Origin of Hook and Loop

On a recent trip to Epcot, we went to Innoventions West and stumbled upon an entire show devoted to Velcro. One of the first things we learned was that Velcro is a brand name and the generic name for this type of closure is hook and loop. Given the widespread use of hook and loop in today’s cloth diapers, I was extremely interested to learn its history.

George de Mestral, the inventor of hook and loop, often went hiking with his dog. After returning from several trips to find his dog covered in cockleburrs, he was intrigued by the science behind what made the burrs stick. He spent the next eight years studying both the burrs and his dog’s hair under a microscope and found that the burr’s hooks stuck in the hair loops. In 1955 he was granted the patent for his hook and loop closure.

Velcro Hooks and Velcro Loops

Velcro Hooks Velcro Loops

Velcro is the name of de Mestarl’s companies and a registered trademark in most countries. It is the brand name for the hook and loop closures made by these companies. However, much like Kleenex is to tissue, the name Velcro is used to describe all hook and loop closures. Another brand, Aplix, is also commonly used in today’s cloth diapers.

Do you love your cloth diapers with hook and loop or are you a snap fan? Please share your preference by Commenting.

Historical facts confirmed on Velcro. Photos licensed under the CC-by-SA License and taken by Flickr user olivepixel.

Kristy de Gregory is the owner of Wee Willie Winks and the Web Editor/Publisher of Cloth Diaper News. Her love of cloth diapering began in 2005 with the birth of her son.

Posted on February 26, 2008 by CDN Admin in Hook and Loop, How To's & Guides 4 Comments

Blog Sighting: Quick Start to Cloth Diapering

In her blog Musings of a Mamma of Many the author Katie offers a wonderful guide to getting started with cloth diapering. She very nicely identifies the needs of a family with a newborn and the limitations in budget that may come along with a new baby. She offers a great solution to the question…

“But how do parents, who are already currently spending money constantly on disposable diapers, come up with money for cloth at the same time?”

She then goes on to explain how to grow your stash from the initial investment. In her article she identifies Thirsties covers as her ultimate favorite for covers. If you’re debating on cover selection for your prefolds, she offers pictures and tips for using these fabulous covers.

Her article is labeled as the beginning of a planned series and I hope to see more great advice from this cloth diapering veteran. A great article worth the read so stop by and check it out. Thanks Katie for sharing what you’ve learned!

Posted on February 8, 2008 by CDN Admin in Covers, Diapering Mamas, How To's & Guides, Prefolds, Thirsties Leave a comment

Close Your Clothes

Anna of Forty-Two Roads created a beautiful activity book for her daughter Lara. The book uses Lara’s outgrown clothing as page elements for practicing closing clothes. There is a zipper, buckle, belt, button up, and snaps. It is a precious keepsake and an ingenious way to help little hands learn about closures – and a great way to recycle previously loved items. This type of book could easily include outgrown cloth diapering favorites. Thank you Anna for a wonderful idea. Please visit Anna’s blog Forty-Two Roads and her Etsy shop of the same name.

Posted on January 27, 2008 by CDN Admin in Going Green, Home Sewn, How To's & Guides 1 Comment

The Cure for the Cloth Diaper Blues

Something I never thought possible happened to me over the past two months, I lost my passion and drive for cloth diapers. That’s right, I was no longer in love and, although they were still adorable and functioned wonderfully, my son’s cloth diapers seemed like the enemy. This presented a huge problem for me for several reasons, the first being that my dear son is potty learning and, although he’s making progress, he is still very much in need of his diapers. The other issue is I own a cloth diaper boutique and this wonderful news site devoted to cloth diapers!! WOW this was a problem!

I’m happy to report that today the cloth diapers are on the bum, I’m not resenting them and I’m back in love. However I figured I’d share my journey in hopes of helping others who may also have the “cloth diaper blues”.

In November my husband had a serious accident followed by two surgeries (more on that on our family blog). At the onset of this our son was in disposables since we weren’t sure where he/we would be staying. When we all returned home, we had many people in and out of the house helping but I still had a mountain of laundry to tackle. Once I got the laundry caught up we were back to cloth diapers but this was the start of seeing them as just “one more thing on my list”.

