Is an Affiliate Program right for your Small Business?

Our small business is constantly working toward finding the perfect balance between offering our customers amazing deals and keeping our business in the green. We're always experimenting with different ideas, and one thing we tried over the last two years was an affiliate program. Well, we recently discovered a way that big coupon/promo code websites are taking advantage of this system which is why we had to end our program. Read on to decide if an affiliate program is right for your small business.

The cloth diaper industry is in what some might call a slump right now. I'm not sure if it's limited to cloth diapers, or if small retailers in general are struggling to keep up with the big guys like Amazon and Walmart. I feel like it's probably more of the latter because cloth diapers as a whole have made some great strides toward becoming more mainstream over the years. But as a retailer myself, I've had to come up with some pretty creative ways to promote our online cloth diaper shop to the masses without getting lost in a sea of Amazon links. As you can imagine, this hasn't always been easy and we are constantly learning from our experiences.

One of the things we set up a while back was an affiliate program. Basically, we had lots of bloggers reaching out to us wanting to promote the Spray Pal cloth diaper sprayer and splatter shield, so we wanted to give them a way to make some sort of commission off of their work. They could sign up on our website and share their personalized link, and when a customer clicked their link and made a purchase they would get a 5% commission back to them for helping us spread the word. We really hoped this would be a great win/win situation for the influencers who were helping us spread the word and for our brand in getting our name out there. It sort of just ran on autopilot without any issues until just a couple weeks ago when I opened my inbox early one morning in February.

I opened an email from someone who had signed up as an affiliate on our website back in Fall of 2017. It was basically a form letter, and it was asking how we preferred to pay them their sales commission. We could request an invoice from them or we could just autopay a certain amount each month in advance. This took me off guard because as I mentioned, the affiliate program had been on autopilot, and no one had used any one link frequently enough to require a monthly payout (the minimum payment amount is $50 before the system will cut a check to the influencer). So I went into the backend of our website to see how often her link had been used since she signed up in October, and wouldn't you know our affiliate traffic had DOUBLED via this particular link.

Normally, I would have been ecstatic to have an influencer promoting our brand SO MUCH that we were gaining this many new customers via her recommendations and blog posts. But, here's what happened. I quickly googled their company website and Spray Pal to see what wonderful things she had been saying about our products, and here's what I found:

The orange "activate coupon" tabs you see there? Can you guess where they lead? Directly to our website. Via this company's personal affiliate link. Does it activate the coupon that they are claiming it will activate? No, it does not. So basically this a huge scam intent on misleading our customers into clicking their affiliate link so they get a 5% commission on each sale, even though they did NOTHING to promote our brand or talk about our products.

After realizing this tangled web of lies, I did a little more digging into who had actually used this affiliate link on our website because I thought, "Well, hey. If it's bringing new people into the site and turning them into customers, that's great!" But guess what. The people who had used the link were ALREADY our customers. They were people I recognized via interactions on social media. And I want to be clear, I'm not upset at these customers AT ALL. They did exactly what I MYSELF always do when I'm online shopping and I see an empty box at the checkout that says "Enter Promo Code" - I always do the google search. Open a new tab, search for Spray Pal promo code or coupon, land on this website pictured above, and click "activate coupon." WE ALL DO IT. And I never realized before this incident that so many of these sites will just take old coupons and post them with an affiliate link that leads to nothing but the website just to get people to click through and earn them money.

So, I've emailed this company back and told them that I will only pay them the commission for those customers who were brand new to our website when they used their link to purchase. And that effective immediately we will no longer offer an affiliate program. I'd rather use that money to offer you all discounts and promos like reward points directly than pay a company to run a scam that's unfair to you as a consumer and us as a small business.

And if you all wouldn't mind helping us spread the cloth diapering love and tagging us our sharing our links in the meantime, you know we'll love you for it. ;) Thanks for being so awesome and supporting our small, family run business!

Do Natural Detergents Really Work for Cloth Diapers?

As we make our way across the country with our #makeclothmainstream IRL booth educating families about the joys of cloth diapers, you can imagine that one of the most common cloth diapering questions we get asked is: "How do you wash them? Do you need to use a special detergent?" And while the technical answer is no, you don't NEED to use a special detergent on your cloth diapers as long as your detergent of choice is free of fabric softeners, there are some really valid reasons why many families do choose to use a more natural option.

Many of these questions come from parents who have started researching online and stumbled upon cloth diaper Facebook groups that troubleshoot laundry issues. The problem with joining a large cloth diapering community whose purpose is to troubleshoot issues before you actually start using cloth diapers is that you end up freaking out and anticipating that it's super difficult and challenging, but I promise it's not! It just seems like it in a group like that because everyone in there is posting their issues. No one goes into that group to share a post like I would have when I started my cloth diapering journey, which would have looked something like this:

Yes, in case you're wondering, I did in fact just post that on my personal page just to take a screenshot and delete. HA!

My point is, troubleshooting groups are simply for that. Don't go looking for trouble if you haven't already experienced issues! I would highly encourage you to test the laundry waters on your own before you do too much research. Start with whatever detergent you're using with your regular laundry, or switch to something more natural if your reason for cloth diapering is trying to eliminate harsh chemicals from being against your baby's sensitive skin. If mainstream detergent is something you prefer, that's great! But I will say, I've had people come up to me and tell me how frustrated they are when they post into a group asking for natural detergent options based on their own personal preferences and/or skin sensitivities only to have a dog pile of responses saying, "You shouldn't use natural, they won't get your diapers clean. Tide is the only thing that works." While Tide does in fact work for so many families (and again, that's great if this applies to you!) there are many families who are looking for a good nontoxic laundry alternative.

So I asked for recommendations on the Spray Pal page and we had some great responses. This post is for detergents in general:

General Laundry Tips for cloth diapers

And this post is for those looking for a more natural alternative:

Natural Detergent Tips for cloth diapers

The biggest takeaways I can offer personally are these:

1. We successfully cloth diapered both kids with natural detergents and zero issues. Here are all the brands we have used and can recommend:

• Allen's Naturally
• Molly's Suds
• Country Save
• Dropps

2. Many issues can be prevented by following these tips:

• Spray poopy diapers and super full overnight diapers with your Spray Pal diaper sprayer and shield before putting them in your pail liner.
• Do a short wash cycle first and then a full wash cycle with detergent to get them extra clean.
• If you do experience issues, talk to someone local first who will know your water better than a giant FB group.

If you ever want a somewhat smaller, less intimidating place to ask questions or troubleshoot issues, feel free to join us in The Cloth Diaper Experiment Facebook group! We hope you found this helpful. If you have any cloth diaper laundry tips you'd like to share, leave them in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you!

Is it Worth Changing your Facebook Group to "Close Friends"?

If you’re in a group on Facebook, you may have noticed an influx of notifications over the past 24 hours letting you know that a group admin as deemed you to be one of her BFFs. In other words, she changed the setting of the group from something like “closed” to “close friends” in the hopes that you would see more of her posts in your news feed.

You likely also noticed that many of the groups that made this change are trying to sell you something (LulaRoe, anyone?!), so it makes sense that they’d want to get those posts in front of you to increase interaction and thus (in theory) increase sales.

Is this a good move? I suppose the jury is still out. As someone who is a Facebook groups shopper as well as a small business owner, I can see this from both sides. I completely understand the need for small businesses to get their message out there to the millions of daily Facebook users without wanting (or being able to) pay for ads or promoted posts. In fact, I’ve recently been testing out some theories on the latest Facebook algorithms over on our business page for this exact reason. But, I will admit, I haven’t tested any of these theories in our chat group…this was solely on our business page.

On the flip side, here’s what went through my mind when I woke up this morning to THREE TIMES the normal amount of notifications on my personal page:

“Whoa!! 25 notifications overnight?! Is it my birthday?? No…hmmm…something big must’ve happened. Let’s check…OK, so like ¾ of these are about LulaRoe groups. WTF? Wait…they’re all changing the groups to “close friends”?? Why?? Wow, how the heck was I in so many of these groups?! I need to clean up this list. Click. Leave group. Click. Leave group. Click. Leave group.”

