What you think your baby needs.. that she doesn't!

I once heard that a new baby will cost $1,000 a month. I have no idea who came up with this number, but I would just like to say "No way!" My baby is cheap! Actually, she's priceless, but seriously light on the budget.

Maybe if you bought high-end disposable diapers, formula, and all the latest gadgets and gear, you could spend about $1,000 a month. I've already been over the cost of disposable diapers vs cloth diapers, and the cost of breastfeeding vs formula (read: free!) so you can refresh the cost savings. What I want to point out here is five unnecessary baby items that everyone thinks they gotta have!

1) Baby bathtub

I opted for a Tummy Tub and we all loved it. Mary Abilene was delighted and smiled and cooed in the TT when she was a newborn. There was hardly anything better than watching her eyes light up as we lowered her into the soothing water. But as soon as she could hold her head up, I brought her into the big bath with me because I wanted her to be comfortable in water at a young age. There I could help her lie on her back and "float" and fun was had by all. Apparently, I bathed with her one too many times and soon she refused to go back in the Tummy Tub. So from about 4 months of age on, Baby Girl has not been in a baby bathtub. We have bathed her in the sink, and she enjoyed sitting in the sink and looking at herself in the mirror as soon as she could sit up unsupported. Now, ever since about 11 months old, she has sat in the big bathtub by herself. No bathtub seat, no floaty device, no nothing except constant supervision and hands close by. I realize now that baby bathtubs and bathtub seats are pretty pointless. A newborn can be bathed in the sink and this can continue all the way until you are comfortable letting your child sit in the big tub on their own. Saves money, saves space!

2) Baby Food

While jarred baby food is unnecessary considering it takes 10 minutes to steam and puree fresh food, I'm not even talking about making your own. I'm talking no baby food. No pureeing, no mashing, no spoon feeding, no baby food. Baby Led Weaning, or Baby Led Solids is a great way to introduce solids. We started solids at six months old and Mary Abilene is a great and efficient eater. I like to think she's a better eater than other babies her age, though I don't know that statistically. Even if she doesn't eat more or more variety, it is just plain easier and more enjoyable for parent and baby to allow baby to explore food at their own pace.

3) Crib

Cosleeping is somewhat controversial, yet very traditional. Parents have slept with their babies probably from the beginning of time, and otherwise kept their babies in a basket next to them. Everyone having their own space in their own room, with their own bed is a bi-product of our, dare I say, selfish culture. Everything is bigger these days; bigger cars, bigger houses, bigger rooms. Just 50 years ago people lived a more minimalistic life. Putting a newborn in their own bed in their own room, otherwise called a "nursery" actually stems from nurseries in hospitals. Starting in the late 19th and early 20th century, babies were immediately whisked away at birth and placed in a box in the hospital nursery. Parents were led to believe that they needed the same set up at home, and thus the modern home nursery was born.

4) Crib bedding sets

While I'm on the subject, those oh-so-adorable crib bedding sets have turned out to be a bit of a waste of money. The only thing we really use from our bedroom set is the valance. But wait, that didn't even come with the set and isn't even necessary or for the baby! Bedding sets usually come with a comforter, a sheet, a dust ruffle, and a bumper for the crib. At least for my crib, you can't see the dust ruffle very well and is pretty pointless. The comforter, a baby can not use (it is advised to not use blankets in a crib with a newborn), and as far as the bumper goes, my crib has a solid portion in the back so the bumper doesn't tie where it should and thus sags. We hung the comforter on the wall as decoration, but I would have rather skipped the bedding set and picked out sheets, potentially a bumper if you think you need one, wall art or decorations, and curtains separately. That would have made a nicer and less contrived design scheme, I think.

5) Pacifiers

We all know pacifiers were invented to replace mother's nipple, but have you actually sat and thought about that? A pacifier is replacing the warm, loving, comfort of a mother's arms and bosom with a hard plastic, lifeless, plug. Don't get me wrong, I think pacifiers can be useful, but I also believe they are severely overused and misused. Pacifiers are often on registries and are bought before the baby is even born because we just assume its something baby needs. There is nothing that irks me more than giving a baby a pacifier within the first days of life. A newborn has needs and instincts that are God-given. A newborn must be allowed to suckle at the breast as often as needed. Sometimes it may feel like the baby is permanently attached to you, but this phase doesn't last long, and it is very healthy and normal. In the first few weeks of life, this "sets" the mother's milk supply. Pacifier use often leads to early weaning and a dwindling milk supply. Pacifiers can have their place if baby is very fussy in the car or another time when it is unwise to nurse, but should not replace nursing during other normal times. Sometimes a baby may need to suckle beyond what a mom can handle, and by all means, use a pacifier if it will help you keep your new-mom sanity, but I do not think it should be a regular fixture in a baby's mouth. Not using a pacifier won't save you much money, but it will certainly prevent your child from becoming attached to it and may save you from "weaning" from the pacifier later.

