Two Rules for Feeding Your Baby

1. Only feed her food you would want to eat

• Because you will end up either throwing away a whole lot of food or eating her leftovers
• Because you will have to eat the food in front of her to convince her it is worth eating/ safe to eat

2. Only eat food in front of your baby that you are OK with her eating

• Because they want to eat whatever you are eating

Thus, no dried cereal plus liquid. Because it's gross. And costs a lot of money. I am willing to eat my baby's whole grain cereal mush that I make myself -- not my favorite, but fresh and edible. Baby #2 tries to grab food and drink from me all the time, so I am careful what I eat when I am holding her.

Babies are probably hard-wired to want to eat what you are eating.  Capitalize on that.  If you want your baby to eat something (for example, whole grains), you should start eating it.  If you don't want your baby to eat something (for example, Oreos or soda), stop eating it or don't eat it in front of her.

What are your rules for feeding your baby?

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Why I love cloth diapers

I used disposables for a year with my first child (and still do use disposables on long vacations), so I am in a good position to compare cloth and disposables.

Why I love cloth diapers in order of importance to me:

• More natural against my baby's skin
• Almost no blowouts -- with my first child in disposables, his poop went up his back into his onesie about 90% of the time. I've found that I need a lot less clothing for my second child because of fewer blowouts. Even prefolds simply folded in thirds inside a cover contains poop FAR better than the luge-like interior of a disposable
• Cloth wipes are FAR superior to disposable baby wipes
  
• Less leaking at night
• Better for the environment (not everyone believes this, but I do)
• Cheaper
• Easier to potty train: my little boy has been dry at night for months and was completely potty trained on #1 in a couple of days (still working on #2, darn it) -- not a representative sample, I know!
• Cuter: they are cuter, but I honestly don't care that much about that
  

Why do you love cloth diapers?

Why would you NEVER EVER EVER use cloth diapers?
This post is part of Homemaker Monday.

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The Pursuit of a More Natural Life: Murphy Oil Soap

If you glance at the title of my very first post, you may think it was cloth diapers that got me all started in my adventures in greening. Not so – cloth diapers came about a year into my efforts to use more natural products. I first started examining the personal health and environmental aspects of my choices when my first child was born. At the time I used a Swiffer mop with wet disposable sheets to clean the wood floors of our rented home, but I frequently put him on floor to roll around. One day he SUCKED on the floor, and that’s when I thought, hey, what the heck is in that Swiffer wet sheet cleaner thing?

When I brought this up with my older sister with 2 kids, she nodded knowingly. She recommended Murphy Oil Soap for cleaning floors and other stuff. She told me you bought it in concentrated form, that it lasted forever because you could just dilute and dilute when you ran low, and that it was practically safe enough to drink. I did a little research on the web, and found that The Green Guide recommended Murphy Oil Soap [Note: the buying guide for household cleaning products that I used is no longer available on their website -- they have completely changed their format]. Also, it is very reasonably priced, U.S. EPA "Design for the Environment" Certified,  and uses less packaging because it comes in concentrated form. I know it's not the greenest thing out there, but it was a big improvement from the Swiffer wet sheets I was using. I’ve been using Murphy Oil Soap on my floors ever since.

And that was how I entered the black hole of The Pursuit of a More Natural Life.

What triggered your quest for greener living?

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Favorite Nighttime Cloth Diapers

Nighttime diapering can be a challenge for everyone.  My first child nursed and peed a TON at night, and I tried various tricks with disposables (next size up, night time diapers, one diaper on top of another with the bottom of the first cut open) and still had leaking at night on a regular basis.

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Favorite Daytime Cloth Diapers

Many moons later, I am still using cloth diapers. My almost 3 year old is currently potty training (I used cloth diapers with him from 1 year on up), and I have been using cloth since birth with my 8-month old.

To get started, I did a cloth diaper trial with Jillian's Drawers for $10 to familiarize myself with what was out there. Here's what I ended up using for my first child (ages 1 - 2.75 years):

• Some free homemade-ish fitted diapers with velcro (not awesome, but free, and better at containing poop than a prefold folded in thirds) and prefolds folded in thirds (the wrong way) inside Thirsties/ Imse vimse covers.
• I also used BumGenius (a pocket diaper) in the diaper bag for quicker and easier diaper changes on the toddler while out and about.
• I also used Imse Vimse flushable liners on top of the diaper to make poop removal easier.

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