I have been poking around looking at our search engine rankings, and I was so surprised to see Firefly Diapers cruising to the top for several keyword phrases. We’re #1 on Yahoo for “organic diapers.” I know I love the diapers, and now I have the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing that an impersonal search engine loves them, too.

I am also surprised what terms people use to search. I couldn’t understand “undyed organic diapers” until I gave it some thought. Of course! Regular Quick Dry Diapers are undyed; Quick Dry Color Diapers are dyed. It makes sense that many people are looking for undyed organic cloth diapers. And they find us! Isn’t that excellent.

Google:
Quick dry organic diapers = #1 (colors), #2 (quick dry), and #4 (review at Diaper Pin)

Yahoo:
Organic diapers = #1 (site) and #2 (quick dry)

MSN:
Quick dry diapers = #1 (browse) and #2 (colors)

Just in case you were wondering how we did it, I am going to tell you. I wrote out a list of likely keyword phrases for Firefly Diapers then combined them in one long string. It is very old style. I know more about what search engines are looking for now, but none of the Firefly Diapers pages follows those rules of optimization. What rules? No more than 2 phrases per page, 5% inclusion rate (3-word phrase appears 5 times on 300-word page), keyword phrases listed with commas between, and on and on. The rules will melt if you try to touch them, so don’t hold them in your hand.

When I wrote these 71 pages of keywords in the Spring, I did have help from Heather Sanders, who has since opened her own business, Very Commerce, helping small businesses with improved search engine ranking, along with hosting and other great services. (Yes, a plug. She deserves that and more.) Heather had helped Mothering.com improve their search engine ranking, so I asked her to guide me through the process and correct my direction along the way. I blame Heather (and the chance of the Google dance) for the numbers above.

[Last updated Oct 30. Rankings can be transient, but it's great to see Firefly Diapers playing with top rankings for many keywords.]

OK. Maybe not everywhere but certainly beyond northern California.

‘Tis the season of green festivals and conferences, from family educational events to serious business conferences to gatherings of thoughtful visionaries. Is there a green event close to you? Grab a neighbor and a friend of a friend to share car space, and tell them all about natural living and sustainability.

> > CURRENTLY MISSING (unless you are more fortunate than I).

16th Annual Bioneers Conference
San Rafael, CA
October 14 – 16, 2OO5
See it on DVD.

The Bioneers Conference is a hub of practical solutions for restoring the Earth – and people. It’s a thriving network of visionary innovators working with nature to heal nature. The Bioneers draw from four billion years of evolutionary intelligence and apply the knowledge in practical ways to serve human ends harmlessly.

> > UPCOMING EVENTS. Make your plans now.

3rd Annual Co-op America Green Business Conference
San Francisco, CA
November 1-4,
Prior to the Green Festival November 5-6

Starving for a green connection?

Roll up your sleeves and get ready to bite into the green business revolution at this hands-on conference. Learn from your peers in this value-packed three-day event as you discuss the many ways to build your business and a prosperous sustainable economy.

Green Festival
San Francisco, CA
November 5 & 6, 2005

Green Festivals is a movement building event. Our intent is to diffuse an economic model based on life affirming values, an economy built on human rights, equity, art and an understanding that all life is interconnected and interdependent.

This is an amazing time of transformation from a life destroying to a life affirming culture. We hope that as part of this transformation, Green Festivals is a catalyst helping to chart a course through the reorganization of our economy so that we can heal our biosphere and nurture all communities, all people, all species.

> > MISSED earlier this year.

10th Annual SolFest
Solar Living Center, Hopland, CA
August 20-21, 2005

Family event with music, speakers, and exhibits.

Green Festival
Washington, D.C.
September 24-25, 2005

Organizational Structure

We try our best to be as inclusive as possible in decision-making embracing a holonarchic organizational structure.

Fair Trade Futures Conference
Chicago, IL
September 30 – October 2, 2005

The focus of this conference is bringing together people and organizations committed to Living a Fair Trade Life and to achieving social justice and change through the market, to celebrate the best, learn from our experiences, to create strategies to work collaboratively to strengthen the Fair Trade movement in North America.

The Conference Planning Council especially welcomes companies that are just starting to engage in Fair Trade and want to bring these principles into the core of their activities. Come, listen, learn, ask your questions and get inspired to join us on the journey to living a Fair Trade Life.