There are probably hundreds more unnecessary baby items and an abundance of baby products out there that seem to enable you to parent lazily. I saw a picture of a bottle holder that you strap onto the car seat and it dangles the bottle down at mouth level. No joke, I almost cried when I saw this. To not take the time out of their "busy" schedule to nurture their own child just makes me want to weep uncontrollably. But anyway, that's off topic. Point is, you don't have to take out a second mortgage to have a baby. If you adopt a more natural parenting style, babies can be quite cheap! (and totally priceless!)

Got Stains?

I've always known the sun was a powerful stain remover, but I was wowed this week.

As a teenager, I had white athletic shoes that we would wash in the washing machine, rub salt all over them while still wet and set them in the sun. When dry, they came out so white I thought I was going blind!

Fast forward, and we use the sun to get poopy stains out of our cloth diapers. We hang them out on a line to save on energy drying them, but the sun removes ALL the stains. No matter how yellow, no matter how old.

Recently we purchased a cute bowl with a suction cup on the bottom for Mary Abilene's foods. We put tomato based vegetable soup in it and it got the dreaded tomato stain on the suction cup. I scrubbed, I vinegared, but to no avail. Then it dawned on me - why couldn't the sun remove this stain too? Laid it out there, and POOF! No more tomato stain!

I find myself looking around the house for things I can set out in the sun. The blade of my food processor is stained yellow from turmeric. Out in the sun it goes!!

The before and after of my food processor blade

I just love it! I knew of the sun's ability to remove stains from clothes, but plastic!? Amazing! Look around at your own house. Challenge the sun for all of your stains. You'll soon find that bleach and other stain removers will have no place in your cleaning repertoire.

One Happy Rump

We have been cloth diapering Mary Abilene since about two weeks after birth.  We CD for a variety of reasons; its 70% economics, 20% health, and 10% environmental.  We love it!

Economics:  By far the cheapest option in cloth diapering is prefolds with covers.  I have spent a total of $174.92 on cloth diapering, including 25 prefolds and 5 covers.  I will have to buy more prefolds when she is about 18 pounds, at $1.50 a piece.  Those "regular" size prefolds will last until she is potty trained.  There is a comparison at www.diaperdecisions.com for all kinds of cloth diapers vs. disposables.  The chart shows that for prefolds and covers, over the time a child is in diapers, on average you would spend $381.00 (Yes, this even takes energy cost for washing and drying into account).  For disposables, you would spend $2577.35!!  Clearly, the savings of cloth diapering are astronomical and can not even compare to disposables.
(I would post the charts, but they just don't fit on my blog.. so check it out)

Health:  Have you ever thought about what's in a diaper?  Obviously there are dyes, since they mostly come with some sort of cartoon character on them (like the baby even sees it).  There is some sort of thing inside to make it gel, and there is a generous amount of chlorine to make them nice and white.  There are dye free, chlorine free diapers.. but they come with a cost.  So just add another couple hundred to the $2577.35.  But what is that stuff to make them gel?  A few months ago millions of Pampers Swaddlers with "Dry Max" technology were recalled because babies were getting narly diaper rash and chemical burn.  CHEMICAL BURN!  Pampers denied it up and down.. but you can't argue with burned hinies.

Environmental: I don't have to explain the diaper/landfill problem.  Think about how many diapers a child goes through in their life, then multiply that by how many children are in America.. in the world.  That's a lot of poo!

It was a little tough cloth diapering a newborn.  At first the bulk just looked ridiculous, and we didn't put her in cloths until she was about two weeks old.  That is when I ordered preemie prefolds to use instead of the infant prefolds.  It was $10 for 10 of them, and they were so small and thin, they worked perfectly.  She started to pee through them at about 6 weeks, then we switched to the infant.  We never looked back at the disposables!  Cloth diapered children are also potty trained faster and easier.. what a bonus!

