We are so happy to see our shelves bursting with new diapers in a big rainbow of organic cotton colors. It has been a while since Firefly Diapers has stocked quite so many colors at once in Quick Dry Color diapers.

Why use color diapers? Obviously, color doesn’t have anything to do with function. Color is about feeling. I feel happy when I am surrounded by colors. If I smile when I change my baby’s diaper, my baby smiles back at me. The papa of Firefly Diapers suggests (after one too many home decorating shows) that colorful cloth diapers should be marketed as a decorative element for babies’ rooms. I’m not sure I would go that far, but I do love to see that rainbow of color when I walk into our stock room.

We make these low-impact dyed colors available in our three most popular sizes — Small, Medium, and Large. Available colors vary between the sizes, but (as of writing) there are still colors across the spectrum available in every size.

Some of our customers collect rainbows of organic cotton diapers. You can see customers’ photos of their collections here. If you have considered collecting a rainbow of diapers for your baby, this is the time to do it. We will likely restock the colors in bigger blocks of single colors.

And, as always, if you have requests for colors, let us know. We love to hear customer suggestions.

I like Firefly Quick Dry Diapers and other fitted cloth diapers. It’s true. But I can’t help thinking at times that the materials and labor that go into complex diapers would be better spent elsewhere in our society. I wanted to be sure that Firefly Diapers offered a simple cloth diaper solution, too.

My answer: flat organic cotton diapers.

For our first child, we used only flat diapers for the first several years. No pins. No Snappi. Just tri-folded and slightly fanned terry and flannel rectangles set into a cover. To help prevent sagging, we also used T-shirts that snapped underneath. No sagging, little (though some) leaking, and no problems. A snug cover does most of the work of keeping the diaper where it belongs.

Rather than use woven flannel and terry for Firefly Diapers, I chose unbrushed French terry knit. I quite liked having the texture of terry on one side our diapers to give us the choice in how to use them, so I make sure our flat diapers have one side smooth and one side nubby. Any fold used for prefold diapers will work. I often stuffed wash cloths or wipes inside the folded flat diaper to add absorbency, and I doubled the diapers at night.

As much as I like the convenience and the snug fit of Quick Dry Diapers, if I had to diaper another baby, I am sure I would use a simpler diaper, like organic cotton Firefly Flat Diapers. We make these in 3 sizes that fit together well to grow with your baby.

A customer wrote to me today asking about lanolin because the Organic Consumers Association released an article earlier this year on carcinogens in baby cosmetics. They listed lanolin as one of the dangerous ingredients that “could readily be stripped off during ingredient manufacture, if the industry just made the effort to do so.”

So, why do we suggest using lanolin for wool cover care? Let’s consider the issue of lanolin.

Lanolin is grease from the skin of sheep. Lanolin keeps the sheep fibers waterproof and it also provides antibiotic protection for the sheep. It works to keep the fibers in good shape while they are on the sheep, and it works well when we sheer those fibers from the sheep as well. (See our article “Why Use Wool for Diaper Covers” for more information on the properties of wool.”

Lanolin keeps protein fibers soft and flexible. Wool diaper covers are one of the bigger financial investments cloth diapering families make. It makes sense to clean and care for the covers so they will last as long as possible.

The Organic Consumers Association press release refers to the direct application of cosmetics on the sensitive skin of infants, which would create a more worrisome problem than the use of lanolin as a laundry ingredient. As I read their article, the problem isn’t with substance itself but with lanolin from non-organic sheep or lanolin without residues removed.

Look for organic lanolin. Be sure that you aren’t just getting a product with some organic ingredients then convention lanolin. Before you buy lanolin or woolwash, ask the manufacturers about the lanolin. [I don’t personally know of a brand of lanolin that is organic. If you do, please let me know. I would be happy to add that information to our product care articles.]

You may also want to make your own woolwash using medical-grade purified lanolin, such as Lansinoh, which we carry. Lansinoh is not organic, but it has been treated to remove impurities such as pesticide residues. Lansinoh purifies their lanolin because the primary application of Lansinoh is for cracked and dry nipples of breastfeeding mothers. The lanolin is pure enough that it does not need to be removed before breastfeeding.

When sheep have been dipped to prevent ticks and other skin parasites, residues of the chemicals used can remain in the lanolin. Sheep raised organically are not dipped in parasiticides. A consumer-friendly version of organic sheep raising can be found in the O’Mama Report, a family-oriented newsletter from the Organic Trade Association. This is a simple, monthly newsletter with articles submitted by OTA members. You can read the full text of National Organic Standards, including those for livestock, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

If you are still hesitant to use lanolin, keep in mind that you don’t have to use lanolin to treat wool covers. Wool will function just fine without any lanolin treatment whatsoever. The wool absorbs naturally to its core and the fibers knit into a tight fabric can act together to repel moisture. Lanolin works to keep the fibers soft and supple, much the way a conditioner can work on our hair. Long-term, it is important to keep the fibers clean and flexible rather than crystallized and brittle in order to prolong the life of your wool diaper cover. If you don’t use lanolin, you probably should use another softening agent as you wash. But, be sure you don’t trade off the drawbacks of lanolin for the drawbacks of another substance.

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.]