The major upheaval in our home settled down with each positive doctor’s visit and, as we learned that my husband was going to be OK, I began to relax back into our normal routine. Here comes Christmas and 10 days of holiday travel where cloth diapers weren’t an option. We were at my folks and the water situation there has been a huge issue with our cloth diapers in the past. (Think: over a month of experimenting and a bazillion wash cycles to get them back to normal after the last time we used them there.) I must admit that I so loved the disposable Easy Ups and nighttime diapers (and tossing them out without another thought). I was in the fog of seeing them as one diaper at a time vs. the pile that was quickly adding up. I also looked the other way when I found the icky diaper gel on my son during a change.

All of this combined with the fact that my little diaper wearer is now 2 and 8 months and I figured that I might have served my time in the diaper trenches. I had already done a great deal of saving of the environment and I had given my son great, cloth diapers since birth – so didn’t I deserve to be done? Was it OK to call it quits? The answer was and still is yes. I’m a firm believer in doing what we can as parents but not filling ourselves with resentment along the way. If my true desire had been to turn to disposables, that would have been fine. I’m so happy that it wasn’t!!

My husband and I of course discussed this and I confided in a dear girlfriend. Both of whom listened, empathized and simply explained to me what I’ve spent the past 2+ years of my life explaining to others: it’s better for our son, it’s better for the planet and it’s really not that much more work. Diaper laundry actually helps me keep up with my other laundry since I make sure to alternate loads. This would explain why the mountain in my garage became so huge when my husband first had his accident.

After a few long nights of rereading what I already knew about the benefits of cloth diapers and going through all of the adorable pictures of my son sporting his cloth, the love started to work it’s way back in. A chance encounter with a client gave me the opportunity to do what I love: chat about “the miracle” of cloth diapers and share what I’ve learned and love with another new family. The passion was coming back. To top it all off, I did a little shopping for some new diapers to add to our stash. Although my son is close to potty learning, a few new diapers to spice things up are just fine and money well spent in my opinion. All of this combined with my son’s happiness at picking his diaper by color and I’m fully back in awe of our cloth diapers. They are such a great solution for our family!!

I guess in sharing all of this I just want other parents to know that the “cloth diaper blues” may happen to you and if it does, that’s OK. Give yourself a break and do what is best for you and your family. When you’re ready to come back to cloth, take baby steps in getting back into your routine and treat yourself to something new. I’m sure that if I had pressed through with cloth on principle, I would either be full of resentment, using cloth yet very unhappy about it, or our stash would be neatly packed away in the top of my son’s closet.

Kristy de Gregory is the owner of Wee Willie Winks and the Web Editor/Publisher of Cloth Diaper News. Her love of cloth diapering began in 2005 with the birth of her son.

Posted on January 11, 2008 by CDN Admin in Diapering Mamas, How To's & Guides 2 Comments

The WAHM Mall: A Complete Resource for Work At Home Moms & A Fun Place to Shop Too!

The WAHM Mall

The WAHM Malloffers great options for striving WAHMs (work at home moms) and shoppers alike. They are positioning themselves to be the resource for WAHMs by providing the following resources:

articles and how to’s on many aspects of starting a business from home
directory of WAHM stores, including their Cloth Diaper Directory that is now featured on Mothering.com
forum for information exchange
sales venue where WAHMs can sell test items to help determine if they should go forward in producing a product
affordable advertising options

The WAHM Mall Mystery Grab Bag For shoppers they offer The Mall Pass and The Mystery Grab Bag. The Mall Pass is currently free for shoppers and gives them a full quarter of savings at participating retailers. The Mystery Grab Bag is a re-usable drawstring bag full of fun. It will feature various WAHM samples, one or more items that retail for at least $10 and discount codes. There is even an option to answer a few questions so The WAHM Mall can send you a more personalized bag. This would definitely be a great gift item or a fun treat for yourself! An example of The Mystery Grab Bag contents is pictured below.

The WAHM Mall Mystery Grab Bag

The WAHM Mall is owned by four fabulous WAHMs: Julie Clark of Earth Angels Diaper Co., Kayli Keyes of Nekkie Blankie and Ditto Daddy, Katie McCartney of KT Naturals, and Kayla Rihani of Kayla’s Cloth Kits.

Stop in and check out The WAHM Mall today!

Kristy de Gregory is the owner of Wee Willie Winks and the Web Editor/Publisher of Cloth Diaper News. Her love of cloth diapering began in 2005 with the birth of her son.

Posted on January 11, 2008 by CDN Admin in How To's & Guides, New Stores, Sales & Specials, Samples & Testing, WAHM Resources Leave a comment

How to Lanolize your wool, Tutorial

This month on Mia Bambina’s Blog, owner Sandra Rocco demonstrates how to lanolize your wool covers and/or longies. Sandra’s methods follow the instructions of Sheepish Grins, the manufacturer of Wool, Skin and Home Care products, many of which include lanolin.

