So, because I think of Rumparooz as the party animal of the cloth diaper world, Otter Babies is throwing a little bash in their honor. Kind of like a Super Bowl Party, except thankfully there is no football involved, just free stuff, cute diapers and fun.

We’re going to kick things off  October 1st at at 1 PM EST! Word of warning: there is a limited stock of the new prints! Your chances for prizes get better through the day, but your chances for the new prints won’t be as good. Lots of products will be on sale, too, so watch for those! If you don’t see a discount on the item you want, that means the product is no longer being discounted (quantities are limited). Here’s a little schedule:

1 PM: Let’s get started! The first Rumparooz order of the day will get a free Little Comfort one-size bamboo fitted diaper! (the new prints are not eligible for this offer). All in-stock Knickernappies and SmartiPants pocket diapers will go on sale for 10% off.

2 PM: the new Rumparooz prints will be officially available! The first 2 Rumparooz orders after 2 PM will each get a free Little Comfort diaper cover in the size of their choice. Leslie’s wetbags will go on sale for 20% off.

3 PM: More free stuff! The first 3 Rumparooz orders after 3 PM will include a cute and adorable little Otter Washy! 3 pairs of Otter Trotters shoes (made-to-order) will go on sale for 30% off.

4 PM: Still more free stuff! The first 4 Rumparooz orders after 4 PM will include a free 2-pack of Rainbow Wipes in blueberry and raspberry! 4 Nappy Shoppe wetbags will go on sale for 40% off.

5 PM: Lots more free stuff! The first 5 Rumparooz orders after 5 PM will include a free Buddha Bunz dryer ball! 5 Olive Jane designer diaper covers, 5 Otter Washies  and 5 pairs of Otter Puddles trainers (made-to-order) will go on sale for 50% off.

6 PM: You guessed it–free stuff! The first 6 Rumparooz orders after 6 PM will include a  free Sweetsation Therapy product (our choice)! Selected products will go on sale for 60% off–not telling yet what those will be!

The largest Rumparooz order of the day will receive a free Teething Bling necklace and pendant (mother of pearl).

All discounts end at 12 midnight or while supplies last. Orders do not need to include Rumparooz products to be eligible for discounts.

And so, with this lofty goal in mind I’ve been going preschool hunting for our youngest daughter, who has her feet in the worlds of both a neurotypical child, who can express herself verbally and is giggly and funny and loves people and an autistic child, who requires direct, simple communication and guidance to focus her attention on the task at hand.

I didn’t really expect my search for a preschool to end up being a search for compassion and human decency, but that’s what it becomes for the parent of a differently abled child. In fact, I’d recommend borrowing a child like mine if you don’t actually have one, because this will be the quickest way to establish a true picture of the heart and soul of a preschool, which is the staff. Do you want a preschool that embraces and encourages children of all abilities? No? Well, consider your neurotypical child at his or her worst, crankiest, and least lovable. Now what kind of preschool do you want?

I had very high hopes for a preschool in our area that billed itself as offering a “progressive, contemplative education.” It claimed to “celebrate diversity,” and pledged “allegiance to {ourselves}, to the soul inside {us} that is in everything: one person under peace, true to {ourselves} and others, treating people the way {we} want to be treated, and bringing love to Earth through the celebration of life.” Awesome.

I took Faith for a visit on Tuesday and I could tell it wasn’t going to work although she did pretty well–just a feeling. It was kind of like they were acting the part of what they thought wholesome people should be like. Except they weren’t actually wholesome. Wearing Birkenstocks, eating barley and nutritional yeast, and reading stories about fairies doesn’t make you a decent person as it turns out.

The conversation in which they reject our daughter for their school (their words are actual quotes, mine are what I wish I’d said):

Them: Well, we discussed it with the teacher and she said she didn’t feel she would be able to teach in the way she wanted to teach if she were to accept your daughter.

Me: Yes, of course that’s fine. I believe there’s a section in the Americans with Disabilities Act that specifically says that not wanting to accept differently abled people is perfectly appropriate and it’s not necessary to do anything that might inconvenience yourself to accommodate them.

Them: I’m glad you’re so understanding about it!

Me: It’s not easy to choose to discriminate against a learning disabled child; I certainly don’t want to make this any more difficult for you!

Them: Well, even though we don’t want your daughter to attend the school, we want to extend an invitation to you and your family to attend some of the family events and social activities we have coming up–the Harvest Festival is next month.