So, as you can see, in my case it was not a great move for these admin to do this all at once because it brought attention to the fact that I was in way too many groups to begin with. But, you might look at that as a silver lining. The people who are going to leave are the ones who are done shopping and aren’t going to be your customers anyway. If changing the group setting increases your visibility to those who are actually going to buy your stuff, then it’s worth it to lose a few “duds” in the process.

Before you make any changes, decide what your end goal is. If your goal is to have higher numbers in your group, I say don’t mess with it. If you’re ok with losing some members in order to target those who are actually going to shop, then go for it! But, one more thing to consider before you make the switch it this: Does the setting of the group actually increase engagement? I’ve heard from some LulaRoe consultants that it has, but my thought is that it could just be residual from those notifications going through. If people weren’t (like me) just leaving the groups as they got notified, they may have actually clicked the notification to check out what was going on in the group and then interacted with a post. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the group setting change made the difference. Only time will tell. Of course, by the time we have this figured out, Facebook will probably change its algorithm again. ;)

My Social Media "Me Time"

I wanted to share this with you this morning. A lot of times before the kids wake up (I'm not trying to say my kids are sleeping in by any means, I'm just a naturally early riser), I'll spend the quiet time just looking around on social media. It's my ME time. I sip my coffee and follow my clicking fingers down rabbit holes that often take me to some pretty interesting places.

Today I did my morning story watch on Snapchat. Lately, this is how I begin my "me time" routine. (At least, ever since I've started getting the hang of this crazy Snapchat thing I swore I'd always avoid. Totally eating my words.) I've been particularly loving watching Hillary Rushford's snaps from the Italian Riviera as it is giving me the perfect opportunity to practice my Zen as I try not to feel complete and utter jealousy and focus on the beauty that she is sharing while living vicariously through her Sabbatical.

One of her snaps this morning mentioned hopping over to Instagram to leave a comment on a post (great social media engagement tip, BTW). Dutifully, I went right over and starting scrolling through her IG feed. I went from posts showcasing beautiful scenes of the Italian Riviera down to a photo of an open page of a book that caught my eye. Clicked to learn more about said book. Clicked the book's hashtag. Found some more photos of this book, then my eye landed on a photo of three books (the original book in question plus two more) laid out on a furry rug. I clicked this photo to learn more about the new books. One was written by Elizabeth Gilbert of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame (hello, crazy Sabbatical coincidence!) and the poster had tagged her. So I clicked through to her account. That's where I found this:

Do you ever go down a social media rabbit hole? I actually make it a habit, and it's surprising how much I learn. Today's rabbit hole led me from @hilaryrushford to @elizabeth_gilbert_writer and inspired a blog post. And yes, I tied it all back to #clothdiapers. 😂 Check out the blog to see how! 💕 #linkinprofile #makeclothmainstream #influence #staypositive

A photo posted by Spray Pal (@spraypal) on May 28, 2016 at 6:00am PDT

And this was the fruit of today's random clicking because it inspired me. This little graphic inspired this entire blog post. And here's the craziest thing you should know about me: I can tie PRACTICALLY ANYTHING back to cloth diapers, including an inspirational Elizabeth Gilbert quote. #talent

In the case of this quote, it struck me as the perfect mantra for anyone using cloth. You know how you'll get friends asking about your diapers on play dates? Or you'll post a photo of your baby in fluff on social media and a random Internet person will see it and ask what the diapers are all about? Well, this is your opportunity to be an influencer. Whether you're Instafamous, a blogger, or just a mom sharing a cute photo of her baby in cloth, how you respond matters. Whatever you say WILL be contagious. You may not realize it, but your response will be heard or read by many more people above and beyond the person who originally asked the question, so keep that in mind as you reply. Your play date friend may strike up a convo with another mom about it down the road. And on social media, if your account is public, many more people will read the conversation on your post than you realize. If you stay POSITIVE, it WILL be contagious!

Let's play pretend for a minute. Imagine you just posted a picture of your darling in the latest print you've obtained and someone comments with, "Wow, that diaper is adorable! I wish I could do cloth but it just seems like so much work. My friend tried it and she said she was CONSTANTLY doing laundry." :::Insert fed up non-smiling emoji here::: It looks like someone who didn't read this blog post has already been spreading their influence. But fear not! Positivity is much more powerful!

Now let me give you two sample replies, and you choose which you'd rather see be contagious. Because they both will be, no question.

Response option #1: Yeah, the diapers are super cute, but the laundry can be tiring if you let it get out of hand. It's worth it, though!

Response option #2: Yeah, aren't they cute?! I was actually nervous about the time commitment when we started with cloth, but it's been a lot easier than I expected! Just a few extra loads of laundry a week. If you ever want to give it a shot, just let me know! I'm happy to help.

Both responses are honest, right? But just that slight lean to the negative side can be very off-putting. Response #2 is only worded a little bit differently than #1, but it makes all the difference in motivating and encouraging someone who may be on the fence.

And while I am applying this quote and this concept of influence to cloth diapers, it's honestly something that applies to all areas of life. "We all have more influence than we realize" so let's choose our words accordingly.

Our Thoughts on Cloth Diapers at Mainstream Baby Expos

On May 14th and 15th I attended the New York Baby Show along with Melissa Huynh, founder of Lalabye Baby Cloth Diapers. This huge, mainstream baby expo took place right in the heart of NYC, and they claimed over 20,000 people were in attendance. I can't verify those numbers, but I can say it was definitely crowded both days. Now that I'm home and I've had some time to reflect, I have a few thoughts I'd like to share.

Huge crowds at the 2016 New York Baby Show.

1. The New York Baby Show was definitely well attended, but I was shocked by how few people knew about modern cloth diapers. Many people walking up to our booth assumed we were selling reusable swim diapers, and in fact, some people bought some Lalabye Baby diapers solely for that purpose.

When we would start to explain that they were modern reusable diapers for everyday use, we would get a very mixed reaction. We had a few looks of, "Wow, really?!" followed by more questions on how they worked. Unfortunately, I'd say the most common reaction from the surprised group was, "Oh. Nevermind." followed by a quick spin on the heels and a shuffle to the next booth.

2. Some families were actually interested in learning about cloth! For every family who walked up surprised to learn that these were not swim diapers, there was another family who walked up with an eagerness to learn. They had seen our brands listen in the show program or had seen our posts on social media and started off with, "I'm so excited you guys are here. We've been thinking about using cloth diapers, but there's just so much information out there that we were feeling overwhelmed." 

This is huge. And it's actually the reason we paid the hefty price tag to attend this event. Rather than selling, we were educating. I can't even tell you how many time I must've given the spiel on using cloth diapers. Let's put it this way. My voice was pretty much gone by Sunday afternoon. ;)

This was one of a small handful of families who came by our booth and was actually already using cloth diapers at home! They bought the Spray Pal shield on the spot to make spraying their diapers easy and mess-free.

3. We weren't the only ones to notice that there was a noticeable absence of major cloth diaper brands. 

It seems in the past few years the focus by cloth diapering brands (including ours) has been attending shows like MommyCon that cater to a more natural parenting mindset. And don't get me wrong, we still love the concept behind MommyCon and are still attending a few so we can interact with our amazing customers! But this year, after a very successful cloth diaper resource booth at the 2015 Miami's Ultimate Baby Affair, we decided to make an effort to test the waters with the more mainstream events.

We're almost ready! Time for a coffee break, but I wanted to tag and thank all of these amazing sponsors of the Mission #Makeclothmainstream booth at #MUBA2015 - @sloomb @lalabyebaby @totsbots @grovia @chgdiapers @loganandlenora @projectpomona @funkyfluff @genydiapers @applecheeksdipe @tushmate @thirstiesinc @mollyssuds @balmbaby @milkincookies @smartbottoms #spraypal

A photo posted by Spray Pal (@spraypal) on Feb 6, 2015 at 11:18am PST

Our goal is not to sell product, although it's always great when someone makes the decision to switch on the spot and buys what they need to get started. In fact, we didn't even ship anything in for this show, we just brought what we could fit in our checked bag so we would have items to demo with. Our goal is to reach families who don't already know about cloth diapers and show them that it's easier than they think. Mission accomplished, I hope!

