The Mom Crowd

Happy Earth Week!

Cloth diapering keeps disposable diapers out of landfills and it can save money, so I decided to cloth diaper my second child. Amelia has written about the benefits of cloth diapers before and I always wanted to try it. My problem with getting started cloth diapering was spending the time researching what to buy and spending the money on them. You can’t exactly just walk into a Babies R Us and buy everything you need.

Getting the Supplies

I spent a lot of time figuring out the different types of diapers and where to buy them. There are prefolds and covers, all-in-ones, fitteds with covers, pocket diapers, and so much more. I made my list and added up how much everything was going to cost and put it in our budget. However, every month something would come up and it got moved the bottom of the priority list. Then a lady at church heard I wanted to cloth diaper and very generously gave me a gift of prefolds, fitteds, Thirsties covers, Y-straps, and two wet bags. I also gave her forty bucks to “round out my stash.” She used diaperswappers.com to buy everything I needed. I am very thankful that I didn’t have to spend the time and energy to get everything while I was more focused on having my baby.

Using Cloth Diapers

After getting breastfeeding established with my son I decided to tackle cloth diapering and learn this new skill. We quickly learned that you need to be sure to tuck the all of the prefold diaper under the cover, so they won’t wick out on to his clothes. Also, it is helpful to be organized and set up a station. I bought two dollar store trash cans. One is for the cloth diapers and the other is for wipes and other trash. I only had a few blow outs of poo or sometimes the pee would seep through the cover onto his onesie. I am not very good at changing his diaper very often so I use 2 prefolds inside the cover.

Traveling with cloth diapers is fine as long I am sure to bring everything I need – extra diaper cover, extra prefolds, and my wet bag for dirty diapers. They take up more room in a diaper bag than disposables.

Washing and Cleaning

Once I figured out how to fold them and use them I had to learn how to wash them. It seems that every cloth diaper user has their own system. I went with the one that seemed the easiest. Amelia told me to run them through a cold wash first, then a second wash with hot water and soap. I use an regular detergent like All’s Free and Clear. Washing them is easy and it isn’t too dirty to touch the diapers, because they have newborn poo which isn’t that gross.

What is gross is leaving them too long before washing them. I got sick one weekend and went a few days without cleaning them. One fitted diaper grew fuzzy mold. After that weekend when I went to wash them I let the diapers soak in the washer over night in cold water. Then I ran them the next morning. When I took them out of the washer a few diapers had black mold spots. Either they grew from the soaking or from me waiting too long to wash them. I tried oxi-clean and even bleach, but the mold spots never came out.

Sometimes the diapers come out stained with yellow spots, so I sun them. All I do is hang them outside in the sun and the stains go away. (Those are my diapers in the photo.) I have no idea how this works, but it does! They come back to being perfectly white.

Is Cloth Diapering Working For Me?

I am currently cloth diapering about 50% of the time. I may not be 100% percent all the time cloth diapering, but I still feel like my 50% makes a difference on the environment. My husband changes my sons diapers during the night and in our sleep deprived state I didn’t want to make him change a cloth diaper. Also, I think I may not have enough cloth diapers, because I need to wash them every other day to keep up. I am not very good at washing them often. Also there are some days where I am super busy and overwhelmed so I don’t want to mess with them. We were given many disposable diapers as gifts as well, so I haven’t had to spend any money in diapers for my 7 week old son yet. I think when I have to spend my own money on diapers I will be more intent on cloth diapering more often.

How about you? Have you tried cloth diapering? What were your first few weeks like? Are you like me and always wanted to, but never wanted to spend the money to start?

I have a confession – I am addicted to the internet. My new iPhone isn’t helping my addiction either. I can tweet, update my Facebook status, and find a recipe on my All Recipes iPhone App all while breastfeeding my new son. I secretly think that my husband sabotaged my old phone so it would break and we would have a real reason to upgrade. If he did sabotage my phone, then I am glad because The Mom Crowd is all over the web now!

You can follow my updates on Twitter at @TheMomCrowd. I love it, because I feel like I can tweet about being a mom and other moms are listening with a sympathetic ear. Also, I can keep up with the latest mom news a lot more quickly by reading everyone else’s tweets. If you have a Twitter account feel free to put it in the comments so I can follow you!

Become a fan of The Mom Crowd on Facebook! You can keep up with our latest updates and support our blog. I would really appreciate it!

Have you noticed in our new design how some people have photos next to their comments in the comment section? If you have a wordpress.com or Gravatar account then your avatar associated with your email address will appear. It is easy to get a Gravatar account. All you need to need to do is go to Gravatar.com, tell them your email address, and upload any photo that you want. It’s that easy! Then your avatar will follow you to any other site that uses Gravatar.

If you haven’t joined The Mom Bloggers Club (MBC) yet, then you need to go by and see what is happening over there. All the cool kids are doing it. I have been a member for a year and have watched it grow into a popular place where moms ask questions and get to know each other. It has never felt like a clique and other moms are happy to help. It is really easy to make friends. (You can see my previous review of the Mom Bloggers Club here.) Tomorrow Founder Jennifer James is announcing that I will be one of the new Ambassadors for the MBC over the next 3 months. I am excited about it and hope to see you there!