Me: I think that would be extraordinarily awkward. But do let me know if you have any activities planned to celebrate Diversity Day or anything like that. We’d be glad to show up so you could show other parents the kind of diversity that’s not popular or trendy and that you don’t really want around.

Next up: a nearby Montessori school. I’ll hopefully be updating this post with more revelations about what “being kind, loving and respectful to ourselves, others, and all living things” really means.

500!!!!!

Thank you Facebook Likes!! Gosh, that sounds goofy…Fans was so much better. Anyway, here ya go with the giveaway question–just post your comment and you’re entered. Gift certificates for $25 each will be given to two lucky Fans/Likers drawn at random later tonight (should be around 10 -11 PM EST). One comment per Fan/Liker, por favor.

What gift would you give a friend just starting out with cloth diapering in order to help make sure she was successful with it? Maybe a diaper that worked well for you or was fool-proof or a detergent that really kept stinkies at bay or a great nighttime solution? And what would you AVOID giving her that might turn her off for life?

Giveaway Winners Announced!

Congratulations winners!! Please be sure to contact debbyreed@gmail.com within 48 hours so I can give you information about how to claim your prize : )

#114: Crystal B.

#104 Lucy G.

Our 3.5 year old daughter is not the most reliable of children when it comes to announcing an imminent call of nature. So, not surprisingly this particular call went unanswered in time and my husband came in with her from outside with the “message” already left in her underwear. And he put the underwear, which had been spoken to in a very disagreeable way, in the sink for me to deal with. It was some time before I discovered them and the message had really sunken in by that time, I can tell you.

Now what I should have done was to rinse the message thoroughly and then launder the poor underwear by hand or maybe taken them to a laundromat in a different town or even buried them in the yard. But I did not. I confess now that I picked them up by one tiny corner and carried them to the washing machine and put them on top of the already full load of clothes in there and then I dumped 2 tsp of Lulu’s Glamour Wash (Zippity Doo Dah occupies its own little shrine by the washer) directly on the offending underwear. Note well: I did not rub it in or spread it around or mix or soak or trouble myself in any way to properly prepare the underwear for washing. I just closed the lid, turned the water setting to hot, pushed the ON button, mumbled a little prayer and then I walked away.

And so it was that I returned 2 hours later with some trepidation to open the washer and fish out the underwear anticipating that AT LEAST the underwear (but most likely the entire washload) was going to smell like a barnyard animal. But, no, that’s odd, the other clothes didn’t smell like anything. So I held the underwear about 2 feet away and waved them in the air and sniffed. Nothing. I held the underwear a little closer. Sniff. Nothing. I held the underwear right next to my nose and inhaled deeply. Absolutely nothing. There was no smell at all. A single wash got them completely clean. Try this at home at your own peril, but it sure worked for me.

I stand revealed before you, a bona fide Lulu’s Disciple.

Made in the USA

Today’s long-winded novel is about diapering newborns, in answer to a question from an expectant mom who wants to cloth diaper and is doing some homework first (smart mom!):

Dear OtterMama:
As a new mom, I just don’t know what to buy, and an ‘everything you need to get started package’ would be helpful.  I like your idea of including the wipes, wetbag, balm, and nursing pads – maybe in an ‘accessories’ kit?!  What I was thinking was maybe 4 diapers with a mixture of O-Pads and Econ-O-Pads, or whatever might be necessary to get a baby through 24 hours of diapering (day and night, heavy volume vs. light, etc).

Hi New Mom!
I am very flattered you like the Ai2s enough to want a bunch!! But please don’t buy a bunch until you’ve tried one. Many people love them, and they work perfectly for their babies. But I have had someone return over $200 worth of diapers because her daughter turned out to be so tiny that the Blotters couldn’t be fastened tight enough around her thighs. I don’t charge for shipping for just this reason; you don’t have to order everything at once. And it’s actually pretty fun (and addictive) trying different diapers–you’ll see!

I also suggest that moms start out with the most cost effective diapers possible. For a newborn, that’s prefolds or flat diapers, with an inexpensive pull on or wrap-style cover. This is because newborns go through a LOT of diapers (be prepared for lots and lots of poopy diapers) and they grow REALLY fast. After the babies hit 10-12 lbs or so, they grow a little slower and they don’t poop so much, so then it makes sense to invest in more expensive covers and more absorbent inserts. And prefolds are useful for other things besides diapering, so it doesn’t matter if you only use them a short while. When they’re outgrown, you can use them for burp cloths and rags, cover your changing mats with them, etc. If you’re worried about pins, Snappis are a very nifty invention that holds the prefold in place without pins, and you can just lay the folded prefold in a cover without pinning it.

