Cloth Diapers, Green Living and Going Green with Kids - The Eco Chic» RDA

Day 5 – 30 Reasons to Love Cloth Diapers

Calley — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:18:54 +0000

Day 5 – Birth of an Advocate. Making a commitment to cloth diapering doesn’t just affect you and your immediate family. You will soon realize that you will be teaching others about cloth diapers each and every day. In the early days you will be introducing cloth diapers to your spouse and other family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles) and friends. They will have similar questions and concerns as you do and it’s easy for use to fall back info disposables in an effort to not cause any conflicts amongst our loved ones. But you have the power as a parent to teach these people instead of giving them a ‘get out of fluff free card.’

My husband wasn’t hard to educate since we were both learning together. My mom was (and still is) one of my biggest supporters. Having used cloth diapers on both me and my brother she was extremely excited to use these new modern cloth diapers. My mom used a diaper service when we were little so she didn’t have to wash her diapers but she did have to deal with pins, pre-folds, and rubber pants. She’s such a great supporter that she doesn’t even shy away from helping with the laundry.

Other people you may influence in your lives:

friends
caregivers
babysitters
day cares
church nursery workers
neighbors
strangers (at the mall, restaurants, play groups)

Start simple – most people only need to know the basics. How do you change them? Where do you store the dirties? and What do you do with the poop?

How to handle the skeptics:

Avoid being defensive and offer your empathy. Really listen to what their concerns are.
Learn the facts.
Join an organization like the Real Diaper Association (RDA) which helps to train and educate parents about cloth diapers.
Start your own local cloth diaper group and become a local educator and advocate to other parents in your area.

Our greatest opportunity for raising awareness about modern, reusable cloth diapers is to lead by example. If we show other parents how easy it is to use cloth diaper they will be more likely to try them on their children. Don’t shy away from using cloth diapers when you leave the house. This is the only way we’ll ever win the diaper debate and prove that cloth diapers really are just as easy to use as disposables. Will you take the challenge? Are you ready to be an advocate? Who can you educate about cloth diapers?

I’m a proud member of the RDA and help raise awareness of cloth diapering every day through my blogs and in real life. For as little as $25 a year you too can be a member of the RDA. The 2011 Cloth Diaper Calendar Photo Contest winners have just been announced. The calendars will be available for sale on Cafe Press soon – to kick off the launch of the 2011 Calendar Eco Chic Parties will be having a Twitter Party on December 7th. Sponsors and prizes will be announced soon! Be sure to add the RDA Calendar to your wish list this holiday season!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

RDA 2nd Annual Reusable Cloth Diaper Photo Contest

Calley — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:19:45 +0000

Grab your camera!

It’s time for the 2nd annual Real Diaper Association (RDA) 100% Reusable Cloth Diaper Photo Contest! Today (10/19/10) is the first day you can submit a picture to the contest. Anyone can enter the contest – all you need is a child in cloth diapers and a camera. Entries will be collected from now until November 3rd and there is a special treat for the 12 best photos that are submitted.

All submissions will have a chance to win. Any active RDA member as of November 5th, 2010 has the opportunity to vote on the best 12 pictures. (To become a member of the RDA follow this link to the contest rules and click Make a Donation on the right – membership is only $25 per family for the year.) But never fear – you don’t have to be a member of the RDA to submit your photo to the contest!

What happens to the best 12 photos? They will be used to create the 2011 RDA Cloth Diaper Calendar! And the picture with the highest number of votes will become the Cover Model – and win a Flip UltraHD 2nd generation video camera OR $150 Gift Certificate to my favorite diaper retailer – Kelly’s Closet! Tough decision on which prize I’ll choose when I win – think I may pick the gift certificate for more cloth diapers!!! Which prize would you pick if you beat me in the photo contest? Two runners up will also win great prizes from Metro Minis and Sub Tree Hugger – and all 12 finalists will get a copy of the 2011 RDA Calendar!

