Sarah B  02:42

So I’m Sarah Berle. I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

 

Bailey Bouwman  02:46

Oh, it’s just next door. You’re like eight hours away from me. Oh, fun. Where are you? I’m in Prince George. How fun. Yeah. And you cloth diaper? 123.

 

Sarah B  02:56

I just one, just one.

 

Bailey Bouwman  02:58

And for how long now?

 

Sarah B  03:00

It’s been probably about 13 months, maybe 14?

 

Bailey Bouwman  03:05

Not so not too long, but long enough. Yeah. So how did you get introduced to cloth diapering?

 

Sarah B  03:12

Some of my friends have done it for years. And then I saw there’s lots of really cute prints. So that drew me in.

 

Bailey Bouwman  03:19

All right, what print caught your eye first? Um,

 

Sarah B  03:23

that actually our most of our stash is made out of glow bug cloth diapers. Okay. And I don’t know if there’s one specific one that drew me in but just they had a package that was pretty modern designs and stuff like that. So it was kind of what caught my eye at the moment.

 

Bailey Bouwman  03:41

That’s a that’s my favorite way to encourage people to cloth diaper is to like find a print they love. Yeah. It seems like kind of silly advice too. When I look at my first order I ever ordered I ordered like, I green and pink polka dot diaper from bommies my first ever cloth diaper and it is hideous. I don’t think my kids ever wore it was a little like a weird choice, for sure. So you’ve been mostly cloth diapering at 14 months using Globex glow bugs, we

 

Sarah B  04:14

have some bum genius. Some flip covers, and then a couple random ones I don’t even know all the names of

 

Bailey Bouwman  04:23

So which one is your favorite to use?

 

Sarah B  04:27

Um, I actually is probably a tie between the glow bag and the bum genius.

 

Bailey Bouwman  04:33

If you could build an entire stash of cloth diapers would it be with gold bugs and bump genius? Yeah, probably. Do you use a pocket or do you use like an all one pocket? Pocket? You like stuffing pocket say

 

Sarah B  04:44

sometimes.

 

Bailey Bouwman  04:47

What do you put it? What do you put inside your diapers then? Like I mostly

 

Sarah B  04:51

use the flower sack towels and then I’ll put either a bamboo microfiber Just one of the other inserts that we have just kind of wrapped in that FST.

 

Bailey Bouwman  05:05

Oh, do you are you dealing with a heavy wetter then? Yeah, he’s pretty. Ah, I’m so lucky I never actually had a heavy wetter because my kids don’t need that high maintenance. So nice. I bet. Right. What’s been your biggest cloth diapering challenge?

 

Sarah B  05:23

Probably sorting out absorbency especially overnight.

 

Bailey Bouwman  05:29

What do you do overnight? What’s your overnight solution?

 

Sarah B  05:32

Um, we’ve started being able to use some fitted just with the covers. Okay. Yeah,

 

Bailey Bouwman  05:40

that’s a good choice.

 

Sarah B  05:44

Yeah, now that he’s not drinking as much we tend to go towards either fitted sometimes the globins will work now. And then other days, we actually just go to disposables.

 

Bailey Bouwman  05:54

Oh, yeah, right. That’s to just be so much easier.

 

Sarah B  05:57

Yeah, it’s not my favorite. But what we do,

 

Bailey Bouwman  06:01

like a decent while not decent, but like I’m really absorbent overnight cloth diaper can be kind of pricey. Yeah, it can be. Yeah, like really pricey. Like, you’re saying he’s not drinking much. And I always found that, like, after a year, my kids didn’t drink much. And then we hit like, two. And they started like chugging milk before bed. And I suddenly had massive overdoing heavy weight loss then flooding. Yeah, super flooding. Thankfully, he’s like potty trained now. But I feel like they went

 

Sarah B  06:31

between up and down. Right? Uh, huh.

 

Bailey Bouwman  06:35

Yeah, finding an overnight solution is difficult. For sure. So if you could design your own cloth diaper, what would it look like? Oh, we were thought about this.

