#1  One set lasts throughout baby’s diapering.  Pocket diapers like bumGenius and Happy Heiny’s have adjustable snaps that make it possible to use the same diaper for any baby from eight to thirty five pounds.  While prefolds are far cheaper overall, you may have to buy different sizes as baby grows whereas with a few dozen pocket diapers, you’re set! 

#2  They’re easier to put on than prefolds—especially at three in the morning when you’re diapering your colicky baby and haven’t had more than three consecutive hours of sleep for days on end.   All you need to do is snap or Velcro them into place and you’re set to go. 

#3  Once they’re stuffed, you’re set.  After you launder pocket diapers, the inserts just need to be gently tucked into the diapers.  That’s it!  Prefolds have to be folded and then arranged a bit in the cover before they’re on.  It may be just a ten second difference but when you have a squirmy toddler like mine, ten seconds counts!

#4  They’re cuter—hands down.   Even skeptics can’t help but gasp with admiration when they see Roscoe in his cow-print Happy Heiny’s.  For friends and family who are a bit critical of cloth, seeing your baby’s tush in adorable cloth diapers may just win them over.

#5  Less bulk.  Pocket diapers fit more like disposables, which means that your child will fit in their clothes more easily.  I would presume that they’re also more comfortable for baby since they allow more movement and are less binding.

There’s no doubt that breastfeeding is best for everyone involved, but many moms aren’t sure they can stick with it in those early sleep-deprived days.  Since breastfeeding is so healthy for mom, baby, and the environment, we’d love to gather up a few of your stories about breastfeeding your baby.   What were the highlights?  What were the challenges?  How did your friends and family react?  Did you manage to breastfeed despite obstacles like working full time or having to pump all your milk and bottle feed?  Your stories will help so many of our readers as they struggle to nourish their babies, save the planet, and get a few hours of sleep now and then.  Thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks to my green resolutions from last year, I was able to make some big changes one step at a time.  Although I haven’t accomplished all of them perfectly, they did help to get me jumpstart 2008 in a much greener fashion. 

As I begin 2009 things seem even more hectic than they did a year ago.  Here’s the big news: I’m pregnant!  Our baby is due on June 15^th, which is wonderful news.  It also means that I’ll be juggling a nearly full time job, growing a human being, parenting a toddler, enjoying marriage, writing this blog and starting a monthly column in Metro Parent.  It’s all great news, but already I find myself a little short of breath as I consider balancing it all.  So, this year my goals are humble, but they will still be a great fun to accomplish.

Get a solar hot water heater.

Our water and electric board provides interest free loans for people wanting to get a solar hot water heater.  It will pay for itself in just four years and with our Southern exposure, we should be able to heat several thousand gallons a year.  We might wait to have it installed in the spring when the wet season isn’t so intense.  Since I live in one of the nation’s greenest cities, you can spot several hundred solar hot water heating panels perched on rooftops throughout local neighborhoods. 

Install a dishwasher.

Dishwashers are far more energy efficient than washing dishes in the sink, but our kitchen is the size of a postage stamp.  Still, with a baby on the way, it would be a thrill to have a dishwasher in our small home. It would save us water and energy, but would also save time that I could use for my other green pursuits.  

Find a dish soap solution. 

If the dishwasher dream doesn’t happen, this goal will become even more important.  Rebecca has been spending days, weeks, and months on researching the best eco-friendly solution for dish soap.  Since my husband likes to generously soap every item, it will be nice to have a cost-friendly solution as well! 

Plant a bigger vegetable garden.

Even as I write this I realize that it’s insanely optimistic.  In the third trimester of this pregnancy I’ll be pooped, working almost full time, and preparing for the infant’s arrival.  Planting a huge garden might not happen.  But maybe I could ask for a garden work party in lieu of a baby shower….Hmm….

Can home-grown produce.

I’ve been aching to can produce and eyeing my friends jars of home-canned green beans with envy, but I haven’t found time in the last few years.  I know that this next year will be especially hectic with baby, but it would thrill me to line my garage pantry with home-canned goodies.  If I could do just one batch of peaches I would be satisfied for the summer. 

What are your green resolutions this year? Keep them practical and simple and they’ll be much more likely to actually happen.  We hope that 2009 is your greenest and best year yet!

I wanted a BPA-free sippy cup for my son, but I heard so many complaints about leaks and design flaws from other mothers, that I was hesitant to shell out the cash.   I was under the (misguided) impression that most BPA-free cups cost $15-20 dollars apiece, plus shipping, which was tough to swallow considering that I hadn’t heard great reviews.

The Tightwad Gazette offered the simple, thrifty solution of having a child drink out of a cup after turning one.  After all, what did people do before plastic was invented?

We tried instructing our child to gently sip with a straw, but a few dozen cups of spilled milk later, I felt we needed a better solution.  Just then, I read a post on Green and Clean Mom announcing the happy news: Target now carries Munchkin BPA-free sippy cups for between one and three dollars! Eureka!  In her post, Green and Clean mom apologizes for her wild enthusiasm about finding these cups, but I instantly shared her thrill. 