Hmmm….now which diaper should I choose and where should my setting be? The beach maybe? A park? In the pool? A holiday inspired picture? Oh the choices are endless!

Want to learn more? Want to win even MORE great prizes? Join the RDA along with Eco Chic Parties for a Kick Off Twitter Party – TONIGHT! Tuesday, October 19th from 9-10pm ET on Twitter (of course!). We’ll be answering all your questions about how to enter and going over some of the rules with you. We have some special guests joining us with lots of fun prizes including:

Nifty Nappy: giving away a combination of NINE cloth diapers of assorted styles and prints! Fitteds, pockets, swim diapers, and more!

The Willow Store: giving away TWO starter kits featuring their Super Saver shells and inserts.

Growin Green Bums: giving one lucky family a year membership to the RDA – so they can vote for their baby!

To RSVP for the #REALFlashyBums Twitter Partybe sure to visit Eco Chic Parties NOW and enter! The party starts at 9pm ET but I hear that Eco Chic Sidekick is offering up some pre-party training starting at 8pm ET for anyone who is new to Twitter! That’s TWO hours of party fun! What are you waiting for? Go enter – and don’t forget to bring your camera!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Can you really travel with cloth diapers?

Calley — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 04:37:38 +0000

The answer SHOULD be YES! As I began planning for my #BlogHer10 experience I had originally planned on bringing the entire family along with me. I researched NYC diaper services and had set up a batch of diapers to be delivered right to our hotel.

Over the past month our plans changed. We were still planning our family trip to Disney (before our annual passes expired) but then the family was going in many different directions.

We packed up last weekend and headed to Orlando – complete with our stash of cloth diapers. My first trip to Disney with the baby we packed disposables, hybrids, and cloth because I really didn’t know HOW to travel with cloth diapers. I found out quickly that it’s NOT much different than at home. This trip to Disney I only packed the fluff! The only time it was a little less than pleasant was the 3rd day (when my DD had held her bowl movements for 3 whole days) when she decided to poo while at the water park. Thankfully cloth holds in the solids BUT the water parks are NOT known for having great changing stations. In fact they down right SUCK! So on a small bench in the changing room I changed a gross, nasty, 3 day poop that had just been mushed in by a baby sitting in the pool! Anyways – as gross as it sounds it was actually quite painless – after I changed her we walked across the room to the toilet and dumped the evidence! FLUSH! Stuff the cover in the wetbag and then back in the locker – now back to playing.

After our Disney adventure it was time to leave the DD at Camp Grandma/Grandpa. I even left my mom the bag of dirty diapers – which she called to tell me were all clean again. I’m sure like last time she won’t be able to figure out which insert goes with which diaper but that’s not really too important. And like last time the snaps will sit in the bag unused while Grandma prefers the velcros! The point is that Grandma does cloth diapers and is just as proud as I am about it.

Really – traveling with cloth diapers isn’t much different than at home. But if you aren’t lucky enough to have a Grandma to do your diaper laundry check out these great tips for the Real Diaper Association’s (RDA) Travel Tip Sheet. The RDA is still fundraising for their $3500 in 35 Days campaign to keep their Executive Director. For more information on the RDA please visit them at www.realdiaperassociation.org. If you like their tip sheet or any of their other work please consider donating to the $3500 in 35 Days campaign so they can continue to advocate for cloth diapers on every baby – all the time! And if you join the RDA (as low as $25) you will receive a quarterly newsletter and a great button to show your support! I’ll be wearing my button this week while at #BlogHer10! If you see me don’t be afraid to “Ask me about cloth diapers!”

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Help RDAs $3500 in 35 Days Campaign!

Calley — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:23:50 +0000

I just renewed my annual membership AND donated an extra $15 (on behalf of The Eco Chic blog) to Real Diaper Association (RDA) – are you a member yet? Here is where your money will be going to if you join the RDA and help advocate to get more babies in cloth diapers in 2010-11!

From RDA:

Each donation adds more time that we can keep our Executive Director, who continues to help us spread the word about reusable cloth diapers.

