Washing at MIL's converts SIL

Recently our family went on a little road trip to stay with the in-laws for a week. Everyone already knows that we cloth diaper and it was no surprise when we showed up with two big bags filled with inserts, prefolds, covers, Fuzzi Bunz, bumGenius, wet bags and all our other cloth diapering accessories. Carrying on with our meet and greet of our new baby, 4 month old Jett, everyone ohhh’d and awww’d over his cute FuzziBunz. Then, the rumbling bum started and a diaper change was needed. I was surprised by all the questions about how I get the diaper off, washed, dried, and back into action again! When bombarded with questions about what, how and why I was doing what I was doing I realized I was not prepared to discuss our dirty laundry. What I didn’t realize was, I needed to explain and even defend what I was doing. Questions about poop and rash and cream and everything under the sun needed answering all while I was trying to snap on another diaper! {Talk about multitasking!}

Throughout every step of the diapering process was under careful observation by skeptics. My expecting sister in law was immediately attached to me for the whole process. So with the first load of laundry coming close, we all did a walk through of how I store/wash diapers. I explained and demonstrated to my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and cousins:

1. I keep a wet bag on the door knob. I never rinse the diapers; just toss them in the bag (our son is breastfed and I haven’t had a need to rinse/spray his diapers yet). I do acknowledge that once my son starts solids I may have to rinse them or use a toilet sprayer. An audible "awe" comes from the crowd as I explain the toilet sprayer contraption.
2. I wash the diapers every other day.
   a) I first run the diapers through a cold rinse cycle. I explain this helps loosen the poop. b) Then I wash the diapers in hot water with a tiny bit of detergent. Of course I stress the additional money savings involved as I use significantly less detergent than they thought. Here I stress another money saver in using less detergent than they thought.
   c) Run the diapers through one additional rinse cycle to ensure there is no excess detergent.
   d) Throw them in the dryer and TADA!
   

I also explain the ‘sunning’ system and how the stains come right out and the sun helps fight any smell issues so there's no need for bleach.. As the diapers come out of the dryer I assemble/stuff the ones that need assembling and stack the rest.

Everyone picks up a diaper or two; someone even takes a good sniff and then they began speaking amongst themselves. I felt sort of silly standing there as though I had just given an oral report in school and I was waiting on my grade or evaluation, a "you pass" or "you fail." Finally, my sister-in-law said, “That is so easy! I’m going to cloth diaper this baby,” as she rubs her 9 month pregnant belly! By the time we returned home my sister in law had already made her first purchase of cloth diapers (from Kelly's Closet of course)!

I was so nervous with using and washing our cloth at our family's house; I was so consumed and worried with being polite as possible about our dirty diapers hanging around that I didn’t realize that cloth diapering (as a whole) was being tested through me! I was honest about the issues I had in using different diapers, covers, and other things - but I also showed everyone how easy and convenient cloth diapers are, especially in the most inconvenient of times. Staying positive and natural about the whole process spoke for itself.

-- by Jennifer W.