sarah's sustainable life

it has been almost two and a half years since josiah was born. i remember the sweet, wonderful moments we spent together in the hospital those first few days. i also remember the first time i encountered a dirty baby and a clean diaper and had to figure out how to put them together. those were some challenging times, and i was surprised that i could even figure out how to fold and pin the darn things, let alone worry about there being a more “green” way of doing it! but as it turns out, there are some very easy ways of greening the diaper experience that i had to learn for myself over time. today, as i am facing the end of diapering (YEAH!), i will share with you the tips i picked up along the way that could have made my journey a little easier and a little greener.

if you choose disposables:
*look for diapers that have not been processed with chlorine. this is easier on your baby’s sensitive skin and helps avoid chlorine seepage in landfills.
*empty the diapers just as you would a cloth one – all solid waste into the toilet!
*look for reusable covers with a disposable liner; most of these liners are biodegradable, flushable, and/or compostable.
*DO research ahead of time. if you are expecting your first, don’t do what i did and wait until you are in the hospital to figure it out. there are many great websites and online forums.

if you choose cloth:
*talk with other moms who use cloth. until i moved to texas, i didn’t know anyone else who used cloth, but it is becoming more popular these days and it is good to have advice from those who practice cloth diapering on a regular basis.
*go for the goods! research the web, ask around, get the best diapering system you can find. i know it seems expensive, but it will still be much cheaper than disposables! (fyi, i’m still using the diapers, pins, and covers on josiah that i got at my showers.)
*you actually don’t need to soak, rinse, or flush a diaper. just shake solids into the toilet and drop the diaper into a plastic-lined pail after a change. when full, pour into the washer and run a cycle with a dye free detergent, reset washer, add more detergent, and wash again on hot. this eliminates the need for use of bleach.
*if cloth diapering is simply a money saving issue for you, you must check out the diapering hyena. her website has lots of frugal tips for raising children, including lots of insight on cloth diapers.

the modern mom has so much pressure to be a super woman. we feel guilty for just about everything, and everyday there is a new commercial to make us feel even more that we are not doing the best that we can for our children. who has time to research the newest, most cost effective, and greenest ways to raise a child? ecomom does! this website was founded to “address the connection between the health of our environment & the health of our children…committed to making eco-conscious living easy, affordable, & rewarding with education, support, tools & products.” there is an online community, a blog, and a newsletter. not to mention easy online shopping for all products green, from organic foods and eco chic clothing to counter top composters and green party ideas for kids, this website is as complete as an environmentally conscious mother could want! check it out – you will NOT be disappointed!

as my son gets bigger and louder everyday, i am forced to deal with the fact that he is not a baby any more. worse than that, i am forced to deal with a whole lot of baby items that are of no use any more. if you find yourself in a similar situation, you have two options (as i see it):

1)find someone who has a baby to take your old stuff (if they even want it)
2)find a new use for it

as josiah has been pretty brutal on all his possessions, i have opted for the latter of these two. here are a few new uses i have come up with for old baby stuff.
*bath cushion: you know that foam-rubber kneeling pad you’ve been using to give your baby a bath? it works great under your knees when you are scrubbing tubs, toilets, and floors! and because it’s washable, it’s a great pad to rest on while you do gardening (if you are into that).
*cloth diapers: most moms i know have had cloth diapers around, even if only for burping cloths. these little absorbent monsters are spectacular for a myriad of cleaning projects, but my favorite has been to use them as a swiffer cover. slightly damp for dusting or hot and soapy for mopping, the texture of cloth diapers works great for cleaning! and they go right into the wash with some bleach or disinfectant to be used again.
*baby shampoo: i know i am not far from josiah wanting to pick out his own bubble gum scented shampoo in a monkey shaped bottle, so what can i do with these giant economy sized bottles of baby shampoo i have acquired? the best use i have found is as an eye makeup remover. no tears but plenty of suds to scrub away excess eye makeup at the end of the day.
*baby food containers: i may be the only one who wishes baby food still came in little jars with screw top lids, but even the plastic snapping lid container have been quite useful in our home. i use them to pack condiments and sauces in lunch boxes. just to warn you, not all baby food containers have leak proof lids, so be careful how you pack it. (if only they all came in jars with screw tight lids…)
*knit items: finding a little more time to knit and crochet as your baby learns to play more independently? any knit item can be unraveled and hooked into something more useful. i have my eye on a pair of knit socks that he outgrew months ago to become his first scarf this winter.

also, remember that most 2nd hand kid stores will take gently used clothing and toy donations as a credit toward newer stuff for your child!

just finished reading an interesting article on recycled oddities. as the first inspiring piece of literature i’ve come across in several weeks, i thought i would share with you some highlights:

HOTEL SOAPS – many large chain hotels and motels have starting recycling the old bits of soap you leave in the shower there by donating them to nonprofit groups like clean the world. using leftover soaps to help eliminate disease all over the world – what a great and long overdue idea!

