Men and Cloth Diapering

**Have you entered the Now Family giveaway yet? Do it!!**

The Padded Tush is doing a segment about Convincing Your Man to Use Cloth Diapers, and I thought I would share with all of you our experience with this topic.

It all starts back in April of 2009, I decided that to try to save some money I would use cloth diapers, but I would use a service.

It was horrible. Mostly because of my lack of knowledge, I didn't know anything about covers, which I had to buy my own, and the company recommended Pro-Wraps, the Extra Large left deep welts on my 21-month-old. I knew nothing about wet bags, so I didn't know how to travel with cloth very well. And our pail smelled HORRIBLE. A weeks worth of poopy diapers in a tiny apartment will do that to you. I still am repulsed by the smell of those odor eaters. I also hated having to fish poopy wipes out of the diapers and throwing them away. Garbage can full of poopy wipes? Yuck!

After our 5 week commitment was up, we canceled and went right back to disposables.

Fast forward to November 2010, our second child (Audrey) had been having horrible skin problems, and a constant rash. While my husband was changing her diaper, and applying mass quanities of cream to her bum I innocently suggested cloth diapers as a way to help her bum.

He looked like I'd smashed his toe with a hammer, and broke his favorite toy.
Seriously.

I even started giggling at him, his face was too funny.
But he said through clenched teeth, "If it makes her bum better, I suppose..."

Luckily, I have a good friend who let us borrow some cloth diapers to try and see what we thought of them. So I borrowed 7 Kawaii pocket diapers, and showed Jordan how to use them.

The next day he told me that we must have been cloth diapering Sydney wrong because these weren't that bad.

But there were a few things that Jordan wouldn't do, and a few things that made him more likely to use cloth diapers.

He would not wash the diapers.
If the diapers were not stuffed he wouldn't use them. He'd search for disposables or he'd wake me up and make me assemble a diaper.

I also have my own list of "demands" when it comes to cloth diapering. I refuse to use prefolds or pails after the diaper services, lol.

It's now been a little over a year, and things have slightly changed. He still doesn't wash the diapers (which honestly is fine with me) but he will assemble diapers if they are not prestuffed. He usually grabs the Nana's Bottoms AIOs first, but if they aren't clean he'll stuff his own diapers. Sure, sometimes I change Audrey's diaper to find that he's paired a hemp insert with a Mother Ease insert, and that's it, but it holds the pee all the same, right? :)

I think for my husband, the biggest turning point was when we went on a week long vacation and used disposables, and we were pooped on so many times!! I think it was then that he realized how much he liked the cloth diapers.

When I asked him for his opinion on the matter he replied, "Cloth diapers are not more difficult that disposables, instead of putting the diaper in a Diaper Genie, you put it in a wet bag, which actually is easier, as you don't have to shove it in the pail."

Now Grandmas on the other hand...we might have another segment on them...

How is the man in your life when it comes to cloth diapers? Padded Tush has some great tips for convincing or easing him into it!

THE Balm Review and Giveaway

Whew, it's been a while! Sorry about the long break, but I am back, and I have lots of fun reviews for you all!

Starting with "THE" Balm by THinc!

I contacted this Mama back when I first started cloth diapering, and I was able to try "THE" Balm when it first came out for testing. Since that time, Malena has come out with many other products, and even opened a shop called Now Family.

"THE" Balm works great on rashes and sores that babies sometimes get (my Audrey especially) and it comes in a few different scents. I love the "Island Fresh" version, and since it's great with diaper rashes, eczema, and cracked skin (among other things) it's a perfect thing to coat Audrey's poor bum in! :)

Mad Rash is another product that I love, it is the first thing that I break out when Audrey appears to be getting ammonia burns or even just a simple rash, and within a few diaper changes it's gone! Malena has said to use a liner with this product, although, I must be honest, I haven't done that, and I haven't had any issues with my diapers, but if you want to be on the safe side make sure you have a liner!

SPRITZ Oh my goodness, this is my absolute favorite diaper spray. I was lucky enough to be sent two of them, one in lavender and the other in orange. The orange is my favorite, I love the fresh citrus smell! They small great, they work wonderfully, and Audrey's bum looks better when we use the Spritz, compared to when we use soap/water/baby oil.

One of the other things I love about "The" Balm products is that they come in glass containers or recycled aluminum, no plastic! And it's heavy duty glass, I've never had a container break, although I have had a few dented tops, from toddlers dumping diaper bags everywhere, hehe.

THE STORE- I was given a gift card so that I could review the store as well. I choose to use this gift card on a Rumparooz diaper, and I loved how quick and simple their site is to navigate. I was quickly able to find what I wanted, add it to my basket, and the diaper was at my house only 3 days later! Oh, how I LOVE quick shipping!!

