I recently spoke to you about our cloth diaper routine with Ysé and how it is managed on a daily basis. Nothing serious in the end, just a question of organization and changing habits.
By the way, if you’re interested, today is the start of reusable diaper week (yes, it exists, from April 29 to May 5!) and the new brand of reusable diapers that we use, namely Bambino Mio, offers -20 % on their entire site. If you want to equip yourself with something new, now is the time!
If you haven’t followed the why and how we moved from the Hamac brand to the Bambino Mio brand at 6 1/2 months, I will talk to you about it again here when I give you an update on the use of the Bambino Mio.
So to go further in our feedback on our zero waste daily life with Ysé, today I suggest we talk to you about our diaper care and eye care / nose washing routine.
As with reusable diapers, it’s just a question of changing habits and changing consumption patterns. And you will see that baby does not need all these toxic products that I told you about in my previous article.
CHANGE CARE
During the first months of Ysé we had a bottle of Babyléna brand liniment. Bought in a hurry just before going to the maternity ward, the thing lasted us several months.
Very good composition, however not very zero waste in its large plastic bottle. So, as initially planned, we made our own liniment. And it’s super easy!
This way we know what we are putting on his butt and can make the recipe without generating plastic waste. I know that it is possible to use only water for changing (that’s what we do when we pee) and for many people it works really well. On our side, it wasn’t enough to remove the stools. Liniment is therefore essential for the moment. We will then see if we can make our routine even more minimalist and stick only to water.
Homemade liniment recipe
— olive oil (preferably organic, sunflower or rapeseed oil can do the trick)
— lime water (to be asked at the pharmacy counter, in a glass bottle)
— beeswax or soy wax (I collected soy wax that was left over from my homemade candles from our wedding!)
— vitamin E or grapefruit seed extract (for storage for more than 15 days)
— a pump bottle
— a whisk or fork
— a funnel
First of all, wash your hands, the pump bottle, the funnel and the whisk/fork well. Personally, I rub everything in white vinegar.
In a large salad bowl, put the olive oil (100 ml, 200 ml, 300 ml…your choice) then put it in a bain-marie. Add 2 tablespoons of wax (this will prevent the oil and lime water from getting out of phase). Allow the wax to melt in the oil without boiling the mixture.
Once melted, remove the bowl from the bain-marie. Add the same quantity of lime water as you added olive oil and whisk with a fork/whisk until thoroughly mixed. You should obtain a slightly thickened liquid mixture. If it is too thick it will not pass into the tube of your pump bottle, so prefer it to be liquid.
To keep it for more than 15 days without it turning, add 4 drops of a natural preservative such as vitamin E or grapefruit seed extract. Not obligatory but recommended.
Pour everything into the bottle using the funnel. And that’s it, it’s finished!
On Instagram I was also told about an even easier version where you put half oil and half lime water in your bottle and shake it.
The mixture shifts but you just need to shake the bottle each time you change it to bring it back to normal.
Personally, it irritated me to have to shake each time I change so I prefer the complete recipe but I find that it is an excellent option to make the task easier!!
Washable cottons
Used since the beginning, washable cottons are used for everything: changing clothes, cleaning the eyes, cleaning dirty hands, runny noses…
We wash them at 40 degrees with washing powder with the reusable diapers and that saves us a mountain of waste. Given the speed at which they go back into the wash barely dry, it would have turned them into trash cans full of disposable cotton pads!
Just one point: washing washable cotton pads is no less eco-friendly than throwing away disposable cotton pads just because you use water to wash them. The production of disposable cotton consumes a lot of water, it is a real ecological aberration. Not forgetting the pesticides used to grow the plant, then transport and transformation into everyday products.
Using washable cotton pads or even washcloths is a small everyday gesture that has a big impact.
And if you’re good with your hands, it’s super easy to do with an old towel and a few scraps of fabric. We have some from the Tendances d’Emma brand (which we only use for stools), from Kufu and from a designer on Etsy called Mimi and Cookie.
And in pu
EYE CARE AND NOSE WASHING
Our daughter was born with her tear duct in her left eye blocked and we have to wait until she is 1 year old before seeing if we need to operate or not. So, cleaning your eyes constantly is something we know! Waste from physiological serum pipettes too!! We tried to use only water to minimize waste but it irritated him and was not enough to properly clean the sometimes infected discharge…
So we agreed to spend our time screwing up plastic micro pipettes… Then I asked the pharmacy if there were any solutions and they told me about the big glass bottles of ‘1 L of phy serum. But why don’t we talk about it more? “For business, ma’am!” I was told…
In fact, a 1 L bottle is worth €6 and a box of pipettes is equivalent to approximately €4 for 200ml, or therefore €20 per liter…
I therefore questioned myself with medical professionals about the notion of hygiene and sterility of the product. 2 bells ringing: “oulala it’s dangerous, don’t do that, it’s not hygienic” versus “there’s no problem as long as you don’t put anything contagious in it, like a pipette or your finger for example”.
You know me, so I opted for the second version 😉
To use physiological serum in a glass bottle you need a pipette to take the product and put it on a cotton ball or to directly clean the nose for example.
We are not going to put the cotton in the neck to avoid the transmission of potential bacteria in the serum. Also remember to clean the pipette each time you use it to avoid soaking its tip full of microbes in the serum, which would make the product no longer sterile and hygienic!
Concerning nose blowing, after trying the pipettes of phy serum directly in the nose or the classic baby nose with disposable tips (the loose one…) I came across the small bulb from Green Sprouts .
Washable with hot water and soap, it allows you to either suck liquid from baby’s nose or, by filling it with phy serum, to clean baby’s nose in enema mode. A miracle, this little object!! And so much more economical (€6.50 please)!