Library Mama

The diapering world is nearly all on-line. Really, I haven't seen anything in a regular store worth using except as a burp rag. On-line, there are zillions of players, from the relatively big small businesses, to tiny places where mothers make diapers as they have time and then sell them. Here are the places I've shopped:

Places I regularly go to:
http://www.naturalbabies.com - The navigation and site design here are pitiful. But Colleen carries all the most popular brands, including our favorite FuzziBunz and SugarPeas. Her prices are standard to cheap, and she ships things right away. Usually that day if you place an order before noon, and the next day on orders placed at night. She’s in Northville, just a couple towns over from us, so the combo means I get my stuff super fast.

http://www.zensicallife.com - This site was brand-new when I first visited in December. She has bulk discounts on Sugar Peas (carries other brands as well), and loyalty discounts after you spend set amounts of money.

http://www.babybunz.com - This is the only site I’ve seen that sells the ultra-cheap Snugglebottoms diapers. Not our favorites, but like I said, cheap. This company is big enough to do a print catalog, too.

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Cloth diapering resources

I really love cloth diapering. And while I could write pages about why I love it, so many other people have already done so that it would be reinventing the wheel. Here's my short list:

- I'm convinced it's more comfortable for baby – would you choose plastic underwear?
- Yes, I am a card-carrying tree-hugger
- I also think it's healthier
- I'll take doing laundry over taking out the trash and extra shopping trips any day
- Money saving – at least a little
- Cloth diapers are so darn cute!

Information Articles:
Just about every diaper shop has its own series of articles on why cloth diapering is better. Here are some of my favorites:

The Diaper Shop Q&A Lots of the standards on the health benefits, but also a priceless article on "The Princess Method" of cleaning dirty diapers, and (for those of you worried about stink), an article about the author camping with her baby using cloth next to a baby using disposables.

The Diaper Dollar from PunkinButt - This article nicely breaks down the cost of using cloth diapers including the cost of washing them.

Diaper Cost Comparison from Katie's Kisses - This article gives you two cost figures for cloth, one using the cheap prefolds, one using premium diapers. ( Most places just give the figure for prefolds.)

I know somewhere, once upon a time, I found a really great article explaining the different kinds of diapers out there, but can I find it now? Of course not!

In the meantime, if you're wavering between different types of diapers, try reading the reviews on
Diaper Pin If you're trying to find something to start with, I wouldn't recommend this – there are just too many options out there, and you'll get all confused.

If I have time, coming next… more fun places to go for diapers.

In a continuation of parenting titles, I found two more crying/sleep books, one random leftie baby book, and one Baby Tome. Yeah, I should probably find a couple more Baby Tomes with different approaches, but I'm not sure how many 700 page books I'll make it through. As always, I'm open to suggestions of titles you've read or want me to try first.

Calming Your Fussy Baby: the Brazleton Way by T. Berry Brazleton My research into crying/sleep books continues with this title. Dr. Brazleton is a well-known pediatrician (I discover); he’s best known for his “touchpoints” or stages of baby development. He seems to me to be fairly middle-of-the-road in his parenting philosophy. This book, then, covers crying by age – why a baby might cry at different stages, and appropriate responses at each. Unlike Dr. Karp, he doesn’t assume a single solution in each case, but presents a variety of options. Again, it’s hard to say without trying, but his approach seems geared towards first understanding your baby, then figuring out a solution.

On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam Yes, this is a third “how to get your baby to stop crying” title. I think I mentioned earlier that it’s a little hard to guess at an author’s parenting philosophy from the back cover of the book, so I was excited to find this book – a really, really conservative approach to baby care. amnachaidh, on hearing me talk about it, described this as the Ann Coulter of baby care, and it’s a pretty good metaphor. If you agree with the conservative philosophy to begin with – that you must put your baby on a schedule from birth and train him to sleep in his own room right from the beginning by letting him cry until he stops – then the advice in this book is straightforward. You can either skip over or enjoy the vitriolic attacks against attachment parenting, as you prefer. If you are liberal in your parenting philosophy to begin with, you will find this book highly disturbing. And if you are not really sure where you are, I would not recommend reading this book. While the advice on how to put your baby on schedule is straightforward enough, and may in fact be the perfect solution for your family, the science that he cites to support his views is shaky at best. As I’m currently reading Dr. Sears on attachment parenting, I can say with some certainty that the attachment parenting philosophy that he uses as an example of bad parenting throughout the book is a straw man, more extreme than AP doctors would recommend. As an example of bad science, at one point he says that letting your baby cry it out will make her smarter, and has an endnote to a study. The study that he cites was one that showed that four and five year olds who could wait 15 minutes to get two marshmallows rather than getting one right away did better on their SATs than the ones who ate their marshmallow right away. I don’t think that this proves that waiting makes kids smarter, and I certainly don’t see how a study performed on children old enough to talk and reason could prove anything about caring for a baby. He says throughout that doing anything differently than what he says will resulting in spoiling your baby – which I object to on the grounds that different things work for different babies; and throughout that one shouldn’t trust one’s emotions or instincts for baby care, or any decision-making, despite research on the subject to the contrary. This book is really popular, but I’d still say that Dr. Spock will give you advice on putting your baby on a schedule, with better science and less guilt.

Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet guide to natural baby care : nontoxic and environmentally friendly ways to take care of your new child by Mindy Pennybacker In search of more liberal baby books, I found this one. It’s one to read only if you have lots of money or are willing to ignore lots of warnings. Do you really want to know what the chemicals in paint, carpets and plastic toys can do to your child? Especially when the alternatives appear to cost at least twice as much, and often even more? (The easy way out: air out things like plastics and paint that smell when new for a couple of weeks to disperse the nasty VOCs. Use natural fibers whenever possible, and wash new clothes several times before putting them on baby.) There is some more practical advice in the later chapters on food, and a nice chapter on raising a nature-loving child. Otherwise, sadly, you have to be really, really committed to a low-chemical lifestyle for this book to have practical information for you.

The Baby Book by William and Martha Sears This is the first baby tome that I’ve reviewed, recommended to me by at least four different sources. It is indeed a wonderful book. Dr. Sears is an advocate of attachment parenting. For the uninitiated, this means he believes that the first duty of parents is to teach their children that they will always be there to take care of them. To this end, small babies should be picked up when they cry, carried a lot (whether or not they are crying) and so forth. No, he does not say that co-sleeping is the only right way to do things, and yes, he does include instruction on how to encourage your baby to sleep more at night without using the cry-it-out technique, as well as how to wean your baby out of your bed should you decide to sleep with your baby for a while but not want it to be permanent. For those of a more liberal persuasion to start with, he also includes discussions of vaccines and controversies surrounding them, though he is in general in favor of them. But this is just a small look at places where his book gives a unique view, particularly touching on issues brought up in the other books I’ve reviewed or that have come up in discussion. Overall, this book is aiming to be the only baby book you’ll ever really need. It covers pregnancy and childbirth briefly, and then focuses on baby’s major needs: eating, sleeping, development, health and comfort. Although all of the information looks like it would be invaluable to have on hand, I was very impressed with the health section. Split up by illness (with a separate first aid section), it covers what the symptoms are, treatment options, when to worry, call the doctor, and what to tell him or her. The Sears are both medical professionals as well as parents of eight children, and I found their advice knowledgeable and reassuring. Like Dr. Spock, they stress knowing yourself and your baby and finding solutions that work for you. If you want a general baby book with a liberal-ish bent, this is for you - either as a sole resource for the die-hard AP types, or as a liberal point of view to balance another book with a more conservative approach.