Also, if you are going to cloth diaper, the next logical step is cloth wipes.  I use BumGenius flannel wipes in a wipes warmer, and make my own solution.  If you can sew at all, you can just get flannel, cut it into little squares, and sew the ends.  I use the Prince Lionheart cloth wipe warmer.  The warmer is great, but their wipes are terrible.  I then make a solution of water, coconut oil (anti-microbial), and baby wash, and pour all over the rolled up wipes in the warmer.  Its a snap!  Using disposable wipes with cloth diapers just doesn't make much sense, and trust me, the flannel wipes are so cozy, Patrick says we should replace our toilet paper with them!  (And the wipes and supplies were factored into my dollar quote above).

Resources:
I got all of mine from www.cottonbabies.com
There is a great cloth diapering website:  www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com that has a wonderful "Cloth diapering basics" page.  It explains all the different types of cloth diapers so you can choose what is right for you.  She also has a great page on dispelling the myths of cloth diapering like "I don't have time." or "That's too much laundry".  She explains how to wash, types of detergent (which is important for absorbency), etc.  I would encourage everyone to check it out!

Non-tasty Recipes : Homemade Natural Deodorant

Today's recipe is not at all tasty, but you could eat it if you really wanted to. Which is the whole point - naturally safe for your whole body - outside or in!

When I wore commercial deodorant, I never had one brand that I particularly liked. I tried every brand and every product of every brand because I just couldn't find anything that I thought worked well for me. I tend to sweat a lot in knit shirts, which of course becomes stinky. The absolute worse deodorant I ever tried was Secret with Oil of Olay. They advertise it has lotion in it - which promptly turns to liquid when it gets warm. This deodorant made me a sweaty mess even when I wasn't hot! Horrible product!

Well, anyway, after seeing my herbalist, commercial deodorant was something I wanted to cut out because it, like a lot of beauty products, contains xenoestrogens. Upon further investigation, the aluminum in deodorant has been shown to be a carcinogen linked to breast cancer and Alzheimer's. The National Cancer Institute claims that the results of studies of parabens in deodorants and antiperspirants relating to breast cancer are "inconclusive" and provide "conflicting results".* But if you think about how almost everyone these days dies of cancer .... we have to be getting it from somewhere .. we eat, breathe, bathe, and slather on so many different chemicals nowadays that it must have an effect on our bodies. These are foreign substances after all.

So, I tried three different "natural deodorants".
1) Kiss my Face Natural Enzymes - broke me out
2) Mineral Salts roll on - the roller actually started to smell like sweaty old man, making every application stinky from the onset
3) A fairly expensive mineral salts spritzer - burned like heck, though worked fine for Patrick

Eventually I gave up, and went bare. It was winter, and I was drinking chlorophyll in my water, which is a natural deodorizer. However, as it got warmer outside, I knew I needed something. So I searched for a better product.

And I found .... the easiest, simplest, most wonderful deodorant I have ever put on my skin! I remain absolutely stink free all day long, even after the gym! Patrick uses it too, and even for a man - this stuff works wonders! I can not tell you how much both Patrick and I love this stuff. It is also completely fragrance free, your underarms will smell like ... absolutely nothing!

Homemade Natural Deodorant**

5-6 Tbsp Coconut oil (solid state)
1/4 cup baking soda (the deodorizer)
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch*** (the antiperspirant)

Combine equal portions of baking soda & arrowroot powder. Then slowly add coconut oil and work it in with a spoon until it maintains the substance you desire. It should be about the same texture as the store bought kind, solid but able to be applied easily. You can either scoop this into your old dispensers or place in a small container with lid and apply with fingers with each use. I have only made one batch so far and I cut the recipe down a bit, not making quite as large of a batch. It has lasted Patrick and I about 1.5 months, and we probably have half of it still.

This goes on to skin completely transparent and does not leave nasty deodorant marks and stains on my clothes. I have also read that women love it with babies, because they don't have to worry about chemicals rubbing off on their children when they breastfeed or hold their baby.

Even if chemical deodorants and antiperspirants are totally harmless, well, this homemade deodorant works WAY better than any deodorant I have ever tried, and it cost pennies!! That's reason enough to ditch the Dove.