If you have a green festival or conference to add to my list, let me know. If you were there, give me a report. I have not attended any of these gatherings. Maybe you can help me decide where to start.

Dear Customer,

The accusation that cloth diapers or wool covers are unsanitary is unfounded, and I am sure you can help the staff at your daycare center understand this with some gentle education.

Wool Diaper Covers at Daycare. I see three issues at hand here: assumptions about urine; the cleanliness of a previously-worn wool diaper cover; and daycare regulations.

Urine is easiest, so let’s deal with that first. Urine is sterile, unless one is ill. The pH of urine is very close to neutral. Urine is not a scary, unclean substance despite the tendency in our culture to be afraid of our own waste.

Next, the cleanliness of a previously-worn wool diaper cover. You were told that reusing a diaper cover was unsanitary. As you mentioned, either deliberately or not, they were questioning your parenting choice. We’ll break this down into two parts: wool and lanolin.

Wool fibers have a porous core. The fibers easily absorb then evaporate moisture. Wool fibers absorb 30% of their weight without feeling damp. Natural moisture content makes wool fire-resistant, yet wool’s porous structure repels mildew and dust mites. Wool is the perfect fiber for the moist environment of a diaper because it breathes and regulates the baby’s skin temperature.

Next, wool diaper covers have natural lanolin content and are often treated with lanolin to condition the fibers. Lanolin is sheep wax, the naturally occurring oil from sheep’s skin. Lanolin itself has anti-fungal and antibacterial properties, protecting sheep’s skin from infection. An even stronger point for you to make is that “When the lanolin in the wool comes in contact with urine, a chemical reaction occurs, which creates lanolin-soap. This has an antibacterial effect, making the wool self-cleaning, as it is worn by your baby” (Almstrøm). They may not be interested in a chemical reaction between lanolin and urine, but you yourself can rest assured that you are making a very good choice.

The last issue is daycare regulations. This is the most difficult issue, but you still have strong points to make.

The National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care provides on their website an Indiana rule for Child Care Center licensing, including “Caregivers shall use a fresh, clean diaper cover with each diaper change” (NRCHSCC). They don’t explain their reasoning but simply state a rule. Your daycare won’t be governed by this rule, but it sounds as though they follow this reasoning. They are, though, governed by National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation rules. Those are even more strongly stated. NAEYC insists that “staff use only commercially available disposable diapers or pull-ups unless the child has a medical reason that does not permit their use (the health provider documents the medical reason)” (NAEYC). In order to accredit a daycare facility, NAEYC requires that babies wear disposable diapers. I can only assume that this criteria is uninformed and ill-chosen, and I fully intend to approach them about it through the Real Diaper Association. This may mean that your choice in the short run is limited, but I believe you could educate your local daycare as well as the national accrediting body. Considering where they are starting from, they clearly need some solid information about cloth diapers.

You might start your cloth diaper education of the daycare center staff by telling the Center’s Director about a cloth diaper situation in Sunnyvale, California. A local daycare told a parent she was not allowed to bring cloth diapers for her child to use in their facility. The staff themselves researched the issue and found that the municipality would make considerable cost savings if all city residents were to switch to reusable diapers. Rather than regulate the use of disposable diapers with a ban, they recommended “that the City Council authorize staff to use public education and outreach methods to encourage the use of reusable cloth diapers” (Sunnyvale). Their education points included: cooperative promotions, “negative financial impacts of disposable diapers on the City’s rate payers” and technical assistance. The Director may be interested to know how that the daycare center themselves do have choices in this matter by seeking a change in rules from governing bodies.

It may be a long shot but if you can educate the staff at your daycare center, you may find they become allies in your use of cloth diapers and wool diaper covers. I suggest you start with one clear article: “Cloth Diapered Children and Day Care Providers: Is Cloth a Hygienic within a Day Care Setting?” by Heather Sanders. This article answers many of the basic questions they are likely to have. You might also find it useful to use advocacy cards (short, single issue postcards) and pamphlets (longer with further resources) from Real Diaper Association (RDA) to give cloth diaper details as needed.

Good luck.

Update: When this parent spoke to one of the daycare director, she was open to hearing the information. As a matter of fact, the director has a 1-year-old child and is using cloth diapers with plastic covers. This parent is going to give the director a wool cover to help her see how well wool diaper covers work.