 

Sarah B  06:49

I have never thought about this. What about

 

Bailey Bouwman  06:50

or even a print? Is there a print out there that that doesn’t exist that you think should exist?

 

Sarah B  06:56

Hmm. I’d like to see more prints in the like, outdoorsy, sort of Adventure World. So like, they have a couple camping ones out there. But there’s a lot more like canoeing, paddle sports, climbing, biking. There’s not too much in that area with prints.

 

Bailey Bouwman  07:18

Yeah, cuz thirsties did one that had a bit of mountain biking on it. Yeah. And but I’ve never seen one. You’re right, with any paddling or any mountain rock climbing even No,

 

Sarah B  07:29

we’re just kind of funny because you would think that most people that do that sort of stuff are pretty into like the all natural sort of thing. And so you think they would cater to people from that area? But no one’s done it yet.

 

Bailey Bouwman  07:43

Nobody’s done it yet. I wonder hopefully, maybe a brand will listen to my podcast, and they will take it. I might have to let omake know I have I have sometimes an in them. Oh, I’ve never seen that. This is a good that was a good question. Yeah, I’m gonna have to keep looking and thinking like a canoe. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with a canoe.

 

Sarah B  08:06

No. I know. I’m global. This year had a couple that were like mountains, waterfalls, some things like that, but only a few of them.

 

Bailey Bouwman  08:20

A waterfall is a hard thing to put on a cloth diaper. It is yeah, they think smart bottoms and lagoon baby mission. Right. They put together a collab of with a water and it just wasn’t I didn’t think it was very well done. It’s like hard to show water. Mountains do look.

 

Sarah B  08:36

Yeah, waters. Definitely a hard one to show

 

Bailey Bouwman  08:39

is like super hard. So have you are you big into paddlesports? Yeah, pretty

 

Sarah B  08:45

big. Um, I’ve been a paddle instructor for almost 10 years.

 

Bailey Bouwman  08:51

Oh, that’s crazy. I was just saying last night on Facebook showed me that it’s been 11 years since I can use the power lakes with my girl. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then I haven’t been in a canoe in like 11 years. And I do kind of miss it. So that’s what you were suggesting paddlesports your power. How do you get do you get time to do that?

 

Sarah B  09:12

Sometimes, last summer, we got in quite a bit. My husband had a decent amount of time off. So that was really great. And we go to like the lake and stuff. Do you take the kid? Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, since probably about one month old,

 

Bailey Bouwman  09:30

so he’s pretty good about it. He’s pretty good. I’m always anxious that they would get a little squirrely Ah,

 

Sarah B  09:37

he does, but this year we gave him some toys in the canoe.

 

Bailey Bouwman  09:43

And that was good. Oh, good. Oh, good. That would make me really anxious.

 

Sarah B  09:48

We tried everything in and only had ones that were okay if they got wet.

 

Bailey Bouwman  09:54

Okay, yeah, that’s true if you title the toys, otherwise, you might have like a toy toy field at the Bottom of the canal.

 

Sarah B  10:02

Yeah, right. He took a bucket up and was pouring water into our canoe this last trip. Oh, that’s

 

Bailey Bouwman  10:08

really helpful. Yeah. That’s such a danji joy, right. Oh, yeah. So do you have any funny cloth diapering stories about taking them out?

 

Sarah B  10:20

I don’t know. I’m trying to think for the most part. He’s actually done okay with them when we have been on trips. I think the worst time was when we were just hiking. I think he was about two months old. And I look over at my husband and he just had like poop running down his shirt,

 

Bailey Bouwman  10:43

though.

 

Sarah B  10:44

Yeah, it was pretty sad.

 

Bailey Bouwman  10:46

Sosa is just a cloth diaper failed.

 

Sarah B  10:50

Yeah, it was when he was pretty young to race. So then it was more runny.

 

Bailey Bouwman  10:56

And it’s hard to get a good fit on like newborn legs.

 

Sarah B  10:59

Yeah. And it was our first experience out with them while camping. Oh. So it was just kind of all around. He was in a soft structure carrier and

 

Bailey Bouwman  11:12

just a mess. Hopefully you weren’t too far from somewhere to clean up.

