Count Your Cloth Blessings

Cloth diapering converts, we should be counting our blessings. As someone who has used both cloth diapers and disposables, I can see the benefits of cloth even more clearly now that I've done it both ways. Here's my list of reasons to be thankful for cloth.

1. I've kissed blowouts goodbye. With my second child, a daughter, I started cloth diapering from birth. She's three months old now, and seriously, she has yet to have a blowout in a cloth diaper. (I hesitate to type this for fear of jinxing myself.) My trusty prefolds, Kissaluvs fitted diapers and Thirsties covers just seem to contain the mess. By contrast, when my son was a baby and using disposables, I probably changed his clothes three times a day for the first six months of his life. Well, okay, maybe not quite that often. But it sure felt like it sometimes.

2. The fresh, clean scent of ... nothing. Disposable diapers just seem to have an odor to them. I suppose it's all the chemicals reacting with the waste, but I can smell 'em coming a mile away. My daughter's cloth diapers don't smell like anything when wet or soiled. It's a nice change for this beagle-nosed mama.

3. An empty trash can. This is sort of a follow-on to the previous blessing, but I really appreciate not lugging out a huge, smelly trash bag full of diapers to the curb every week.

4. A larger checking account. The beautiful thing about using cloth is that after the initial shell-out of cash to purchase your cloth diapers, you're done spending. (If you can restrain yourself, that is.) Thinking about the money our family has saved by using cloth puts a smile on my face every time. Bonus perk: it makes my husband smile, too! And hey, all of us could use a smile and a few extra pennies in our pockets these days.

5. Pretty colors. Another perk to using cloth diapers: they can be pretty! I may be style-challenged myself, but I am enjoying dressing up my daughter in super-cute clothes, and it's nice that her diapers can be as cute as her outfits.

6. A learning experience. This might sound a bit strange, but I am thankful for the freedom to do something not everyone is doing, even a little thing like choosing how to diaper my children. I want my kids to grow up knowing that it's okay to be different and to make decisions that are best for them personally, even when their peers are doing something else. It may not be much, but we can all tell our children, "I chose to cloth diaper you when it wasn't the most popular thing to do." It's an important life lesson we can all embrace!

-- by Jennifer H.