That’s right, it is time for another giveaway! This time, it is something almost any cloth diapering family can use – cloth diaper wipes solution, diaper balm and a bar of baby soap.

LuSa organics sent us a two of each: Baby Wipe Juice, Booty Balm and Calendula Baby Soap. One to test and one for the giveaway.

I am pretty picky about baby wipe solution and other natural products for baby’s skin. As the former owner of Sheepish Grins, I spent a lot of time poring over recipes and ingredient profiles. Way too often I see ingredients added – or left out – that can cause major problems. For instance, some small manufacturers decide that all preservatives are bad – and then they create products that are not protected against mold, yeast, bacteria and other scary things. I am happy to say that the LuSa organics ingredients are free of any chemicals I avoid, and they contain safe preservatives.

Any time you add water to a product, you need to use something to keep the nasties away. LuSa has chosen to use natural preservatives in their Baby Wipes Juice, including citric acid and silver citrate. These have a good history and have been well-tested.

The Baby Wipes Juice is supposed to make 2 gallons of solution. I think it is too strong at that ratio, so I watered mine down a bit more – which should giveus closer to 3 gallons or more of solution. My baby has sensitive skin and at the full strength dilution she got a little redness from the Wipes Juice. As soon as I watered it down a bit she was just fine and we used it for several weeks with no problems at all. The scent is strong, but very pleasant and herbal. LuSa has included lavender, patchouli, peru balsam and chamomile essential oils.

The Booty Balm is made with skin-healing olive oil, jojoba oil (very similar to the moisturizers naturally produced by skin), moisture-preserving beeswax, and avocado oil (rich in vitamins). The same essential oils and preservatives are used in the balm as in the wipes juice. While preservatives are probably not necessary in a balm, they do provide a little extra insurance against contamination. This balm is very smooth and not sticky. We had no problems with build up on cloth diapers, but I am also careful to apply any balm sparingly. We also loved it for winter-dried cheeks and little scratches.

The calendula baby soap is very mild and gentle to skin. The calendula flowers in it are a nice touch. The soap is fragrance free, which is always a great choice for baby’s delicate skin. Calendula is said to soothe and heal skin, so it is often used in soaps and balms for those with skin problems or sensitive skin. We love that it is fragrance free, since my mother can not be exposed to any fragrances.

We are really happy with the Lusa products. You can check them out here: LuSa Organics

Ok, now for the giveaway. You are entering to win a package with one bar of calendula soap, one bottle of Baby Wipes Juice and one jar of Booty Balm. Retail value is $25.70. For this giveaway, you must be a resident of the US because I don’t want to deal with customs issues.

You can enter up to 4 times. Each entry must be in a separate comment on this blog. Please do not enter more than 4 times or I will delete extra entries.

* Mandatory entry: Go to LuSa organics site and post a comment here about what your favorite item is on their site.

* Optional entries for following this blog, posting on your blog about this giveaway (with a link to this site), following me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/littlefornow) or tweeting about the giveaway.

The giveaway ends on Tuesday, February 9 at 12 PM Mountain Time (that is 10 AM Eastern).

Popularity: 12% [?]

I love, love , love this diaper! It absorbs an amazing amount. It is adorable. And the fit is fantastic. We use our Tykie Diapers fitted cloth diaper as an overnight diaper. Due to my super-soaker’s tendencies, I do add an additional hemp doubler. For a normal wetter, this diaper would be plenty all by itself.

I ordered a Tykie Diapers fitted diaper after hearing rave reviews from another cloth diapering mom. I am so glad I did. I ordered the sea turtles print in a large. It fits Eva perfectly. I am not usually a fan of side snapping diapers, but this one works great for us. There are two rows of snaps, so I can adjust the waist and leg snaps separately, allowing for my skinny baby’s chunky thighs. The print I chose is done in one direction only, so when assembling the diaper it was carefully seamed so the turtles face up in both directions. So very cute!