 

Sarah B  11:16

What half an hour. Oh, not terrible.

 

Bailey Bouwman  11:20

Not terrible. No. Good adventure. What so what do you do when you go camping?

 

Sarah B  11:28

So we’ve done if it’s just like a couple of days, we’ve done just like the pockets. But when it’s our back country trips a lot harder to carry those heavy diapers. Yeah. And so I’ll usually take a cup a cover, we often go with our flip ones, because that’s what we have. And then have you heard of G diapers?

 

Bailey Bouwman  11:47

I’ve heard of them. And I’ve tried there. I’ve only I’ve tried them once, but I never you’re talking about their inserts? Yeah, yeah. Where do you source them?

 

Sarah B  11:57

Um, I got them off of Amazon. Okay. Yeah. So I mean, it’s a little bit harder to get a hold on. I just because they aren’t ready available in stores here. But um,

 

Bailey Bouwman  12:14

yeah, the G diaper inserts are probably one of the only ones I haven’t tried, mostly because I was having a hard time sourcing them on Amazon even.

 

Sarah B  12:23

Yeah. I made the mistake and ordered three times the amount I meant to

 

Bailey Bouwman  12:29

Oh, so you can go camping for the rest of your life. And you’ll be said, yeah.

 

Sarah B  12:35

Yeah, I misread the amount that was in there. So when they arrived, I was relieved to find that I didn’t spend as much on the diapering system than I thought I thought I did.

 

Bailey Bouwman  12:46

So you’re using when you go out in the backcountry, you’re using a flip cover with a G diaper ID sir.

 

Sarah B  12:51

Yeah, yeah. And they’re really great because they’re 100% compostable?

 

Bailey Bouwman  12:58

Oh, awesome.

 

Sarah B  12:59

Mm hmm. Don’t have to break and run out of like a tree pulp. And so like, even when they’re just wet with pee diapers and say that you can put them in your like home compost, and they’re completely compostable? And I think it’s like 28 days or something like that. Maybe

 

Bailey Bouwman  13:16

that’s awesome. That’s probably even better than like toilet paper.

 

Sarah B  13:20

Yeah, it might be a bit longer. Actually. I’m trying to see if it says on the bay here.

 

Bailey Bouwman  13:25

I think I have. I’ve used the flip ones. Okay. The G diapers, and you find that they hold up for your heavy water. Oh, yeah.

 

Sarah B  13:33

Yeah. And we didn’t even need to like add a second or anything. One of them lasted really well.

 

Bailey Bouwman  13:38

Awesome. So you pack those in, and then you’re able to just bury them or use? Yeah,

 

Sarah B  13:43

um, it depends on the location. Sometimes we’ll be packing them out with us. Yeah. But sometimes, depending on the type of like, out host system, if it’s just like one of your data hole pit sort of thing. Rip it open, dump it in and it’ll decompose faster. Awesome. And then we just have to be careful not to stick it in any of this specialty toilets, right? Especially if they’re pumping stuff out or whatnot. Because then it has a potential of clogging it

 

Bailey Bouwman  14:13

1. And that’s not fair. Right. So what what kind of trips have you taken your son on with this?

 

Sarah B  14:19

Um, we attempted to do the Sunshine Coast Trail. Okay. It’s out. Oh, in Lake Powell River area.

 

Bailey Bouwman  14:32

Okay. Where do you start in Powell river Gibson’s

 

Sarah B  14:35

I’m kind of in Powell.

 

Bailey Bouwman  14:41

And you say you attempted you didn’t get it finished?

 

Sarah B  14:45

No, we didn’t get to finish it because we day two I sprained my ankle.

 

Bailey Bouwman  14:51

Oh, no. At least you’re on the Sunshine Coast. It’s a beautiful part of the country.

 

Sarah B  14:57

Yes. Yeah, it was. It was gorgeous. So we took a couple days off from that. And then we decided to do the Powell River canoe route. Okay, which was also equally as gorgeous. And we didn’t have to be on our feet as much

 

Bailey Bouwman  15:14

as a Girl Guide. I spent a lot of time on the Sunshine Coast. Okay stepfather’s from Powell river. So I’m a little area that that’s kind of a bummer, but kind of sounds like a great trip.

