Earth Babies Blog

Archive for the ‘Nappies’ Category

Change the nappy often!

Nappy rash is for the most part as a result of long periods between changing.
When skin is left wet for extended periods, it becomes sensitive and easily irritated or broken from constant friction. A nappy is a warm, moist and isolated environment which is ideal for the formation of micro-organisms (bacteria), if the skin becomes damaged these microbes move in and cause infection.
Abrasion of fabric and wet skin are the most common arguments for using disposables over cloth, however there are support products for cloth nappies to prevent these perceived problems – nappy 1-way liners function in the same manner as a disposable, drawing the urine away from the skin and keeping baby dry.
A basic rule of thumb is to check your babies nappy once an hour – most parents do this naturally without conscious effort – only change when necessary though (this is generally at longer intervals than one hour, but as it is not a controlled routine the gap between changes would differ and checking increases awareness).
Nappies have a saturation point if nappy is not absorbent enough you can add a booster – this should be done to increase absorbency but not to stretch the time between changes.
Nappies containing faeces should be changed immediately.

cover free time

Be conservative when applying barrier cream.
Read the rest of this entry »

For most people, if you say ‘cloth nappy’ the first thing to spring to mind is ‘nappy rash!’ Contrary to common perception nappy rash is not caused by the type of nappy used – whether cloth, disposables, top of the range or a no-name brand are used, nappy rash occurs.

Research commissioned by HUGGIES® reveals that nappy rash is still a big problem for little people – a massive 57% of all babies experience some form of nappy rash every two to three weeks.

Jean Golding, Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children did research which has shown that “the type of nappy used is not a significant factor in the incidence of nappy rash” (Getting to the Bottom of Nappy Rash, R. Philip, A. Hughs & J. Golding. British Journal of General Practice, August 1997; pp.493-497). The major causes of nappy rash were found to be infrequent nappy changing and ill heath of the child. “

Statistically the most common cause of nappy rash is infrequent nappy change, and a large part of this percentage is due to diarrhoea.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are giving away *NEW* Earth Babies products which were launched the week end at the Natural & Organics show in Jhb

♥ 3 of One-Size-Fits-All nappy Trial Packs worth R280 each
Each pack consists of:
2 OSFA nappies
1 PUL cover (of our new fabric range)
1 booster
1 liner
(total product value is R333)

AND

♥ 1 Traditional Kikoi wrap (baby carrier) worth R360

To enter you need to:
Comment below,(let us know if you saw them at the show or not)
AND do one of the following (or already be listed on one or all):

* Like us on Facebook / Follow on Twitter or register on the Earth Babies website to qualify.
(remember to let us know in the comment what username to look out for, so we can make a match)

* Retweets of this post, Comment on the related Facebook post and Blog posts mentioning Earth Babies Teething Necklaces (remember we need to be aware of the post) get extra entries

winners name will be drawn 30 September 2010
*South Africa only

You may also like to enter our competitions for:
an Amber Necklace
A Newborn nappy gift pack
ALSO enter

Reduce, reuse, and recycle!
(Note: We have a pre-loved listing service at Earth Babies there is no fee or benefit to us and all communication to conclude a sale takes place directly with the seller)

STEGI NAPPIES

Medium nappies – 18
Stegi Medium cover – 3

I’ll sell all for R800 – they are still in good condition.
email: melanie.diedericks@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

EARTH BABIES NAPPIES

Fit to size Medium 15
Mother nature covers 3
Good condition, used for 6 weeks only.
email: melissaj@kudetagroup.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

BAMBOOZLE NAPPIES (Import)

5 White / natural Totsbots Bamboozles, Size 2, popper fastening.
very good condition. All with poppered boosters, and no stains.
These are very good reusable nappies, made in Scotland. For more info please see http://www.totsbots.com

Would like R450.00 for all 5, or R100.00 per single nappy (plus postage & paypal / bank transaction fees)
Contact Carina on 083 384 4511 or carina.bronkhorst@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more info.

How important is it to you as a South African consumer that products you buy are made in South Africa? Imports are often a lot cheaper but how much extra are people willing to pay to support industry in South Africa or is price the bottom line? These questions have been going around in my head as we once again face this dilemma ourselves as we source fabric for our nappies.

We try as far as possible to make Earth Babies as South African as possible and to support other businesses here in South Africa. It has not always been easy and especially with the fabric we use to make our nappies it has been hard to keep it local, but we did find a SA weaver and were proud that our nappies are made start to finish in SA. But even this might be a thing of the past soon as very few local weavers survive at the moment and most fabric is imported. Price and ultimately if these small weavers close might force us to import which is sad.