On the other hand, the disposable diaper brands along with big box stores are always at these events in full force. I hope that by having more of a presence at events like these, we can show families that they have options when it comes to diapering, and cloth diapers don't have to be intimidating!

If you have a big baby expo taking place locally that you feel could use a little more "fluff love" and cloth education, please let us know in the comments! We'd love to check it out and help #makeclothmainstream. :)

Spray Pal Market Research: Addressing the Comments

We've been conducting some unbiased market research about the Spray Pal, and the results have been fantastic to read.  We are so thrilled that the overwhelming majority of those who use a Spray Pal love it!  And we are learning a lot from the non-Spray Pal users, so thank you for taking the time to respond!  If you haven't taken the survey yet, you can do so HERE and you could even win a Spray Pal OR a BumGenius cloth diaper for the minute or two of your time!

A few of you left some very kind comments that we would like to address for you to show that we truly are reading each of these suggestions and taking them to heart!  We appreciate you giving us the opportunity to learn and improve.  Here goes:

1. In response to the $25 price point, the majority of responders selected the option that said "The price is just right" and a few even said they'd pay more!! LOL.  Don't worry, we don't want to do that.  Of the ones who selected "It should be less," a few of you left some comments that you understand why the price is where it is, but since you have a limited budget you choose to go without, which I totally respect.  And then a few made comments that you think $25 is a fair price if it includes shipping.  That's the part I wanted to address:

You guys know we offer free shipping on orders of $25 or more on our website, right?  Which means the Spray Pal splatter shield and all of the bundles ship FREE!  Many of our online retailers such as Kelly's Closet and Dream Diapers also offer free shipping when you spend a certain amount along with reward points and other loyalty programs.  AND...we have the Spray Pal available on Amazon prime...which will ship for FREE if you have prime or spend over $35.  Best yet, you can go into a local store and pick one up without any shipping charges!  Not only will you be supporting our small business, but you'll be supporting your own local business economy as well.  Win/win!  And if your local cloth diapering shop doesn't carry the Spray Pal, you can ask them to carry it and 9 times out of 10 I bet we'll get an email from them asking for wholesale information.  Most of our retailers became Spray Pal retailers because of customers like you who went in and told them about it, which we LOVE!!  We are all about supporting small businesses, especially cloth diaper retailers. ;)

2.  Spray Pal storage:  According to the survey, many of you already know this, but we do currently sell a Jaq Jaq Bird wetbag that works great for storing the Spray Pal.  Also, according to the survey, those of you who own one think it's pretty awesome! (It is also our personal favorite for cloth diaper outings, but I digress...) ;)  To address a few comments, this wetbag is not large enough to seal the Spray Pal completely inside, but we've found that actually works to our advantage.  By slipping the Spray Pal in there and leaving the top sticking out a little, the Spray Pal is able to air dry between uses while still being tucked away.  Some of you (as we do at times) leave your Spray Pal standing up in a trash can or tub to air dry, which is great, but the Jaq Jaq Bird wetbag will also do this for you if you'd prefer to have the shield more concealed (like my rhyme?). ;)

3.  A few of you mentioned the squeezing out of the diaper not being as easy as you had hoped.  I totally agree with you...Mr. Spray Pal is way better at that than I am.  But I did figure out a technique that has worked well for me that I'd like to share in the photos below.  The trick is in the bend!  The Spray Pal is made of high quality materials that will stand up just fine to you bending the sh*t out of it (haha, see what I did there?!).  If you check out the graphic below, that was a diaper that had been sprayed for a photo about 2 hours prior, but had been left sitting in the Spray Pal before I thought to take these photos for you.  On the left, I'm just squeezing flat with my thumbs and nothing is really coming out.  You can see in the photo on the right that the water is actually squeezing out just by me bending it.  So, bend away and let the Spray Pal do the work for you!


I hope this information helps those of you who were wondering, and thank you for taking the time to leave the comments.  I'm sure others were wondering the same thing and just didn't speak up (or didn't realize they were wondering until they read this!), so hopefully this will come in handy for a lot of you.  If we come across any other comments that we can help you out with right away, we will do so.  Thank you so much!

Spray Pal Market Research

 

As a growing small business, we are trying to gauge exactly what direction we should take our next steps, and we could use your help.  We'd love to hear from Spray Pal users and non-Spray Pal users alike!

This survey is very quick and easy with fewer than 10 questions, it should only take you a brief moment.  Feel free to elaborate as much as you'd like in the comment boxes, we will read each and every thought you share!

For helping us out, you not only get to feel great about providing a small, family-run, made in the USA business important data to learn and grow, but you will also be able to enter for a chance to win your choice of a Spray Pal or a BumGenius 4.0 cloth diaper in Twilight at the end of the survey.  We figured it was only fair to offer a choice since not everyone owns a sprayer and needs a Spray Pal to stop the splatter, but who wouldn't love a cloth diaper?? ;)

Spray Pal Owners, please CLICK HERE!!

If you do NOT currently own a Spray Pal, please CLICK HERE!!

Thank you SO much for taking the time and helping us out, we truly appreciate it!

Kindly,
The Spray Pal Family

Lalabye Baby Stocking Craziness!

For those who are just hearing about all this, a little bit of crazy went down in the middle of the night.  We had scheduled the new Lalabye Baby/Spray Pal exclusive cloth diaper, Goodnight Moon, to go live this morning at 8am along with all the other retailers.  Well, for some reason, our website decided that 8am would actually be better served at around 1am.  So as I lay sleeping, some of you middle of the night nursing moms with clicky stalking fingers must have discovered this glitch and started "buying all the diapers" LOL!  Since this glitch was out of anyone's control, we're going to let all the orders stand as they are, and we will learn and reevaluate how we do things for the next stocking, which will be soon!  We PROMISE we have more on the way, and we had NO IDEA this color combo would be so popular!

By the time I was up at 6:15 am, my phone was blowing up with the news and I quickly went and took down the premature posting.  We spent the morning, coffee and doughnuts in hand (don't worry, we didn't get any on the diapers), counting and sorting through the orders to see what we had left.  All in all, there are only SIX Goodnight Moon diapers left in this batch.  To be fair, we are going to have a random drawing (enter below) to determine who will be able to purchase one of these 6 this morning.  We will send you an invoice for the amount with shipping, and it must be paid right away to guarantee the order, otherwise we will have to choose another winner.  If you would like to add something to your order to make it qualify for free shipping over $25, please let us know when your name is drawn and we will invoice you for the adjusted total.



I hope this all makes sense and I truly apologize to anyone who wasn't able to grab one this time.  This was our first time doing a stocking like this and we honestly had no idea what to expect.  We have learned a lot from this and we will definitely let you all know as soon as the next batch arrives in a few weeks!  Thank you all so much for your support and for helping #makeclothmainstream!

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Modern Cloth Diapers on Reality TV?

Crazily enough, this actually could become a reality!  The Spray Pal family was selected to participate in filming a "teaser" for an upcoming reality show, which could air soon on one of the major TV networks!!  We are so grateful for the opportunity to show how our product is made and how our business is run (out of our home and garage) and get the help we need from Ally Loprete and her team of experts.  A HUGE side benefit is that this will definitely help #makeclothmainstream as millions families across America will suddenly be introduced to how easy, ecofriendly, economical and adorable cloth diapers can be!

Check out the teaser video below and let us know what you think!  We will keep you updated as the production crew selects which network they will work with and things get moving.  Yay for Spray Pal and cloth diapers on TV!!



This Little Parent Stayed Home from Bowstring Studios on Vimeo.