Sandra explains the different uses of lanolin spray, solid, or liquid and her pictures make it easy to follow along if you’re interested in lanolizing your wool items. You can also find a great FAQ page and more information about Wool and Sheepish Grins products at Sheepish Grins.

I highly recommend you visit these sites if you’ve been thinking about purchasing wool or if you need to lanolize something.

Author, Julia Clark Owner of Earth Angels Diaper Co. and WAHM to 3 crazy kids.

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Julia Clark-The Cloth Diaper Geek in How To's & Guides, Washing Diapers, Wool 1 Comment

The Wonderful Diaper Sprayer

If you are looking for quick and convenient cloth diaper care, a diaper sprayer is a must for your diaper stash. Diaper sprayers were originally designed as personal mini showers or bidets but have since become very useful for cloth-diapering families. There are several different manufacturers but all of them feature an easy-to-install design, a trigger spray and adjustable spray pressure. By adjusting the pressure to a gentle stream, you can still use a diaper sprayer as a personal mini shower.

We have diaper sprayers on both of our toilets and I installed both of them personally. Besides needing a little help to loosen the original hoses on the bottom of our toilet, I was able to install the sprayers myself in about 10 minutes.

When cleaning a poopy diaper, I fold the soiled diaper in half with the inner fleece out and over the toilet. I then use the sprayer to “hose off” the fleece and am always able to spray it off down to the white fleece. There is no dunking required and this is a quick way to clean soiled diapers.

A word of caution: when you first begin to use a diaper sprayer move slowly across the diaper and angle it down into the toilet. If you have any splatter, you will need to adjust the angle and pressure.

It looks like the folks at bumGenius think that the diaper sprayer is an important part of a diaper stash too. They recently announced their own, bumGenius diaper sprayer. Theirs is a chrome sprayer with a black trigger that comes with packaging and instructions directly related to cloth diapering. Price is $39.95 and it includes sprayer, fixtures, hose and mounting clip.

Kristy de Gregory is the owner of Wee Willie Winks and the Web Editor/Publisher of Cloth Diaper News. Her love of cloth diapering began in 2005 with the birth of her son. She specializes in pocket diapers and enjoys helping other families incoporate cloth diapering into their lives.

Posted on November 20, 2007 by CDN Admin in bumGenius!, Diapering Accessories, How To's & Guides, New Products, Sprayers & Liners Leave a comment

Fuzzi Bunz: Setting the Record Straight

The following article is from Fuzzi Bunz and is the second article in a wonderful series available through their e-newsletter. This has been reprinted here with permission from Fuzzi Bunz/MOE.

“If you’re new to the world of cloth or reusable diapering, you probably aren’t aware of the makeover cloth diapers have gone through in the last decade. In fact, many mothers who are cloth diapering advocates would agree that reusable diapers are one of the most misunderstood baby products on the market today.

While the majority of the U.S. population uses disposables diapers, Fuzzi Bunz believes this is the case because there is a lot of misinformation or lack of information available today. Here is our attempt to set the record straight about what cloth diapering is REALLY like.

MYTH: Cloth diapers are difficult to use and are inconvenient to care for and wash.
TRUTH: Fuzzi Bunz are convenient to use and simply involve an extra few loads of laundry a week. While you do the laundry, you can enjoy play time with your baby. No need to run to the store to buy new diapers.

MYTH: Cloth diapers are expensive.
TRUTH: There is an up-front cost to buying Fuzzi Bunz (and many moms gradually add Fuzzi Bunz to their collection over time); but after that, you never have to think about buying diapers again! Plus, you’ll save lots of money over the lifetime of your baby’s diapering years.

MYTH: Cloth diapers have pins that poke or plastic pants that can irritate my baby’s skin.
TRUTH: Reusable diapers have come a long way. While some mothers still use pins and plastic pants, there are many innovative and modern options made with soft fleece and easy-to-use snaps.

MYTH: Cloth diapers are not environmentally friendly because you have to use extra water to wash them.
TRUTH: The amount of water used to launder cloth diapers at home is about the same as a toilet-trained child or adult flushing the toilet 5-6 times a day. Water is a reusable resource. On the other hand, 18 billion disposable diapers end up in landfills each year, taking as many as 500 years for each diaper to decompose. More than 82,000 tons of plastic and a quarter-million trees are needed to manufacture disposable diapers. This doesn’t even account for the energy needed to continually manufacture, package and ship the diapers to a store near you.