*www.cancer.gov
**Recipe found at www.passionatehomemaking.com
***I have read that cornstarch can be irritating to the skin. I do find that it is a little itchy right after I shave, so I recommend using arrowroot, but I love it even with the cornstarch.

Natural Household Cleaning

What cleans, bleaches, and disinfects all the hard surfaces in your house, gets rid of heartburn and indigestion, gets rid of stains in your clothes, deodorizes your carpet, litter box, clothes, and body, makes your cookies and cakes rise, soothes and helps heal rashes related to poison oak and ivy, unclogs drains, and gets rid of acne?? Its baking soda! The age old household baking ingredient that every one of us has in our pantry. Lately, I have become a firm believer in the multi-uses of sodium bicarbonate and am using it like my great grandmother.

Over the past year, Patrick and I have transitioned to using all natural cleaners. First, we quit using most chemical cleaners and traded in for the Seventh Generation line of kitchen and bathroom cleaners. I'm still not real sure what's in them, but ok, they claim its non-toxic and all natural. My first complaint is that this product line is expensive. I bought some stuff when it went on sale at Kroger and I had coupons. So it wasn't too much more than chemical cleaning products. Upon use, I found the products to be kinda so-so. The kitchen cleaner works on my surfaces to clean up general grime, but it does not make my white sink sparkle, nor does it get rid of stains on the counter top. The bathroom cleaner requires a significant amount of scrubbing to get rid of my soap scum rings. So, I wasn't totally sold on these products. Plus, they don't disinfect. So I kinda even wondered what's the point. So upon further research online I discovered that there may be only two cleaning products you need in your whole house.... baking soda and vinegar.

When I first tried out baking soda on my white kitchen sink I was pretty much in awe. It came out absolutely sparkling. And my tub? I bathe as a hobby, so I build up some pretty nasty soap scum rings that require a lot of scrubbing - not with baking soda! I have never had an easier time removing soap scum with any other chemical product I have used.


I would have posted a before and after, but trust me, my tub was so dirty I'm too embarrassed to show you a "before". That's how dirty it was, and after just wiping with a baking soda mix, sparkling!

To clean with baking soda, I just sprinkle some in a plastic cup and add a small amount of water. Mix to form a paste that should be the consistency of frosting. I smear that on a damp washcloth and wipe anything and everything. This makes a "soft scrub" sort of solution that provides a mild abrasive to clean off things like soap scum with ease. I then rinse the surface with water, if its the tub or sink, or rinse the washcloth and wipe with the damp washcloth to get rid of any left behind baking soda. I also found that it is best to clean a fairly dry surface because if it is too wet then it won't be as abrasive and it will take a few repetitions.

Then I spray down the surface with vinegar to disinfect. We just keep plain old white vinegar in a cheap spray bottle. In 2000, Good Housekeeping found that a"straight 5% solution of vinegar kills 99 percent of bacteria, 82 percent of mold, and 80 percent of viruses". Plus its completely non-toxic! Obviously since its a main ingredient in salad dressings and other condiments! Vinegar is equally as effect as chlorine bleach, but chlorine bleach happens to be one of the most poisonous chemicals in the world. There is virtually no reason to use bleach when you can use baking soda and vinegar. That commercial where they advertise soaking your child's toys and teething rings in a bleach solution to disinfect them is a little disconcerting. Even with a rinse, they could still have bleach residue on them which then goes straight in their mouth. Using vinegar in the exact same manner will kill the same amount of germs completely safely. There is no need to dilute vinegar either. The commercial solution is just fine. Yes, vinegar stinks, but it dissipates after an hour or two, and bleach stinks too, anyway.

I've just recently started using the baking soda paste on my back. Pregnancy has given me quite the pimple problem on my chest and back. Patrick just rubs it on in circles for 30 seconds, then I rinse. I just started using this, so I can't say if it works well or not, but Patrick did think that just after one application, my back looked a little clearer the next day. It acts a s a great exfoliant too. I'll let you know how that turns out. I read that it is safe to use on your face too, though I haven't tried.

Lastly, baking soda and vinegar are crazy cheap. I bought a 2lb box of Arm & Hammer for $1.08 at Wal-Mart. I think you can also buy sodium bicarbonate in bulk. Vinegar is what? $1? So, cheap, easy, and healthy! I'm for it.

Many more uses for baking soda and vinegar