What is a green daycare, anyway? A hay bale structure in which youngsters learn to compost and recycle? Sounds nice!

I know when we began looking for someone to take care of our baby when she was eight months old, I was most concerned with two things: cloth diapers and breast milk. Would our future provider be okay with changing cloth diapers and leaving the wet ones for us in a bag to take home? (Joy just wrote about this!) Would she be willing to thaw out my expressed breast milk and bottle-feed it to my daughter?

We ended up finding someone who did both of those things, and we didn’t need to find a special “eco-friendly” daycare to do it. Our daycare provider operates inside her own home, where she watches three or four kids at a time. She had never had a child in cloth diapers before, but she was happy to try them out. In fact, she was happy to have less trash to deal with (and pay for).

What are/were your eco-concerns when looking for a daycare for your child? How did you end up addressing those concerns—and are you happy with your choices?

We discuss this in more detail in our book, the Eco-nomical Baby Guide!

Before becoming a mother, I rode chicken-laiden, multicolored buses in Latin America, Tuk-Tuk’s in Thailand, and rented bicycles in Denmark.

Breaking my arm, being pregnant and having a tiny baby put us through a three-year period of being car dependent. (Our car-free trip to San Francisco was the one exception.)  This summer, now that our baby has reached one year of age, we’re finally back to car-free creativity.

With our second child, we’ve come to appreciate our bike trailer even more!  It works beautifully for hauling both kids across town behind a bike and easily converts to a double stroller.  It’s also our most rain-proof baby toting device because of the clear plastic cover.  As you can see, it’s a bit cozy with both kids but as long as they have snacks, everyone stays happy!

We have a bike helmet for my son but haven’t yet found one that works for our one year old.  As a result, we just stick to side-streets and bike extremely carefully.  My husband transports my son to preschool every day in the bike trailer and they both thoroughly enjoy the ride.

Another fabulous development in our summer is my husband’s bus pass, acquired through his new job.  Now we can simply pay my fare and our whole family can travel the town by bus to our favorite destinations.  This is an utter thrill for my son and doesn’t require us to snap in car seats or fill up our tank!

Car free travel with kids can be an adventure, but if I was willing to sit atop a bus with the goats, why shouldn’t I be willing to embrace the challenge?   In our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we feature a story from the authors of Car Free With Kids, a blog written by a family that lives completely car free.  We are inspired by them each time we read a new post!

What are your creative ways for moving your children this summer?  Do you move on foot or have great public transportation to depend on?

Pins? Snappis? A wipe warmer?!

You can definitely cloth diaper without any “extras,” but some parents find cloth diapering much more pleasant with a little help. My sister-in-law, for example, couldn’t live without flushable diaper liners. They eliminate the mess from dirty diapers, making it unnecessary to ever dunk-and-swish a diaper in the toilet. And in this post, we learned why some prefold enthusiasts prefer to use Snappis and diaper pins instead of the lazier method we endorse (which I now know is the “newspaper fold”).

So did I indulge in any cloth diaper bling? Well, we reviewed Monkey Foot Designs wet bags near the end of my diapering days, and I have to say I found my patterned bag much more beautiful than the Zip-loc I’d been using to tote wet diapers around in. While it’s definitely not necessary to the cloth diaper experience, it was a nice perk.

We go over these “diaper accessories” and more in The Eco-nomical Baby Guide,  but now we’re curious: what little extras make cloth diapering easier for you?

For their adorable design, their convenience, and those clever snaps, I love my pocket diapers.  For leaks, I don’t.  It may be that my baby is too small for her large sized pocket diapers, but even when we double stuff them with liners, they seem to have major leakage issues.  The only way we can stop the leaks is to treat them like a diaper cover and line them with a prefold diaper.  I loved them with my older son but he wore then when he was a bit bigger, which may explain our leakage problem.  Does anyone else have these issues?  Are you partial to your pocket diapers or do you prefer prefolds?

Last week we heard your eco-confessions. This week we want to know your justifications for all of that appalling behavior! If you know it’s good for the environment . . . what’s holding you back?

They look like they’re having a good time . . . so why don’t I do it?