Inside are layers upon layers of hemp fleece and bamboo velour. However, it dries quickly due to the snap in, two layer soaker. This is very similar to the design of my own bamboo velour fitteds, which could explain why I like it so much! I designed what seemed like the perfect fitted diaper to me and it turns out great minds do think alike.

Tykie Diapers also offers adorable embroidered diapers and diaper covers. All at very reasonable prices.

These are sized diapers, so you will need to buy new diapers as your baby grows. I prefer sized diapers in most cases since they offer a better fit.  For the fit, attention to detail and great absorbency, these are wonderful diapers. You can check them out at http://tykiediapers.com/

Popularity: 10% [?]

The Econobum sounds like a good idea. A one size prefold and a one size cover, priced at a low enough point to encourage reluctant cloth diaperers to take the plunge. For the most part, this system will work fine and is easy enough to get started with. A package of a dozen diapers and a few covers costs just a little more than one month of disposables.

First, let me admit that I am not a fan of the “fold it in thirds and let the cover do the work” diapering systems. In my experience, this leads to leaking. The Econobum was no exception. My little one had a bout of the stomach flu while were testing this system. I am not going to get graphic, but believe me, a folded prefold does not contain as well as a fastened prefold. Cleaning up that mess was NOT fun. Nor was having to do an extra load of laundry to wash her pajamas. The only other diaper that leaked that badly during her 2 weeks of tummy troubles was – surprise! Disposables. Cloth diapers, in general, do a much better job of containing messes than disposable diapers. We had no leaks at all with a Snappi’d prefold and other covers.

The Econobum prefold is basically an Indian prefold with an even thickness all over instead of being thicker in the middle. There are stitch lines to indicate where to fold it for smaller or larger babies. Folded for the infant size it is a little wider than I like for little babies. Folded for the large size, it is far too narrow to give good coverage for an older baby like mine (and she is just 22 pounds). The absorbency is similar to a thin prefold, not as good as you would get from a premium prefold.

And then, there is the cover…. The Econobum diaper cover is thin, really thin. It feels thinner than the standard 1 MIL PUL used by most companies. I have only washed it a handful of times, so I can’t speak to how longlasting it will be. The binding on the edges rolls out on the tabs, so they show under clothes. The sizing of the cover is good and I do like the fit, but the thin elastic at the legs is likely one reason it leaked so badly for us.

Further, the math does not make as much sense to me as the advertising would indicate.

A package of 3 Econobum covers and 12 prefolds is $49.95.

Three Thirsties Duo Wraps and 12 premium infant prefolds costs about $56.75 in my cloth diaper store. Add a Snappi and you also have great protection against leaks. Yes, you would need to buy two sizes, but I feel that the better fit, greater absorbency and better resale value make them the better deal. If you really need to keep it cheap, there are several one size diaper covers available including one from Kissaluvs and one from Happy Heiny’s – both in our testing phases so watch for reviews on them soon.

If you want to try cloth diapering with a minimum investment or you really, really need to keep it cheap, the Econobum may work well for you. If you can afford to spend just a little more – or you want your cloth diapers to last through more than one child, you may want to look at a different system.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Debby Reed of Otter Blotters sent me Hawaiian print all in two (AI2) 2 size Otter Blotter diaper for review. My first impression was – “Wow! This took a LONG time to sew!” These diapers have a huge amount of detail and must take a lot of effort to put together. I chose a diaper with mesh sides so we could use it as a pull-on diaper in addition to the hook and loop tabs. I love this feature, since my little girl has started potty training and this diaper can double as training pants. Being able to get a diaper on and off quickly is fabulous. Even better, the adjustable hidden tabs are impossible for little fingers to open.

The Otter Blotter is a pocket all-in-two, allowing for a lot of flexibility in how you use it. The inner pocket means you can use it as a pocket diaper. The snap in soaker pocket gives a stay dry option. The soakers are made from bamboo fleece – a very trim and absorbent option. If you choose to use the pocket and the snap in soaker, it gives a lot of absorbency.  My only problem with this diaper is that it took a really long time for the soakers to dry. They are sewn with only a few layers of bamboo in each section, but since bamboo is so absorbent it can take a while to dry.

