Welcome to Ask ZRecs! Today, we have answers to burning reader questions about safer nail polish for kids, cloth diapers that won't stay up, tagless rashes, curiously modest BPA-free claims, Munchkin straw cup cleaning, and bunnies on electric trains.

Safer nail polish for kids

Dear ZRecs,

I wonder if you have criteria for Z’s nail polish. There are so many chemicals in nail polish and L is still prone to keeping his fingers in his mouth. He would love to paint his nails, but I resisted because of the unknowns in the nail polish. Thoughts?

Carrie S

Carrie, Z has a variety of caregivers and compatriots who pay varying levels of attention and/or lip service to our product safety requests. I'm guessing that nail polish came from being treated at a nail place (nobody I know could do those polka dots) and that it was not a brand we'd consider to be "safer." As for a recommendation, we'd suggest Piggy Paint.

Droopy drawers

Dear ZRecs,

Can you give me any advice for keeping the diaper up on my extremely active 2 year old? It is really the first bump I've run into with cloth diapers that I can't seem to find an answer too. I'm using thirsty covers (I have v1 and v2) with prefolds. I do have some fitted diapers, but find they are more likely to wick on to her clothes if the diaper gets very full. I would argue that the velcro might be wearing out but it doesn't seem to matter. New and old fall down. Help!

Dana

To answer your question, Dana, we turned to Kim Rosas, who knows the ins and outs of cloth diapering and shares her expertise with readers of Dirty Diaper Laundry on a near-daily basis. (She's also doing a bunch of baby carrier reviews and giveaways all through the month of October.) Here's what Kim had to say:

I have a few ideas that will definitely help, but it depends on how much Dana wants to invest and also how much she wants to alter her routine.

One solution could be using a prefold belt. This is usually used for practicing Elimination Communication over just the prefold itself. It makes undoing the front flap easier for potty breaks. If you aren't willing to purchase anything new then maybe securing a belt around the cover and prefold will help keep the diaper from slipping off, especially if the Velcro is the culprit. You can find them from EC stores like this one.

Pull on covers that are a good tight fit will work well with an active toddler. Since a two year old can stand up on their own, sometimes it is even easier to use pull on covers for changes as well. Most pull-on covers are made of either fleece or wool. Either of these are great for heavy wetters and are especially good for nighttime. The drawback is that they are thicker than tradition PUL (polyurethane laminate) covers like Thirsties. They are even harder to fit clothing over.

For this reason, you can just buy pants that are fleece or wool. These function as clothing and diaper covers. Wool "longies" as they are called can either be hand-knit or sewn from wool interlock fabric, which is a weave just like T-shirt fabric, with lots of stretch. Interlock is much thinner than knit covers. Fleece is the least expensive option. In fact, some parents have had success with just buying fleece pants from places like Old Navy. The pants needs to fit snugly around the diaper. If you can't find any that would work or they don't work well for you, don't give up. Fleece longies are still relatively inexpensive. Wool longies out of interlock will cost between 30-70 dollars. Sustainable Babyish is a well known brand for Interlock Wool Longies. Fleece longies are around $15-30. You can also find lots of free patterns online if you can sew and would like to make your own. All of these will work well over prefolds.

The last option would be re-evaulating your current diapers and possibly switching brands. There are diapers that have gathered elastic around the back, and even some with gathered elastic at the front. These are going to have tighter waists. Some brands even boast that if you pre-set the size you can use them like "pull-ups." There is also a brand specifically made for that called Antsy Pants. Snap-EZ is a brand with both front and back elastic.

And of course, if you decide you like your old Thristies but they just need new Velcro, there are WAHM's who will replace the velcro for you. This service can cost $2-3.50 each plus shipping. The best way to find someone for this service is to hit up a diapering message board and search the WAHM forum. You might even have luck asking local moms.

Thanks, Kim! Hope it helps, Dana!

Tagless label irritation: Thinking beyond Carter's

Dear ZRecs,

My daughter, who has no other skin issues, is one of the unlucky children who gets a nasty rash from the tagless clothing. While I am so grateful that Carters is being called to the mat (I hope I used that phrase correctly), I am concerned about all the other companies who have gone tagless too. A few weeks ago I put a Circo/Target shirt on DD, which had a small stenciled tag. By the end of the day the tag-spot on her back looked like red sandpaper.

