Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year Sale!


Happy New Year!
Let's start the new year of with a SALE!

Save 10% off STORE WIDE
Thursday through
Saturday 1/1-1/3
(use coupon code: NEWYR10)

Even MORE cloth diapers on sale throughout the store!


Become a Banana Peels Diapers Fan on Facebook. If you have any cloth diaper questions, need advice, or just want to chat be sure to stop by! Special announcements and Facebook only giveaways and specials will be posted on Facebook.

Monday, December 29, 2008

A new twist on the One-Size Cloth Diaper

Rocky Mountain Diapers have made their entrance to the cloth diapering scene with a BANG! They offer a brand new twist to one-size diapers. Size adjustments are made with internal snap adjustments, no exposed front snaps! Rocky Mountain Diapers are easy to use, easy to adjust, and great color combinations are sure to please.

Rocky Mountain Diapers are a versatile new one-sized pocket diaper that grows with your baby! They feature an internal adjustment system that allows for a trim fit tailored to your baby’s body type, without a complicated or cluttered external snap arrangement. With one simple adjustment to the hidden snap system, you can raise or lower the front rise, or accommodate a thin or chunky baby's thighs without the need to adjust again until your little one grows to the next size. Rocky Mountain Diapers come in a variety of adorable coordinating colors, and are made of quality, fade resistant PUL to prevent leaking, and soft suede cloth on the inside to keep your baby dry and happy.

Rocky Mountain One Size Diaper

Internal Adjustment System- Just like the adjustments in children's waist bands, only ours is set in the legs of the diaper! This offers a fully adjustable rise and a great fit in the thighs where other brands leak most.

FREE insert included!

Yummy color combinations include:
Berries and Lemons
Grapefruit and Lemons
Limes and Berries

Friday, December 19, 2008

bum Genius Deluxe AIO - New Bright Colors!

The bumGenius! All-In-One Cloth Diaper is a distinguished iParenting Media Award Winner!

As easy (maybe even easier?) than disposables! bumGenius Deluxe All in Ones require no stuffing, folding, or pins. Trim and easy to use. Perfect for daycare and babysitters. The x-small size is perfect during that itty-bitty newborn stage; it fits low, below the naval, to keep the umbilical area dry.

New and Improved 3.0! The new version of this well-loved diaper features a hidden slot which aids in dry time and allows for added absorbency, if needed.

All colors are in stock, including the new bumGenius Bright Colors! bumGenius AIO Package deals are also available.

**Free regular size Wahmies Wetbag -OR- bumGenius BabyLegs with the purchase of 12 or more bumGenius diapers!**

Friday, December 12, 2008

Save Money with Cloth Diapers

There are many great reasons to use cloth diapers. If the environmental benefits don't sway you the savings will. Not only are cloth diapers better for our planet, better for your baby, they are even better for your pocket book!

With the tough economic times upon up many families are looking for ways to cut back spending. I took a peak on Amazon.com to check out the going rate of disposable diapers. A box of Size 1 Pampers is $24.69 (not including shipping) which makes each diaper about $0.25. Newborns go through about 12 diapers a day, so a month of diapering with disposables will set you back $88.92! Wow, and that is just one month! Of course you'll need wipes, that will set you back another $12 per month. Not to mention gas used to the store if you don't buy online. That adds up to $100 PER MONTH! This amount will be a little less once baby is older and you are changing less often. Lets guesstimate that older babies will cost $80/ month. Now lets see what the grand total in disposables will set you back ...... $80 x 30 months = $2400 YIKES!

Let's take a look at the cost of cloth diapers. The most economical diapering system would be prefolds and Thirsties Diaper Covers. Just because prefolds are the most econmical don't underestimte their effectiveness. Prefolds are one of my favorite and best selling diaper option. They have many uses beyond diapering and wash up well.

Let's break down the cost from birth to potty learning:
2 dozen Infant prefolds at $22.20/dozen = 44.40
2 dozen Regular prefolds at $30/dozen = 60.00
4 XS Thirsties Covers at 10.75 = 43.00
4 Small Thirsties Covers at 10.75 = 43.00
4 Medium Thirsties Covers at 10.75 = 43.00
2 Pack of Snappis = 4.49
36 cloth wipes = 30.60
Total = $268.09

Looking for the simplest cloth diapering option that will still save you money over disposables? 24 bumGenius One Size Diapers will take you from birth to potty for about $400.00

Add in the washing:
30 months of washing diapers every other day=450 wash loads x $0.80 cents per wash load for water & electricity=$360.00

Grand Total for Disposables $2400
Grand Total for Cloth $628

That is quite a substatial savings! Now go ahead, MAKE THE SWITCH!!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA

I adore handmade toys. I am truly worried to think that small businesses and families which make toys will be hit so hard by this and may even be put out of business. When I walk down the toys isles in Target I see row upon row of plastic junk wrapped in more plastic. I love to know that they toys my children play with are made with love, contribute small family owned businesses an more importantly are safe! Don't get me wrong, my daughter loves her Barbies, thanks to Daddy who has a hard time saying no. Please read below to find out how you can help.

*Taken from http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/*

The issue:
In 2007,
large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.

For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers, however, the costs of mandatroy testing will likely drive them out of business.

  • A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
  • A work at home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
  • A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
  • And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of toys that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade toys will no longer be legal in the US.

If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.

How You can Help:

Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.