Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Alert to bloggers who also cloth diaper!
The cloth diaper industry (businesses and consumers alike) needs to work together to effectively counter a bribed blogger initiative designed to promote disposable diapers through mommy bloggers. This is coming directly from the disposable diaper companies. You may have already started to see these posts on some blogs.
As a reference, you can rely on this little tidbit in the Wall Street Journal in an article called "Big Diaper Makers Square Off" published on April 13, 2009.
As a reference, you can rely on this little tidbit in the Wall Street Journal in an article called "Big Diaper Makers Square Off" published on April 13, 2009.
"Kimberly-Clark plans to ship free samples of its new diapers to about 500
"mommy bloggers," hoping to build buzz among mothers who write about
child-rearing and their readers. Likewise, P&G is hosting about a dozen
mommy bloggers at its Cincinnati headquarters next week to show how Pampers
diapers are developed."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123957295459311805.html
To counter this campaign and positively elevate cloth diapers in the eyes of your readers, please make a concerted effort to focus your blogs around cloth diapers and related issues in the coming weeks.
Thanks to everyone for your help. Please feel free to reference this post on your own blogs. I'd also recommend using other social media (ie: Twitter) to get the word out quickly...
Have a great Memorial Day weekend! :-)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Why do you cloth diaper?
Cloth diapers are all over the news these days - everything from how easy and convenient they are to use to the fact that they are more cost-effective, better for the environment and safer for our babies' bums than disposables.
It is often said "these aren't your grandma's cloth diapers" and that couldn't be a more accurate statement. Sure, prefolds with a diaper cover resemble the diapers we toddled around in, but with amazing diapering systems out there, like bumGenius, cloth diapering breathes a whole new life.
A recent article at thebigmoney.com focuses on the rise in cloth diapering during the current economic downturn and the increasing awareness of making more environmentally friendly choices. Cloth diapering used to be something for the extreme environmentalist, "cloth diapering has long been a countercultural lifestyle choice, reserved largely for deeply committed environmentalists. It became more popular in the past couple of years as green went from crunchy to hip." It is so exciting to watch cloth diapering edge towards becoming mainstream! (By the way, the article also discusses the success of bumGenius and Cotton Babies - and how it all began!)
So, what do you think? Is it the increasing popularity of the "green" movement, the urgency to look for cost-savings in a struggling economy or just the ease and convenience of cloth diapers - or a combination - that is making the cloth diaper industry boom in a time when business elsewhere is far from booming? Why did you choose cloth diapers?
Post your thoughts (or questions) in the comments and if you are on Twitter, be sure to follow @bumgenius and @cottonbabies.
Learn more about this latest craze, check out Cloth Diaper Basics.
It is often said "these aren't your grandma's cloth diapers" and that couldn't be a more accurate statement. Sure, prefolds with a diaper cover resemble the diapers we toddled around in, but with amazing diapering systems out there, like bumGenius, cloth diapering breathes a whole new life.
A recent article at thebigmoney.com focuses on the rise in cloth diapering during the current economic downturn and the increasing awareness of making more environmentally friendly choices. Cloth diapering used to be something for the extreme environmentalist, "cloth diapering has long been a countercultural lifestyle choice, reserved largely for deeply committed environmentalists. It became more popular in the past couple of years as green went from crunchy to hip." It is so exciting to watch cloth diapering edge towards becoming mainstream! (By the way, the article also discusses the success of bumGenius and Cotton Babies - and how it all began!)
So, what do you think? Is it the increasing popularity of the "green" movement, the urgency to look for cost-savings in a struggling economy or just the ease and convenience of cloth diapers - or a combination - that is making the cloth diaper industry boom in a time when business elsewhere is far from booming? Why did you choose cloth diapers?
Post your thoughts (or questions) in the comments and if you are on Twitter, be sure to follow @bumgenius and @cottonbabies.
Learn more about this latest craze, check out Cloth Diaper Basics.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Halting Houdini (or at least slowing down little escape artists)
Some babies never try it. Once their diaper is on, they toddle off to resume their normal activities. But some... you never know in what condition you will find their diaper - or if you will ever find it at all. These little engineers have busy fingers and figure out how to take anything and everything apart.
