The Ugly Side of Baby Care

Just last week, an article came out regarding the nasty carcinogens that Johnson & Johnson puts in their baby shampoo.  Read Article Here  In 2009, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report stating that Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo still contained a formaldehyde releasing preservative as well as another known carcinogen.  So, after pressure from several groups, J&J removed the carcinogens from its shampoo in several countries.  But, if you want the carcinogen-free product here in the U.S, you must purchase their "Natural" brand of baby shampoo--the one that typically costs more.  If you like carcinogens, buy the cheaper yellow stuff.  Yeah, that stuff they give you at the hospital and bathe your baby in moments after he/she is born.

But wait!  J&J stated that they're working on getting rid of these nasty chemicals from their products worldwide.  Working on it?  Why was it there to begin with?  And why is it that the ingredient was in products sold in the U.S., China and Canada?  This is the same company that was just ranked as one of the most trusted brands in America.  The same company that plays sweet lullaby music while showing pictures of moms holding their newborns on their t.v. commercials.  The brand that is smacked all over every parenting magazine and newborn how-to-guides.  Their products are handed out at doctors offices and hospitals.  And they contain known cancer-causing carcinogens.  Nice.

So my thought is this--is J&J the only one?  Are they the only company in the U.S. selling baby products that include ingredients that are known carcinogens?  So I'm in the cloth diaper business.  What about my main competition--the disposable diaper companies?  How many of you have had the "gel" from a well-known disposable diaper company on your baby's bottom?  I just find it hard to believe that the major diaper companies are testing every single chemical and layer of synthetic fabric contained in their products for known cancer causing ingredients.  And perhaps, they know that some of the ingredients in their products are not safe for anyone, much less a baby, but that ingredient is cheaper, easy to produce and helps their bottom line.  Plus, people are buying it en masse.  A diaper that can contain 12 hours of urine??  Sure!!  It's convenient and cheap!  Let's buy it until we're blue in the face!!

I guess this is what led me to using cloth diapers and, in general, for choosing to use organic products on my daughter.  Sure, one less diaper in our landfill is much better for our earth but I had a hard time believing that the major disposable diaper companies truly had my daughter's best interest in mind when manufacturing their product.

Nearly all of the companies represented at PinStripes and PolkaDots are companies with a conscience. Most were started by moms who wanted a better solution for cloth diapering their child.  Most of the companies are small and genuinely care about the health and well-being of your little one.

Shame on Johnson and Johnson and any other company out there who care more about their bottom line than the health and well-being of our kiddos.

And if you want to read more about what's in most disposable diapers, read this.  Then call me and and we can talk cloth.

The Ugly Side of Baby Care

Just last week, an article came out regarding the nasty carcinogens that Johnson & Johnson puts in their baby shampoo.  Read Article Here  In 2009, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report stating that Johnson & Johnson's baby shampoo still contained a formaldehyde releasing preservative as well as another known carcinogen.  So, after pressure from several groups, J&J removed the carcinogens from its shampoo in several countries.  But, if you want the carcinogen-free product here in the U.S, you must purchase their "Natural" brand of baby shampoo--the one that typically costs more.  If you like carcinogens, buy the cheaper yellow stuff.  Yeah, that stuff they give you at the hospital and bathe your baby in moments after he/she is born.

But wait!  J&J stated that they're working on getting rid of these nasty chemicals from their products worldwide.  Working on it?  Why was it there to begin with?  And why is it that the ingredient was in products sold in the U.S., China and Canada?  This is the same company that was just ranked as one of the most trusted brands in America.  The same company that plays sweet lullaby music while showing pictures of moms holding their newborns on their t.v. commercials.  The brand that is smacked all over every parenting magazine and newborn how-to-guides.  Their products are handed out at doctors offices and hospitals.  And they contain known cancer-causing carcinogens.  Nice.

So my thought is this--is J&J the only one?  Are they the only company in the U.S. selling baby products that include ingredients that are known carcinogens?  So I'm in the cloth diaper business.  What about my main competition--the disposable diaper companies?  How many of you have had the "gel" from a well-known disposable diaper company on your baby's bottom?  I just find it hard to believe that the major diaper companies are testing every single chemical and layer of synthetic fabric contained in their products for known cancer causing ingredients.  And perhaps, they know that some of the ingredients in their products are not safe for anyone, much less a baby, but that ingredient is cheaper, easy to produce and helps their bottom line.  Plus, people are buying it en masse.  A diaper that can contain 12 hours of urine??  Sure!!  It's convenient and cheap!  Let's buy it until we're blue in the face!!

I guess this is what led me to using cloth diapers and, in general, for choosing to use organic products on my daughter.  Sure, one less diaper in our landfill is much better for our earth but I had a hard time believing that the major disposable diaper companies truly had my daughter's best interest in mind when manufacturing their product.

Nearly all of the companies represented at PinStripes and PolkaDots are companies with a conscience. Most were started by moms who wanted a better solution for cloth diapering their child.  Most of the companies are small and genuinely care about the health and well-being of your little one.

Shame on Johnson and Johnson and any other company out there who care more about their bottom line than the health and well-being of our kiddos.

And if you want to read more about what's in most disposable diapers, read this.  Then call me and and we can talk cloth.

Newborn Cloth Diapering

I hear some moms come in to the shop and say "I want to cloth diaper.  But not at the beginning.  I will use disposables at first until baby is a couple months old and then switch to cloth."

I hear that quite a bit and I understand those sentiments.  A new baby is a big adjustment and sometimes the thought of adapting to yet another "new" thing can be overwhelming.  I mean, just how does poop get clean out of a diaper and how could cloth diapers POSSIBLY work better than disposable diapers?

When giving this a bit more thought, I actually think it should be reversed IF anything.  You SHOULD cloth diaper your newborn and then if you want to, switch to disposables after the baby is a year old and not exclusively breastfed (I don't recommend switching to disposables EVER but for the sake of this argument...let's just say).

Why should you cloth diaper a newborn?  Two words: breastfed poo.  Have you experienced this yet?  It's runny.  I mean, really really runny.  Couple that with some explosive gas and what do you get?  A blowout.  How many of you have experienced this?  I have.  It's nasty.  It goes up the back, out the legs and all over mommy's tummy and jeans.  This leads to a sponge bath for baby and a full change of clothes.  In fact, this happened not too long ago to one of my friends.  Her baby was wearing a disposable and right after he was breastfed, he had a blowout.  A customer of mine told a story of when she was flying across country after her daughter was a couple of months old, she thought she didn't want to "deal" with a cloth diaper on the airplane.  Guess what?  Yep, blowout on the plane in her disposable.  

These blowouts are part of having a newborn but honestly, they will happen less with cloth.  Why?  Cloth diapers, especially those designed for a newborn, are made with amazing elastic sewn in at the leg openings and at the back of the diaper.  These elastic gussets are made to contain that newborn poo.  I dare you to do a side-by-side comparison of a newborn cloth diaper vs. a disposable diaper.  The comparison is striking.

So if you're expecting, and you don't plan on cloth diapering, plan on washing your clothes and the baby's clothes more often because poo blowouts are part of having a newborn.  But I can assure you that they will happen far less frequently--if ever--in a cloth diaper.