I do think it’s a good idea to also get 1. fitteds and covers that are almost as cheap as prefolds and 2. one-size diapers that truly work for newborns and older babies. I started stocking the OsoCozy fitteds because they are delightfully cheap, and they’re organic and made in the US. I strongly recommend the Little Comfort one-size bamboo fitteds, for an exceptional quality diaper at a very reasonable price. The Yamma fitted diapers I make are more expensive, but they are embroidered and colorful “show-off” diapers that work well for a newborn all the way to a toddler because they are 2 parts that snap together and only one part is used for a newborn. Newborns have very sensitive skin, and I like using a fitted diaper without a cover as much as possible to get good air flow to the skin. Because newborns don’t need a whole lot of absorbency, you can get away without a cover if the fitted is snug enough around their legs to contain blowouts (that’s projectile breastfed baby poop exiting the diaper at the back and legs, yuck).

My suggestion for a trial package would be:

1 Yamma one-size fitted

1 OsoCozy fitted, size S

1 dozen newborn prefolds

1 dozen infant prefolds

1 Otter Blotter size 1 Ai2 (8-20 lbs) this can be used as a cover over the prefolds, or the prefolds can be stuffed inside it for a pocket diaper, or it can be used as a cover over the snap-in O-Pads and Econ-O-Pads.

1 Otter Blotter multi-size cover size M (15-25 lbs) this cover fastens a bit differently from the 2-size Ai2 covers (the front doesn’t snap down) and you can see which fastening system you like the best. This cover can be used over prefolds without pinning (just tuck the prefold in the front and back inner facings). I don’t recommend buying many of the multi-size covers in small, unless you really love the diapers so much you can’t live without them. The small size just isn’t practical for the cost.
3 Otter Blotter Day-O-Pads (these are one-size, so they can be used indefinitely)
2 Otter Blotter Econ-O-Pads, size 1

I have been searching for a cheap cover to stock for newborns and haven’t found one I really like. The Olive Jane designer diaper covers are nice (and on sale now!) but I am hoping to find something even cheaper. I will probably ended up making one myself, in a snap and pull on version.

Sorry for rambling on and on and on; but hopefully some of it was useful!

And in Otter News, some fun 4th of July announcements!

1. There’s a great giveaway going on at the Knickernappies blog. Have I mentioned recently that I love this company? American-made products, family-owned business, absolutely salt-of the-earth people and fantastic customer service. And they stand behind their products with warranties that are the best in the cloth diapering industry. Enter to win a TRIO of red, white and blue 2G Knickernappies diapers in your choice of sizes and inserts! The mandatory entry is to use the Retailer Locator and leave a comment mentioning the retailer closest to them. Otter Babies is in Elliston, VA between Roanoke and Blacksburg (go Va Tech!) and I’d love to see everyone enter the contest and give a shout if you’re close to us!

2. One-size bamboo fitteds from Little Comfort are coming soon to Otter Babies! Little Comfort is a mom-owned company in Scotland and these fitteds are just fabulous! They’re beautifully soft and gentle against your baby’s skin and super-super absorbent. And they’re made to last–after 300 washes, this fitted will still be as soft as the day you got it! Pre-order yours today and use the discount code COMFORT to get 10% off your whole order!

#2, Jill S.

#77, Mary M.

#38, Jessica A.

#30, Alesha J.

#86, Ashley R.

#11, Stephanie G.

#47, Abbie N.

#61, Andrea K.

#15, Cari C.

#42, Karen B.

Congratulations, everyone and thank you so much for reading the Glamour Wash review and tweeting and commenting about the giveaway!

Winners, please send me a message with your shipping addy and choice of scents: Naked Booty (unscented), Zippity Doo Dah, Dimpled Booty or Hard Water (unscented). I’ll try to accomodate as many requests as possible, but if I run out I’ll have to substitute another scent.

If I don’t hear from the winners by tomorrow (Friday) I’ll try to contact them, but if I don’t hear responses by Saturday, their prize will go up for grabs to another entrant.

Attention Diaper Trolls everywhere! Beating your diapers against the rocks in the creek outside your cave is sooo Old Troll School. Modern Trolls now have fancy new-fangled machines and detergent to get their Hairy Heinies, Fuzzibrats, ScumGenius and GrumpARooz nice and fluffy. And what Troll can resist a little Lulu’s Glamour in the Fluff-load?