I’ll start. I know that hanging laundry to dry saves a lot of energy. I’ve written several posts about it and admonished others for it. Yet . . . I often dry my clothes in the dryer! Why? Well, I think it’s obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: It’s simply easier. I don’t need to clutter up a room with laundry and have it sit there for a week drying in the air. I like to fold warm, fluffy clothes. I save fifteen minutes every time I toss a load in the dryer instead of hanging it up on the rack. Terrible excuses, I know!

I hope to get back in the hanging habit now that the weather has warmed up. Go ahead—you can chastise me if you want!

Not necessarily! Now, most people probably choose diaper services over home laundering for convenience. You collect your dirty diapers, set them outside once a week, and receive a fresh stack of fluffy white diapers in their place. No messing with smelly diaper laundry. However, as we discuss in further detail in The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, diaper services may or may not be better for the environment than home laundering depending on a few factors.

If you’re considering using a diaper service, you might want to ask them a few questions first:

• How much water do you use? (Most companies will have statistics on this. Diaper services wash diapers in large quantities and are able to use less water than home launderers.)
• What chemicals do you use? If they use bleach, you may want to reconsider. Diaper services can sanitize diapers with hot water alone.
• How do you transport the diapers from house to house? Are they making an effort to use efficient routes? Bonus: Do they use fuel-efficient vehicles?

Have you tried a diaper service? What did you think—both in terms of convenience and eco-friendliness? Let us know!

A few months ago I wrote a triumphant post about the joys of comfortably feeding baby on the go.  “It’s easy!” I proclaimed with glee.  “Why do people sequester themselves in private when you can just toss a blanket over baby’s head and continue socializing?”

Funny how much I forgot from my first baby!  Now that Jovi is almost one year old, she utterly refuses to be covered while feeding.  Even when I can arrange my shirt so that I’m not flashing the world, she stops regularly to look around and provide a milky smile for all to see, leaving me a bit exposed.  As this painting proves, distracted babies have been pulling off the breast to smile at onlookers for hundreds of years!

So do I breastfeed in public now?  Nope!  She rarely gets a good meal when she’s preoccupied with her surroundings and it’s hard for me to relax when she’s constantly flopping around to make sure she doesn’t miss anything.  Have you found any tricks for breastfeeding older babies?  Do tell!

Does anyone watch the show Parenthood? It follows the lives of four grown siblings and their kids in Berkeley, California. The youngest brother, Crosby, recently found out that he has a five-year-old son. Eager to make up for all those lost years, he volunteers to help the mom throw a big birthday celebration with both of their families.

Jabbar and Crosby in Parenthood

So what do they do? They go to the store, argue about a theme for a few minutes (“We did Sponge Bob last year!”), then proceed to buy stacks of theme-appropriate paper plates and decorations. The weirdest part was, there didn’t appear to be many kids (aside from cousins) at the party. So what was the point of all that disposable party gear—in Berkeley no less, a progressive, eco-friendly community?

Now, I know that it is only television. But is this a reflection of reality? Do kids these days expect to have themed birthday parties with disposable plates to go along with it? Am I naive to think that I can continue to throw low-key celebrations for my daughter and serve cake on our everyday dishes? Are our tips for throwing an “eco-birthday bash” in The Eco-nomical Baby Guide hopelessly unrealistic?

Or does consumerism and waste go hand in hand with birthday parties?

Here in Oregon we have been sopping wet for weeks.  With a hot summer ahead and an organic garden to water, I’ve been considering purchasing rain barrels.   This week calls for lots of rain, but I’m not sure that they’re easy to use and store. Is it possible to hook the hose up to the barrel and water your beds or do you have to individually fill watering cans?  There’s a local installer that will deliver the barrels and build a stand for them for around $70 each, but I’d love to find a less expensive option.  Any ideas? Please inspire me to take the plunge!

We’ve confessed to several “eco-sins” over the years here on the Green Baby Guide. But now we want to know: What are your failings? Still use toxic cleaners? Can’t bear to compost? Go through a roll of paper towels a day? Stuff your garbage cans with recyclables? Confess here!