Several months ago I shared that my dark diapering secret online.  Even though we only used disposables at night, I hated having to toss the waste into the trash. Since my son out-wet our cloth diapers, it seemed there was no other option. 

Thanks to our wise readers’ comments, I tried pocket diapers with him a few months later and was thrilled.  No more wetting in the night!  This also meant no more trips to the grocery store to haul home disposables.  The sky was brighter, the birds sang more sweetly, and our garbage was delightfully emptier. 

Then Roscoe started to develop yeast infections on a regular basis.  We tried creams, giving him “naked time,” and sunlight, but the infections persisted.  Finally, in desperation, we switched back to disposables at night and Roscoe’s redness completely cleared up. 

I then tried switching back to pocket diapers, only to have the yeast infections return.  Intermittently I experimented with prefolds, all-in-ones and again with pocket diapers, only to find that he got yeast infections with every single option.  He bathes just before bedtime, so it can’t be a hygiene issue.  What would people do years ago before disposables were invented?  There must be a solution.

For now, we’re sad to say that Roscoe’s back in disposables at night.  Does anyone else struggle with yeast infections at night?  If so, have you found anything that works on a long term basis?  Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us!

Ever return from holiday travel only to find yourself more exhausted than when you left? When we felt stressed out just contemplating a vacation with a two-year-old, we knew we needed other options.  Suddenly, my husband blurted out, “Let’s have a staycation!”  Immediately our heart rates leveled out and we began breathing more deeply.  

You might assume that my husband and I have a tiny comfort zone—or a case of agoraphobia.  Actually, we’ve lived and traveled in several countries, but at this point in our lives we have no desire to leave town.  Our son sleeps horribly even on short trips, hates being immobile in the car seat, and often seems out of sorts while we’re away.  It ends up being rather grueling for all of us—so we were excited about the option of staying home for a week and purposely relaxing.

So why did we choose to staycation?

1.  We greatly reduced carbon emissions.  We didn’t have to log airplane or car miles that eat up fossil fuels—plus we avoided hours of trying to entertain a toddler in the backseat. 

2.  Our vacation budget was HUGE. Without having to pay for gas or lodging, we were able to go out on a few dates, pay for babysitting—and still save loads of money.  I really wanted to splurge for a massage, but ran out of time. 

3.  We had fun in our backyard. Since camping with our toddler still seems a little beyond us, we set up the tent in the backyard during the day as a pre-camping experiment.  We could lie under the giant cedars and watch the clouds float by without having to pack up the gear.

4. It was fun to view our area like tourists. We went hiking, took a day trip to the zoo, and rode the city bus all over town.  While I get to do some of this in the summer with Roscoe, we hardly ever get time to do it all as a family.  

5. There was no packing or unpacking required.  What a luxury!  We didn’t have to scramble around the house trying to remember every last thing—only to find that we’d forgetten a few items anyway. 

As much as we enjoyed our staycation, we did fall into the trap of accomplishing a “few” household projects during the week.  It ended up eating a big chunk of our time.  If we had it to do over again, we would totally avoid work and try to plan our fun more carefully. 

Next year a family vacation might seem more manageable, but we’re glad that this year we took the opportunity to save a little money, help the planet and simplify our vacation.  

You’re sure to find loads of budget-friendly green tips below from our Thrifty Green Thursday blogging crew.  Bloggers are welcome to jump in and join anytime––just go to this page and carefully follow the steps. Thanks for enriching our Thursday with your creative ideas!

Green parenting requires thought, innovation, and courage—none of which come easy on limited sleep.  Having a community of like-minded parents is wonderful, but it can be challenging depending on a person’s geographic location or work schedule.  Still, if you hook up with a few families who are at least willing to try green living, it can be tremendously helpful. 

Here are a few places where you could start finding eco-friendly buddies:

Parenting groups: Usually by joining a parenting group you can find a few families who are interested in eco-friendly tips.  We loved our experience with Birth to Three here in Eugene and have made friendships that will last all through Roscoe’s childhood.

Community events: Story time at the local library, Earth Day Celebrations or free concerts in the park can be a great way to connect with other parents.  

Green groups: These are available in the Portland Metro area through one of our favorite local blogs, Enviromom.  Portland parents in different pockets of the city have free-form meetings to discuss the everyday challenges and victories of green living.