Demystifying Cloth Diapers

We asked current cloth diaper users what their most common concerns or questions were BEFORE they got started with cloth diapering and we compiled all of that info along with my own personal experience into a list so that we can help crush any fears help and make cloth mainstream.

You can also watch the YouTube Webinar "Demystifying Cloth Diapers" hosted by Sarah from Sarah Wells Breastpump Bags and Nicole from Nizo Wear Nursing Bras by clicking on that adorable fluffy bum picture below:

1. Getting Started:

You really don’t need much to get started, although some parents find enjoyment in shopping for the extras that make cloth diapering more interesting and fun. Here are a list of the bare basics you’ll need to get started, along with the extras you might enjoy adding to your stash!

 Must haves:

• 12-24 cloth diapers.


• A pail liner to hold the dirties.


• Detergent

Honestly, that’s it. You can totally cloth diaper your baby from birth to potty training with that tiny list. The number of diapers varies like that because it will be based on your routine and personal preference. If you are ok with washing diapers every day, you can go with a smaller amount of diapers, but if you’d like to wash every other day, you’ll need more clean diapers to get you from wash cycle to wash cycle.

Extras worth having:

• wetbags for outings


• cloth wipes


• cloth safe diaper cream


• a diaper sprayer


• a Spray Pal splatter shield


• fleece or disposable liners


• extra diapers for extra days between washing and less wear

The items listed above are totally optional, but they come highly recommended, most from my own personal experience. We do cloth full time, even on outings and short trips, so wetbags are a must for us. They make the transport of dirty diapers back home super easy. Liners are another great choice to make outings easier, just lay one in each of the diapers you bring with you and then if your little one becomes inspired to leave you a nice present while you’re out, you can just flush the liner down. Liners are also great for creating a barrier if you need to use a rash cream

Cloth wipes are another optional item that you will probably find once you start with cloth are a pretty easy transition. We started our oldest with disposables for her first 2 months, and when we made the switch to cloth it was really hard to break the habit of rolling up the wipes in the diaper during changes, which led to lots of wipes going through the washing machine. Might as well go ahead and keep the habit going with cloth wipes and just wash them with your diapers to save some extra cash and trash!

The diaper sprayer was another must have for us once we started feeding our oldest solid foods. But, after the first time using it, we realized we’d need a way to keep the splatter off our bathroom walls and floor, so we invented the Spray Pal splatter shield. That has quickly become another must have for the optional items because paired with a diaper sprayer it makes the question “What do you do with the poo?” easy to answer. ;)

2. How to deal with the “Yuck Factor”

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="213"] Dirty diapers can quickly and easily be sprayed with a diaper sprayer and a Spray Pal![/caption]

It seems that most people who start to consider cloth diapers are immediately concerned with how gross it must be. I get it, the thought of actually having to deal with the poop instead of just rolling it up into a disposable poop burrito to toss in the trash seems daunting at first. ;) I promise you, I thought the same way until I tried cloth, and then I realized a few things:

•  As a new parent, you are going to deal with poop and other bodily fluids more than you ever have before in your life, regardless of what type of diapers you use.


• Even if you use disposables, you should technically dispose of solid waste in the toilet where it can be treated properly. Otherwise, that poop burrito I mentioned could end up sitting in a landfill for 200-500 years. Now THAT’S gross.


• Cloth diapers REALLY aren’t hard. Seriously. They aren’t. Once you get your routine down, it’s a piece of cake, and TOTALLY worth it.

So, routines. Everyone will have a different method that works for them, and it can become very overwhelming if you try to Google answers to specific routine questions or ask in groups full of cloth diapering parents from all over the country/world. I’m not going to tell you what will work best for you, because I can’t. What I CAN tell you is what worked for me under my specific conditions, and then I can tell you that it only took me about a week or two to get into a groove. We haven’t had issues since, and that’s been 3+ years. We did strip our diapers with blue dawn ONE time about a year ago after my son got a yeast rash, but that was it. Every once a month or so we might throw in about a quarter cup of bleach into a full wash cycle just to keep things extra clean, but you have to be careful with that because the use of bleach can void some cloth diaper warrantees.

Here’s the wash routine that works for us using a top loading regular washer with hard water in Southern California.

•  0-6 months EBF poop, we did a hot pre-rinse, then a hot cycle (with detergent) and a cold rinse .


• Once we introduced solids, we found that by spraying the dirty diapers first, we were able to skip the pre-rinse cycle altogether. So now we just do a hot cycle with detergent and a cold rinse.


• We wash our diapers every other day. We spray poop as it comes (easy with a Spray Pal), we sometimes also spray overnight diapers if they get that ammonia smell and we aren’t doing laundry that day.

That’s it, y’all. It really doesn’t have to be overly complicated AT ALL. ;)

Now as far as the ‘yuck factor” some people want to know how you handle it if your baby poops while you’re on an outing away from home. For this, you can use liners. The disposable ones work great for out of the house because most public plumbing should be able to handle it if you flush them. We personally skip the liners and just roll the dirty diaper up and throw it in the wetbag if it’s not ploppable, and then we spray it when we get home.

3. Different Styles and Terms

One of the biggest hurdles many parents mention when they are trying to figure out cloth diapers is the long and sometimes confusing list of terms. acronyms and styles related to cloth diapering. Many will become clear once you start doing your research, but there are a few that can be more elusive. For me, it was NWOT (new without tags)…that one took me forever!

Here is a great list of cloth diapering terms from Dirty Diaper Laundry:
http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/cloth-diaper-finder/faq/

I recommend pinning this post or the post in the link above so that you can have a handy list readily available in case you come across anything that stumps you. ;)

As far as the different diaper styles, here are the basics:

• Most ecomomical: Prefolds, flats, and covers. Basically in order to have a diaper, you just need an absorbent layer and a waterproof cover. You can even use flour sack towels or old cut up t-shirts for absorbency, it really doesn’t matter!


• Most convenient: While I don’t personally find the other options difficult, many are looking for the option that is most like a disposable, especially if they are asking a child care provider to use cloth on their baby. For those people, I would recommend either an AIO (all in one), AI2 (all in two), or a pocket diaper. The AIOs are probably the easiest because they are just as described, all in one piece. You don’t have to do anything other than wash and put on your baby. Then repeat. AI2s are similar, only they have the option of using a disposable insert instead of the cloth insert. And pockets, once stuffed with their absorbent layer, are also very easy to use.


• Most absorbent for overnight or heavy wetters: Fitteds are a very popular diaper for those who are looking for something super absorbent. They are not waterproof, although some WAHM (work at home mom) diapers are made as hybrid fitteds, which means they have a layer of fleece sewn inside that provides a little extra wetness protection, but the moisture can still make it’s way to the outer edges. So basically, just like the prefolds and flats, they will need a cover to maintain outer dryness. They are also often paired with a wool cover to provide all natural and breathable coverage. You don’t HAVE to put a cover on them if you would rather not. Just feel for wetness and change more frequently to allow that bum to breathe a bit. Perfect for hotter times of the year when you want to avoid heat rashes.

4. Expert Tips

After 3+ years cloth diapering two kids, there are a few things I’ve learned along the way that I like to share with parents who are just starting out. These are the “things I wish I knew when I started” also known as “If I could do it all over again, I’d do it this way.”

• Snaps vs. Velcro/aplix/hook and loop. When I started, I thought for sure I wanted Velcro because it would be so much easier. Then I discovered snaps. They are seriously not hard, and the bonus is that they don’t wear out with washings, they don’t snag on other diapers, and they are harder for your child to figure out how to take off. So, yeah. As you can probably surmise, I’m a snaps girl all the way now. ;)


• If you aren’t sure brand or style you want to invest in, start with a rental program. We did this with my daughter and it was the greatest thing ever. They sent us a box with 12 different brands/styles of cloth diapers, and we tried them all out for 3 weeks. This is smart since each baby is a different shape and size, and what works for one may not work for another. Plus, you’ll get to test out your routines for a while. ;)


• To buy newborns or not to buy newborns. With my daughter, we started with one size diapers because we made the switch when she was 2.5 months old. With my son, we used newborns. In fact, we used preemie cloth diapers before newborns even fit him because he was born at 25 weeks weighing 1lb 13oz. The decision as to whether or not you want to invest in newborn diapers is your own, but keep a few things in mind. You don’t know how big your baby will be when s/he is born. It may be a great investment if they are going to take a few months to grow into their one size diapers, or you may give birth to a toddler sized baby who will skip right past the newborn size. Either way, you could look into buying them used since most don’t get much wear and tear in a the short amount of time they are in use. And when you finish, you can resell them and recoup some of that cost.


