diapers, such as Happy Heinys

cloth diapers which are available in prints or the new Thirsties Duo Wrap prints

which are so super cute. Alas one may never know, but it does allow us to analyze them a bit!

First is the cost. On diapers.com the Huggies Jeans diapers are only available in two package sizes - Jumbo and Big. The Big pack is shown only in sizes 3, 4, and 5. The cost per diaper is .33, .40, and .46 respectively. If you read this blog a few days ago, Sara from Diaper Daisy did an awesome price comparison of disposables vs. cloth here. The Jeans diapers are .02, .05, and .06 more than the Huggies Supreme diapers Sara used in her example when comparing the same sizes.

When I plugged the numbers for using the Jeans diapers for sizes 3, 4, and 5 into Sara's example, and just used the regular Huggies Supreme for sizes 1 and 2, I came up with a total number of $2542.30. This is $247.91 more for using the "designer" style of disposable diaper for sizes 3, 4, and 5 in addition to the Huggies Supreme for sizes 1 and 2. What else could you buy for $247.91? I'm sure you can think of a large number of items, including a very nice double stroller which is what I've recently been pricing myself. I can also think of a lot more that I could purchase with the $1800 - $2000 that could be saved by using cloth from the start.

There are other factors to consider when looking at these "designer" diapers. Besides the obvious cost differential, they are still disposable diapers. According to Thirsties (a cloth diaper company), disposable diapers are the third largest contributor to our landfill and will remain in tact 500 years from today. Many disposable diapers also contain harmful chemicals such as Tributyltin, Sodium Polyacrylate, and trace amounts of Dioxin.

When considering which diapers to purchase for your child, or to give as a gift to others, please consider cloth. Using cloth provides a considerable cost savings, and allows you to wear "designer" diapers every day. DryBees Lacies

are just one additional example of a super cute cloth option. Pair these with a sundress and your baby girl can enjoy the summer in style!

Never tried cloth before? Want to add to your stash? You may be able to get a diaper free! I will be giving away one free regular Happy Heinys One Size diaper in velcro or snaps to a lucky reader. To enter: CLOSED

1. Like Tender Loving Cloth Diapers on Facebook

2. Like Cloth Diaper Retailer Cooperative on Facebook
3. Follow this blog
4. Post a comment letting us know that you completed the requirements and telling us what your favorite Happy Heinys print is and a winner will be chosen via random.org
5. Only one entry per person will be counted

6. Contest ends 7/20/10

Amanda, Owner
Tender Loving Cloth Diapers
Find us on Facebook

Monday, July 5, 2010

Cloth at Daycare

Hi, I am Sharni of Nappy Shoppe. My youngest son, Braden, is still in cloth diapers. Although, at 2 he is starting to train. Recently he started going to a Mothers Day Out program at the local church a couple of mornings a week. He goes to the same one his older brother went to a couple of years ago. So when I called to book him in, I said, he is in cloth, is that a problem? Given that the coordinator is a good friend who has watched my business grow, I think she felt obligated to say that it was fine. I do wonder if she worried that it would be tough to do.

So given I had heard from others who had been told that they were NOT welcome to bring cloth to their day cares, I decided to make it as easy as possible for Braden's new caregivers. I didn't want them turning around saying that it was too messy or too hard to do.

So we raided Daddy's stash of diapers (You can read about Braden's Daddy here). Daddy's stash consists of AIO (All in One Diapers) with Aplix/Velcro closures. These are the simplest diapers I bel

ieve to use and remove. There is no stuffing before hand or afterward.

I then "purchased" a double wet bag for myself. I love these double wet bags. You can read my review on them here. But the big thing I wanted was a single carry bag for Braden's diapers, a change of clothes and dirties. This bag has two large pockets. Each closed with a zipper of a different colour. So I was able to tell them in the case of Braden's bag, that blue was clean and brown was for dirties. In the clean side I loaded up three diapers ready to go and a change of clothes. I hung a double wipes pouch to the bag (it matches by the way) and put several dry cloth wipes in the blue side. They have access to water there so they don't need to be made wet for them. But if I know I am going somewhere where I don't have easy access to wetting my wipes, I can pre-wet them and have them ready to go for the day.

So on our first day, off we went. Braden wearing his mini starwars backpack with his lunch in it (which included a stainless steel bottle with sippy adaptor) and with me carrying my double wet bag. The double wet bag is brown with blue paisley, so it looks like a decorative bag. We didn't need any other bag because the wet bag held all he needed for the day except his lunch.

I explained the zipper concept to the "teacher". She said it looked simple enough. So off I go to run errands without an active 2 year old in tow. And boy did I get a lot done!

Several hours later, I pick up Braden, who incidentally is having a ball playing with the other children. I asked his teacher, did all go well with the cloth diapers. And she says she was surprised how easy it was. How cute the diapers were, and that the bag system worked great!