Please fill in our poll as I would love to see what motivates you when buying.

Sally(pinkhairgirl) passed this on to me and i also got tagged by Louisa (123blogmyself) thank you both ÜÜ

Since this is the EB blog I will do the meme about me but connected to Earth Babies – long winded sorry.

1. Sally is correct I don’t consider myself a blogger (maybe a plodder lol). I blog here as it gives a space to post those things that I would love to share but our website is either not the right place or does not have the space for them. I don’t blog personally as I would probably write all those things I think and never say – and there is maybe a good reason they remain unsaid.

2. I am not a ‘green-person’, so feel like a hypocrite at times when getting shoved into a box of someone else’s expectations– what enviro-awareness I have, has come (and still is) secondary to my original motivations for the choices I have made. Like many things on EB if it makes sense I will discuss it, incorporate aspects of what I learn, share info with others on things they find interesting but don’t do anything that is not practical and possible for us as a family.

3. This company I love & co-founded is considered by many as a ‘green’ company – I don’t see it as such though. For me natural and green are very different (but ‘green’ is where most people categorize us, marketing seems to work for us and a large part of our supporters – and our green-passionate Sally Ü view themselves). I try to keep us available/open to everyone (and myself lol) – organic and middle of the roader’s. Sally and I both agree nothing in life has to be all or nothing you incorporate what works for you and leave the rest.

4. My lifestyle, focus and intentions with Earth Babies are different to Sally’s (which is what makes us work – we balance each other). My personal passion for EB is supporting South African parents who want to birth naturally, breastfeed and cloth nappy. I love the products we carry, I love trying to keep the focus local, I love offering practical alternatives to the commercial norm and really enjoy trying to help customers find the right information/product etc for them. All the rest is complementary to this focus, is what Sally is passionate about and I don’t oppose or our clients have asked about.

5. I birthed naturally, breastfed, used cloth nappies, did elimination communication with my 1st (not 2nd); baby signing with my 2nd not my 1st; am a doula and have a business that supports these things and more. Based on these points a lot of assumptions are made so I thought I would clarify: I have used disposables (was a combination user – so actually know very well the pro’s and cons of both); I did not do Attachment parenting (and hate being called an attachment parent); I did wear my babies in slings; I am not a co-sleeper though our kids do sleep in our bed on and off; I did not and would probably not breastfeed past 2 years though I have no issues with others breastfeeding or encouraging it for as long as it is beneficial to both parties; I tried very hard to get my kids to take dummies – they would not; I breastfed publicly but always covered because that is what I was comfortable with; I don’t believe everyone should birth naturally or breastfeed etc, I feel strongly for informed choice; I don’t homeschool (would not consider it unless there was NO other choice); My kids do watch TV and play on computers (no specific limits); eat junk (and healthy too) and have plastic toys (natural and some organic too).

6. I hate being told what to do so as such am repelled by anything that carries a label and has a set of rules you are meant to follow. I am not an all or nothing person and approach everything instinctually. (Sally and I have in the past differed on many things parenting related and in the journey of Earth Babies have had discussions and arguments with each other and others. Through these debates, time and personal experience we have both learnt to be more open and non-judgmental. Because of these differences though there were many subjects that we have ended up not incorporating into the website even though some readers have suggested we should – the subjects on the site got lots of editing till we both felt comfortable with what we are sharing).

7. A question I am asked often is which is the ‘BEST’ nappy on the market – in experience there is honestly NO best nappy – each one has their pros’ and cons’ and these are very subjective according to individual & lifestyle criteria and baby’s (body shape, elimination pattern etc) – I do have a personal favourite just the same as any other nappy user though.

8. I am put off from many natural/green/alternative approaches because of their esoteric connections. Many of them make actual or scientific sense but the strong esoteric jargon connected make me careful about them.

9. I have read very very few parenting books, I prefer to learn through observation and discussion (For the same reason as my label aversion thing – it is someone else’s 123 step guide on how to raise YOUR children and I feel this represses the natural parenting instincts). Basically my theory (unproven lol) is that your children are a combination of you and your partner and so have a combination of your personalities – so between the two of you, you should be able to realize what approaches will and wont work for your children based on what your own gut reactions to it would be … If it does not come naturally to you, all it will probably do is create stress, expectation and feeling of failure.

10. I am a pretty quiet person who write-talks way too much lol

I am meant to pass this one to other bloggers I like and admire – I am pretty new to blogging and following them and most have done it already so I am going to reserve the right to put some thought into this before I tag others.