Start your own: Post a free ad in Craigslist asking moms to meet up weekly at a city park or even in your own home.  Hold “swap-meets” with local families to share toys and clothes.  You’re welcome to post a comment on this post asking if any Green Baby Guide readers live in your area. 

The good news is that you’re already part of a group of like-minded people: us!  Please remember to email us with any questions or tips you might want to share online.  We’d love to hear your voices as we continue to make Green Baby Guide a welcoming place for new parents.

Last week we reviewed Amy Dacyczyn’s Tightwad Gazette, the ultimate guide to creative frugality.  We could ooze on for hours about her innovative outlook on reusing and reducing, but instead we’ll give you some concrete examples of how she made budget friendly, eco-friendly choices with her twin babies. 

Since Dacyczyn thought her fourth child would be her last, she had given away all of her baby things, only to find out that she was having a surprise set of twins.  She spent less than $100 on their first year of life by employing some zany acts of simplicity.  These are just some of the items she skipped with her babies:

Baby Shampoo: She just used regular shampoo and was careful not to get it in baby’s eyes.

Bottles: Since she wasn’t working outside the home, she nursed the babies until they were one year old and then taught them to drink from a cup.

Changing table: Dacyczyn used a towel on top of a dresser with changing items stored in a shoe box.

Disposables: Even when traveling, Dacyczyn used cloth diapers.  She invested $65 of baby’s first year budget on diapering supplies because she knew it would pay off in the long run.

Crib: Dacyczyn writes that people can get creative with dresser drawers or use a playpen as a crib. (I know this might upset some readers, but it is an interesting idea, although neither Rebecca and I nestled our infants in our bureaus.)

Shoes: Until baby is toddling, these are totally unnecessary.

Despite our enthusiasm for The Tightwad Gazette’s baby tips, we’d be hesitant to endorse Dacyczyn’s stance on diaper pins and plastic pants—she states that they’re the best option for cloth diapering families. The book is over ten years old now, and there are so many more Velcro options on the market than in the mid-nineties.  We’ve been able to find many gently used Velcro diapers for bargain prices.  Cloth diaper tightwaddery is now updated for the new decade! 

Although we also wrote a post about what baby doesn’t need, Dacyczyn shows that reducing and reusing can be taken much further than most of us realize.   Some find her extreme, but we at Green Baby Guide harbor great respect for the sense of fun and pragmatism she brings to living a simpler life.

Many months ago, I wrote about the baby rules I break for the planet.  One of those “rules” included mopping up baby with wads of paper towels.  I don’t think I’ve ever bought a roll of paper towels in my life.  We do have two rolls of paper towels in my house.  One roll was generously left here by the previous owners.  We moved the other roll over from our last house, where it sat in the back of a closet for at least four years.  My husband bought that roll long ago, without my consent or knowledge.  I cannot be blamed!

Aren’t trees nicer than paper towels?

Last May, Peggy from Treehugging Family issued a paper towel challenge.  She personally wanted to reduce the number of paper towels she used and asked readers to do the same.  You will see my comments on those posts, urging people to try the “hide the paper towels at the back of a musty closet” technique.

I hate to see paper towel commercials that make it seem like these tree-killing/landfill-filling products are indispensible to modern life.  The one that really gets to me shows a mother going through her house, allowing all the glorious messes of family life because she has paper towels to help clean them up.  “If you knew he’d make a mess, but let him anyway, you’re crazy,” it begins.  At the end of the commercial, she plops down on the couch with a magazine, confident that she’s cleaned everyone up with Bounty.  

Giving up paper towels when the baby comes along might be an even greater challenge than eschewing them under normal circumstances.  There’s always a mess to clean up–on the baby, on yourself, on the floor.  I got a few packages of baby washcloths as gifts, and I used those instead of paper towels.  I just threw them in the wash when I was done, and they’re so small I’m sure they didn’t add to the overall amount of laundry I did.  Of course, any old rag or washcloth will also do the trick.

Think of all the money you’ll save by giving up paper towels.  Say you normally go through a pack of six rolls a month, at $10.00 a pack.  In ten years, you’ll spend $1,200 on a completely unnecessary product!  And if that’s not motivating enough, think of the trees.  Paul on things that make you go green says, “The NRDC estimates that if every household in the United States used one less roll of paper towels, we could save 544,000 trees.”  Saving a few thousand trees seems like a much better reason to take a self-satisfied couch break! 