If tagless tags are the wave of the future, do I have to research each company’s tags to figure out if the inks are Oko-Tex certified? And can I be certain Oko-Tex certified shirts won’t cause a rash? I appreciate all the information that ZRecs has already gleaned and would be more than happy to support ZRecs tag-testing efforts.

Ava

Ava, you've just articulated one of the big reasons this issue continues to concern us. Ever since our first reporting on Carter's tagless onesies, we have heard a few reports of Gap, Old Navy, Circo, and other brands causing irritation in children. It seems that this was less widespread, but it is hard to know for sure how many parents might have had experiences with other brands but did not find the forum to share them in the same way that parents of children with Carter's brand clothing did.

We believe that the Carter's issue reflects a blind spot in consumer awareness about potentially harmful chemical exposure of their children. Our ultimate goal is not just to learn what might be in Carter's tagless labels - whether it be those from 2007 which appear to have caused the most widespread problems, or those from 2008 that appear to have caused some ongoing problems, or those in 2009 that are still not certified as being free of a wide range of harmful chemicals - but what might be in tagless labels in general that should concern us.

We have two posts planned on the Carter's tagless situation as we work on firm plans for testing; one of these posts will discuss how tagless inks are made and applied to clothing, and why certification standards are so important to protect not just highly sensitive children but all infants and toddlers from unnecessary exposure to sketchy chemicals we wouldn't dream of accepting in their toys, skin care products, or even the fabrics of their garments.

Help me take this thing apart

Dear ZRecs,

You mentioned in an earlier post that Munchkin straw cups were easy to take apart and clean, but I can't figure out how to disassemble it! Can you show us?

Stumped Mom

No problem, SM! The flip-top lid has a small nubbin on either side that fits into two indentations in the main lid. By putting a little pressure on the flip-top at the right angle, you can release it from these indentations, remove it, and get everywhere for cleaning. The trick is knowing which way to replace it - the cut-out for the straw should be oriented away from the hole the straw comes through from below. Here's a quick video demo:


OK, this next one is a reconstruction, because we lost the letter. You know who you are.

Rabbits on a train

Dear ZRecs,

I love the look of the Playmobil bunnies set, but my son or daughter will only be interested in it if the bunnies fit in Geotrax trains. They don't have to fit in the engines, but at least knowing that they fit in the open cars would be enough to make them a viable toy for my child. Can you tell me if they fit?

A Crazy Reader

Crazy Reader, you are in luck! They do fit in Geotrax train cars. They also can do something very fun in the Geotrax train station, which Z was very interested in showing you. Those photos are at the end of this slide show.

Telling it like it is* on BPA

Dear ZRecs,

Not new to zrecs BUT...had a question. Here's a new one...when buying Take N Toss cups with the Sesame Street characters on them, the packaging said "BPA Free*" with the asterisk. Looked a bit more closely and it says "*polycarbonate and epoxy free" so what exactly are they protecting themselves from with the "*"? Any ideas? I didn't buy them... just in case. This whole thing is so frustrating. You basically have to do enough research to support a senior thesis in order to buy cups! Thanks guys, as usual!

AJsMomma

Sharp eye, AJsMomma. Our suspicion is that The First Years has realized that there are potential lawsuits in making the statement that any product is "free" of any chemical. Given how long it takes products produced and packaged in a factory to actually make it onto store shelves, they were probably pretty prescient in taking the step they did; the asterisk covers the known sources of BPA used in production of plastics but also protects them from trace levels being found in, say, polypropylene.

You could look at this as a cynical ploy to sneak some BPA into our sippy cups, but we suspect this is probably a good faith effort on their part to make the claim they can reasonably make while protecting their brand from situations that are beyond the control of a company that wants to produce products at the volume, price point, and relative priority the company places on chemical savviness - in other words, high, cheap, and relatively low.

There are companies out there that have their finger more closely on the pulse of what exactly is happening chemically in their products - Thinkbaby, whose products were the only to test at non-detect levels in every study Health Canada did, are the most obvious example of this - so ultimately it becomes a question of what kind of a brand you want to be doing business with. I'd say if you need cheap products to have a bunch around, avoid brands you know are bad actors in this space first, and The First Years isn't the worst company to trust with your child's health. If you want to go further, get cozy with a BPA-free brand that knows their products' chemical makeup backwards and forwards and can vouch for it a little more aggressively.

Have a question you'd like us to answer? Email us at editors@zrecs.com with "Ask ZRecs" in the subject line, and we'll consider it for a future Q&A. Sign photo by Laura K. Gibbs, shared via Flickr.