WHERE TO BUY- Now Family is the place to buy any of these great products, along with many other cloth diapering products.

Want to win one? Malena, of NOW Family is offering one lucky reader their choice of my favorite three products ("THE" Balm, Mad Rash, or The Spritz). And you have four chances to win! "Like" A Whole Lot of Fluff on Facebook, "Like" NOW Family on Facebook, Follow A Whole Lot of Fluff's blog, and "Like" "THE" Balm on Facebook :) Enter using the Rafflecopter below :) Good luck!

**WINNER IS CHARLOTTE R! CONGRATULATIONS! LOOK FOR YOUR EMAIL SHORTLY!***

Tushies

This will be my final post on disposable options while traveling options, at least for now. Previously I've talked about why I dislike disposables, and Flip disposable inserts. I also briefly mentioned that I had a tried Tushies and wasn't impressed.

Well, I'm here to tell you all that I was wrong. This option, which I originally dismissed, has actually become my favorite.

But first, I'll tell you why I wasn't too fond of it at first. These diapers have absolutely no gel in them, which is wonderful if your baby breaks out like crazy from the gel. The diapers are made out of cotton which is great!!!! However, the diapers are pretty thick, and are very stiff, their tabs are old school 90s tabs, so they are sticky instead of the fake-velcro that are on most of todays disposable diapers. Half the time the tab would unstick, and the diapers would fall off pretty easily. Which is no good, and instantly turned me off on these diapers.

So how did Tushies become my favorite vacation diapers? My wonderful husband couldn't find any of the clean diapers one morning when he was letting me sleep in, and so he found the Tushies and he put on one Audrey, and then he put a Flip cover over the top of it. It fits perfectly over the Tushies, and if the tabs unstick throughout the time they are being used it doesn't matter, because the Flip cover keeps it in place.

Another thing I loved is that since it's an entire diaper in a cover, all the mess is totally contained. It drove me crazy that when we used Flip disposable inserts that when she pooped the poo got all over the cover, which can be extremely frustrating and can cause some anxiety while on vacation (running out of covers is no fun when you are in the middle of no where, trust me!)

Another great thing about Tushies is their sizing, it's newborn, small, medium, and large. When I bought Huggies for a week long cruise I was so worried I might choose the wrong size because I had no idea which "number" she wore!

I hope that these few posts have helped you all with choosing what type of disposable options for traveling for long periods of time :)

My New Must Have Items

I said previously that I'm having big stink issues with my diapers.

No one likes stink, it's gross. And nothing is worse than having your husband crinkle his nose every time he walks upstairs, but is too polite to say anything about the stink. (Except of course, when he mentions the stink!)

First, I needed a new detergent. I had been using Tide (I've also tried Charlie's Soap, Rockin' Green, Bio Kleen) because it was the only one I felt actually got my diapers clean, and they didn't smell like poop when they came out of the wash.

However, I could tell they were starting to build up pretty badly, so we needed a change. I was at my local Cotton Babies, and asked what they recommended, I explained my issues (stinky diapers, build-up, terribly sensitive baby) and was told that I should try a liquid soap instead of powder, the lady suggested Mountain Green.

One thing I love about Cotton Babies (besides looking at an entire store of fluff!) is that their section of laundry soap is all cloth diaper approved, which is wonderful! I don't have to stare at the soaps hoping one will jump out at me.

Now, as to my thoughts about the detergent. I do like it, it gets the diaper clean, it seems to help Audrey's poor bum, and not irritate her skin. My only issue is that it has no smell, which isn't a problem to most, but I feel like my diaper should come out smelling nicely...well, they didn't. They came out smelling like clean poop.

That's where this second "must have" item comes in handy. It's called Bac-Out! It's wonderful! I put a little in the pre-wash, and when my diapers came out they smelled so pretty and wonderful! No gross smells, just clean. I think I'm going to start buying it in bulk (or just make a stock pile.)

I always thought that in order for clothes and diapers to smell "clean" they had to have a scent, but with the combination of Bac-Out and Mountain Green my diapers come out with no smell, none at all, it's like smelling (clean) air!

It's Okay!

I don't know about you all, but sometimes I feel like life is swallowing me whole.

At the end of August my husband returned to school. He is going to be an accountant...in 19 VERY long months (no I'm not counting down or anything!)

There is homeschooling, cleaning, dishes, laundry, playdates, sewing, scrapbooking, and the cloth diapers.

And yes, sometimes some of those things get pushed to the back burner.

Because at this very moment I am 4 months pregnant and all I want to do is sleep.
However my four-year-old and one-year-old completely disagree with this idea.

