Natural family living can sometimes be an expensive lifestyle. Buying natural remedies, healthy food and cloth diapers usually costs more than typical mainstream products. In the case of cloth diapers, it requires an investment that can sometimes be hard to come up with even though cloth saves money over the long-term… For some people it’s easier to spend the $20 every few weeks on disposables.

If all of this feels familiar to you then you just may be headed for a miracle…. Miracle Diapers that is. Miracle Diapers is a cloth diaper charity that sends families cloth diapers to use on their babies or toddlers. There are no income minimums or maximums so even if you don’t fit typical low-income guidelines don’t hesitate to apply. You simply give them your financial information and describe your personal situation to them. Then they determine which families can participate in the program.

Cloth diaper recipients are asked to pay for postage, sign and agreement and return the diapers when they are done. At that point, if you need to size up, Miracle Diapers will re-evaluate your situation and then send you the next size diapers. You can even get instructions on how to cloth diaper with your package.

Truly an amazing program. Miracle Diapers accepts all kinds of donations. Even cloth diapers that are in need of repair can be donated. If you want to cloth diaper or maybe need to for financial reasons but are having a difficult time with the initial investment, visit Miracle Diapers and fill out their easy online application. Applications are accepted every other month so don’t wait, visit the application page to see if you can apply this month.

If you’d like to donate new or used cloth diapers, Miracle Diapers would be glad to accept your donation and you’ll be helping them to ‘cloth diaper the world, one baby at a time.’

Although most infants are not technically diagnosed with asthma at such a young age, many infants do suffer from asthma-like symptoms. Disposable diapers have been studied to link the chemicals that are released from them to bronchial irritations found in infants, children and asthmatic parents or caregivers.

I have experienced this first hand and have to say that I do believe that young children who are already sensitive can be highly affected by the use of disposable diapers. My son suffered from RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) as a newborn and has had asthma-like symptoms since. His symptoms sometimes require breathing treatments. Recently we had to put him in disposables because he developed a reaction to synthetic fabric. (We were using Fuzzi Bunz which have polyester fleece lining.) The wait for cotton diapers took longer than anticipated and after just a few days of being in disposables he began to have labored breathing which did not subside. Keeping him in the Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers was probably a lesser evil then using the disposable diapers.

Parents with children who have existing breathing problems have a good reason to switch to cloth diapers. There is not a good reason to keep using products that have a large possibility of increasing health risks. Read the complete article about disposable diapers being linked to asthma and find out which disposable diapers did not release the bronchial irritants.

I recently added to my cloth diaper stash. I went all out this time and bought some organic cotton fitted diapers made by Loveybums. I followed them up with some jersey knit wool covers made by Stacinator. Both the organic fitted Loveybums and the Stacinator wool covers have snap closures. I don’t do velcro because it just doesn’t hold up like snaps do.

I did splurge and get a few colored diapers since only the outside is dyed with non-toxic dyes and the inside is unbleached and untouched by dyes. There is also a snap-in organic velour doubler which was an important feature for me because I really wanted the cotton to be able to rinse well. When the doublers are sewn in the cloth doesn’t seem to be able to rinse as well which can lead to build up.

Loveybums have a lot of snaps which is great for a perfect fit. The diapers fit really well and have a lower rise which is good for movement in active little toddlers. The sizing seems to be really accurate in regards to weight which can be a rare truth in some cloth diaper brands. They also dry on the line quickly which is another plus of getting the snap in doubler.

I wash my organic cotton Loveybums on the gentle cycle. The manufacturers website doesn’t recommend to, they actually don’t recommend what wash setting to wash them on except for mentioning the water temp which is warm. I have chosen to wash them on gentle because organic cotton tends to be a bit more sensitive to washing and a gentle cycle can help prolong the life of your diapers. Line drying can help extend the life of the cloth diapers also but if you can’t line dry then I recommend drying on low.

The only place to get new Loveybums online is at Loveybums.com or you can buy them used on sites like DiaperSwappers, the MDC Trading Post, or another used cloth diaper site. I was lucky enough to find mine at a local store called Fresh & Green. They only sell Loveybums in their store but they do offer through the online store another great organic fitted cloth diaper made by ecobaby .

Nature’s Child is giving away a BumGenius 3.0 Starter Kit. This includes 18 BumGenius 3.0 pocket diapers, a cloth diaper sprayer, 12 cloth diaper wipes, and a bottle of odor remover. If you live in the Charlottesville, VA area then you can opt for a gift certificate valued at $250, redeemable at Nature’s Child.

Now’s your chance to make the switch to cloth diapers for free. If you don’t happen to win, then you should make sure you read diaper reviews before making your cloth diaper purchase. Make sure to check our site for stores offering cloth diaper discounts and sales.

Although cloth diapering is fairly easy and requires only a bit more ‘fuss’ than disposables…there are definitely days when I tire of cloth diapering. Maybe it’s those days when laundry is piling up and then here comes the load of cloth diapers. Even more so it’s probably the days when you are away from home and get a poopy diaper and you can’t get rid of it so easily. But I do hang in there and keep going, the feeling only lasts for a few minutes! Read more…