The next time we go, he wet through everything however. I figure out they are so used to using disposables they are not changing him as frequently as I would at home. So I had to adjust the diapers that were being sent with him. I chose Monkey Doodlez AIO diapers. Because of the fabrics that are used in this diaper, they last longer than some of my other AIO's that only have a microfiber inner. It still closes with Aplix, still easy to use, just means that if they do not change him as often as I do, his clothes will not be wet through. The other thing I have sent is a Thirties DUO diaper stuffed for nap time with two inserts. And because I don't have to unstuff this diaper, I can just empty the wet bag into the pail without having to do anything else.

So its now about 2 months of going to Mothers Day Out for Braden at time of writing. And a new teacher started this week in the room next door, and I overhear his teacher is telling the new one all about these wonderful cloth diapers!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Shopping with Us Vs. Box Stores like Walmart

In this economy, I understand how families are struggling financially, struggling to make ends meet. We're also in an era where we can check for the cheapest price at the convenience of our home using the internet. Sure you might find a "deal" or lower price at the box stores but let's take a look at the bigger picture.

When you support family-operated businesses like Ecological Babies and all the other retailers in our cooperative, you actually get more value to your purchase. We offer personal guidance, education, and support. When you make a purchase, chances are you'll actually be contacted by the owner thanking you personally for your purchase. Do you get that in Target, Babies R Us, etc?

Love babies? Most of us (if not all) in this cooperative have them running behind the computer screen and on the other end of the phone line. When you support us, you're helping us to provide for our families. Many us of (including me) works directly from my home, operating mainly when our 2 kiddos are sleeping.

So I encourage you to be a conscious consumer. Look behind the curtain and ask yourself, who am I supporting. Value what we offer for you because we might not always be here. It's our pleasure serving you and getting you know you and your family. This is why we do it- the personal side of the business. Honestly!

Happy Freedom Day!

Warmly,

Jen Starks
850.284.5887
Ecological Babies on Facebook

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Can you really save money with cloth diapers?

Much of this article was originally posted on The Daisy Blog on April 29, 2010.

Many people jumping into cloth diapering have an idea that they might be saving some money, but really, how much? Sometimes, it seems easier to parents to keep buying $20 packages of disposable diapers instead of investing a few hundred dollars in a cloth diapering system. So, let's crunch some numbers here, and see what we can find. How much can a cloth diaper user really save?

Assumptions

We are going to have to make a few assumptions here in order to make this number crunching workable.

Let's look at the cost of diapering a child from birth until potty training starts. For our purposes, let's say children will be in diapers for 2.5 years, so we will study the costs for that time period.
Some people are really great about buying diapers at inexpensive prices. Others buy them at regular price in small packages. Still others focus on more high-end disposables (ie Seventh Generation and Tushies). For this study, we are going to look at the cost of buying diapers in bulk through diapers.com, getting the discount of bulk without adding the discount some people get for couponing. I am going to look at the cost of Huggies Supreme diapers in the Giant Case size, a middle-of-the-road diaper as far as cost is concerned. Hopefully this will even things out overall.
We are going to assume there are 30 days in every month, just to make my life easier. This shorts us by about 12 days in the final cost analysis for disposables.
With disposables, I did not figure out the cost of garbage, just like I did not figure out the cost of water and electricity for washing. I also did not figure out the cost of manufacturing and transporting to stores (and then to consumers' homes) over 7000 disposable diapers. I am hoping the costs about even out. Let me know if you want to do the number crunching for those. :)

Sticking with Disposables

When breaking down the cost of buying disposables, you cannot pick one flat rate per diaper, because the cost of each diaper goes up as a baby increases in size, and at the same time the number of diapers used each day goes down. So, I first figured out the price per diaper at each size based on current prices at diapers.com. Then, I did a price breakdown of the cost per month based on the growth of my older boys, who honestly were always big for their age.

So, you can see that in my calculations, the cost for 2.5 years of disposable diapers is $2294.39. But there are more costs to consider, including wipes and garbage bags. For wipes, I looked at the 576 count refill of Huggies Natural Wipes on diapers.com for $22.99. For garbage bags, I turned to amazon.com, where you can get 180 Glad drawstring kitchen bags for $45.99.

So, with these calculations, the grand total for diapering a child in disposable diapers for 2.5 years is $2489.91.

Cloth diapers

The cost of cloth diapering can be extremely variable, based on the types of cloth diapers one purchases, whether they are sized or one-size, the accessories purchased, etc. So, I did three different cost analyses. The first is for a frugal cloth diapering system, the next is for a one size system, and the third for a sized diapering system.

All three include diaper detergent and other accessories to make cloth diapering full time a possibility, including hemp doublers for nighttime and at least one pail liner and wet bag for storing diapers at home and on the road. For detergent, I picked Rockin' Green Detergent, which is the least expensive cloth diaper-specific detergent out there. Some people buy mass-market products (ie Tide), while others choose more expensive options (like Allens Naturally or Country Save). I chose this option because it is middle-of-the-road.

