Diaper Care

I came across this article this morning. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/baby/2009/04/how-to-care-for-cloth-diapers.html

It occurred to me that caring for diapers has become more complicated than it needs to be. Honestly, some of this information was not correct. For example, it says to test your diaper by putting water on it and checking to see if it beads up and if it does wash it again. However it fails to mention that with any stay dry material ( ie. Fleece, microfleece, suedecloth) it will ALWAYS appear to bead up so you’d be doing a lot of washing! Stay dry materials are used in many modern diapers and in all of the top 3 major brands and definitely deserve mentioning.

I am going to love being able to give the easy instructions for Smartipants!

I also get disturbed at the promotion of wet pails. Honestly it wastes more water and can be a hazard with a baby or small child in the house. It is no more helpful with stains than line drying your diapers in the sun. Avoid the risk and waste of the water and store in dry pail. If you really need to rinse your diapers then use a diaper sprayer! Very convenient.

When it comes to washing start simple and if you are having trouble with additives and a complicated washing routine then go back to basics!

Wash, rinse dry. Use a detergent that won’t leave residue and if you get stains put your diaper out in the sun-it takes out stains like magic! This also works great on clothing stained with baby food. Just wash and hang to dry in the sun.

The Benefits of Cloth Diapers

Frugal Moms use Cloth Diapers to Save Money

I found this article today http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30330852/

I really felt this was a good accurate article and presented modern cloth diapers in a positive light.

I definitely understand the mom who says cloth seems “ick” and it makes me smile to know our new design would really benefit her! No mom I know wants to deal with poop, they just do because they have to. Reducing that as much as possible makes our innovative new design something that will really benefit these moms.

I giggled at the mom who said she washed her child’s poopy clothes separately! I don’t wash poopy diapers together with my other clothes. I have a specific system set up and enough diapers to wash every few days and have the diaper load go in a load by itself. Most cloth moms do it that way. I also laughed because in cloth we have poopy diapers, in disposables she’s washing poopy clothes I guess that tosses the theory of cloth being wasteful of water out the window. This mom quoted in the article actually washes her sons clothes that have poop on them as the result of leaky disposables separately meaning she tosses the diaper into a landfill AND THEN proceeds to use the same amount of water I use to wash my diapers to wash her sons poopy clothes! So we use the same amount of water and energy but one of us creates no no additional waste in the process-just saying!

I really love that our innovative new diaper will solve a few of the problems some mothers present as reasons they might not choose cloth diapers. I also love that cloth is finally being presented in the media as a viable money saving option and that they are presenting modern designs and not plastic pants and pins. Overall I enjoyed the article, what did you think?

Final Design and Name -- Exciting!

Final prototype is complete-love it!

We’ve chosen 7 colors for our first line. My favorites are definitely in there!

We decided that we need to make our entire product in the USA. Both the diaper and the insert will be made in the USA and I’m so happy about that!

WE HAVE A NAME!!!

It’s a term of endearment, a little bit sweet and a little bit sassy! It also touches on the intelligence of the design, of choosing the best for your baby and making smart choices.

We are getting closer and closer to introducing the world to

SMARTIPANTS!

I love this name! I use this term with my kids when they are being a little bit sassy, but secretly I love that they are confident, independent individuals and growing into young people capable of stating their thoughts on different subjects. Just don’t tell them that I said that!

Building a New Cloth Diaper Design

Wow! So I met with the team and it was so fun to sit and talk about the design and have everyone contribute ideas and talk about how to address the concerns of cloth diapering parents. It’s fun deciding how to improve existing concepts while introducing concepts that are brand new. I also enjoyed talking about the beginning of my experience with diaper design and how I came up with the very first one-size pocket diaper in the world. It’s still a source of pride for me that some of the top rated diapers in the world are also one-size pocket diapers. I still smile seeing how well the different styles of one-size pocket diapers are doing in the market. Clearly that was a good idea and it’s one I’m very, very proud of. So it was fun to talk about how it all began, and how I thought up the first designs and where they are now.

It’s even more fun though, to imagine the future and to challenge myself with new concepts. I understand that there are a lot more diapers available in many more styles than ever before. I have the task of coming up with something completely new. Obviously I want to touch on the best parts of my ideas thus far, but now I have to find a brand new component! What will it be, how will it be different, how will it benefit moms and dads who will use it?

I have a couple of design ideas and I’ve had them for awhile, so I wonder if this is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for to share them? Time to get to the sewing machine, my favorite part of the process, it’s time to sew up some diapers!