On of my friends had a child like this. When they put her pajamas on they had to put a safety pin in between each of the snaps or they would find her in the middle of the night, buck naked.
My Lily is one of these. Hook and Loop type diapers, like my bumGenius, were just an invitation to trouble. My first mistake was to leave it uncovered. She sat down after a diaper change one day and figured out how to remove the diaper and the game was ON. Streaking through the house giggling - she knew she had a fabulous new trick.
One easy solution is to have them always in a onesie or other snap crotch outfit. This makes it difficult, but the determined child will not be fooled. They know they can unlatch the diaper through their clothes.
One day while going through some of my sewing notions I remembered I had some 1.5 inch hook-side Aplix from a previous project. I cut about a five inch segment and put it over the diaper the next time I fastened it.
Here is a fastened bumGenius with the Aplix next to it.
And here you see it with the Aplix covering the tabs.
I try to make sure the size is right so that the corners of the Aplix are fastened down around the tabs - so you can see they don't cover the tabs entirely.
While this solution worked very well for a while, Lily did eventually find that, with concentration and work, she could still get those corners up and remove her diaper. But when the diaper is covered in a snap crotch situation, the closure is much flatter and she hasn't been able to get it off under her clothes. This wasn't the perfect solution it seemed to be for a few weeks, but it has slowed her down considerably. With clothes on top, I can be pretty confident that I will find her still diapered after a nap.
Aplix can be found for around $1 per yard, which will give you enough "Diaper Locks" to rotate through several diapers or allow you to cut some in different sizes. The 1.5 inch is the perfect size because it matches the Loop on the bumGenius.
An even easier fix can be to put the diaper on backwards. Again, the more covered up you keep the diaper, the more difficult it will be for your little one to decipher the new trick.
On of my friends had a child like this. When they put her pajamas on they had to put a safety pin in between each of the snaps or they would find her in the middle of the night, buck naked.
My Lily is one of these. Hook and Loop type diapers, like my bumGenius, were just an invitation to trouble. My first mistake was to leave it uncovered. She sat down after a diaper change one day and figured out how to remove the diaper and the game was ON. Streaking through the house giggling - she knew she had a fabulous new trick.
One easy solution is to have them always in a onesie or other snap crotch outfit. This makes it difficult, but the determined child will not be fooled. They know they can unlatch the diaper through their clothes.
One day while going through some of my sewing notions I remembered I had some 1.5 inch hook-side Aplix from a previous project. I cut about a five inch segment and put it over the diaper the next time I fastened it.
Here is a fastened bumGenius with the Aplix next to it.
And here you see it with the Aplix covering the tabs.I try to make sure the size is right so that the corners of the Aplix are fastened down around the tabs - so you can see they don't cover the tabs entirely.
While this solution worked very well for a while, Lily did eventually find that, with concentration and work, she could still get those corners up and remove her diaper. But when the diaper is covered in a snap crotch situation, the closure is much flatter and she hasn't been able to get it off under her clothes. This wasn't the perfect solution it seemed to be for a few weeks, but it has slowed her down considerably. With clothes on top, I can be pretty confident that I will find her still diapered after a nap.
Aplix can be found for around $1 per yard, which will give you enough "Diaper Locks" to rotate through several diapers or allow you to cut some in different sizes. The 1.5 inch is the perfect size because it matches the Loop on the bumGenius.
An even easier fix can be to put the diaper on backwards. Again, the more covered up you keep the diaper, the more difficult it will be for your little one to decipher the new trick.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
What's your bumGenius story?
I love reading and hearing about all the great adventures in cloth diapering - stories ranging from why you picked bumGenius as your cloth diaper of choice to funny stories involving your daily experiences with cloth diapers.
Here are two blog posts that made me smile:
Here are two blog posts that made me smile:
- A video game dad turned cloth diapering fan. (I'm a sucker for the dads that love their bumGenius!)
- An expectant mother's excitement over her first cloth diaper purchase.
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