Beach Bottom Cloth Pads

This post was super fun for me... But note that it talks about our "monthly friend," so if that makes you uncomfortable... well, we're all adults here, right?  If you're a regular to the blog, you know that I'm a HUGE advocate for cloth diapering.  But one thing that I've never touched on is the idea of reusable cloth pads... Yes - I said it: REUSABLE pads.  Ladies, it's a thing!

While some of us cloth moms will talk to anyone who will listen about diapering with cloth, it seems to be a much more taboo thing to discuss handling our own hygiene needs with a reusable product.  Why is that?  Disposable pads and tampons are just as expensive and harmful to the environment as disposable diapers are!

Beach Bottom is a small business based out of California, run by someone very much like me - A mom.  Jaime is fantastic and seriously creative, so please check out her store on Etsy  or the Beach Bottom Facebook Page to see all of the amazing reusable pads she has made by hand.  I love the idea of supporting small businesses, so this really is a win/win for me.  I even have a coupon code for you below, so stay tuned!

Below is a shot of three sizes in Beach Bottom's collection - Pantyliner, Light, and Moderate (there is also a "heavy" option).  A fun element of these is that all of the sizes have their own snap/closure color - pink of pantyliner, white for light, purple for moderate, and teal for heavy.  That way, when you're looking for the size you want, it's easy to find!

Fabrics: What are they made of?

Much like cloth diapers, cloth pads need to have both barrier layers and absorption layers.  Beach Bottom uses cotton, flannel, and micro fleece.  The fun fabrics that make up the top layer of the pads are 100% cotton.  Beach Bottom has numerous prints to choose from, all of them fun and bright - One of the reasons I like cloth diapering is that the diapers themselves are adorable, and the same can be said for cloth pads.  My favorite of Beach Bottom's options is the dream catcher design - super cute!

To absorb and retain liquid, the middle layers of the pads are cotton flannel.  Each size has a different level of absorption - Pantyliners, for example, only have a single layer of cotton flannel.  As you go up in size, more cotton flannel layers are added.

The bottom layer (the backing of the pad) is a soft micro fleece.  This helps to form a barrier from the liquid reaching your undergarments, and also serves to help anchor the pad in place - no one wants their pad slipping around as they go about their day, right?  Beach Bottom even incorporates fun colors for this part too.

How to Travel with Cloth Pads

As a cloth mom, I had several wet bags on hand that I use for my daughter's diaper bag.  When I went to work, all I did was put a small wet bag in my purse, snapped the used pads closed after use, and put them in the wet bag for sanitary storage until I got home.  It really wasn't any different than a disposable pad, only I threw nothing away.  If you don't want to buy a "wet bag," small makeup bags would be ideal for this too, and would easily fit in your purse or handbag.

Comfort and Use

I'm being 100% honest when I say that once I used these cloth pads, I knew I couldn't go back to disposables.  The cotton fabric is SO much more comfortable than the synthetic and bleached wood pulp or viscose rayon (ew) that disposable pads are made from - and Beach Bottom's pads are WAY less bulky than your typical pad.  I almost forgot I was wearing them... No joke!

I used the pantyliner as I was getting the indications that my cycle was coming, then the light and moderate once my cycle actually started.  I have a heavy flow, so these pads were most suitable for the first and last days of my cycle in order to limit any potential staining to my clothing - the days in between would have been ideal for the heavy pad (I'm heading over to Beach Bottom's store to load up on heavy pads soon!).

Clean Up

But, while all of this is great, I haven't brought up why most women don't want to try a cloth pad... the clean up.  It's the same with any reusable hygiene product - people don't want to see it or touch it, so they just keep using synthetic and bulky disposables.

So here's the truth - hand washing for all three took less than five minutes and was amazingly simple.  The care instructions that Beach Bottom sent over said that the pads were machine washable following a rinse, and could be dried in a conventional dryer (Beach Bottom pre-washes all fabrics so potential shrinkage is minimal).  I, however, opted to hand wash to see how it would go.  As directed, I used cold water to limit staining.  I started with rinsing out all three pads until the water in my sink ran clear.  

