You Mean You Don't Use Pins?

I will admit that when I used to think about having kids, I always assumed I would do things a certain way. When I heard about people who insisted on using cloth diapers, I shrugged them off in my mind as being hippies. Surely no parent would ever subject themselves to constant messiness and inconvenience like that unless they were crazy or had some kooky belief system, right? And putting...shudder".../poop /in my washer? No way. So when the time came that my husband and I started thinking about building our family, I was surprised to find that my research left those misconceptions challenged. Since we were adopting our first child, we had plenty of time to collect baby items and get plenty of advice on the best buys. We had never even considered using cloth until a new friend at church who had also just adopted showed us her daughter's adorable fluffy "stash" of diapers. I was shocked to find that these modern cloth diapers were nothing like the plain white prefolds and pins that I'd expected. She had every color in the rainbow, with easy adjustable snaps and cute patterns. Being an artist, my heart instantly perked up...think of the possibilities for creativity!

My friend gave me the safety to be able to ask questions without being judged. She patiently showed me all the different combinations of diapers, from prefolds to all-in-ones, and walked me through her daily routine. To my surprise, I found myself intrigued. Since her daughter was older, she offerred to let me borrow some of her newborn sized diapers to try out and see if I liked them. Long story short, we're all cloth now and have never looked back. :)

So when family and friends look confused and ask me what my son is wearing, I try to remember how helpful it was when my friend explained about cloth to me. A lot of parents have never had experiences with modern cloth diapering, but as soon as you show them an example of a clean cloth all-in-one, you see their eyes light up as they express how cool it is. I usually whip out one from my baby bag and show them the snaps, while explaining how easy and cost-effective they are to use, and how we've never had a messy blowout (crossing my fingers) or bad smells like I remember wafting from the diaper pail from my little brother's disposables years ago. I figure if just one more person makes the switch to cloth, that landfill might be a little less full. And who doesn't like seeing adorably chubby babies with fluffy, colorful bums?

Bio: Laci is a new mom to a sweet baby boy who loves his cute fluffy dipes! She works from home as a freelance illustrator and voiceover artist, and has an affinity for all things geeky.

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