72 hour kits and cloth diapers

Last monday night for Family Home Evening we went through and updated our 72-hour emergency kits. We have a bunch of MREs (fake army food) and divided them up between four backpacks (including a super tiny backpack for Lola). We got the MREs from a family that moved south. There is a lot of food there, but no dates on it anywhere. Chris mentioned that it could be surplus meals left over from Desert Storm or even the Vietnam era. We sampled one of the pieces of fortified snack bread (it was heavily smothered with a packet of strawberry jam to make it palatable). Wow, pretty gross. I could tell it was food that you would eat to keep from starving to death, that's all. So now my new plan is to get real food from the grocery store (tuna, saltines, fruit roll-ups, granola bars, etc.) to use instead of the MREs. Then rotate that food every six months. I've heard of people that do the rotating at conference time. The family gathers around the TV (in our case, the online audio stream) for two days to listen to the prophets council while they have a picnic-type feast on all their emergency food. That sounds like it could be a fun family tradition (but not if it involves MREs). So I need to stock up some good emergency food.

We also went over some lists I have collected over the years of what should be in your 72-hour kit. (Here is an example list, there are many other lists online.) We inventoried what we already had and made a shopping list of extra things we need, like light sticks (waterproof, just in case we have to hike through the woods in a downpour at midnight, you never know). I pulled out the little hygiene kit I made for myself a few years ago. Wow, I don't even use most of that stuff anymore (shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, deodorant). I should dump all that stuff and just put in some little containers of baking soda & vinegar! And maybe one bar of soap. Another thing on my list is to make copies of important documents (birth certificates, insurance policies, etc.) to bring with us if we ever have to evacuate.

One of the things I have been struggling with in the emergency kits is what to do for diapers. Lola is still in diapers and it could be a real bummer if we didn't have any for her. Disposable diapers are the natural solution in an emergency situation, but I just can't bring myself to buy those trashy diapers. I just hate them. Plus, if I had enough trashies to last for 72 hours, then what? Things might not be back to normal yet. I could grab some cloth diapers from the normal stash on the way out the door, but chances are rare that I would have a whole clean stash. Usually about half of them are dirty. And chances are that in an emergency situation I would be down to about 3 or 4 clean ones. Finally I came up with a solution that would work. I'm going to get flat diapers & pins to use for the emergency kit. Flat diapers are super easy to make out of cotton flannel sheets, receiving blankets, or those ten yards of white cotton birdseye that are buried somewhere in my sewing room. Then I'll make a few (five or six should be plenty) waterproof PUL snap covers. The beauty of this system is that the flat diapers can be folded to fit any size of baby. Then they wash easily and dry quickly. The covers come in three different sizes, if I have another baby I'll just make sure that I have the right size of cover stashed in the kit. I will also include laundry soap, clothesline, and clothespins. And possibly a bucket for washing. I'm sure we'll want to wash more than just diapers, this will be useful for washing our clothes, too!

We have everything stashed close to the front door so we can be out of the house in a hurry (if necessary). Chances are pretty rare that we would have an emergency here that would send us packing on foot (or canoe?). Most likely we would experience something that would have us housebound without power (like a big snow storm). But if our house is on fire or we have to evacuate from the path of a REALLY big tsunami (big enough to make it over Gravina Island), then we are ready!

Dealing with Smelly Pits

I don't have time to go into any details about why normal commercial deodorants are bad for you, I'll let you google that yourself and come to your own conclusions. Suffice it to say that the general consensus among informed people is that anti-perspirants are REALLY bad for you, and the deodorants you'll find at the store aren't that great either. For about ten years I've been on a quest to avoid anti-perspirant AND body odor. I've learned a lot in the process and would like to share some of that wisdom with you.

First, understand that undesirable odors in the armpits can vary in strength depending on your diet, your hormones, your stress levels, etc. So if something in your life has changed (like if you're pregnant), your body odor can change too. Or it could be something you are eating that is creating an increase in smelliness. It might take some detective work on your part to find the source of the problem.

The first natural deodorant I tried was the deodorant stone. You can buy this online or find an identical product (I'm pretty sure it's the same thing) called crystal deodorant at many stores. This is not an anti-perpirant so it will not stop you from sweating. It puts some kind of barrier on your skin that inhibits the smelly bacteria. The great part about it is that it lasts almost forever. I've owned about three deodorant stones in the past ten years. The thing that does them in is when I drop them on the tile floor and they shatter. So if you don't drop it, a stone or crystal can last a long, long time (at least several years). It works best for me if I use it right when I get out of the shower and my pits are still wet. I grab a dry stone and rub it all over to coat my underarm area. You could also wet the stone first, but I find it works better to wet your skin instead.

Crystal deodorant is the only thing I would recommend buying from a regular store. I have tried all the natural, hippie-type deodorants (like Tom's of Maine) and find that they just don't work that well for me. Maybe you would have better luck with them so it wouldn't hurt to try. Be aware that just because it is a "natural" brand doesn't mean that it is necessarily harmless. To be safe, check your brand of deodorant with the Skin Deep website. This is run by the Environmental Working Group, they have done tons of research on all kinds of hygiene and beauty products.

Sometimes the deodorant crystal works just fine for me, and other times it just doesn't cut it. I noticed at one point that my armpits were still quite offensive even as I stepped out of the shower. The smell was too much for the crystal to handle. I tried scrubbing and scrubbing with all different kinds of soap, but the smell still lingered and grew stronger with each shower. I was almost desperate enough to use Lady Speed Stick when I ran across a tip on a message board I sometimes visit. A woman there suggested to scrub your armpits with baking soda, rinse it off, then spray with apple cider vinegar, and then rinse if off. It was no trouble for me to try this since I already had baking soda and vinegar in my shower that I used for washing my hair. The baking soda I keep in an old plastic peanut butter jar. I add just enough water to make it clumpy instead of powdery, thus easy to grab a small lump. The apple cider vinegar mixture (about half water, half vinegar) I keep in a spray bottle. I tried this on my ampits and it worked so well that I didn't even need the crystal anymore, except on especially smelly days.

I still use the baking soda/vinegar trick every time I shower and it really helps. I haven't used the crystal much lately. It just seemed like it wasn't working as well anymore. Plus, I kept dropping it on the floor and it was getting some painful, sharp edges. I wanted to try something new and all-natural (like I mentioned before, the "natural" deodorants that you find at the supermarket are really not all that natural). I have heard some great things about Funk Butter and have been meaning to try it. But then I noticed that my friend Erika in Boise had started selling deodorant in her shop: Inspired Mama Creations. Since I LOVE everything else she makes (her diaper rash cream is really miraculous), I immediately bought some of her Smell Better Butter. It really love it, it's worked better than any other natural deodorant I have tried, hands down. This is what I am currently using (in the juicy citrus scent).

The only thing I haven't tried yet is to make my own deodorant. I know, I'm a slacker! I have collected some recipes but haven't made any yet. I'll post some links for different recipes. If you try one, please post a comment and let us know how it worked for you.

Homemade Funk Butter
Homemade deodorant on Mothering.com, this is also a discussion on where to buy ingredients, etc.
Recipe Mama, LOTS of deodorant recipes here.
Bath & Body Recipes, several recipes here as well, these have been assigned star ratings by users.