No BPA or toxins in me!

Interesting article article from the Environmental Working Group about BPA toxins and newborns. A recent study detected an astounding 287 toxic chemicals in newborn cord blood including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and Teflon chemicals. Of these chemicals, 180 are known to cause cancer, 217 are toxic to brain and nervous systems and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal developments in animal tests. Experts believe rising rates of birth defects, asthma, neuro-developmental disorders and other serious diseases in U.S. children are resulting from these early chemical exposures.

BPA is one of the world’s highest production-volume chemicals and is widely used in the production of:
- Plastic water bottles
- Plastic gallon milk bottles
- Plastic microwavable plates, overware and utensils
- Tooth sealants
- Canned foods and soda cans
- Baby toys, bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups

So, what can you do? Mercola suggests the following:
- Buy and eat organic
- Eat wild-caught and not farm-raised fish
- Eat whole foods and not processed foods
- Use glass rather than plastic food storage containers
- Have your tap water tested and install a water filter if necessary
- Use natural cleaning products
- Use natural toiletry products. Northern Essence is one of our favorites for our kids.
- Avoid using artificial air fresheners, dryer sheets, fabric softeners
- Replace Teflon with ceramic or glass cookware
- Search out and use toxin-free alternatives in all aspects of your home and life (cloth diapers, reusable menstrual products, non-toxic paints and floor coverings.)
- Replace your vinyl shower curtain

Good luck making as many of these changes as possible. Every little bit helps in keeping you and your family healthy.

Mamaclothonline

We want to welcome the newest member of our Cottontail Baby family….Mamaclothonline.  Mamaclothonline is a site exclusively focused on resusable menstrual products.  While we will continue to sell these products at Cottontail, the Mamaclothonline site will have a much broader and deeper selection.  For instance, Mamaclothonline will stock cups and sponges not currently available at Cottontail.  In addition to the products, it is our goal to offer information and resources to women on menstruation and their options for menstrual products.  We hope you stop on by and check us out.

Another Top 5 List!  I LOVE them.  This one will be all about Accessories.  There are so many options with cloth diapers and everyone has their own thoughts on what you MUST have and what you can do without. This is my list of my favorite accessories.

Northern Essence Diaper Rash Salve

Northern Essence Diaper Rash Salve

I LOVE this stuff.  So do all of my customers. I often have customers buy 5 or 6 tubes of Diaper Salve at once.  This wonderful product from one of our favorite WAHM companies, Northern Essence, is simply out of this world.  The Diaper Salves contain only all natural ingredients and no petroleum or lanolin to clog up cloth diapers.  They come in both sensitive skin as well as normal formula.  I especially love that it comes in both a twist up tube as well as a tub.  I loved tossing a small tube in my diaper bag to have for when we were on the move and kept a tub at home next to the changing table.  This is a simply wonderful product.  LOVE it!

Snappi

Where would I be without my Snappis? They are simply ingenious.  In my newborn diaper days I used a lot of prefolds.  I had skinny tiny little children and simply nothing else would work but a carefully folded (I often joke that I was an Origami Master in those days) prefold attached with a Snappi.  I tried pins at first during the super early newborn days.   However, I kept getting stuck with the pin or I couldn’t find them at 3am and I heard about Snappis and tried them and have never looked back.  They are these

Snappis

great little rubber “T” shaped fasteners with grips on each of the three ends.  The grips attach to the loose weave of a prefold or terry diaper and it is all so very, very easy.  The best part is that they come in a rainbow of colors and are so inexpensive that you can load up on each one and color coordinate with your covers.

Wool Buddies

I use a lot of wool.  I found that wool covers worked best for overnights with my kids.  We also live in Minnesota so we wear a ton of wool as well for a huge portion of the year.  Sweater, socks, scarves, mittens….Wool buddies are these terrific scented little balls of goodness that lanolize my wool.  I used to use them only for my covers but now that my kids are growing and becoming more active outdoors in the winter months, I use them on hats, sweaters and mittens as well.  All I have to do is plop one of  in a sink full of luke warm water. Once it disolves, I soak my wool items and let it lanolize! This is the easiest way to get your wool waterproof.  With three very active little boys, I need easy.

Imse Vimse Liners

I like to travel.  To the store, to the park, to the cabin, to China.  I need to get out and go!  We are bringing up our children to share our wunderlust as well.  Not wanting to stop CDing while we are off on our adventures (hey, going to Target with three toddlers IS an adventure), we often turn to Imse Vimse liners.  These flushable liners can be used between the diaper and the baby’s skin, letting moisture pass through to the diaper while preventing solids to soak into the diaper, which will take the mess out of washing your cloth diapers. Just flush away the mess, and spend more time with your baby instead of finding a laundromat at the beach. These bio-degradable flushable liners are an all natural paper product; they are unbleached and biodegradable which I love.  I have spoken to some moms who also use IV liners when they need to use diaper rash cream on their child.  Some creams can mess with the absorbency of the diaper.  With the liner, that is no longer a concern as it provides a useful barrier.

Northern Essence Foaming Wipe Solution

Foaming Wipes Solution from Northern Essence

Another Northern Essence product.  What can I say, I am hooked.  They really are THAT good.  The foaming wipes solution is an all natural, gentle solution to clean up a baby during diaper changes.  It comes in large bottles for the changing table and a smaller on the go bottle for the diaper bag.  Similar to the Diaper Salve it comes in both normal formula and Tea Tree Oil/Lavender-free for those kids with more sensitive skin.  Wonderul stuff.

So, that is my list.  What are your favorite Cloth Diaper Accessories?