DIAPERS – a british company called knowaste has started a movement (no pun intended) to recycle disposable diapers. how does it work? you’ll have to look at the company’s website to learn that!

DENTURES – not as gross as it sounds. apparently, many precious metals are used to manufacture a set of dentures. a japanese nonprofit group has recently been created to remove the precious metals from unwanted dentures and donate the profits to unicef.

isn’t all resale green? yes, in a way, but today i saw what can happen when an environmentally conscience individual decides to kick it up a notch.
as anyone with children knows, kid’s clothing, toys, and accessories are outgrown on almost a daily basis. with that in mind, it is easy to see how so many children’s resale shops stay in business around the city (my last count was five in san antonio, each with several locations). in the spirit of discovery, my buddy beth and i ventured to the green baby resale boutique on bandera rd in north west san antonio this morning. i was so thrilled with what i found! this boutique has a wide variety of clothing and toys, most of them made from organic or sustainable materials, all at extremely reasonable prices! the owner was friendly and helpful, and they accept consignment for cash or store credit.
if you are a parent and live in the san antonio area, you should definitely give this store a visit. when you get there, ask about the other green business practices they use (oh yes, there are many more)! and write a comment to let me know you visited – i’m excited to hear your impressions!

when you are pregnant, there are SO many issues you have to make a decision about, and no shortage of people willing to give advice. i wanted not to give advice, but to share my experience and conclusions about one particular issue all new moms must face – diapers. there are several options to choose from. in the end, each family must decide which solution (or combination of solutions) fits them best. we’ll start with the obvious.

disposables
there are many reasons to choose disposable diapers. they are sanitary, convenient, easy on baby’s skin (pulling moisture away makes for less diaper rash problems), and less work for moms who already have way too much to do. so, why not use them? they are extremely expensive, they can leave you in a pinch (2am and we’re out of diapers – now what?), and some reports consider disposable diapers to be the worst offenders in the garbage dumps, possibly taking hundreds or even thousands of years to biodegrade. these factors, and a sentimental whim i carry for an impossibly old-fashioned lifestyle, led me to consider the less popular alternative of our time: cloth diapers.

cloth
cloth diapers were the only alternative in the history of babies up until about 25years ago, so they obviously do the job just fine. they are nice and soft (some disposables feel like a strip of cardboard with sticky tabs), you never run out, there’s no cost past the initial purchase of diapers with plastic covers and pins (which i was given at a baby shower), and they leave no garbage for the dump. so, why not use them? i have to admit, the first months of having a baby were some of the most difficult in my life. my son needed constant attention and feeding, and i had almost no sleep. the last thing i wanted to do was rinse the used diapers in the toilet, pile them in the “soaking bucket”, and then have to smell them all again at the end of the day when it was time to put them through the wash. i also worried about poking my son with the diaper pin as he got older and very squirmy at changing time (happy to say, that has never happened). some environmental reports declare that the water spent to wash the cloth diapers makes them a worse waste of resources than disposables. what’s a mom to do? there is a third option that i came across in my research that sounded wonderful to me, but not very practical in my situation.

dpt
diaperless potty training (dpt) is what is used in countries where diapers are considered a luxury item for the wealthy. dpt can begin when your child is as young as six weeks old. parents get to know their children well enough to sense the body language signs given before babies relieve themselves and then hold them over the potty in a slightly folded position. dpt advocates encourage babies to go completely naked, only wearing pants and underwear at an age when children would naturally be dressing to go places outside the home. fun times! children get to run around as God intended without feeling ashamed, parents know their children well enough to predict potty use, and children become familiar with the bathroom so they’re never afraid of the potty. no power struggle to untrain the use of diapers when they are two or three, and there is no cost EVER for anything. so why not use this system? i was really enamored with the idea of dpt, but i knew i would have to go back to work when my son was seven weeks old. nobody but a mom is going to go through that much trouble (i think). also, i was concerned about my ability to “catch” the signs that Josiah was ready to go and end up cleaning messes all over the house. i never did get to try dpt, but as my son is now almost eighteen months old and i know him a little better, i am trying to occasionally hold him over the potty while he goes so that he can get used to the idea.

i used only cloth diapers for several months. when my son actually began sleeping, i found that he slept longer if a wet diaper did not wake him. at that point, i decided to make a compromise and use disposable diapers at night. after a not-so-pleasant cloth diaper changing experience on the ground at a farmer’s market, i also decided that using disposables while out and about town would probably be a good idea. for my family, i feel i’ve got the best of both worlds. i use cloth diapers at home during the daytime, which saves us LOTS of money and makes me feel better about creating less garbage. when my son sleeps through the night or i choose to hand him over to a nursery worker at church, i’m glad he’s wearing a disposable. i think the best part will be when he is completely potty trained, though, and all this is a fun memory.

does anyone else have interesting diaper experiences or ideas?