When I first read about Elimination communication it was just something that resonated with me. It made sense and was something I was wiling to try. Read more about the what and how and why of EC on our website

All went well with my daughter and living in South Africa made it easy, the warm weather ment that nappy free time was easy and I only really used nappies as a back up when I went out. She was dry at night really early and totally without accidents from just under a year and was totally finished with training pants at about 18 months. So I totally thought had this EC thing waxed, she did not have any potty strikes and we just progresses along nicely until we were all done. I really sounds like I am bragging and exaggerating how young she was but honestly she was, it just worked so well with her. That and I guess being the first she had my undivided attention.

Then my son came along, I started straight after birth and we did quite well actually. But the pressure of 2 kids and not being able to focus on just one all the time really made ec a lot harder but we progresses slowly. He was in nappies a lot more as we were at that stage in the UK and it is always cold – well except for those 3 days in July that they call summer.

The kids and I got back to South Africa in January and the hot weather was great, lots of bear bum time. He has always told me when he is wet though if I miss a wee and he never tolerated a poo nappy for more than a few seconds and would usually tell me before. So I was sure that, although a little slower than Rachel, he would also be done with nappies before he was 2.

Roll on the hysterical laughter, he is now 2y3m ( yes i know still very young for a boy to be potty trained – but he has been doing this since 4 days old!!!!) and he in now totally back in nappies, he does not tell me if they are wet and worst of all you only know he has poo’ed when you smell him coming – yucky. He does not seem the least bit perturbed by it at all, in fact he runs away when I even suggest a nappy change. He will still try wee in the toliet when I take him but it is quite a mission to convince him that going in a good idea.

Toilet paper shredded into tiny piece is a great thing to do in the toilet, flush the toilet 500 times also huge fun, wee in the actual toilet – not so much!!! Oh well I guess as the weather gets warmer and we can get outside more he will get back on track. This of course brings me straight onto my next dilemma, now that he is older and I don’t hold him over the toilet anymore, how do you teach a boy to stand and wee when all he sees is him om and sister sitting???

We get asked this question a lot. I have used all the brands that we sell and a lot of overseas brands too. When I was pregnant with my daughter there were no cloth nappies available in South Africa and so I bought and used some from the UK and USA. It was from using them that the idea for starting a company to sell cloth nappies in South Africa was born.

I can honestly say that after using more than 15 different brands that there really is no best nappy. They all have pros and cons and some nappies suit different people and different babies better. There are a lot of factors that might influence ones decision on which nappy will best suit you.
- cost
- durability – wanting to use them for subsequent children
- easy of use
- Fit, leak proof
- slimline fit
- absorbency

The 4 South African brands we sell are Mother Nature, Stegi, Bio-Baba and Earth Babies and choosing what to use can be tricky we have detailed information and diagrams on the website but if you still have questions feel free to email me: info@earthbabies.co.za and let me know what the features are most important to you in a cloth nappy and I can help you try select the best type to suit you and your family.

We have also put together a mixed pack of nappies that contains all of the brands available from our shop as we do really feel that each nappy is useful at different time and ages. Combo brand pack

When I first started read about cloth nappies I saw the figure 2 tons of waste produced per child from birth to 2 1/2 years in disposable nappies mentioned quite a bit. I was quite shocked at this amount, I think most people just see disposables as the ultimate convenience and do not think very much about the accumulative waste that adds up. I knew that for environmental reasons if nothing else I had to research cloth nappies more, but that this amount of waste was not something I could have on my conscience. It is a huge number considering all the babies in nappies.

When we came to writing the information for the Earth Babies website, the sceptic in me wondered if it was really 2 tons or if this was just some slightly random rather inflated figure for shock value. I wanted to check this myself before quoting it in our reasons to use cloth nappies. The problem was that as a cloth nappy user I had no idea how to check the weight of a used disposable nappy.

I have some great friends on Baby Net a South African parenting forum and when I asked if a couple could weigh a nappy for me at change time, they all thought I was mad but were willing to help. The weights varied but a conservative estimate was about 400g as the nappy is not always totally full when changing it.

calculations:
400gx 6 changes a day = 2400g per day (newborn nappies will obviously not weigh as much but ones tends to change them more often so I think it evens out)
2400g x 7day a week = 16800g per week
16800g x 52 weeks in a year = 873600g per year
873600g x 2 1/2 years of a child being in nappies = 2184000g so therefore about 2.18 tons

Seeing as most kids in disposable nappies actually potty train a lot later than 2 1/2 this figure could actually be significantly higher, especially if you add disposable swim nappies and disposable potty training pull ups.

To read more about reasons to use cloth nappies you can visit our website