Here is where the numbers fall...

FRUGAL

ONE SIZE

SIZED DIAPERS

So, the cost of cloth diapering for 2.5 years ranges from $358.10 to $927.19. The savings can range from $1562.72 to $2131.81.

The Final Numbers

If I average the three cloth diapering packages, I come up with an average cost of $629.80. If I use this number as the cost of cloth diapering for 2.5 years then we find...

Cloth diaper users can save an average of $1860.11 from birth through age 2.5!

What do you think? Without even considering the environmental and health benefits of cloth, will over $1800 dollars in your pocket convince you to use cloth? For me, it is a no-brainer.

Sara, Diaper Daisy

Friday, July 2, 2010

Finding the Baby Carrier for you! (Giveaway)

Here at Snuggle Hugs we are passionate about baby wearing (Baby wearing: The act of keeping baby close to your body by means of a carrier tied or fastened to the parent/caregiver’s body.) and love to share our passion with everyone we can. Today we would like to introduce you to the different types of carriers you have to choose from. We are confident that everyone can find a type of carrier that fits their lifestyle and personal fashion sense.

The Ring Sling
Baby slings are probably the most popular baby carrier available. Also called ring slings, the baby sling is simply a length of fabric that has two rings sewn on one end. The fabric is threaded through the rings, first through both and then the rings are separated and the fabric is threaded back through the first ring. When the baby is placed in the ring sling, his weight pulls down on the fabric, which locks it in place. The leftover end of fabric, or the sling's "tail," can be pulled on to tighten the sling, making it adjustable to fit different wearers and different positions. Ring Slings come in a variety of styles from the open-tailed un-padded ring sling like the Zolowear Ring Sling, to the padded closed-tail ring sling like the Hava Ring Sling.

The Mei Tai

The Mei Tai is an Americanized version of the baby backpack carriers used in Asia for centuries. The carrier is simply a rectangle of fabric with four straps, two for the waist and two for the shoulders. Because the straps simply tie together in a number of configurations, this baby backpack carrier is very versatile; it can not only be used on your back, but on front and hip as well. The Mei Tai is a one-size-fits-most carrier. You can find these carriers in many colors and combinations of features. Kozy Carrier is a wide bodied Mei Tai that even has a small pocket at the end of the strap just the right size for your cell phone and keys. Catbird Baby offers a hood for baby and a cinching strap to adjust fit for smaller babies or for facing out positions. Deciding on which features you want or need will determine which of these two great carriers would work best for you.

The Baby Wrap or Wrap Sling
Baby wraps are the one of the oldest style baby carriers. Wraps are a long continuous cloth that ties around you and baby. With baby tied on to you, you are free to go about your day and do what you need to do all the while being there for baby. You can wear your little one in many different positions including cradle (breastfeeding), facing in (snuggle hold), facing out, on the hip or easily and securely on your back.
There are stretchy wraps like the Moby Wrap and the Sleepy Wrap which are great for first time wrappers. For those who plan on doing extended baby wearing, i.e. for long periods during the day or well into toddlerhood, a woven wrap is usually the wrap of choice. The woven wraps like the Didymos or the Dolcino offer all the same great tying options of a stretchy wrap without the stretch. For those who love the idea of a wrap but feel that the tying is a bit more than they wish to learn there is always the Baby K’tan with all the front carry options of a traditional wrap but no wrapping needed.

The Soft Structured Carrier (SSC)

A Soft Structured baby Carrier has a semi-rectangular body with buckles instead of ties and can come with a formed waist strap like the Scootababy or an unstructured waist strap like the Pikkolo. The Scootababy is a hip style carrier where the Pikkolo is more like a Mei Tai with buckles.

Getting Help
For parents that would like a little bit more help with learning their carrier there is a wonderful DVD, Tummy2Tummy that covers most styles of carriers. In the Tummy2Tummy DVD’s you learn everything from the basic carries to the more advanced carries all while in the comfort of your own home and you can always pause and rewind to view something again and again.

We hope this has given you a little taste of the different types of carriers there are for you to choose from. Stay tuned for our next blog post where we will cover the pros and cons of each style carrier from our point of view.

Happy baby wearing, and to help you with that leave us a comment here and follow us on Twitter SnuggleHugs is our Twitter ID, to be entered in the drawing for a free Tummy2Tummy DVD great for beginners and experts alike. DVD will be given away July 24th.

One Comment per day = 1 entry
Each Tweet with @SnuggleHugs http://www.snugglehugs.com/ = 2 entrys
If you link back to me (link to http://www.snugglehugs.com/) on another forum/blog = 3 entrys (you must email me link to where you posted me@snugglehugs.com)
Good Luck!
Christine of Snuggle Hugs
Winner of our Free Tummy2Tummy DVD was Kasey Goodnough. Congrats!!!!!

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