This post has been brewing for some time.
My name is Brianne, and I am addicted to fluffy mail. You either know what fluffy mail is, or you don't. And if you know what it is...then you
KNOW. And you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Fluff=Cloth=Cloth Diapers
When I was pregnant with Leah I really wanted to try cloth diapers. Why? Well, originally because THEY'RE FREAKING CUTE! But more so to save money. Mel just wasn't on board. I brought it up once or twice to "test the waters" so-to-speak and he just didn't seem too hot on the idea. Of course, he's one of those husbands that when it came down to it, he would let me do whatever I wanted, and support me in it. But I could tell deep down, he was NOT into to. So, while a little sad, I dropped the issue.
From then on, I was always a little intrigued by cloth diapers. I noticed more people using them here and there, and felt myself drawn to reading about them, and asking questions to CD using moms.
When I became pregnant with Grayson I knew I REALLY wanted to go forward with cloth diapering. I knew the only way I could really convince Mel was to learn as much as possible and in doing so educate him as much as possible. After filling him in as much as possible I finally convinced him. The only concern he had was laundry. He knows how much I HATE laundry, and said he just worried about me being able to keep up with it. Our washer and dryer were old, and didn't do the best of job cleaning our cloths. The dryer down right sucked and took up to 3 cycles sometimes to dry a load. If I didn't stay on top of the laundry and do at LEAST a load or two a day it got very overwhelming, very quickly.
A solution came when Mel bought me an AWESOME new washer and dryer!!! {Our 4 wheeler had been stolen, and we were blessed that home owners covered it. We were able to use the money for the washer & dryer.} Our new washer & dryer can do several days of laundry in just two loads! Once laundry wasn't such a big issue anymore Mel seemed even more open to the idea.
I waited before telling my family, and when I did, I didn't get the best reactions. But I can't really blame them. They had legitimate concerns, and questions, and really had NO idea what modern day cloth diapering was like. {I'm pretty sure they were picturing gerber prefolds, with diaper pins, and huge plastic pants that leaked like crazy.} Fortunately their opinions didn't matter much to me. THEY weren't the ones doing the diapering. I was.
So why have I decided to go cloth with my 4th, and last baby?! Lots of reasons!
1. Green. I'm not what you would call a "green" mom, but I think my carbon footprint is PLENTY big enough after having 3 kids in diapers.
2. Money. It really does save a LOT of money. Jack Be Natural has a great
chart breakdown for this. Basically, after the expense of the diapers themselves, accessories, the cost of washing & drying, I am saving over $2200. {Even more so because I'm using one size diapers that can be used from birth to potty training, and because the diapers I am choosing have a great resale value.} I really wish I had done this in the beginning, I could have diapered FOUR kids on one stash and saved over 9 grand in the long run!
3. Chemicals. There's a lot of controversy on this. But I've personally had horrible experiences with Pampers Dry Max in particular leaving burn like rashes on Leah. I've seen the rashes on my kids caused by disposables, and I can't help but think that cloth could really prevent this.
4. Softness. Have you felt a cloth diaper? They're STUPID SOFT. I can't help but imagine it would feel soooooo much better than a papery, plasticy, disposable diaper. Seriously. And I would think a comfortable baby=a happy baby.
5. Blow outs. I have read time after time after time that cloth diapers are the BEST at containing blow outs. Especially those that breast fed babies are famous for. I can't tell you HOW many outfits were RUINED from blowouts, and I have so many stories of HORRIBLE blow outs happening while out and about! I couldn't help but be intrigued when I found out that cloth diapers are rock stars at containing these explosions!
6. Potty Training. I've also read countless times that often cloth diapered babies potty train sooner. With cloth they're able feel that they are wet and are more apt to want to use the potty. Where as disposables soak up all the pee leaving them feeling dry and content in a dirty diaper.