 

Sarah B  15:25

Yeah. So I was, I was really fun. He was about five months old at that for that trip. Okay. hiking trips, and a few other canoe trips.

 

Bailey Bouwman  15:38

I can take you still get to cloth diaper. There. Are there any, like traditional disposable diapers that decompose the same way as like a G diaper insert does?

 

Sarah B  15:50

I haven’t come across any? Um, I think I’ve heard of maybe one or two, but I don’t know the names of them. That’s true. Fair.

 

Bailey Bouwman  16:00

I was just curious if that’s why you’ve chosen to use the G diaper instead of packing their disposable a full on disposable.

 

Sarah B  16:07

Yeah, um,

 

Bailey Bouwman  16:10

it makes for a pretty good compromise.

 

Sarah B  16:12

I’ve heard of some like bamboo ones, but I honestly don’t think most not all of them are going to be completely compostable.

 

Bailey Bouwman  16:18

Yeah, you know, and now is the Oh, yummy elastic. I thinking man, man loops dead. Lindsay there. I think she has once done a review with like, Panda company. They might be oh, look into it. But I could see what you’re meeting about, like, right? Any elastic or any adhesive on a cloth on a disposable diaper is going to reduce your biodegradability Mm hmm. Yeah, and compostability that’s really awesome that you’ve been able to find, like a compromise, like, not a compromise, but something that really works and lets you still go live a pretty awesome life. Hey, yeah.

 

Sarah B  16:55

Yeah, and my, my goal is to eventually try the fsts out on the trail. Yeah, it is hard, because you need to have almost the perfect weather for it. Just so that like, I’m not taking, like 20 inserts for in covers and whatnot for the trips. So I’d be washing it every couple of days.

 

Bailey Bouwman  17:17

Yeah. And it’s if your hand washing diapers that it’s humid or it’s wet. Then you kind of get in a tough spot. Yeah. Yeah, I bought that. That big. Scrub today. Yeah, I bought the scrubber bag for this year’s flats and hand washing challenge. Okay, and it was okay. I could see it being used there. I wouldn’t ever use it at home full time while hand washing.

 

Sarah B  17:40

No, we’ve used it on the trail. And then we’ve used it when we like go on family trips, like Yeah, or something.

 

Bailey Bouwman  17:48

It was interesting idea, though, and I kind of liked the concept. Mm hmm. It was fun.

 

Sarah B  17:53

It’s a lot easier than using a ziplock bag.

 

Bailey Bouwman  17:56

Is that what you used to do? Um,

 

Sarah B  17:57

I did it, I think once or twice with

 

Bailey Bouwman  17:59

a Ziploc bag. And you’re on the trail?

 

Sarah B  18:03

Ah, yeah, I think there’s one trip where I needed something and we used it. It was what we had. I can only clean with that.

 

Bailey Bouwman  18:12

I can only ever remember like washing clothes in like creeks. That would be it. We wouldn’t have ever been that creative to try Ziploc bag. Ooh. As a high schooler, though. My my knowledge of hand washing was limited.

 

Sarah B  18:25

Fair enough. Yeah.

 

Bailey Bouwman  18:29

That that is a really cool part about your cloth diaper history. Thanks for sharing. I hope it like sometimes I wonder if people think that they’re really like cloth diapering. Well limit them on their adventures, but obviously it doesn’t.

 

Sarah B  18:42

I think you have to be willing to put in the little bit of extra work like, No, I think it’s very intimidating for a lot of people so they go the easier route in their mind.