If there were rooftops to shout from, I would’ve.  We purchased four of the sippy cups and were initially impressed with their performance.  There was some occasional leakiness, but it was minor if we assemble them correctly.  They were easy to clean, Roscoe loved them, and the total for four cups was less than it would be for one BPA-free sippy cup anywhere else.  

Sadly though, our sense of victory was quickly quelled when Roscoe learned that he could bite through the silicone nipple.  It made the milk flow much more quickly, but also totally eliminated the “spill-proof” aspect of the cups.  They were quickly retired after one too many milk leakages on the sofa cushions.  

After sharing my depressing news with Rebecca, she tipped me off to a myriad of other inexpensive BPA free sippy cup options.  Here are a few that I’ve discovered since then:

The First Years Take and Toss 10 oz. Spill Proof Cups. A four pack costs around four dollars and they are surprisingly sturdy despite their supposed disposability.  The spout isn’t flexible, but Rebecca found that they held up nicely. They’re also easy to find in most stores.  My son, a biting maniac, has also managed to bite through several of these rigid spouts so they didn’t really work for us. 

Evenflo Fun Sip 10 oz. Sippy Cup.  A two pack is $8.50 and it’s also widely available.  They come with straws or spouted lids.  

12 oz. Sipper by Nuby with Flip-It Straw. This cup costs just $4.50 and works well for toddlers who are transitioning from a spout to a straw.  

And there are more!  Go to Safe Mama.com to view a quick cheat sheet of all the BPA free bottle and sippy cup options.   I’d love to hear from you on which sippy cups were easiest to clean, held up the best, and seemed the most drip-proof.  Parent reviews are the most dependable!

For us, we ended up loving the new BPA-Free Nalgene Grip-n-Gulp sippy cups.  The spout is hard and durable and looks like it will last throughout the rest of Roscoe’s toddler years.  It’s easy to clean and Roscoe enjoys toting it around by the little finger loop.  Occasionally the inner piece falls into the drink and it does leak a bit, but it’s easy to fix and far better than any of the other cups we’ve tried.   

Is it really green to replace plastic sippy cups when we already had a few?  This is where green and non-toxic become separate issues.  It may not have been as planet-friendly to buy new cups, but I can’t justify feeding my child milk out of cups that may be leaching toxins, just to save the planet.  I couldn’t pass the cups on either, since I wouldn’t feel good about anyone else using them, but we did recycle them.

Although I am thrilled to have safer sippy cups for Roscoe, I’m even more excited to realize that finally, merchandisers are listening to us.   Canada’s ban on BPA most likely helped the movement quite a bit, but if all of us create demands for safer products, even mainstream brands are going to respond.  Well done fellow green parents!

If you did, we want to hear from you!  We are often amazed by the ingenuity and commitment of our readers and use your stories to share with other new parents.  Many families are overwhelmed by the idea of cloth diapering one child, let alone two or three.  If you’ve managed to use cloth with multiples, even part of the time, we’d love to hear your stories.     We’d love to know how many diapers you bought, how much laundry you did, and how cloth may have been unexpectedly convenient.  Please comment on this page or email us if you have some experience that might help other parents.

One year ago Rebecca and I were enjoying the holiday with our families, but after all the gifts were opened and the dinner plates were washed, we were scrambling to get our website up and running before the New Year. 

Twelve months and a hundred-something posts later, we’re happy to be celebrating the long and exciting journey we’ve made over the last year.  Maybe in a few dozen living rooms across the country, our fellow bloggers and loyal readers will be opening fabric gift bags to find eco-friendly surprises or amazing garage sale finds.  We wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukah, and a Fabulous Kwanzaa.  We look forward to working with you for another year of green living!

I have no time.  Seriously.  As a mother, a middle school teacher, a writer, and a wife, I often feel like each minute of my day has to be carefully attributed to a specific task.  In the time it takes to get from work to daycare I’m planning dinner, thinking of tomorrow’s social studies lesson, wondering whether I can take my son out for a walk, and remembering that the diapers need to be dried and folded by tomorrow.  Am I a wonder woman—a model mother who gracefully balances work, family and a green lifestyle?  Hardly!  I’m fumbling toward green parenthood and often failing along the way.

When I get discouraged about my progress, I think about my son learning how to walk.  It’s miraculous that babies accept falling down as part of the process without any embarrassment. My favorite Chinese proverb applies to motherhood, writing, green living and just about everything else: “Fall down seven times.  Get up eight.”  Balancing eco-friendly living and everything else isn’t as difficult and noble as it’s cracked up to be, especially if we’re willing to take a tumble every now and then.   

Every time I feel overwhelmed, I think about moms like Eileen Spillman, who is choosing an eco-friendly lifestyle while working full time and raising two children on her own.  Check out her perspective on living with green guilt here.  There are hundreds of parents who manage to consider the environment despite extremely hectic circumstances.  How do you manage to balance all the aspects of your life while making eco-friendly choices?  We’d love to hear your story.