The inner lining is suedecloth, my favorite stay-dry lining. Suedecloth is my favorite because it feels the dryest when damp and messes do not stick to it!  The outer print fabric (supplex, the fabric used to make surfing shorts) is adorable and holds up really well to washing and wear without pilling.

The hook and loop (like Velcro) tabs are adjustable in length and they attach inside a snap up panel. This keeps the tabs away from curious little fingers and discourages tiny naturists from taking off their diapers. The hidden tabs also make it impossible for them to snag on other laundry or scratch your arms and clothes while you hold your baby.

The Otter Blotter also adjusts in the rise, so it fits two different sizes.

Overall, this is a great diaper and it has many unique features that I have not seen anywhere else. You can see Otter Blotters AI2 and the other Otter products at http://www.otterblotters.com

Popularity: 20% [?]

Let me just say up front that I hate writing a review that is less than positive, but sometimes it has to be done. I recognize that all babies react differently to detergent and that any detergent can cause a problem, even those that are supposed to be residue free. I also want to state that I used only the recommended amount of Rockin Green, per the label directions and that we have hard water and a top loading washer. The problems outlined below continued even when we used half as much detergent. 

I purchased two scented regular Rockin Green samples and one sensitive skin scented sample. Each sample lasted through several washloads and we only wash diapers 3 times per week, so it was more than 3 weeks worth of detergent. By week two, my daughter had started to develop a bright red rash everywhere the diaper touched her, worse in the front where there was more urine. She has sensitive skin, so I first looked at foods and other possibilities. Nothing new in her diet, and the redness was getting worse. I cut back on the detergent just to see if that was a possible cause. The redness continued. The third week I switched to the sensitive skin detergent. By the third day or so of the redness huge blisters started to form.

Suddenly she had about a dozen oozing sores. They were so deep that they left scars when they healed – which took over a week. I still had some diapers that had not been washed in Rockin Green, so I tried those. The redness went away.  So, I washed all of her diapers over again in our regular detergent. The redness came back, but lighter. The only thing that made the redness go away was using diapers that had never been washed in Rockin Green.

So, I stripped the load of diapers by washing the load  in hot water with our regular detergent then rinsing three times in hot water. That seemed to remove any residue and her skin started to clear up. I found some diapers that had been washed in the Rockin Green at least three weeks before – they still smelled strongly of the Rockin Green scents. I stripped all of those too.

That was about a month ago and we have not had the rash come back or the blisters. When someone on a retailer list I belong to asked about Rockin Green, I shared my experience. Three other cloth diaper retailer/moms shared that they had blistered babies and bad diaper burns from using scented Rockin Green.

Rockin Green works great for some people. I love the scents. However, for us it was a really bad experience and my little girl still has scars from the blisters. I am disappointed, since I had hoped that this detergent would live up to the many good things I have heard about it. Given our experience, and the similar stories I have heard from these other moms, I will not be carrying Rockin Green in my store. If you do have a sensitive skinned baby, I would suggest using unscented detergent.

Apparently the fragrance oils (and fragrances are added with an oil) either bind to the fabric too well, or add something that sensitive kids can’t handle. I did not try the unscented Rockin Green as I am not willing to put my daughter through potential burns again. Also, while the fragrance did linger on the diapers, the detergent did not remove stains or make the diapers smell as clean as our other detergents.

Popularity: 79% [?]

Black Friday has quickly evolved into a huge cloth diaper sale event. While most manufacturers do not allow retailers to offer discounts during the year, many of them are allowing significant discounts this year.

This week has flown by as I have been dealing with a cranky teething baby who hates sleep, a bad cold of my own, and preparations for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. My retail site, Little for Now cloth diapers will be having big sales all weekend. Also, I’ll be debuting my new sites Diaper Dozens cloth diaper packages and Prefold Cloth Diaper. Of course, those sites will also be having sales and free gifts for customers all weekend.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend, and your cloth diaper savings!

Popularity: 82% [?]