 

Bailey Bouwman  18:52

I’ve definitely done that one. I know like i We road trip a lot. And I’m going away. I’m going to Vancouver on Thursday, and I’m going to pack them I’ll pack the cloth diapers because it’s easier. Yeah. And it’s also part of the reason when I travel is my mom doesn’t get garbage regularly. Okay, like she only gets garbage every two weeks in her in Chilliwack. And so we could fill up a cannon like four days, easily, easily right with disposable diapers. So I bring them along because it’s kind of my only option instead of paying for garbage. And when you’re on the back trail, it’s also a great easy option instead of hauling out. Yeah, disposable diapers. Which probably stinky and gross. Yeah, and they get heavy. Yeah, if it was hot. I could imagine that you could bring flour sack towels for short trips. Yeah, like dry them out before you wash them when you got home. Mm hmm.

 

Sarah B  19:44

Yeah, we we had that with like one just front camping trip. We had them and we just let them dry out some but not an option when you only have so many diapers with you.

 

Bailey Bouwman  19:57

Yes, yes. And only So much weight that you want to carry him in and out. I guess when you’re canoeing that helps because you have a little bit more space. Yeah.

 

Bailey Bouwman  20:19

So if somebody asks you how to get started cloth diapering, what do you tell?

 

Sarah B  20:25

Um, usually I start off with asking them, like what type of diaper they’re interested in. Whether it’s like the pocket the covers, whether they’re trying to do with the cheapest way, or the easiest way for with, like, the grandparents or something.

 

Bailey Bouwman  20:44

Yeah. And then because really, it’s a pretty complicated issue, right. And that’s why I find that I think that’s one of the reasons people get intimidated with cloth diapering, because Oh, yeah. And you’re like, but there’s 7 million options.

 

Sarah B  21:00

Yeah, I spent months trying to figure out what type to get. And how

 

Bailey Bouwman  21:04

did what made your decision?

 

Sarah B  21:07

Um, I was gonna start off with just like, covers, and do you like fsts? But then, after starting to see a few diapers, I realized there’s not as many fun diapers with the covers. Yeah, so I got a couple of covers. And then from there, I decided I would get like, a couple different brands trial, a few different things. And then found out that our washing machine had to hold a lot of diapers so that most of our stash became pockets.

 

Bailey Bouwman  21:39

Oh, yeah, that’s a good way to bulk it up. Hey, you have a tricky washing machine.

 

Sarah B  21:44

Yeah, it’s a according to flap love University. It’s one of the larger wash machine barrels.

 

Bailey Bouwman  21:51

My mom has a pretty large washing machine barrel too. And it’s pretty tough to fill it up. Like I definitely notice if it’s not if it’s less than halfway. I just get a bad wash.

 

Sarah B  22:02

Yeah. Oh, yeah, I have to fill mine up, I think three quarters. And usually I end up just like stuffing in, like, all my FF s teas that are like leftover and stuff just to make sure it’s full enough.

 

Bailey Bouwman  22:16

I that’s one of the perks I guess to using I use a lot of like paper towel or not paper towel. I use a lot of like towels around the house little towels to clean up messes, and then it can help bulk up that for me. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Front loaders, though, are definitely picky. On that front. Hey. So that’s probably been a big challenge trying to figure out your washing machine.

 

Sarah B  22:39

It wasn’t first, but once I was asking questions on fluff live, it actually came pretty

 

Bailey Bouwman  22:45

quick. So this week, funky fluff and bommies just announced that they’re closing. Mm hmm. Yeah. That’s pretty big news. What do you think about that about the state of cloth diaper industry?

 

Sarah B  22:57

Yeah. I’m a little bummed. Oh, funky fluff was like I only have probably six of their diapers.

 

Bailey Bouwman  23:05

Only six.

 

Sarah B  23:08

I love the quality and feel of their diapers. So it’s kind of sad to see such a good quality diaper. Leave the industry. It seems like there’s a lot of cloth diaper thing. Company’s kind of dealing with that issue right now of deciding whether to stay open or close or sell.

 

Bailey Bouwman  23:30

Especially retailers I think are struggling. And brand low

 

Sarah B  23:35

bug just sold to a new owner as well.

 

Bailey Bouwman  23:39

Did they? Yeah, I didn’t know actually, I don’t really keep in the loop. But globe bug they’re based out of British Columbia. Right. And they’re maybe not anymore. No, I

 

Sarah B  23:50

think they’re out east.