We come here to you with a request. RDA continues to play a leading role in the cloth diaper movement, training and supporting grassroots advocates to lead local Real Diaper Circles, compiling and distributing research on the subject, working with the media and other businesses and organizations to increase awareness about cloth diapers, and providing direct reliable, unbiased support for consumers. We do all of this with the support of our member donors. If you haven’t contributed to our efforts before, please join us as a member today at www.realdiaperassociation.org/directory/signup.php – annual individual membership is still only $25. Your donation is tax-deductible, and membership ensures that you’ll be kept up-to-date with our work via our quarterly print newsletter.

Because we’ve had the good luck to employ an Executive Director over the past year, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot recently. Explore the archives of our blog at www.realdiaperevents.org for stories about some of most recent accomplishments, such as:

the launch of a cloth-diaper-friendly daycare directory and publication of a tip sheet on using cloth diapers in daycare ,
a blog carnival focused on Real Diaper Facts that highlighted some of the most useful research out there on the benefits of cloth diapers, and
the ongoing 100% reusable cloth diapers campaign to support people and choosing and using real diapers in any situation.

Additionally, there are 15 active Real Diaper Circles and nearly 100 volunteers in training to become Leaders across the U.S. and Canada.

We are convinced that we made the right decision in hiring our Executive Director, and have plans for how to accomplish more in the coming year. In order to do so, we need to continue to fund the Executive Director position and ensure that we have someone in place to push all our efforts forward.

This is the time for cloth diapers for a number of great reasons. You have been supportive in individual advocacy, spreading the message time and again to your friends and acquaintances. Join together with us now and take a larger role in the overall cloth diaper movement. Become a member of the Real Diaper Association today at www.realdiaperassociation.org/directory/signup.php .

If you can’t become a member, would you please consider giving just a little to help our efforts? We need to raise $3500 in 35 days before our 6th Anniversary on August 11, 2010! We’re confident we can do it. Please help, then spread the word to the other cloth diaperers you know. These contributions, like membership donations, are tax-deductible.

So who’s with me in celebrating 6 great years with RDA (I’ve only been a member for a year – but it’s been a great year for cloth diapers!)?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I Support 100% Reusable Cloth Diapers for All Babies

Calley — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:48:17 +0000

As I continue my cloth diaper journey over this past year I have become associated with many wonderful companies, organizations and people who support the modern cloth diaper revolution. I’m still trying to decide how I can best serve the cause and bring cloth diapers into more homes. One way I have began advocating cloth diapers is through the Real Diaper Association (RDA). I am in the process of becoming an RDA Circle Leader…an advocate for cloth diapers in the community.

The RDA is a non-profit organization who works with parents all across the US to encourage the use of reusable cloth diapers 100% of the time! I like to say that I use cloth diapers 99.99% of the time…and I cringe every time I put Lil’ B in a hard, crunchy sposie.

My commitment to cloth diapers is primarily an environmental commitment. Research shows that cloth diapers are far better for the environment than disposables. Even though you will use slightly more water for washing…your babies environmental butt-print (hehe!) will be greatly reduced when using cloth diapers.

How can I help? By introducing cloth diapers to others in my own community (and online!). We’ve already worked to educate our babies caregivers, our family, and our friends to the world of cloth diapers. I have several friends of mine who have recently given birth or are expecting…and I continue to share my own experiences with them. Disposable diapers are readily available and accepted as the norm…cloth diapers are not. When I mention to my friends that we use cloth they think I’m some new aged, hippie chick! I’m just a normal working mom with a normal family. Yes, we (OK…I) am a little obsessed with eco-issues and my friends have learned to love me for it. Just like with recycling and CFLs…I believe that cloth diapers will one day be considered the norm as well.

And I will continue to share my own cloth diaper journey with others…one baby at a time! What about you? Is your baby in 100% reusable cloth diapers all the time? Do you want to learn more about cloth diaper or the RDA?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.