Lavendar and tea tree oils are popular natural ingredients used in many products including diaper care products by cloth diapering parents. However, in the news recently, these two products have been found to, in rare cases, temporarily affect the hormonal balance on young boys....

A diagram of 3 pre-fold diaper folding techniques: standard fold, diaper cover fold and kite fold.

How do you know if your cover needs lanolizing? When you wash it, press it into the water. Look for the following signs: If wool sits on top of the water and has little pools of water gathering on top - it does not need lanolizing. If wool sits on top of the water and has some pools and some areas that absorbed water without assistance - it could use a good lanolizing soon. If wool sinks and saturates completely - it is time to lanolize....

Watch this TV Broadcast with Dina Demarest of No Pins 4 Baby!

Wool is a fabric made of fleece of sheep or lamb. It's water repelling properties and breathability are what make it popular for use as a diaper cover. Many choose wool because it is natural....

Animated instructions on how to use a snappi.

The job of a diaper cover is to prevent a wet or soiled diaper from leaking. Sounds simple enough - but then why do some covers leak? From the most expensive and well made to hand-me-downs, all covers work better if fitted carefully. Let's review the basics of cover use.

How to care for the cover. I recommend washing the cover by hand after several weeks of wearing unless it gets soiled. Wool will not develop a smell, because of its resistance to odor and rash causing bacteria so the cover doesn’t need to be washed every time it gets wet. You may want to give it an occasional lanolin treatment. This will help increase the performance and lifespan of your cover. Don't wash your covers by machine or thumble dry since they will shrink....

Diaper Pails were an area of great confusion for me when first getting going with cloth diapering. I knew where to buy pails for disposable diapers - but couldn't find a thing meant to accommodate cloth diapers. Envisioning a virtual stink bomb in the baby's room made me feel panicked! While I still try little diaper pail experiments from time-to time, diaper pails have become a no-stress element of cloth diapering for us. We've learned that just about anything works pretty well and that the key to minimizing odors is to remove as much poop as possible from the diapers before they go into the pail, to keep the pail out of direct sunshine and away from heaters, and to regularly wash dirty diapers. Here are some of the things we've learned about cleaning dirty diapers and choosing and maintaining a diaper pail.