• Dealing with skeptics. When you first start letting people know that you’re planning to use cloth diapers, you may be surprised to find that not everyone will be supportive. If the negative comments are hard for you to deal with, here are some tips for coping. First, try politely sharing some of the amazing reasons why you feel cloth is better. You’ll be saving money, you’ll be keeping chemicals off your baby’s most sensitive skin, you’ll be helping the environment, and the list goes on. If they don’t seem to respond to those facts, then the best second step is to just prove them wrong. Keep at it and show them that cloth diapers are easy and adorable. They’ll have to concede your point eventually, and if not, they aren’t worth the stress. ;)

I hope that this information is useful for you. Here at Spray Pal, we are all about helping #makeclothmainstream, and we love helping people find the benefit to cloth diapers with great success! Feel free to send me a message on our Facebook page if you ever have any questions about cloth diapering, I’d be happy to help!

Work at Home Mom Life Hacks: First Edition

First day as an "official" work at home mom, and I'm already realizing that there are some important life hacks that must be implemented in order to get anything accomplished.

For a little background, my chosen career path after college was to be an elementary school teacher. And I loved it. I still love teaching, actually, it's just not in the cards right now. So I resigned this year to be home with my kids and run Spray Pal on the side. I call today my first "official" day as a WAHM because I've been doing the work at home thing for a few years now on top of teaching, and it's been quite nuts. So I made a promise to myself that after my final teaching day, I would make a big deal out of it with my daughter and let her pick out anything she wanted to do that morning to celebrate.

So she did. And you guys, I have no idea where in the world this child gets her crazy ideas, but this is what she picked:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Who knew it would make for great mother/daughter bonding?[/caption]

And at first I was thinking, You've got to be kidding. I haven't touched that thing since 2011 and the last thing I want to do at 7:30am is listen to Jillian Michaels bark orders at me and tell me not to "phone it in." She obviously doesn't know I haven't had enough coffee yet.

But, she was serious. (My daughter, not Jillian). So, I went with it. And this is where I learned my very first life hack as a WAHM (that didn't take long, right?).  And since it didn't take long, I decided to number these life hacks, because I have a hunch that this could easily become a series of blogs.

Work at Home Mom Life Hack #1: Use play time as a time to check something else off the list.

Basically, this means if your daughter wants to do a workout video, turn that into an opportunity to multitask! I needed a workout anyways, and I likely wouldn't have done it if I had planned my day based on what I wanted to do.  I also wanted my morning to be about spending time with her.  So, she actually got the ball rolling so we could combine the two and make it fun!

We didn't do the video exactly as instructed.  Instead I popped it in, and we ran around the room, and did a few fun variations of the moves that we could do together, and I took a ton of pictures of her getting her workout on.  She claimed a few toys as makeshift dumbbells and I used the real thing, so I actually did get a little bit of a workout.  But the bottom line is, we both broke a sweat, got active, and had fun!

I never would've thought about working out with my kids as a form of exercise, but honestly, I think it's a great way to start each day now to keep us both on a good, healthy schedule.  It makes exercise a fun part of our normal routine.  It was actually perfect timing because her little brother was hooked up to his gtube feed and we pulled his high chair into the living room with us so he could watch, and he found it absolutely hilarious to see the two of us running around like maniacs and goofing off.  I'm pretty sure he got an ab workout from laughing as well. ;)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Mini Spray Pal 2.0 thought we were pretty amusing.[/caption]

If you're interested in checking out the 30 day shred video, I've included an affiliate link: Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.  I actually like the video, but I usually have to press mute to handle it get through it with my sanity. ;)

What life hacks do you use to save time and keep things fun?

Brother and Sister Small Business Duo!

If you follow @spraypal on Instagram, you may have already seen some of the numerous pictures I've posted of my brother's new craft beer brewery, Beach City Brewery.  Since it opened about two weeks ago, we've been heading over there a bunch as a family to eat from the many food trucks that stop by, and I couldn't be happier to see his dream of owning his own brewery become a reality.

Then, a few days ago, our two worlds collided (in a good way, of course!).  He emailed me asking if I had heard of Club MomMe and if we'd be able to help him out with pouring their craft beer at their SpringFest event next weekend.  Of course we were thrilled to be able to help, and even signed up to get Spray Pal on board with a booth as well!  Funny that we heard about this super fun expecting mom and baby event from my brother the brewery owner, lol! So now, if you're in the Orange County, CA area on June 7th, you can stop by and visit me at the Spray Pal booth and Mr. Spray Pal and (not so) little brother Spray Pal aka Mr. Beach City Brewery at the beer tent and learn all about cloth diapers and craft beer!  There's something for everyone, right?! ;)

Besides just meeting a good portion of the Spray Pal fam, you'll also hear from some amazing panelists and speakers such as Dr. Harvey Karp from Happiest Baby & Toddler, Daddy & Company, My Life as a Dad, Daddy Doin' Work, and more!  You can also partake in some fun, family-friendly festivities!  If you haven't reserved your spot yet, you still have a few days left and you can order tickets HERE.  Many of the VIP tickets are sold out, but there are still a few options available.  You definitely won't want to miss out on the goodie bags and the amazing giveaways!

You can also enter to win a Family Ticket below.  Includes 2 Adult tickets and kids plus one gift bag with a ton of product & goodies.  Good luck and we hope to see you there!



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Tips for Stress-Free Potty Training

Potty Training the EASY and eco-friendly way!



You may be wondering why a brand like Spray Pal would be writing about tips for helping your kids succeed without their cloth diapers, but here’s the thing. Most parents find that their kids will actually potty train sooner when wearing cloth. This is likely due to the fact that with cloth diapers, you have the option of allowing your child to feel the wetness, which signals to them that something has happened down there that they don’t necessarily feel comfortable sitting in, as opposed to disposable diapers which contain harsh chemicals and “stay dry crystals” that are meant to keep your child from feeling wet.

Mini Spray Pal 1.0 actually started noticing this phenomenon at around 18 months, and by 21 months she was telling us in her own words and signals that she wanted to go on the potty and didn’t want to wear her diapers anymore. By waiting until she was ready and going off of her cues, she completely ditched the diapers well before she turned 2, which was bittersweet for me because I loved her adorable fluff!

Not to fear, we still had our little guy rocking the cloth in the NICU. Now that he’s turned 2 and is still facing lots of developmental delays, we’re realizing he’ll probably be in his cloth diapers for an extensive amount of time. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start reading his signals and practicing elimination communication for those times he’s clearly showing us he’s ready to go. Every opportunity for him to communicate something with us is a good one, and this will just prepare him down the road as he starts to make the connection that the bathroom and the toilet is where this stuff is actually supposed to happen.

Here are my tips as we start down the road toward bathroom independence:

• Look for cues, but don’t force it. If your child is giving obvious signs that s/he is about to have some potty action, just ask in a super friendly tone, “Would you like to go sit on your big kid potty?” If they accept the invitation, just go with it!


• Stay positive and encouraging. If your child isn’t in the mood to go on the potty at that moment, just act like it’s no big deal. But the times that they do choose to make the attempt, play into those moments. Tell them how exciting it is and how proud you are and basically just ham it up and act like a goofball. They’ll love this positive reinforcement and they’ll remember it next time you ask if they want to use the potty.