Never buying paper towels works for me.  For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

A friend of ours just had her second child after 61 HOURS of labor!  Before I had children, that would have made me tired—but now it makes me want to flop onto the floor unconscious.  Why?  Because I always imagined that childbirth was a marathon.  What I realized after my first, is that it’s just the beginning of an endless “Ironmom” tournament that lasts for years. 

In that long succession of sleepless nights, there is a way to balance green values and exhaustion and it’s as simple as asking for help. Here are a few things I’ve learned from wise friends who have kept from being plumb pooped in those early weeks:

1.    Construct a support system: I spent my first few week of motherhood napping, figuring out breast feeding, and eating glorious nourishment prepared by my mother.  Then she left and I felt a little lost. Two of my well-supported friends have arranged for friends or family to help every day of their first month with baby.  I will make sure to do the same next time around.

2.    Consider a diaper service: Luckily my husband has a weird affinity for laundry so I had lots of help with cloth diapers.  Sometimes sheer exhaustion makes other families want to give up on cloth, but having a diaper service can make all the difference.  It’s totally possible to launder diapers alone, but it’s also important to know when to call in support.

3.    Avoid wonder-mom syndrome: Before becoming a mom I judged myself by my daily accomplishments.  Afterwards, I felt lucky to have achieved a shower. It was tough for me to go from a human-doing to a human-being.  The classic symptom of the wonder-mom disease is the urge to do housework when there’s an opportunity to nap.  Let the mess slide, have someone else make peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, and breathe in the smell emanating from the very top of your baby’s head. 

We would like to have a second child someday, and to be honest I’m already nervous about those long sleepless periods with a toddler in the house.  Still, if I follow my own advice, we can balance exhaustion and eco-friendly living. 

We’ve received a couple emails asking us about BPA and phthalate-free bathtubs.  This Spa Baby European Style Tub claims to be BPA-free, and the baby in the picture appears to enjoy the “European spa” experience the tub offers.  At $45, it’s a bit pricier than the typical tubs found at Target, but if you are worried about toxins, it may be worth the higher price.

Of course it’s possible to go without a baby bathtub.  One water-saving option is to have the baby bathe or shower with a parent.  Babies can also use the full bath tub, but that can end up being a waste of water, especially in the early days when the baby isn’t interested in splashing around for the fun of it.

We ended up getting a free plastic bath tub at our local consignment shop.  Our kitchen sink was not suitable for baby-bathing, and we didn’t want to waste water by filling our gigantic claw-foot tub with water.  Also, it seemed much safer to have the baby contained in a small little tub in those first few months.  At the time, we did not worry about BPA or phthalates leaching into the bath water and into our baby’s bloodstream.  Honestly, I probably wouldn’t worry about it a second time around, either.  The baby is not drinking the water–just soaking in it for about ten minutes.

I do worry about bringing another hunk of plastic into the world, which is why I was glad I found a secondhand one.  Once Audrey had outgrown the tub, we passed it along so it could take part in another baby’s bathing adventures.

When I was still pumping at work and crawling out of bed for nighttime feedings, I clung to the dream of weaning at one year.  Although I loved my amazing ability to create food for my infant without a second thought, there were times where I longed for freedom.

It came as a surprise to me that I wasn’t ready to give up breastfeeding after my son’s first birthday.  Luckily, the decision to continue had many benefits for my son, for the environment, and for my own health.

For baby’s health:

• Breast milk provides excellent immunity for toddlers so that they get sick much less often.
• Breast fed toddlers have fewer problems with allergies.
• Extended breastfeeding helps a child continue to bond with the mother.
• Breast milk provides incredibly nutrient-rich food for toddlers.

For the mother’s health:

• Studies show that breast cancer risk is reduced in direct proportion the amount of years that mothers breastfeed.
• Extended breastfeeding also reduces the risks of ovarian, uterine, and endometrial cancer.
• Producing breast milk can help moms continue to lose baby weight.
• It can delay ovulation so that it naturally provides space between pregnancies. (Don’t count on this as your only means of birth control though!)
• Breast feeding forces a mom to sit, breathe, and admire her baby before throwing another load of diapers in the wash or whipping up a lasagna.