MYTH: You can’t use cloth diapers to control night time leaks.
TRUTH: Fuzzi Bunz offer an adjustable, snug fit around the legs and waist to keep leaks away. Also our patented pocket design allows you to add more absorbent materials into the pocket, which is particularly useful for longer wearing durations, such as at night.

MYTH: Cloth diapers don’t keep your baby dry.
TRUTH: While traditional cloth diapers have been known to be wet and soggy, Fuzzi Bunz have a top fleece layer to wick away moisture and keep baby’s skin dry without the use of chemicals.

MYTH: Cloth diapers are bulky and ugly.
TRUTH: Fuzzi Bunz offer a slim fit and come in a variety of sizes to fit any baby’s size and shape. Many parents are delighted when they see how cute their babies look in the wide-variety of colors.”

Source: Fuzzi Bunz e-newsletter

Posted on November 20, 2007 by CDN Admin in Cloth vs. Disposable, Fuzzi Bunz, How To's & Guides, Pockets Leave a comment

A New Mom’s Blog Series About Cloth Diapering

On her blog, Super Mommies Unite!, a new mom “Lori Super Mom” blogs about frugal living and offers a wonderful series of posts on cloth diapering. In her first post, entitled I LOVE Cloth Diapers, Part ONE, she dispells some common myths about cloth diapering. One of the big debates in the cloth diapering realm is whether or not the money saved in purchasing cloth diapers vs. disposables is then wasted on water and electric costs to wash the diapers. Lori Super Mom says no and offers a great frugal-living tip…

“Granted we DO use more water and electricity than a family NOT using cloth diapers, but that cost is minimal compared to the money spent on disposables. Plus, you can hang your diapers to dry on a rack or a line and your electric cost will be almost nonexistent.”

In the second article of the series, Cloth Dipaering Part 2: How to fit it in!, she offers ways to fit cloth diapering into your routine. She offers advice for both at-home and working parents and includes help with diaper selection for each situation.

These articles are well-written and a good read. Head on over to her site and check them out.

Source: Super Mommies Unite!

Posted on November 11, 2007 by CDN Admin in Diapering Mamas, How To's & Guides 1 Comment

Fuzzi Bunz: The New Mom’s Guide to Getting Started

The following article is from Fuzzi Bunz and is the start of a wonderful article series available through their e-newsletter. This has been reprinted here with permission from Fuzzi Bunz/MOE.

“Using Fuzzi Bunz diapers are simpler than you may think – after all, they were invented by a mom like you! Here are 10 tips to getting started on your Fuzzi Bunz journey:

1. SELECT A SIZE: Check our online size chart to find the right fit.

2. PICK COLORS: Fuzzi Bunz come in more than 20 colors from bubblegum pink to lime green. Leave generic diapering to your friends using disposables.

3. FIND A RETAILER: Find a retailer by searching the list of retailers on our website.

4. AMOUNT NEEDED: Purchase 12-16 diapers to get started. Look for bulk discounts!

5. ACCESSORIES NEEDED: You will need a washable diaper pail and an optional diaper rinser or mini-shower to rinse soiled diapers over the toilet.

6. TRY IT ON: After receiving your Fuzzi Bunz order, try one on before washing the entire lot to ensure a perfect fit.

7. DIAPER CHANGES: Simply plop solids in the toilet, place separated insert and Fuzzi Bunz into diaper pail.

8. YOUR FIRST LOAD OF LAUNDRY: Empty diaper pail contents into the washing machine. Soak or rinse/spin on cold and then run a hot water cycle with half detergent. Rinse with cold water. Line dry or dry on low setting in your dryer.

9. YOUR FIRST WEEKS: Like any new routine, getting used to Fuzzi Bunz takes time and patience. Your first few diaper changes and washings may take some getting used to… don’t give up!

10. ENJOY THE EASE OF FUZZI BUNZ: Once you get into your groove, you won’t even think twice about using Fuzzi Bunz. Plus, you will never have to worry about running out of diapers, making midnight runs to the store to buy diapers, storing bulky boxes of diapers in your house or buying diaper rash ointments and creams. In other words, all you’ll ever need to diaper your baby is in your home… where it should be.”

Source: Fuzzi Bunz e-newsletter

Posted on November 8, 2007 by CDN Admin in Fuzzi Bunz, How To's & Guides, Washing Diapers Leave a comment

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