• Play down the accidents. If your child is going without diapers, and doesn’t quite make it to the potty, just play it down. Clean it up and go on with your day. You definitely don’t want them to start thinking it’s hilarious when mommy or daddy freaks out about the mess on the floor! Maybe ask a bit more frequently after that if they’d like to try the potty and see the previous tip. ;)


• Give TONS of positive praise, even if they just try. We never had to do a reward system or treats with my daughter when she started using the potty. She just loved hearing how excited and proud we were of her! Of course there are some kids who respond better to candy, so you’ll have to go with your gut on this one. You know your kid best! ;)


• Don’t beat yourself up! You are doing a great job, mama, no matter what happens. If your child isn’t quite getting it after a few days, it might be time to throw up the white flag and save it for another time. It’s not the end of the world if you have to wait a few more weeks, especially if you’re using your cloth diapers! At least you won’t have to run out for a few more packs of diapers, right? :)

So, since we’ve recently started working on this with mini Spray Pal 2.0, we have teamed up with some amazing companies to offer some super helpful tips and products that can make this journey easier! One lucky winner will win a gift set containing one of each of these useful products!

Potty Training Must Haves:

1. Oops! Sheet. Prize value $40. This is a waterproof cotton mattress protector for night time potty training and occasional oopsies. Learning is a process, and accidents can happen, so protect your mattress with this great mom-created product! Available in sizes ranging from crib to king.

2. A Joovy Loo. Prize value $40. In the beginning stages of learning, it’s important that your child have a small, easy to access place to practice using the potty. We highly recommend the Joovy Loo potty chair. The folks at Joovy have designed this potty chair to be just as functional as it is stylish, which means it’s easy to clean (always a plus in the Spray Pal household). You can read more about them by clicking the link.

3. EcoNuts Natural Ammonia Bouncer. Prize value $16.50. Depending on how many accidents you have to clean up, you may need this product all throughout the various stages of potty training. I’ve actually seen this product in action first hand, and it’s amazing how it actually does destroy the strong ammonia smell with only natural ingredients! Safe to use on cloth diapers or anything that ends up getting pee on it, you can even add it to a spray bottle to spritz it on accident spots.

4. Joovy StepTool. Prize value $20. Some sort of step stool is a good idea to have around from the very beginning stages of potty learning because your kids will feel a great sense of accomplishment after they do their business and wash their hands in the grown up sink. Joovy is giving away one of their stylish StepTools for this purpose, and it will pair perfectly with our next innovative product.

5. Aqueduck Faucet Extender. Prize Value $13. This is another mom invented product that was created out of necessity. When Susanna’s kids were getting to be too big and heavy to hold up to wash their hands, she created the Aqueduck faucet extender to solve the problem. This makes the water from your sink easy for your child to reach when they’re finished using the potty and need to wash up.

6. A Spray Pal. Prize value $25. You’re probably thinking, “Wait a minute. I already have a Spray Pal. Isn’t it just a cloth diaper sprayer splatter shield for protecting my bathroom and walls from the poop splatter? What does this have to do with potty training?” Well, let me tell you. One of our amazing fans gave us an idea for repurposing the Spray Pal splatter shield after your boys are out of diapers! She has a 4 year old who wakes up in the night to use the bathroom all by himself, which is fantastic, until she wakes up in the morning and wonders why her bathroom smells like urine. Turns out in his half asleep state, he is standing in front of the toilet and just spraying away aimlessly, lol. So she suggested putting the Spray Pal in the toilet as pictured before bed, then it will continue to serve its purpose as the perfect splatter shield even while you sleep!


Little Jimmy can wake up and go to the bathroom as always, and mom can wake up, quickly spray down the Spray Pal with the diaper sprayer and stick it back in the wetbag to tuck it away until the next night. No more mystery urine smell, no more mess to clean, everybody’s happy! Also, we love that this makes your investment in a Spray Pal and a sprayer last even longer and it’s a way to reuse something you already have! I’m even envisioning people drawing bulls-eye targets at the bottom of the Spray Pal to make learning to aim easy and fun. So, if you didn’t think the Spray Pal was a bathroom must have before, and you have a little boy, you may want to reconsider. ;)

7. Oops! Undies. Prize value $30. These waterproof bamboo underwear for kids are the perfect reusable option for that transition out of diapers. They look and feel just like regular underwear, but they will protect against minor accidents if your little one is having a hard time making it to the bathroom on time. These are great for mid to later stage potty training, but if you already have some natural fiber cloth diaper inserts or doublers at home that you’d like to add for extra protection, you can use these even longer! Available in sizes for ages 2-7.

8. Easy Daysies Get Dressed and Bathroom Routine Pack. Prize value $18. This handy magnetic schedule is perfect for kids just getting used to the routing of using the bathroom independently. Personally, I think it’s especially great for kids with special needs who really benefit from having each step visually laid out for them. You can tell this was invented by a former teacher, right? ;)

We wish you all the best of luck as we enter this crazy journey together! You can enter in the rafflecopter below to win a prize package containing each of the items listed above, valued at over $200! Thank you for sharing this giveaway as we help #makeclothmainstream :)

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Why Small Business is Hard

...and other musings about small businesses and internet drama.

Apparently while I was off teaching in the land of second grade yesterday, something was happening in the world of Facebook that I became aware of via text messages from friends.  I wasn't able to follow much of it or address any of the comments in real time, but that was probably for the best.  Instead of getting heated and wrapped up in it all, I was able to let things sink in, try to understand the facts, and then decide whether or not I wanted to respond.  I went back and forth about it because I'm absolutely against anything drama or "mommy war" related, and I didn't want to add fuel to the fire by saying something.  But, I did learn some things.  Like A LOT of things.  So I'm going to focus on those things in this blog post, and by sharing, maybe others will learn a thing or two as well.

1.  What I learned about running a business.

As most of you know, my husband and I are not business people.  We somehow in the grand scheme of this crazy game called life ended up creating the Spray Pal and are now business owners, but wow, the things we are still learning each day would amaze you.  In this situation, I learned that competition is something every good business should have.  You know why?  Because it means your idea is actually good!  And useful!  If your product isn't truly a helpful tool, then it won't succeed. It also motivates us to do better. As a business, we will continue to provide our customers with the best product and the best customer service we can give. We will listen to feedback from our customers and do the best we can to adapt. Luckily, we took the time in the beginning of this process to experiment with many different prototypes, and being Spray Pal users ourselves, we know that it works amazingly well. :)

2.  What I learned about collaboration.

One of the most amazing things I've found in the cloth diapering community is that for the most part, everyone is open and willing to work together for the greater good.  As Spray Pal, we've worked hard as a business to not just promote ourselves, but to promote cloth diapering to the masses.  We've worked together with other brands to promote each other and boost each other up because how does that expression go?  A rising tide floats all ships??  Gah, I have to look it up.  But you get the idea.  If we work together as a community to show people that cloth diapers are not as hard as people think, plus they are eco-friendly, economical, and cute, then everyone in the business community benefits right along with our fluffy bummed babes and our landfills (and wallets).

 

3.  What I learned about social media.

If you've been following Spray Pal for a while, you already know that this is a whole new world for me.  I've been working hard to learn the ins and outs of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and most of my education comes from you all!  I love the amazing and supportive community we have on our Spray Pal social media pages.  Especially when I see what can happen when things get out of hand.  I think Ron Burgundy said it best:


Basically, when it comes to the internet, it becomes very easy to forget that there are real people behind the screen.  The same is true for a business, especially those of the small variety.  We are real people behind the brands and we are eventually going to see all of these comments.  Add to that the fact that it's really hard to read a person's tone through a typed message, and you have a recipe for disaster, and things WILL escalate quickly.  I personally think a very good rule of thumb as a brand is: Do not get involved in social media drama unless you are directly addressed.