In order to glamorize as many Trolls as possible, a sample bag and cute little wooden scoop will be given away to 10 lucky Trolls!

• Each sample bag has enough glamour for 8 loads (or 16 ultra-new-fangled-high-efficiency wash loads).

• Winners get their choice of sample bag: Naked booty (unscented), Zippity Doo Dah, Dimpled Booty, or Hard Water (unscented).
  

How to enter:

Oh goody, time to do laundry. And what a treat it is, sorting through crusty socks (great for wearing around the house AND in the sandbox!) and mysteriously streaked white shirts (no napkin for me, I’m fine, thanks!) Really, shouldn’t doing laundry be less glum and a little more *Glam*??

Enter Lulu and her glorious Glamour Wash to the rescue! Lulu was kind enough to send some Glamour Wash my way to bring out my inner laundry queen and let me tell you, Lulu’s Glamour Wash is divinity for diapers.

I compared Glamour Wash to the competition in several key laundry categories that are especially relevant to cleaning cloth diapers: stain removal (with and without presoaking), odor removal, fabric brightening/whitening, and likeliness to leave detergent residue. Several detergents were tested: BioKleen Free and Clear powdered, Tide Free unscented powdered, Rockin Green (Fresh Linen scent-original version), and Glamour Wash (Zippity Doo Dah scent). I also tested RLR laundry treatment (not a detergent) to see how it fared with removing stains.

First, the stain removal test.

To see how well the detergents remove stains that go along with cloth diapers, I stained several squares of bamboo fleece with the most sanitary substitutes for poop I could think of: melted chocolate, make-up, squashed blueberries and spaghetti sauce.

I washed the stained fleece both with and without an overnight presoak with the detergents.

I noticed that both the Glamour Wash and RockinGreen soak solution became clear during the soak, while all the other detergents tested (Tide, RLR and BioKleen) looked dirty and took on the color of the stains. This may be due to the sodium percarbonate in both GW and RNG, which forms hydrogen peroxide in water. Hydrogen peroxide has long been used as a stain remover, especially for biological stains like blood.

Results: It was pretty obvious that soaking the  stained fabric before washing helped a lot with stain removal. The soaked fleece was much cleaner looking across the board. Of the detergents tested (Tide, BioKleen, Glamour Wash and RockinGreen), Lulu’s Glamour Wash consistently removed the stains most completely. All the detergents failed to remove the make-up stain (note: if it’s this hard to get off the fabric, I have wonder how hard it is to get it off your face). But Glamour Wash was the only one that really got rid of the spaghetti sauce stain, while all the other detergents left a trace of the tough stain, even with soaking. Interestingly, RLR appeared to remove stains as well or better than most of the tested detergents, but at $2 per washload, RLR is best saved for truly distressed diapers.

I also noticed that Tide was better than Glamour Wash and Rockin Green at removing dried-on stains (melted/hardened chocolate) without pre-soaking. This may be because Tide contains synthetic surfactants, which help water penetrate into the stain. Rockin Green contains “bio-degradable surfactants,” which probably differ from those in Tide.
A little info about surfactants. A surfactant is basically soap, and it penetrates the stains in your laundry to make the dirt and oil soluble so they can be washed away. Natural soaps (like the kind you bathe with) react with calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) ions  in water (Ca and Mg give hardness to the water–the more Ca and Mg, the harder the water ) to form a greasy, insoluble, curd-like precipitate that settles on what ever is being washed, i.e. “soap scum”.

The synthetic surfactants in modern laundry detergents do not react with Ca and Mg in water like natural soap, although there is still a potential for the surfactant residue to be left in fabric. And cloth diapers + detergent residue = stink, rashes and repellency issues. From the American Scouting Digest (http://www.scoutingdigest.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=120): “The enemy of every fabric is contamination. Air pollution, dirt of all kinds, chemicals, hard water, and especially the surfactant residue from soaps, detergents, fabric softeners, and dry cleaning all compromise the life of the fabric and the features you paid for. Residue affects water repellency, breathability, wicking, and moisture transfer.”