At that stage, I opted to use OxyClean (a handy product for cloth diapers as well) with a tiny bit of my plant-based cloth diaper detergent and scrubbed the powder into the fabric with my fingers, then rinsed again.  All signs of possible staining were gone and the fabric looked just as great as it had before use.  Below are the pads following wash, laid out flat to air dry:

Final Thoughts & Coupon Code!

I wouldn't recommend anything if I didn't love the product - and seriously, I LOVE Beach Bottom's pads.  They are adorable, comfortable, easy to clean, and super cost effective considering how long you'll be able to use them.  I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the product and I know that I'll be a customer for a long time.

In celebration of Memorial Day, Beach Bottom is offering 10% off all products this weekend using the coupon code NYU2015.  It's a limited offer, so don't wait!  This limited offer has expired!  But don't worry - Beach Bottom's cloth pads are actually much more cost effective than other cloth pads out there, so still check them out!

Beach Bottom's Etsy Store

Beach Bottom's Facebook Page

Beach Bottom on Instagram

 

Images Copyright Beach Bottom

Having A Daughter... It's Complicated

I never could have imagined having my own daughter until I found out I was pregnant with her.  I can't tell you how many times I told people that I "was never meant to have a daughter."  But why is that?  Why would my mind have put a mental block around the idea of raising a daughter?

I suppose the easiest thing to factor is my relationship with my own mother.  I love her dearly and she's incredibly important in my life.  She's one of my biggest influences.  With that said, I'm solidly in the "Daddy's Girl" category - my dad and I talk almost everyday, despite the fact that I'm in California and they're in Florida.  We can talk for hours, and we talk about anything - politics, groceries, television shows... we don't even agree on that stuff, but we have a natural "rhythm" with each other that makes our communication flow without any effort.

With mom, it's different.  It always has been.

She and I can talk for a few minutes at time, but then the phone swiftly gets handed back to dad.  We make sure that the other is doing okay, that we're happy... and that's about it.  Mom and I just never really developed that rapport that I hear my friends talk about with their moms.

So what happened?

There's a book called The 5 Love Languages that I absolutely adore.  This book opened my eyes to root of what might have limited the development of a close relationship with my mom (and no, this isn't a sponsored post!).  If you aren't familiar with it, the basic idea of this book is that people give and receive love in five very basic ways - Acts of Service, Gifts, Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, and Quality Time.

I fall into the "Acts of Service" and "Gifts" categories... Oddly enough, so does my father.  This means that my dad and I value doing things for, and giving things to, other people.  It's also the way that we most readily accept affection from others.  My mother? She could care less about about presents or me cleaning the kitchen for her when I visit.

Mom is definitely a "Quality Time" and "Physical Touch" kind of lady.  My mother wants her daughters, even now that we're well into adulthood, to sit on her lap, give her kisses on the cheek, and walk with her while she holds our hands... To me, that stuff is annoying.  I don't like hugs - I'm not a touchy person.  I also don't like having my hand held by anyone other than my husband and my kid.  Sorry, mom.

Building a Mother/Daughter Relationship

Now that I'm a mother, it really bothers me that I don't have a well developed relationship with my own mom... I suppose my dad stepped in and filled both roles for me a lot of the time.  As I think about that, and what that means, it makes me sad.

It also means that I want to start strong in my relationship with my own daughter.  Yes, I know that she might end up closer to my husband - I'm okay with that - But I also want her to feel like she can talk with me about her problems, come to me with her successes and worries... I want with her what I have with my dad.

But how can I do that?  What can I do that won't force closeness - just encourage it?  I think it boils down to a few very simple things.

 

Learn how she gives and receives love/affection

While my mother is an amazing mom, we just never developed a meaningful way to communicate.   As my daughter grows into her own person, I need to accept that she, as with me and my mom, likely won't be a carbon-copy of me.  I need to learn how SHE receives and gives affection so that I can provide for her the type of meaningful support she'll need as she navigates through life.

Respect our differences and embrace them

Another place where I think my mother and I went wrong is that we never learned to appreciate the differences between us.  We've accepted that we're very different people and simply avoid the issues that separate us.  With my daughter, I want to embrace our differences and celebrate them.  I probably could learn a great deal from my mother and her approach at life... and I luckily still have the time to bridge that gap.  With my daughter, I don't want to play "catch up" when she's older - I want to learn from her when she's two, ten, twenty, even forty years-old.