4.  What I learned about people in general.

I've always said, always, that we have the most amazing and loyal Facebook following.  You guys respond to my questions, love on my family, share your rave reviews of the Spray Pal on our wall, and tag us in adorable pictures of your cloth diapered little ones.  I get messages from complete strangers thanking us for coming up with the Spray Pal because it 1) kept them going with cloth diapers when they were about to give up, 2) got their husbands on board with spraying dirty diapers, 3) helped them convince their naysaying friends or family that the dirty part of cloth diapering could be taken care of in one simple step.  I will take one day of a negative social media experience any time to have what we have with you all.  People in general are good.  The negative nellies are gonna negate.  But luckily, they are in the minority.  And we have the option not to feed into them.  I really liked what Kim Rosas said on the Dirty Diaper Laundry Facebook page:

"If you love something- support it. If you don't love it, don't buy it.
Vote with your dollars and spread the word about the brands you love, those things do the most good."

This is so true. And we realize that those of you who already support the Spray Pal brand do so because you probably already own a Spray Pal.  But if you'd like a way to show support without having to spend a dime, you can always take a moment to leave us a review here: Spray Pal on Amazon. It will let you leave a review even if you purchased your Spray Pal from a cloth diaper retailer other than amazon. We truly appreciate it!

So keep on keeping on, you amazing Spray Pal fans, you!  And keep spreading the cloth diapering love while you're at it.  We're truly on a mission to #makeclothmainstream and we won't let one crazy day get in our way. ;)

#makeclothmainstream

The story behind the hashtag, lol.

Toward the end of last summer, we were encouraged to participate in a contest sponsored by Intuit where a small business could have a shot at winning a Super Bowl commercial.  We were definitely the underdogs, but we figured, why not?  If anything, it would build awareness of not only our Spray Pal brand, but about modern cloth diapers in general.  We had a great time playing along, met a lot of really cool new people and business owners, and definitely helped more people realize that cloth diapers aren't the plastic pants and safety pins of not too long ago.

In fact, we actually surprised OURSELVES with how awesome we did in this contest.  The first two rounds were based simply on popular vote, and out of tens of thousands of small businesses that entered, Spray Pal stayed in the TOP 10 most popular spots for almost the entire time!  The lowest spot we ever hit toward the end was #14, which is still completely and mind-blowingly AMAZING considering how niche our product is!  We had so much love and support from our friends, family, and facebook followers (which at that time totaled around 4,000 people).  I think the fact that we were up there amongst the big dogs made people realize that cloth diapers are becoming more and more mainstream.

Part of our strategy in trying to win this was to use social media as a means to promote cloth diapers and make people aware of the cute, economical, and natural side of diapering.  We had hoped to get some celebrities involved, maybe convince one or two of them to try out cloth diapers on their own kids.  That part didn't actually pan out, but there's still hope!  Celebrities are having babies all the time, right? ;)  Not that you need a celebrity to prove that something is better for your baby, for the environment, and for your wallets, but, you know, it helps get the message out to the masses a lot quicker.

In our pursuit of building awareness, we made up the hashtag #makeclothmainstream and encouraged people to use it with their adorable cloth diaper photos and tag people who they thought might help get the word out.  Since then, in less than a year, there are already almost 9,000 posts with this hashtag on instagram!  It's seriously amazing to see our community come together like this and help spread the word about cloth diapers.  I think we all dream of the day when cloth diapers will become the mainstream choice. :)

In an effort to continue this movement, we have created a Facebook group where you can ask questions and have discussions about anything cloth diaper related.  Feel free to join us if you are interested in learning more or if you have any questions as you move along in your cloth diapering journey!  You can CLICK HERE to request to join the group and one of the admin will get you added!

Cloth Diaper Confessions

As much as we love cloth diapers, every once in a while, something goes terribly wrong.  Usually at the most inopportune time.  The good news is that when this happens, we can simply clean up, laugh about it, and move on.  Thankfully, it doesn't happen often, and the thought of how much we are helping the environment while saving money by using cloth diapers definitely helps ease the pain. So, for the sake of full disclosure, I'd like to share our most recent cloth diapering mishap.

When we were on our road trip to Austin, we stopped for some coffee and snacks in a Starbucks right in front of the New Mexico State University. We parked our RV outside and all four of us came in to stretch our legs. We must have looked like a bunch of hippies with our Spray Pal sign on the back of the RV and me carrying Ryan with all his medical equipment wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a cloth diaper (him, not me). As we were standing in there waiting for our coffee, a group of college girls was standing near us, fawning over #minispraypal 2.0 in my arms. All of a sudden, I felt something warm and wet trickling down my leg. Turns out, the diaper we had on him was over 3 years old and needless to say the elastic in the legs is a little relaxed. The way that I was holding him had created the perfect leg gap for all of his pee to just escape right out to the floor.

I felt it first, so my face got the awkward look first, but it didn't take long for those college girls to drop their jaws and bug their eyes! Luckily, they and the sweet Starbucks employee who came running with a mop were so in love with 2.0, they didn't seem to mind too terribly that he had just peed on the floor of their Starbucks.  Luckily (or not, depending on who's shoes you're wearing), most of the urine output (#NICUterms) landed on me, so we weren't totally contaminating their food establishment.  But the look on their faces tells me that they'll probably not be looking into cloth diapers anytime soon.  Maybe in a few more years, when they're ready to have some kids of their own, they'll learn that cleaning up bodily fluids just comes with the parenting territory. ;)

So. I shared mine, now it's your turn!  What's YOUR most embarrassing cloth diapering moment?

The Great Cloth Diaper Change!

If you've followed Spray Pal on social media for a while, you know that we are huge advocates for making cloth diapers more of a mainstream choice for families.  This is why we have participated in the Great Cloth Diaper Change every year since its inception in 2011.  I changed my daughter (Mini Spray Pal 1.0) in 2011 and 2012, but then she learned to use the toilet at 21 months (thank you, cloth diapers).  Luckily, 2.0 was home from the NICU and healthy enough to attend his first GCDC in 2013, so our annual participation continued!  This year, the whole Spray Pal family will be RVing out to MommyCon Austin to participate in the GCDC event there.  We're just a little excited, and have even had t-shirts made for the occasion:

Cochlear Implant versus ASL

I'm having one of those moments of serendipity, and I feel compelled to share it.  Thank you for allowing me to indulge.  So, you all know how mini SP 2.0 was all set for his Advanced Bionics cochlear implant surgery on a week's notice, and when the doctor went in to implant it, he found his inner ear was full of gunk which he was thankfully able to clean out, but prevented him from implanting the hearing device?  And how I was pretty upset by it, but realized that there must be a reason why this would happen this way (I know there are some who don't like to hear that whole "Everything happens for a reason" line, but there comes a point in a preemie mom's life when you just have to grasp onto something, and that works).

Mini Spray Pal 2.0's Review of the Beco Baby Carrier

I really was going to try to blog about all of the amazing sponsors in the #miniSPbdaybash giveaway, because there are just so many awesome products out there I'd love to share with you.  But with Ryan's cochlear implant surgery suddenly scheduled with only a week's notice, it looks like I'm only going to be able to hit on the main ones that we've tried and love.  But please do check out the other prizes if I don't get a chance to write about them.  There are some seriously amazing moms out there creating some seriously amazing things.

