Why homemade?

From the time I found out I was pregnant I already made up my mind to make and freeze all of my future child’s baby food.

The advantages:

• Know exactly what you’re feeding your baby.
• It’s more economical than buying pre-packaged foods (although some parents note that this is not always the case).
• You can choose your own fruits, vegetables, and other foods for purees, instead of relying on the flavors chosen by manufacturers. You’re not going to find melons or avocados in the baby food section of the supermarket.
• It gets the baby used to eating the same food as the rest of the family — just in puree form.

The disadvantages:

• Time. It takes time to make and prepare lots of little servings of homemade baby food. It’s much faster to pick up prepackaged servings.
• Convenience. Prepackaged baby foods come in measured amounts and ready to serve.
• Storage. Homemade baby foods may spoil more quickly and require refrigeration, which may take up room in your fridge or freezer if you make a lot of servings ahead of time. Prepackaged baby foods don’t need refrigerator storage until they’re opened.

My big deciding factor was that I would know what was going into my child’s food. A lot of store brought baby food is processed and contains preservatives. Since when could you leave a tub of last night’s dinner in you cabinet and expect it to be fresh the next day or a week later? With the help of modern technology like the Baby Bullet System time needed to prepare weeks worth of food is cut down. Also, storage has been made easier with INFANTINO ‘Fresh Squeeze: Squeeze Station.’

Infantino Fresh Squeeze Station

Baby Bullet

LOOOOVE Them!!!

So today I tried out my brand new best bottom diapers and I LOVE Them!!! They not only make my twins bottoms look super cute but they are so easy to use. All I do is snap in an insert cover with a hemp liner and snap it on my nuggs (nuggets). Thats it! If they poop it lands on the liner and I just grab it and toss the whole liner into the toilet, poop and all. The liner prevents the poop from actually touching the insert which means no stains! When its time to change the insert I just snap it out, wipe out the shell with a baby wipe and snap in a new insert. It is so easy!

When I first decided to switch to cloth diapers my mother kept trying to tell me how hard it would be and how I won’t wanna deal with the cleaning of the diapers. Well she was wrong. I explained to her how much cloth diapers have changed and how the system I am going with works and she changed her opinion. Not only are these diapers super easy to use, but my twins are very comfortable in them as well.

Now that I am so satisfied with the results of my trial I am going to order more!!!

Isabel 

Kenny 

First Fluff Mail!!!

2 best bottom shells and 6 stay dry inserts

So… It finally arrived… My first fluff mail curtesy of Kelly’s Closet!!! I only purchased two diapers and 6 inserts to test if best bottom will work for us. As I am typing this my inserts are being prepped to use tomorrow.

Prepping is imprortant to increase absorbency. In order to prep my diapers I washed them on the cold/warm cycle once and dried them on low in the dryer. I contacted best bottom and I was instructed that detergent is optional for prepping so I opted out, plus I haven’t bought any cloth diaper safe detergent yet. I also only did this nice because my inserts are microfiber of they were made of a natural material I would have completely washed and dried then 5-6 times.

I can wait to see my adorable babies tushies in them tomorrow

Time to find a brand…

After all of my research and bouncing from site to site I narrowed my search to  G Diapers or Best Bottoms. After talking to other mothers and Abby from Abby’s Lane I decided on Best Bottoms.

Best Bottoms’ shells can be wiped clean and their inserts snap in. They also tend to run big (from what I heard) and my daughter has a dunk. I decided not to go with G diapers because they have so many parts. You not only have the outside shell, which is all cloth, but a snap in water proof pouch and inserts. G diapers are not cheap and the accessories are not either. I rather just deal with a water proof shell and and insert and keep it moving. 

Since Abby’s Lane does not carry best bottoms I placed my order with Kelly’s Closet and received free shipping and 10% off my first order! However I did not stock up because I only wanted to give them a try. I simply ordered two shells and 6 inserts. Now to wait for my order to arrive…

I decided not to give up…

A few mothers suggested that I contact Abby’s Lane of Alexandria or Fluff-N-Stuff Baby of Waldorf for advice and to even take a cloth diapering class. So I did just that!

I visited Abby’s Lane website and read all the information on the Cloth 101 page. I had no clue there were soooo many various types of cloth diapering options after reading over all of the options I decided on All in Two’s (AL2) for a few reasons:

1. The outer shells are relatively cheap compared to a pocket or AL1 diaper.
2. The inside of the shell can be water proof and wiped clean. (meaning I will not have to change the whole diaper with every change just the soiled insert)
3. Inserts can snap in and out. (so I won’t have to fumble around with pockets)
4. Inserts cost about 4 dollars each!
5. Manufacturers suggest about 3 inserts per shell and having about 6-8 shells.(that is not per day that is for full time use!!!!)

I am thinking that if I only go through about 2 shells a day per child with 6-8 shells each and 3 inserts each I would only have to wash every 3-4 days! This is a hell of a lot better then every single night. Now to find a brand that works best for the twins and I…

The search began and then ENDED!

I reached out to members of a mothers group I am part of here in Southern Maryland called Moms at Play for advice and any brand suggestions. Many suggested Fuzzibunz one size pockets, Thirsties duo wraps and Alvababy. I researched the brands they suggest and the prices and reviews on each. By the looks of it it looked like I was going to have to spend about $22 per diaper! Are you serious!!!!!! for twins that go through about 6-7 diapers each during the day that would be about $308 for a days worth of diapers. That’s just ONE day!!! That means I would have to wash diapers and have they dried EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! “That ain’t happenin!” I would have to spend almost $1,000 to be able to only have to wash every 3 days.

After seeing this I decide cloth diapering was not for me.

So I decided to go cloth diaper… seems pretty easy

So 6 months later I finally ran out of diapers from my baby shower. After seeing the ridiculous price of a case of Huggies I decided to cloth diaper. Hey, why not? After all cloth diapers will save me 1,000s of dollars a year and are better for the environment. As a environmental science teacher it is my duty to help the environment, Right?! Plus, how hard could it really be? I just need a few cloth diapers for the day and I can still use disposables at night. So the search began…