Why Did I Wait So Long?? Getting it Right With Baby #4

A little more than five short years ago, I was expecting my first children ... twins.  While discussing various new baby plans, my mom asked me if I planned to use cloth diapers.  What?  Was she crazy?  Twin babies, a full time job, a busy husband in school, no way would I be using cloth!  Isn’t cloth messy and unreliable?  Wouldn’t I be wasting water with all the endless washing?  What babysitter or daycare center would ever agree to something like that?  Two years later, baby #3 was set to arrive and I still had my first two children in diapers.  I dared my mother to mention cloth to me... there would be absolutely NO WAY that I could cloth diaper three children.  Ludicrous. 

Fast forward two years later while expecting baby #4... as I was preparing my curriculum for the upcoming semester, I decided to put more of an emphasis on sustainability  in the personal health and wellness course that I teach at a local community college.  Since I am a busy parent and there are many moms (and dads) and soon-to-be moms that walk through my doors, there is a lot of information discussed about parenting, children, nutrition, and yes, diapering - cloth diapers started to seem like a natural (and needed) addition to our syllabus.  After doing a brief amount of research, I mentioned to a friend that I was  looking into cloth diapering - for my class and possibly for myself.  The look of excitement on her face was indescribable.  I truly did not expect that diaper discussions could elicit such a response.  Little did I know that I would soon become the excited one when discussing cloth diapers. 

As I researched cloth diapers and made the decision to use them at home, I began to cringe at the thought of all the waste I put in landfills and the money I poured down the drain over the past few years.  Three children in disposable diapers meant that I was going through over 200 diapers a week on average.  You can only imagine the overflowing trash cans in the driveway!  Strategizing to get the best deal on boxes of diapers including planning time to drive 30 minutes away to the only place that sold boxes of diapers in the sizes and brands that I needed.  Instead of hanging out with my children after a long day at work, I would find myself packing them in the car or paying the sitter to stay a little bit longer so I could make this journey every month.  There was nothing satisfying about seeing those boxes stacked up in the laundry room or seeing bag after bag of trash exiting my house.  Briefly reflecting on these thoughts helped push me closer to my decision to make the switch.   

To help ease my way into the world of cloth diapering, my mother promised me a diaper service as a baby shower gift.  What a treat!  It definitely made me feel less nervous about adding additional laundry onto my already busy laundry schedule.  However, once my baby arrived and I began the cloth diapering process, I realized that the laundry situation was not bad at all and even, dare I say, fun?  I used the service for a bit but gradually began to do all of it myself.  In some ways, although the service was convenient, I felt it was too limiting.  With all those great cloth options out there, I wanted to try them all!  (And, trust me, I am trying...)

Although I began this process diapering our newborn only, I quickly realized that my two year old could easily be switched over to cloth.  There were no transition issues whatsoever!  She even loves keeping her own stash in her room and picks out the one she wants to wear.  My oldest son continues to need diapers at night - at 5 years old and over 50 pounds, transitioning him to cloth was a little bit trickier.  However, the financial incentive is great.  At his age, nighttime diapers average almost $1 per diaper - I could make back the purchase of a new cloth diaper in just 2 to 3 weeks - well worth it to me.  I also hoped that the cloth diaper might speed up the process of him staying dry at night. 

At the moment, our cloth diaper adventure is in full swing for three of my four children.  I love including the benefits of cloth diapering as part of my health class and showing off the new cute styles of cloth that exist today!  My students still envision the old style saggy bottomed prefolds days and they are all pleasantly surprised to see some style as well as ease involved - the cost savings as well as the huge benefit to our environment seal the deal, so to speak.  All it takes is one super-excited mom to share her love of cloth diapering - it worked for me and I hope that now I can convince others.  It’s never too late to switch to cloth!  I finally got it right with baby four!  

by Erin Brighton MPH, M.Ed. - Charlotte, NC

Why Did I Wait So Long?? Getting it Right With Baby #4

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You use cloth diapers?! Why!?!?!?

Cloth diapering is not exactly common where I live. I don't have any friends or family members who use cloth and most people are pretty surprised when they find out that I do. Over the past eighteen months I have gotten a lot of different reactions, for some reason it seems to be a case of extremes: Either people think it's fantastic, or they think it's disgusting, but everyone has an opinion.