One of our favorite products to use together is the Beco Baby Carrier.  We own a few baby carriers, but the Beco Soleil is hands down the one I reach for first.  I actually wanted to try it so badly, I ended up buying myself a VIP ticket to MommyCon LA because it included a free soleil even though I was already attending with our Spray Pal booth, lol.  It was totally worth it for the Beco.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240"] Including this picture mostly to show off 1.0's sassy face. Love that girl.[/caption]

Since then, we've been wearing it everywhere.  Due to the fact that he's fed via g-tube, he does have to spend some time in his stroller. But anytime we're out and about between feeds, you'll almost always see him in the Beco.  Most Saturdays, you'll find us at the SoCo Collection Farmer's Market, and Mr. Spray Pal grabbed a few pictures to demonstrate how we adapt our babywearing to fit our little guy's special needs.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240"] SoCo Collection Farmer's Market[/caption]

If you look closely in the pictures above and below, you'll notice it looks like I'm wearing a little backpack.  That's actually the outer bag from a camelback water back pack that we've been using for over a year to carry his portable oxygen tanks.  We just removed the inner pouch that usually holds the water and replaced it with an oxygen tank.  This has been a lifesaver for us because it allows us to bring his oxygen along hands free, which is one of the major benefits to babywearing, right?  I can still pick out produce and hold my daughter's hand all while cuddling with my son and carrying his oxygen along with us.  Ah-ma-zing.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240"] This is her favorite part of the market. 2.0 is enjoying the shade from his attached hood on the Beco![/caption]

We love the way babywearing has helped our family bond with and carry both our kids (without breaking our backs) since they were little.  My 3 year old still asks to be carried in the Beco or the "Ewgo".  It's especially helpful with 2.0 since he just turned 2 years old and still isn't walking yet.  This allows us to get him around so easily and I love knowing he's close to my heart and comfy in there.  If you haven't tried a soft structured baby carrier, you should see if your local baby store carries some that you can test for yourselves.  They can be a little pricey, but they are WELL worth the investment in my opinion.

Do you babywear?  I'd love to hear which carriers you've tried and love!  Leave me a comment below :)

You can enter to WIN a Beco Soleil along with tons of other great prizes in the #miniSPbdaybash, just CLICK HERE!

#miniSPbdaybash Prize Package #1: Just for Baby!

I'm sure you've been waiting anxiously to hear the details of the prize packages valued at over $1000 each, so wait no more!  Here are all the amazing products our sponsors have so graciously provided for the "Just for Baby" prize package to help celebrate our son's second birthday.  Don't worry, even though these products are made just for baby, the winning mom or dad will LOVE getting all these amazing packages in the mail!

Prize Package #1 - Just for Baby



This package includes loads of goodies perfect for your littlest babe.

1. Joovy Nook high chair - The Joovy Nook is amazing. First of all, it looks fantastic! It has clean lines and is unobtrusive in the kitchen.  It wipes down easily and you can take the entire seat cover off and put it in the washer!  The Nook folds completely flat with one hand. The swing open tray is a feature parents love.  The tray has a removable insert  that can be easily popped off and rinsed after a messy meal (it's dishwasher safe too). In the daily grind of parenthood, it's the little things that help so much. It is so nice when a product performs and helps to simplify your life. (Value $150)

2. Baby Mushroom Snug Square Play Mat - The world's most comfortable play mat! A safe, clean, soft play space for babies and children, that's large enough for the parent to join! (Value $100)

3.  Freshly Picked Moccasins - Winner's choice of color and size. (Value $60)

4.  sustainablebabyish|sloomb - 1 Happy Little Cloud and 1 Knit Underwoolies. Our Happy Little Clouds are soft, trim, and super absorbent - the fluffiest must-have diaper for your little hipsters! Make sure to pair it with our underwoolies for a super trim cover that is as fashionable as it is functional!   (Value $58)

5.  Le Bibble - A 3-pack of Le bibble organic + designer baby bottle bibs + 5-pack of Le swipe organic cloth wipes. (Value $45)

6.  Calico Sunshine - Fitted cloth diaper made from our exclusive sunshiny print. Made with the highest quality organic bamboo fleece and cotton velour with a fold down rise for smaller babies and 3 lay in inserts for maximum puddle power!! Sunshiny happy fluff for your baby's rump! (Value $44)

7. Oops! Sheet - Oops! Sheet Waterproof Cotton Mattress Protector, Crib Size.  Make night time potty training and occasional oopsies a breeze with Oops! Sheet's cozy cotton waterproof mattress protectors. (Value $40)

8. Little Ace Wonders - We offer three different varieties of cloth diapers as well as clothing to keep your Little Wonder dressed to impress and keep our earth clean and green. (Value $38)

9. ZIPaboo - ZIPaboos make Changing Diapers A ZIP!  Pick any size in the Saylor or Noah style! (Value $36)

10. Funky Fluff - Officially launched in early 2012 Funky Fluff award winning 3 in 1 cloth diaper design is available in bamboo or stay dry fabrics in unique colors combinations and prints - retail value $21-23.  Funky Fluff Double Pocket wet bag offers two separate, and both waterproof compartments that make trips out a breeze - retail value $15 (Value $36)

11. Rock-a-bums - Winner gets to choose 1 Rock-a-Bums 2.0 cover (color/print/closure) of their choice, as well as a wet bag.  We will also include 2 reusable inserts and a pack of 20 hybrid inserts! (Value $33)

12. Couture Fluff - A one size cloth diaper with fold over rise in a gender neutral print. (Value $32)

13. Project Pomona - Choice of Pomonas (Jeans or Shorts) of Winner's Choice. Practicality and Cuteness Collide to Create the Perfect Modern Baby Jeans and Shorts. The Easiest to Use Ever On All Diapered Bums, Cloth Included! (Value $31)

14. Strawberry Sunshine - $30 gift card to spend in the Strawberry Sunshine etsy shop on handmade cloth diapers and accessories. (Value $30)

15. Kinderconcepts Inc - The winner will receive 2 pairs of tights of their choice of cotton or terry cotton. (Value $30-36)

16. Maximama - A two layered one size fleece cover and two additional osocozy better fit prefolds. MAXIMAMA OS fleecies are perfect for babies with sensitive skin and trim enough for the diaper bag. (Value $30)

17. Moraki - Winner's choice of any Moraki cloth diaper. (Value $28)

18. Baby Jack Blankets - Baby Jack Security and Sensory Lovey with Ribbon Tabs. Babies develop cognitively, socially and emotionally through sensory play. Our new kind of tag blanket offers a secure design with sewn shut ribbon tabs for safe play. 14x18 with satin and minky dot fabric. (Value $28)

19. Lovey's Body Products - Lovey's Tushi Wash spray is an alternative to chemically laden baby wipes.  Made with natural ingredients, the Tushi Wash is used with a moistened reusable or biodegradable, disposable cloth.  Perfect for even the most sensitive skin!    Lovey's Tushi Stick is an all-natural diaper ointment in a stick that prevents parents from messy hands!  Lab tested, it has enough natural preservative to kill the nasty bacteria on the skin and on the stick.  And Lovey's Tushi Stick is cloth diaper friendly too!   (Value $28)

20. Hippi Longstockings - Hippi's Baby Pack: (1) 100% Cotton "Giving Tree" Muslin Swaddle Blanket and (1) 100% Organic Hippi Stick All-Purpose Balm. (Value $26)

21. Spray Pal - Winner will receive one Spray Pal cloth diaper sprayer splatter shield to make spraying out cloth diapers EASY! (Value $25)

22. Lalabye Baby - Winner will receive a $25 gift card to spend on Lalabye Baby cloth diapers. (Value $25)

23. Sticky Bellies - $25 gift card to choose from thirteen different designs of adorable milestone stickers for expectant mamas, babies and toddlers with your gift card to our website. (Value $25)

24. Shiny Little Fireflies - Winner will receive a $25 gift card to spend at my store. They can choose pre-made items or choose to design a custom item. (Value $25)

25. Lovely Pocket Diapers - $25 gift voucher good for all products! (Value $25)

26. Baby Dipper - Two(2) sets of Baby Dipper bowl, spoon, and fork. The Baby Dipper bowl means true one-handed feeding for parents of infants and for toddlers learning to feed themselves. The unique combination of features includes a non-slip base, a triangular shape, and a slanted interior that leads to a spoon-shaped food collection corner. The winner may choose from blue or pink for the two prizes. (Value $25)

27. NumNum Inc Two pack - NumNum is a dipper designed for use with baby's first pureed foods. What makes our product unique is that the head is completely flat, making it easier to maneuver than a spoon because there's no right or wrong way to hold it. NumNum also helps babies prepare for the spoon. NumNums are self-feeding with less mess and, ultimately, a cleaner transition to the spoon, literally. (Value $10)

If you haven't entered the #miniSPbdaybash giveaway yet, what are you waiting for?!  Come celebrate with us and get your entries in HERE.  Good luck!