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.

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.

We dye the wool knit for Firefly East Wool covers. When it comes time to decide the next color to dye, I check to see if there are enough colors on the shelf in chartreuse (my personal favorite) or in rich jewel tones. I tend to neglect earthy colors. I don’t dislike them, but I just don’t think of them.

We like to keep old favorites in stock even while we try new colors. I also invite customers to suggest colors, and many customers have asked me for more darker greens and browns for boys. So, we tried a few new earthy colors lately.

Sage was new to us this summer. Next to the bright rainbow it looks greyish green, but I like the way it stretches our pallette. Customers have liked this color, too. We have dyed it several times now.

Colors often look different on organic cotton than on wool. Some blue-ish tones wash out of wool. So a crisp cool, baby apple green Chartreuse for a diaper becomes a warm golden green on wool.

Recently, we also tried several browns we hadn’t used before. Brown dye can be a mix of colors, so the color differences between vegetable fibers (organic cotton) and animal fibers (wool) can be more pronounced. Or, sometimes the colors are more similar, like the dye we use to make Cinnamon Brown on Firefly Quick Dry Color Diapers and Red Brick on Easy Wool covers.

This may well be another manifestation of my true identity as a diaper nerd, but I really like putting the colors together and seeing them in a big rainbow. When I put together a warm fall rainbow (leaf-bow?) of wool colors, I wanted to share. I may not think of earth tones first, but they give me that same fuzzy feeling as a range of rich jewel tones or sweet ice cream colors.

If there is a color you would like to see in Easy Wool covers or Quick Dry Color Diapers, let me know. I like to play with color.

[Colors above from top: Light Marigold, Deep Dark Marigold, Chartreuse, Avocado, Leaf Green, Dark Sage, Golden Brown, Bark Brown, Red Brick, Rust, and a tiny corner of Orange.]