My mother in law thinks it's great. She used cloth diapers on her kids and she was excited to see how far they'd come over the years. She's perfectly happy to use my pocket diapers when she babysits and she even washes them and sends them home clean. She likes the economic factor as well as the lack of garbage created. My own mother was less enthusiastic. When I told her I was starting to use cloth diapers she laughed at me. She told me it would be messy and smelly and just an awful lot of work. I was a part of the first Disposables Generation and my mom had changed only a couple of cloth diapers in her life. Of course those were the old fashioned flat folded diapers, held on with pins and covered with hot sticky rubber pants. Once she saw my Happy Heinys and BumGenius diapers she conceded that they were pretty neat, but she's still not completely won over.

Younger people are equally divided. I was babysitting for a friend and I would use my daughter's cloth diapers on her baby whenever she was at my house because I didn't want sposies piling up in my garbage and I knew they were having trouble making ends meet so I thought I'd save them a few diapering dollars. My friend thought it was a great idea, but she had no intention of switching to cloth herself. One day I forgot to put that baby back into a disposable diaper before she went home and within half an hour my friend called me in a panic because the baby had pooped and she had no idea what to do. "Oh that's so gross! How on earth do you clean it?" I found it funny, and a little sad at the same time to see how dependent people have become on disposable diapers. Some people just dismiss the idea entirely. The strangest reason I hear for this comes from people with more than one child in diapers. They say that it would be alright for just one baby, but far too much hassle with two or three. I would think the more babies you have the more reasons there would be to use cloth! On the other hand I have had several new and expectant parents express a lot of excitement when they see my daughter's diapers. Most of them have never considered using cloth diapers and know nothing at all about it. They usually have many questions and I am only too happy to explain why I use them, although I never try to "convert" people unless they show a genuine interest.

I tell people how easy it is to use and wash cloth diapers these days. I tell them they can save thousands of dollars and prevent tons of garbage from ending up in landfills. I tell them about the possible effects of disposable diapers on a baby's health from cancer, lowered sperm counts and asthma to diaper rashes. I tell them about the dangers of ground water contamination from human excrement being thrown in the garbage instead of treated as sewage. Every so often someone will say "But aren't you wasting a lot of water?" So I tell them how much water is used in the manufacturing of disposable diapers, and how many chemicals, and how much petroleum, and how washing cloth diapers requires about as much water as a person would use in a day for flushing the toilet anyway, and how a biodegradable detergent prevents water from really being "wasted." I tell them how many hours I get to spend with my kids instead of having to be at work, earning money to throw away on diapers. I show them how astoundingly cute they are, and some of them have decided to use cloth diapers themselves.

Some people smirk and call me crunchy or weird. I had a home birth. My partner is a holist. Obviously we're doing this because we're hippies or something. But more and more perfectly normal, mainstream, modern parents are using cloth diapers these days and people are smirking less and less. Hopefully some day they will stop completely as people gain a greater awareness of themselves, their environment and surroundings and more people will find the joy of cloth diapering.


- By EdenSky

You use cloth diapers?! Why!?!?!?

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The many ways Cloth Diapering changed my lifestyle and thinking

1) I did not have to run out to get diapers in the middle of the night when I realized I was out and baby had just pooped.

2) I did not have to budget money every two weeks for diapers. I do budget for new cloth diapers and accessories, but that is every few months or so.

3) I started thinking of what else I was throwing away; paper, cans, glass, etc. I started recycling what I could and finding ways to decrease the other things I was throwing away (finding other uses for some things and really just thinking twice before tossing)

4) It has also encouraged me to try sewing different things. I tried my hand at sewing some cloth diapers, wipes and even simple skirts and dresses for her, which led me to try my hand at blankets, quilts and curtains. Sewing isn’t really related to cloth diapering, but it was the mindset that was started from cloth diapering. It was for me a way to starting thinking about what resources I have that I can use reuse the things I have in the house. Most everything I have made has been from scraps that I already had or from clothes that were not worn any more.

5) I should also include that it had gotten me to think about healthy eating and other things I could be doing to make my family healthy. I am not the best at this area, but it was a place to start and encouragement to keep working on it.

I guess after looking over this list it has been more of a way of thinking change for me and through changing my way of thinking it has changed my lifestyle.

- By Angela S.

The many ways Cloth Diapering changed my lifestyle and thinking

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