The Winner of the Woolzies Dryer Ball Contest is...

The Winner of the Woolzies Dryer Ball Contest is...

Karey S!

Karey, please send me your shipping address within 48 hours (by 1 p.m. central on August 24).

Thanks to all who entered - watch for more giveaways soon!

Cloth Wipes (A/K/A I'm Getting Crunchier)

(Looking for the wool dryer ball giveaway? It's in the post below. Ends 8/21/13!)

 As you know, Leif has been in cloth diapers for about four months now, and he went from having acid-burn-like rashes to almost no rashes at all. Almost. However, he seems to have very sensitive skin, and he still had redness a couple times a day. I tried adding fleece liners (homemade by my mom - just cut up washed fleece!) which helped some, but they didn't fully solve the problem. Enter the wipes.

 Even "sensitive" wipes still have lots of ingredients! After I noticed the ingredients list, I thought I better try cloth wipes. Another incentive was the fact that the cloth wipes can go in the same bag as the diapers when changing, instead of having to throw them away - one less step! I bought some flannel, and my mom washed it, cut it into baby washcloth size pieces, and serged the edges for me. (Have I mentioned how awesome my mom is?) They were ready to go!

 I'm going to spare you before and after shots (or spare Leif, that is). The difference has been amazing though! His red spots are now nonexistent. At first I kept the wipes dry, and I left a peri bottle (got one at the hospital after delivery) full of water next to the wipes. My husband Titus wanted something with soap in it though, so he could feel like Leif was getting really clean. Challenge accepted. :) After perusing some wipe solution recipes online, I chose the following:

1 cup hot water,
 1 Tablespoon coconut oil, and
 1 Tablespoon Dr. Bronner's baby soap.

 I mixed them together and poured it over my wipes, which I had folded into my wipes warmer. In retrospect, the only thing I would have done differently is had the wipes cut to match the size of the wipe warmer better. Other than that, we are pretty happy with this experiment! I may add some essential oils once in a while, but honestly they smell great right now with the coconut scent coming through.

The lack of redness is reason enough alone to continue using cloth wipes, but think of the cost savings as well! Disposable wipes aren't cheap and the cost adds up. Cloth wipes are also environmentally friendly.

 If you have questions, just ask below! Since I am not giving you a boring picture of wipes or diaper rashes, here's one of Mr. Leif practicing his rolling skills.

Woolzies Dryer Balls Review and Giveaway!

If you have kids, you are aware of the amazing fact that laundry increases exponentially the second you arrive home with a newborn. My little guy is only four months old, but he creates more laundry than my husband and I combined! Add to that our decision to cloth diaper, and we have a LOT of laundry on our hands.

When reading about using cloth diapers, I saw many recommendations for wool dryer balls. According to seasoned CDers, using wool dryer balls significantly lowers their diaper drying time. We use prefolds and Flip inserts, and I like to wash them nightly. They take about two hours to dry in our not-so-new dryer, and that is with two plastic laundry balls in there. We stopped using dryer sheets a while back when I heard about the chemicals in them, but the plastic balls don't seem to help with static or drying time.

Needless to say, I was excited to try Woolzies dryer balls! I had to see if these six white balls lived up to their claims. I was not disappointed!

Here are the dryer balls I was sent. I was so happy to find them in the mail - my husband thought I was a little crazy, I'm sure!

I was actually disappointed that I had already dried that day's diapers, but I had a load of clothes to dry so I used the dryer balls right away. I honestly don't pay much attention to how long it takes clothes to dry because I use the auto-dry setting. However, I can definitely say that the clothes were soft and static-free!

The real test was the load of diapers that usually takes two hours to dry. How much could these six balls cut off my time? The answer? 40 minutes! That is a third of their regular drying time. Just think of the time and energy savings, not to mention less wear and tear on the diapers. Woolzies dryer balls are the real deal!

Here are their claims and how they truly stacked up:

-Reduce drying time by up to 25% - check!

-Reduce wrinkles - check!

-Reduce static - check!

-Hypoallergenic - check! (I can't wear wool sweaters, but these balls do not bother my skin at all.)

Last but not least, Woolzies balls are made by women in Nepal, and the Woolzies website states that this gives them a steady source of income. This makes me feel even better about using them.

I highly recommend these dryer balls and will continue to use them with every load of laundry. You can buy your own set at www.woolzies.com - or, you can try to win them in this giveaway!

*I was not paid to review Woolzies Dryer balls. I was given a set to try and provide my honest opinion.*

Adventures in Cloth Diapering Part 3: A Few of My Favorite Things

We are very much in our cloth diapering groove - we've found our favorites and are in a great routine!

Here is Mr. Leif in our favorite diaper - a Flip cover in the Albert print.

I bought and tried numerous types of diaper covers, but my favorite type of cover is Flip. They are one size, meaning they fit from 8-35 pounds I believe. This saves you money! In addition, covers can be used multiple times before being washed, so they are a money saver in that way too. I also like the little flaps inside the Flip cover. These help the inserts and prefolds stay in place. There are many colors and a couple prints to choose from.

For the inside, during the daytime we like the Flip stay dry inserts. They are very trim and fit perfectly with the Flip covers. You can fold them for small, medium, and large settings, which go along with the rise snaps on the covers. We are on the small setting. 

When summer got hot here in Minnesota, we found we needed to keep Leif very dry to prevent heat rash. My mom had some extra fleece at home and just cut it into pieces the same size as the Flip inserts. These fleece inserts do double duty, as they also protect the diaper from diaper creams.

At night, Leif needs a little more diaper! Our latest concoction seems to do the trick. We use a Flip cover, an Imagine bamboo prefold which we trifold, a Thirsties soaker, and a fleece liner on top. If it is put on correctly, there are rarely nighttime leaks, even when he sleeps 10 hours straight! We also use the prefolds during the day sometimes - mostly when the Flip inserts are all dirty.

There are lots of diaper creams out there, but only a few are truly cloth diaper safe. I try to stick with those so our diapers will last a long time! We like CJ's Butter and Grandma El's. I really like the CJ's Butter is available in a stick so you don't have to touch anything. Makes clean-up a breeze! However, Grandma  El's is what we reach for when we see some redness, and it usually clears up by the next diaper change.