For the environment:

• Breast milk comes without containers and is naturally organic! 
• There’s nothing more local than breast milk. 

Roscoe started to wean at 20 months and is now finished breastfeeding, but I have to say that I really do miss it.  If I was a stay-at-home mom I would probably have gone a bit longer, but Roscoe was starting to want less and less so we just followed his lead.  For more detailed information on why extended breastfeeding is such a great option, check out this article from Mothering magazine.  

Because I have a small house and harbor illusions of leading a “minimalist lifestyle,” I wanted to limit the amount of baby gear I bought. When I was pregnant, I kept wondering if I really needed all this stuff: a wipes warmer, a bouncy seat, a swing, a white noise machine, a mobile, an arsenal of how-to-raise-your-baby books, a travel crib, a baby monitor? (The list goes on, but you get the point.) How was I supposed to know? Every time I’d consider not getting something, the consumerist girl scout in me would decide that I just wouldn’t be prepared without it.

After fretting over each purchase or non-purchase for a good three or four months, I had a breakthrough: Yes, I can live without (fill in baby doodad of choice here). And if I can’t, I can always get it later. That’s right! Contrary to popular belief and the aforementioned girl scout motto, you do not need to “be prepared” for every possible baby emergency. Not sure you need a bouncy seat? Don’t get one until you do. You may find, as I did, that you can indeed live without it.

Every parent’s list will be different, but here’s a list of gizmos I never had. My daughter is over two now and hasn’t suffered from deprivation. (She can always sort it out later in therapy, if need be!)

Bouncy seat. My baby slept in a Moses basket for the first six months of her life, so if I needed to set her down, I put her in there.

Baby monitors. Because our house is so small, there is no way I wouldn’t hear her if she cried.

Wipe warmers. We use cloth wipes dampened with a squirt of water from a squeeze bottle. Our baby never seemed to care that the wipes weren’t warm.

Swing. We actually broke down and bought a swing after a week or two of sleepless nights (and days). Unfortunately, the swing didn’t help at all, so it went right back to the store. Joy and her husband made the same sleep-deprived decision, with the same result!

Exersaucer. I knew I didn’t want this huge plastic contraption in my house . . . so I didn’t get one.

Glider. First of all, I find this piece of furniture hideously ugly. Second, I have at least two chairs with a rocking motion. I never missed having a gliding rocking chair.

You may be tempted to register for as much as possible so generous friends and family can pay for it. Remember you can always ask for gift cards if you find the need to stock up later. I didn’t feel like I was scrimping by not buying every item on the Babies-R-Us registry list–I felt resourceful, and my house remained blissfully clutter-free.

I credit a long-ago Earth Day television special to introducing me to the fast-paced world of reusing and recycling.  Now I try hard to do what’s best for our environment, but I don’t always live up to my ideals.  Here are my top five eco-sins, confessed.

1. I take long, hot showers.  I know, I know.  I should get a solar heater and bathe in harvested rainwater from our rooftop.  This is an especially heinous sin considering how often I’ve bragged about limiting my daughter’s bath time fun.
2. I don’t always buy organic produce.  I’m cheap.  I’m trying to get over it.
3. I don’t always buy local produce.  Buying local produce as a “green” action was something I hadn’t even considered until a couple years ago.  But even after educating myself a bit on the subject and reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I’m still not a locavore.
4. I have not fully converted to greener cleaners.  Don’t get me wrong–I have very few toxic cleansers sitting under my kitchen sink and use plenty of baking soda and vinegar.  But somehow I still have a hard time getting worked up about the awfulness of conventional brands.  I have read a lot about the toxins in cleaners and the havoc they wreak on our bodies and our planet.  I’ve devoured whole books on the subject.  Apparently years of indoctrination by commercial advertising is hard to overcome.
5. I travel.

The act of confessing my sins has cleansed my conscience, and the Earth.  I sentence myself to quicker showers, a larger budget for organic produce, a disdain for imported fruits and veggies, a deeper understanding of and appreciation for greener cleaners, and several carbon off-set coupons.

What are your eco-sins?  Confess!

“Get out of the bath–you’re wasting water!”