7. Cuteness. I'm not going to lie, cloth diapers are cute! And that does have a part in why I'm so excited to wrap up Grayson's bum in a cloth diaper! There are SO many cute patterns out there, and even just the plain colors are tons cuter than any disposable I've ever seen.
So, those are my main reasons for CD'ing.
Now I will answer some questions that I've gotten of, "WHY?!?!?! on earth would I want to do this??". {Remember, I'm not ACTUALLY cloth diapering yet, so I can only answer from personal opinion, and from what I've read, not from actual experience.}
1. "You're going to put POOP in your washer?! That's disgusting..."
Actually once Grayson gets to the
nasty poop stage it will be rinsed into the toilet and flushed away. Very little of the actual nasty poop will get into the wash. No more than the skid marks my kids and your kids already have in the their underwear. If you've ever exclusively breastfed a baby, you know their poop is far from nasty. It doesn't even smell, and it's actually water soluble. If there's a lot, I may rinse it into the toilet, if not it will just go in the pail until wash day. And if you've ever had a breastfed baby, then you've had a blow out. Did you not wash those poopy clothes in your washer? What's the difference?
2. "Good luck finding a baby sitter."
Anyone that knows me knows that I very, VERY rarely use a baby sitter in the first place. {And when I do, it's always family.} But for the very few times I will, there are VERY easy cloth diapers that are "dad, grandparent, and baby sitter" friendly. They go on JUST like a disposable. The sitter will have a bag provided for the dirty diaper, and can change it just like a disposable. Instead of throwing the dirt diaper away, you put it in a wetbag, instead of putting a disposable on, you put a cloth diaper on. It's really not rocket science. There's also hybrids that can be used with disposable liners that CAN be thrown away if they do happen to be THAT worried about dealing with a dirty cloth diaper.
3. "Won't that stink up your house?"
My house already stinks. LOL Honestly, at this point, I really don't know. But I can honestly say I've never heard of someone having a stink issue unless there was a problem somewhere with something. If you're using the right pail and right liner and caring properly for everything, there should be no issue what-so-ever with stink. I would think that they would smell a heck of a lot less than disposables because you're flushing the stinky poop down the toilet.
4. "They're so expensive! How will you afford them?!"
When you sit down and google cloth diapers you may be surprised to see how much they cost. $20 or more for a diaper?!?!? What?!?! But when it comes down to it, you are truly saving money over time. {Like I said above, over $2200!} Yes, it IS an investment, but it pays for itself in NO TIME. Plus you don't HAVE to lay down a ton of cash at one time. Personally, we can't afford to do that! I've been buying a diaper here and there. The good thing about pregnancy is having 9 months to prepare.
I will be starting out in disposables. I have a couple packages stocked up from the few weeks before I fully decided to use cloth. We're using one size diapers that fit from 8-40 lb's, but all babies are different and the one size sometimes don't fit until 10 or 11lb's and the baby has had time to chunk up. So we'll be using disposables until the OS's fit really well. We'll be transitioning over slowly, and will be using that time to finish out our stockpile.
There are SO MANY choices out there that it's hard to know which cloth diaper is the right one for you. So I've been buying several different kinds. Once we see what works best for us I will finish out our collection with that type of diaper.
I've found GREAT support in cloth diapering friends, and mommy forums that have boards for CD'ing. I don't think I would have ever fully made my decision without them, and I know I will need them during the first few months. Not to mention a REALLY awesome local store run by a great momma that devotes tons of time answering a MILLION questions for newbies. {She even has a cloth diapering class once a month.}
If you are curious about cloth diapering I HIGHLY suggest the following sites/blogs:
Jack Be NaturalBaby Makin(g) Machine O Momma Writes If you have any questions I will do my best in answering them! But please no mean opinions. They're not wanted and will be ignored and deleted.
I'm sure once little G comes along I will be blogging about my cloth journey and all the trials and tribulations sure to accompany the new lifestyle, so you can check back and laugh at me along the way.
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