Convincing Myself to use Cloth Diapers

At the age of 13, I decided that I would NEVER use cloth diapers. My youngest sister is twelve years younger than me and throughout her years in diapers, I helped my mom change many cloth diapers. As many of you can imagine, that meant prefolds, pins, and rubber pants. The worst part that thankfully, my mother took care of, was dunking the stinky diapers in the toilet. Although I am unaware of whether or not there were more advanced versions of cloth diapers back in 2001, this was how my mom diapered me and my other two siblings, and, like they say, don’t fix what isn’t broken! Sometime throughout the two years that my sister was in diapers, I remember proclaiming to my mom that “I will never use cloth diapers on my own kids.” Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong! Not only have I been cloth diapering my son for over a year, but I will be cloth diapering our second child after her arrival! Let me tell you how I came to the decision to cloth diaper my children.

When my husband and I found out that we were expecting our first child we were overjoyed! After a few months of crunching numbers and planning out what items we would need to purchase, we realized that our financial situation was not going to be as flexible after the baby came as it was before. My plan was to become a stay-at-home mom once our son arrived in August of 2011. While spending months of research on baby products ranging from cribs to toys to clothes, I finally approached the dreaded question that I knew I would one day have to ponder: Will cloth diapering our son save us money? The conclusion that I came to was an obvious YES! Much of my research came from allaboutclothdiapers.com. This website was extremely helpful and gave me all of the advice that I needed.

Now that I had come to the conclusion that I would use cloth diapers for my son, I had to decide what style diapers to use and what brand to purchase. I was amazed to find that there were hundreds of options from One-Sized diapers to Sized diapers, from flats and prefolds with covers to Pockets and AIO’s. I was completely overwhelmed by all of the options and it took me nearly two months to come to a decisive conclusion. My final decision was to use Pocket style diapers of a variety of brands. I started my diaper stash out with mainly BumGenius diapers and Kawaii diapers. I also received a few free diapers from Kelly’s Closet too!

I have been cloth diapering for over a year now, and I am even more excited to try newborn cloth diapering for our second child when she arrives early next year! I wish I had been braver last year when my son was born. I missed out on a whole other adventure in cloth diapering when we decided to wait to use cloth diapers on our son until he could fit into one size diapers. Thankfully, I am experiencing that adventure now as we plan our newborn cloth diaper path for our daughter!

Even though I had initially said that I would never use cloth diapers, ten years later, I began my cloth diapering adventure! Maybe you are skeptical of using cloth diapers? Don’t be afraid to do some research and find out for yourself if cloth is right for your family! I am sure that you will be amazed at your findings!

Bio: Tara Yousef is a Stay-at-home Mom to her 15 month old little boy. She is married to the love of her life and they are expecting their second child, a little girl, in January! Tara enjoys cloth diapering, crafting, baking, and everything in between!