In the midsts of all this Audrey's rash occurred again, my diapers began to smell horribly and the girl's room needed a constant air-out, otherwise the room smelled like poop, which could be made worse by the heat we were having.

So I'm here to tell you all, that when life feels like it's crushing you, it's okay to go to the store and buy a (small) package of disposable diapers and take a break.

Are disposables still bad for the environment? Yes, of course.
Do disposibles still have yucky and dangerous chemicals in them? Yes, they do.
Are disposables still expensive? Yes, they are.

But is your sanity important? YES.

Make sure you buy the small package, because otherwise it might be hard to come back to the light :)

Also, make sure you wash your diapers, because otherwise they still stink!

But, yes, for the past 5 days Audrey has been in disposables, along with heavy duty cream over her sores (which actually can't be used with the cloth.)

With one less thing to do, my motivation has gone up, and now that I have a big basket of clean fluff, life is good again. And full of cloth.

But look out, because there will be there will be some fun things coming up. New detergent reviews, new shop reviews, new products, and a few giveaways.

Next month is my 1-year-anniversary of being a cloth diapering Mama, and you'd better believe there will be a celebration! :)

Flip Disposables

After going on our cruise and having a horrible time with Huggies, I decided to try Flip Disposable Inserts when we went on our camping trip with my parents.

Some of the things I liked are:
1. They don't cost too much 18 inserts for $4.95 ($.28 center per diaper)
2. I can use my cloth diaper covers, so no blow outs!!!!
3. Since I used my covers, most of Audrey's pants still fit nicely and didn't fall off her bum
4. They didn't stink when pooped or peed in
5. There are less chemicals

Some things to consider:
1. It is easiest to change the diaper by having a cover and insert all put together, and just switching for the soiled cover/diaper. Diaper baby up, and dispose of the insert.
2. The insert isn't as wide as the Flip over, expect that when you have poopy diapers it WILL get on the cover (especially if you baby eats way too many raisins while camping!)

Several years ago, my husband and I tried a diaper service as our first dabble into the cloth diapering world. I hated it, he hated it, there was a lot of hate. The biggest reason was simply that when Sydney peed, the inserts would wad up and the cover had urine in it, and if she pooped the poop would get all over the cover. I hate poop stained covers! This problem is repeated with Flip disposable inserts.

But, all in all, I consider them a success, and for any future vacations I'll be using Flip, I'll just make sure I have many more covers! ;)

The best part, for me, was that I was NEVER pooped on, and the poop never left the diaper, yes, the cover might have been covered in poo, but it was never on me or anyone else who was holding the baby!

Disposable Diapers SUCK!

For the last week my family has been on an Alaskan Cruise with my in-laws.

Yes, that's right, we took a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old on a week long cruise.

The first thing I realized was that there was no way I could cloth diaper. I didn't have enough diapers to last a week. Plus, I didn't really want to do a weeks worth of yucky diapers.

First I bought Tushies, I bought these several months before the cruise, and I quickly dismissed using them because they did NOT stay on at all. Nor did they absorb very well. And the tabs were HORRIBLE.

I have been a cloth diapering Mama for 10 months.
I was a disposable diapering Mama for 3 years and 4 months.

Why Disposable Diapers Suck:
1. My heavy wetter causes even the most absorbent 'sposies to explode during the night.
2. My stinkerbell realized very quickly that she can pull off the diaper, and that it was easy. She pulled off her diaper, threw it on the floor, and with a smirk she continued to walk around the room naked.
3. During that nap time she pulled off the same diaper that was pooped in and continued to pee all over her port-a-crib.
4. I was using 5-7 wipes per poopy diaper!
5. Ug, they stink when pooped in.
6. UG! They stick when peed in!!!
7. During dinner she pooped and instead of the poop being IN the diaper, it went right up the top of the diaper!
8. On the way home she pooped, and instead of the poop going in the diaper, it seriously went straight out of the leg. When we took the diaper off it didn't even have any poop in it!

And of course, me being me, I also have my vain reasons for disliking disposables:
9. None of my baby's pants fit anymore, her jeans were falling off her flat paper bum.
10. Letting her run around in a t-shirt and a diaper lost it's cuteness when it's a paper diaper
11. I never felt like the diaper fit properly.

I never felt like I could trust the diapers. I was expecting to be pooped on at any moment.

Sure, as a cloth diapering Mama I get peed on, probably a little more often than I would be if I used disposables. But I'm NEVER pooped on. In 10 months my cloth has always kept all the poop contained.

Of course, this list is just why I dislike disposables for their functionality, there are many more reasons why we, as cloth diapering Mamas, choose cloth; environmental, harmful chemicals, budget, etc.

So, in my professional opinion, disposable diapers SUCK.

I think I'm going to make a button...