Are surfactants necessary for an effective detergent? An all-purpose detergent may require the use of surfactants to remove dried on stains without pre-soaking. However, I am not convinced that washing cloth diapers requires the use of a detergent with surfactants. Simply rinsing the dirty diapers before putting them in the diaper bucket will help prevent stains and may eliminate the need for detergent surfactants that can be left in the diaper fabric as residue. And using a product like BacOut (which contains vegetable surfactants) to spray the diapers before washing, will also help remove and prevent stains and odors.

Rockin Green has achieved a fair amount of fame in its ability to get rid of detergent residue and suds in a wash load. I compared the wash water of Rockin Green to Glamour Wash with similar wash loads (some old prefolds I had that had been washed in Tide Free for the duration of their diapering career) and really didn’t see a difference in the wash water.

Ok, but how do the detergents stack up against dingy-looking clothes?

Going up against Tide, the Glamour Wash, BioKleen and RockinGreen were not as effective at visibly whitening fabric. Glamour Wash does not contain the optical brighteners found in Tide and other detergents. Are optical brighteners a good idea? Check this link for more info about optical brighteners, but the short answer is no, probably not as far as the environment and the health of your baby’s skin. And they don’t really make your clothes cleaner; the brighteners just bind to the fabric and affect the way light reflects off the fabric. A better way to brighten/whiten is to use RLR once a month. RLR actually removes the contaminants and residue that make clothes dingy instead of disguising them.

I didn’t have stinky diapers to test (having recently potty trained our daughter, but I was able to test for odors in a pair of training pants that had suffered in the training process, so to speak. And the dirt and stains in our regular laundry were nasty enough to provide a before and after dinginess comparison. Two tsp of Glamour Wash and one wash later, the training pants smelled like (insert nose here and breathe deeeeeply) absolutely nothing. The clothes looked to my eye to be perfectly acceptable for visiting a dirt-detective Grandmother’s house. Note: the color differences in the fabric were due to the time of day that the before/after pictures were taken, not from washing the clothes.

I do love yummy smells (Zippity Doo Dah is my favorite of the Glamour Wash scents–it’s just so fresh and the lemongrass reminds me of laundry dried on a windswept exotic beach) but Glamour Wash is not a strongly scented detergent. The scented versions (Dimpled Booty and Zippety Doo Dah) are very pleasant, but LIGHT scents. If you want something to perfume your whole house on laundry day, this may not be the detergent for you. That said, it’s important to keep in mind that several incidents of cloth diaper rashes have been linked to the perfuming agents (essential oils or fragrances) that make detergents smell good, and a heavily scented detergent can be a recipe for a rash.

What about hard water washing? Hard water is noticeable as mineral deposits around your taps and drains. Water hardness varies depending on what part of the country you live in, and if you have untreated well water, you’re more likely to have issues with water hardness. If you have hard water, you’re not alone:  “more than 85% of American homes have hard water.^[30] The softest waters occur in parts of the New England, South Atlantic-Gulf, Pacific Northwest, and Hawaii regions. Moderately hard waters are common in many of the rivers of the Tennessee, Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska regions. Hard and very hard waters are found in some of the streams in most of the regions throughout the country. Hardest waters are in streams in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Arizona, and southern California. ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water

The reason that hard water is “hard” to wash with, if you’ll pardon the pun, is because the more minerals in your water, the more mineral and detergent residues are likely to be left in your laundry. The way to deal with hard water washing is to add a softening agent to the detergent. Softening agents include chelators (which bind to the metal minerals in water) and salts (which exchange the less soluble minerals in the water for the more soluble minerals in the salt so the minerals can be rinsed away). Both Lulu’s Glamour Wash regular and Hard Water versions are formulated with sodium carbonate, which is a safe, effective, eco-friendly water softener.

In summary, Lulu’s Glamour Wash is a simple, lightly scented detergent that is effective for cloth diaper washing and won’t aggravate problems with detergent residue and hard water. I especially like that only one or two teaspoons of Lulu’s is required per washload, making Lulu’s cost effective compared to RockinGreen.

Lulu’s Glamour Wash 35 cents per washload including shipping (OtterBlotters.com)

RockinGreen 46 cents per washload including shipping (GadBaby.com)

Lulu’s Regular Glamour Wash is available in your choice of 3 scintillating scents (Zippity Doo Dah, Dimpled Booty and Lavender Vanilla) or unscented (Naked Booty). Hard Water Glamour Wash is available in Naked Booty scent only.

Disclaimer: The manufacturer of Lulu’s Glamour Wash provided me with sufficient detergent to evaluate its performance. All other detergent was purchased by me for testing purposes.