 

Bailey Bouwman  23:51

Oh, Cat Cow, cow. We can Cali you know, Ka wa I?

 

Sarah B  23:59

Oh, yeah.

 

Bailey Bouwman  24:00

I think that one’s NBC. Oh, it’s no idea how to pronounce it.

 

Sarah B  24:03

Oh, okay. I thought there Oh, East, but I didn’t really look into Richmond.

 

Bailey Bouwman  24:07

So global OG is they’re producing in China and then they’re selling in Canada. You’re saying that they’ve just changed owners? Yes. Yes. Have you bought anything from their new owners?

 

Sarah B  24:19

No, it was just announced like the official sale was closed. Like a couple of days ago, I think or a week ago.

 

Bailey Bouwman  24:28

I’m definitely out of that loop. Yeah, it’s hard to stay in the loop with everything going on cloth diaper.

 

Sarah B  24:34

i Oh my gosh, there’s so many little companies too. Yeah, but I can imagine that for sure.

 

Bailey Bouwman  24:39

I know. I asked the other day about like all the made in Canada browns, and a ton of SC mamas that I didn’t even know existed. Okay, making some amazing cloth diapers. And next time I get like Child Tax will be a bad day. Next month, so yeah, And I guess we’ll see what happens. Yeah, that’ll be interesting to see what happens with little bugs. I didn’t know they had changed hands. And I know Yeah, like a lot of cloth diapers are changing what they’re doing and how they’re doing things.

 

Sarah B  25:13

Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting, even just over the last like, year seeing how they’ve all trends started to transition even just like how they’re doing social media, how they’re starting to use, like brand reps, things like that.

 

Bailey Bouwman  25:29

Meanwhile, some brands like blueberry diapers aren’t even on Facebook or Instagram. Oh, yeah. Somebody asked me the other day whether Facebook page was non existent. Wow. And they’re pretty big. That’s what I thought, but they have like zero social media presence.

 

Sarah B  25:45

I wonder cuz I wonder if that’s because they are trying to keep like a higher like trying to keep people thinking of them as a higher class brand.

 

Bailey Bouwman  25:57

I think it’s because they’ve had too much drama in their past. People. They, they’ve had a little bit of squirts squirts is not the right word. Little quips. Yeah. Okay. Little little tips. Yeah, gotcha. I think. Yeah, a cloth diaper industry. It will be interesting to see where it goes, for sure. And how it’s impacted. So do you have you been able to convince anybody in your life to switch to cloth diapers?

 

Sarah B  26:27

Um, I’ve had a few friends that are interested in it for the next kid, so I’m hoping that they’ll go forth with it.

 

Bailey Bouwman  26:38

And you’re in Edmonton. So you guys probably have some cloth diaper retailers. You could even go visit?

 

Sarah B  26:44

Yep, there’s a few. There’s not too many that. Sell too many options.

 

Bailey Bouwman  26:51

Oh, that’s true. I was trying to think even baby footprint. She’s in Grimsby, which is closer to Grand Prairie, isn’t it? Mm hmm. Yeah. She doesn’t even have a storefront.

 

Sarah B  27:01

So yeah, there’s a few small ones like two mothers. And

 

Bailey Bouwman  27:08

oh, like crunchy baby stores? Yeah, little options.

 

Sarah B  27:11

Yeah. Most other stores. Like you might find a couple at Walmart or toys. Ross, I think has like,

 

Bailey Bouwman  27:20

like very bummed genius, I

 

Sarah B  27:22

think. Yeah. There’s not too many options. At the bigger stores.

 

Bailey Bouwman  27:27

I know. It’s hard. Hey. Mm hmm. So what do you do when you’re not cloth diapering? Are you just a mom? Or are you something else?

 

Sarah B  27:35

I am a photographer.

 

Bailey Bouwman  27:37

You’re a photographer. Yeah. That’s fun.

 

Sarah B  27:41

I recently opened up a business just this past year. So been working on getting that going.

 

Bailey Bouwman  27:47

So you take what type of photos with newborn family.

 

Sarah B  27:51

I’ve done a couple engagement sessions.