Recap

This weekend CMT premiered its newest show “World’s Strictest Parents” (WSP). The show documents the experience of two troubled teens adapting to new rules and consequences with a “strict” set of parents for the week. The hope is that the teens will learn respect and come out better people by the end of the week. In the first episode the Vinton family hosts teenagers, Brittani and Ivan.

17-year-old Brittani drinks, parties, has face piercings, smokes, and talks back to her mom. She lives with her brother and her mom in California. Brittani’s mom, Dawn, says that “words are more hurtful than physical abuse” and wonders where the happy, joking daughter she used to know went. She hopes this week will bring some good changes in her daughter’s life.

Next we meet 15-year-old Ivan from Jamica Queens, NY. His single mother, Maria, has a hard time getting him to do his school work and worries about his friends. Ivan also smokes, lies, and hangs out with guys who fight. He claims that “they are not going to change me.”

“They” are Lisa and Scott Vinton who have a blended family and have three kids, Holly – 21, Travis – 19, and Jeff – 18. When Brittani and Ivan first arrive they laid down the ground rules – no lying, no drinking, no smoking, no face piercings, no slamming of doors, no TV or phone after bedtime which is around 9:00 pm, and they have to do chores. As expected the teens don’t like the rules. Brittani gives up some of her cigarettes and Ivan lies about them. Both are eventually caught lying and have to face the consequences. Brittani gets her phone taken away and they remove the door from Ivan’s room. They also ask Ivan for his lighter.

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If you have been thinking about switching Pediatricians, then you should do it! Switching Pediatricians can be a hassle and cost money, but it can be worth it. Amelia wrote about switching Ob/Gyns, but what about your children’s doctor?

My family recently switched Pediatricians 6 days after my second baby was born. Our first doctor, “Dr. Passive Aggressive” is a competent physician and is a part of a large pediatric group.  I wrote about how to choose a Pediatrician and followed a lot of those guidelines. We interviewed the doctor, the office is open on Saturdays, there is a separate area for sick kids, and she seemed nice enough.

Our opinion of Dr. Passive Aggressive started to change when we told her that we were having our second at a Birth Center and asked her what her protocol would be after the birth.  She was not familiar with birth centers or home births at all. She asked what would happen in the case of an emergency and how the baby is taken care of after the birth. She was not satisfied with my answers and gave me a stern warning “that it only takes a few seconds for a baby to code.” We didn’t really finish the conversation, because she just left the room. This should have been my first clue.

My husband left the conversation with a lot of fear and doubt. I talked with Amelia about it and we chalked it up to that she wasn’t familiar with Birth Centers. I also spoke with my Midwife and she calmed our fears and explained that they do a complete checklist with newborns.

We brought my son into Dr. Passive Aggressive’s office one day after he was born, per her protocol. During that appointment she made many passive aggressive statements like, “I usually prefer to do circumcisions in the hospital.” “Did they do a hearing test? You usually are not allowed to leave the hospital without Test XYZ.” She picked apart the checklist from the birth center. She made us feel like it was really inconveniencing her to do things outside of the hospital. She was negative about the entire experience, even though my son was perfectly healthy and I was showered and dressed and sitting in her office 24 hours after I gave birth. She never even said, “Congratulations.”

My husband and I decided to switch Pediatricians. Dr. Passive Aggressive was competent, but clearly not inline with our birthing philosophy. We decided that we shouldn’t feel stupid or belittled when we left a doctor’s office.

We paid $35 dollars to get copies of our children’s records and went to a new Pediatrician across the street. The new doctor, Dr. Nice, and the new office has been great. Dr. Nice has never made us feel bad for waiting to do the circumcision and hearing test. She also doesn’t make us feel stupid when we ask questions. The new office also really appreciated the detailed newborn checklist from the birth center. The front desk is warm and friendly. My daughter has been ill and they called yesterday to check on her. I have never had a doctor do that. A nice bonus is that my daughter loves to play in their waiting room. I never knew that the grass really was greener on the other side.

There are many reasons to switch doctors:

• You move and need to find a doctor closer to you.
• You aren’t in agreement with how they are treating your child’s illness.
• You feel like you have to lie about your parenting style (like attachment parenting), because you know they don’t agree with you.
• The front office does not provide good customer service.
• It is difficult to make appointments.
• It is difficult to speak with a nurse when you have a question.
• You don’t feel comfortable asking the doctor questions.

Have you ever switched Pediatricians? If so, why did you?

Christy, a reader of The Mom Crowd, sent me a question asking about sending children from ages 5 – 10 to a day camp to teach them life skills. These skills would include “how to do dishes, vacuum, sweep/mop, set and clear the table, work as a team, how to make a check list, how to cook, understanding money, making a bed, folding and sorting clothes, etc.”

Christy is a mother of 5 and often lacks the patience and time to teach these skills herself. She says “the goal of the day camp is that after a week they would come away with some life skills and better yet see that they are part of the team. Understanding that if ALL the work is done Mom and Dad will have more time to play with them.”

What do you think? Is there a market for this kind of day camp? Would you send your kids? What would you want them to learn while going to camp?