Converting Others to Cloth

I’m sure my friends think I am the crazy cloth diaper lady. I can almost see the wheels turning in their heads when they see me approach, “Don’t mention babies!” So, I’m an enthusiastic cloth diaperer, and I love sharing good ideas with my friends. Cloth diapering is such a good idea for so many types of families- those looking to reduce waste, those looking to save money, those looking to reduce their children’s exposure to chemicals, and even those, mostly mommies, who can’t help buying cute baby stuff. Unfortunately, unfavorable stereotypes about cloth diapers abound, and some people need convincing. In my experience talking people into trying cloth, there are some very common barriers most people have to get over before they’ll jump on the cloth band wagon. Here are some of the most common:

• I’ll have to touch poop! Yuck! When most people think cloth they think about swishing diapers in toilets or having to scrape off poop. Most of my cloth diaper converts warm up to the idea of cloth very quickly once I explain about diaper sprayers and biodegradable liners. I also highlight the fact that cloth diapering means never, ever having poopy diapers sitting around in a garbage can smelling up the house.
• It’s really expensive to start cloth diapering. It’s easy for most people to see the savings of cloth when you look at the entire diapering life of a child, but some families think that the start-up costs of cloth diapering are more than they can manage. I try to steer these friends towards inexpensive options such as flats or prefolds or get them to look into an all-in-two system. These usually have lower costs because you’re buying more of the cheap part (the absorbent diaper) and less of the expensive part (the covers). Some families also like the option of building a stash over time. It’s easy to start cloth diapering just at home or even dealing with a one day wash cycle for a short amount of time.
• Cloth Diapering is a lot of work. I use this analogy: The time it takes me to do 2 loads of laundry each week is less time than having to bundle up both my boys, get in the car, drive all the way across town, find diapers, wait in line to buy them, then drive all the way home. It’s also a lot less work- as anyone who’s ever had a toddler and newborn can attest to. We have a three day wash cycle and do everything in the washer and dryer. It’s really not that big of a deal, and it becomes second nature in a matter of weeks.
• Cloth Diapering isn’t sanitary. We, as adults, don’t throw away our underwear every time we use them, so obviously we trust the washer and dryer to get things clean enough. In fact, cloth diapering can cut down on uncomfortable diaper rash, and it’s a wonderful solution for children with sensitive skin. If my friends are really worried about sani^-tation, I encourage them to wash and dry on hot and purchase bleach-safe brands so they can do a wash in bleach every few weeks.
• Cloth Diapers are difficult to care for. You do have to use an additive free detergent, but these really aren’t difficult to find. In fact, I use a brand which is available at my local Walmart. Other than remembering not to use fabric softeners, fluff laundry isn’t any different from all the other laundry I do in a week.

Most of my friends and family haven’t had a lot (if any) exposure to modern cloth diapering. One of my close friends who converted to cloth, upon seeing my stash, couldn’t believe how far cloth diapers had come since her mom used them. Modern cloth diapers have taken all the guess work out of diapering, and most people respond very positively when they get to see them in person. The best tip I have for converting friends to cloth? Let them see your stash! All those cute diapers will do most of the convincing for you.

Bio: Heather Hale - Heather is a work-at-home violin and piano teacher, but her full-time job is chasing after her two boys. You can follow her eco-friendly lifestyle changes at moderatelycrunchy.blogspot.com

Converting Others to Cloth

Read the full story here...

Mission: Possible

The mission should you choose to accept it is to: find a great daycare for your little one which will allow cloth diapers, is easy to get to, and is affordable. Oh, and you have four business days to do this since we want you to start yesterday, therefore the daycare needs immediate availability. This was my mission recently as I made the choice to re-enter the non-work-at-home workforce.

Since we have invested all of our time and energy into cloth diapering our little girl, we decided that a daycare that wouldn't at least talk to us about cloth diapering wasn't going to work for us, despite being crunched for time. We called every daycare in our town (yes, it is small enough that an hour on the phone exhausted the list) and found a few that would cloth diaper for us, provided we used a pocket, all-in-one, or a gdiaper (Yay! Since that's most of our stash and they know enough to tell us what kinds they would accept). However, the earliest availability they had was February.

Since the position I accepted was in a nearby town we looked there. I called multiple places and a few said, "Sure," but sounded like they were already drunk at 10 am, so we decided not to call them back. Eventually I found one and they said, "We're not sure." The opening I had been hoping for! I have convinced several people that cloth diapering is easy, so just the willingness to give me a shot had me encouraged that I would be able to convince them the cloth diapers are the way to go. I set up a time to meet with the daycare director and I was good to go.

Now, to get a diaper bag ready for convincing someone they need to cloth diaper. I took along one of every different style we have: so a gdiaper with a cloth insert, a separate gdiaper liner stuffed with a disposable insert, a pocket with aplix and a pocket with snaps.

I also took both cloth wipes and disposable wipes, and never forget the wet bag. The meeting came around, and since my little girl had a wet diaper at the time it was a perfect lesson in the making. I took out the various diapers and asked which they would prefer to use. They chose pockets since those essentially look and work just like the disposable diapers they were used to using. I then asked about the wipes. Since they have a sink right there (legally they have to in most states) I was able to use some warm water to wet the wipe, take the wet diaper off, wipe the bum, take out the wet insert for the pocket she was wearing and put it all in the wetbag with my little audience. Score one for cloth wipes as well since the teacher said, "I'll just use the cloth wipes and put it all in the bag."

The real test though was the first day of daycare. I put together a bag with as many of the same diapers as possible. For me, this meant all the blueberry and fuzzibunz pockets that I own. I picked giving them snaps because I could tell them where to set them versus letting them guess, figuring the less they had to "wonder" about the better my chances. I dropped her off, reminded the teacher about the pockets and told her where to snap the diaper so that it was fitting best. I came back at the end of the day my daughter was still in the same outfit. I asked the teacher how it went and she said it was super easy and great! She then wondered why more people didn't use those... I may have another cloth convert in my midst. Mission Complete.

Bio: Carolyn recently returned to the work place and enjoys the extra income to buy extra fluff!

Mission: Possible

Read the full story here...

I Joined the Dark Side-Because They Have Cloth Diapers

My mother-in-law had been trying to convince me for the longest time that cloth diapering was the way to go. After all, that was how she diapered her babies! She wasn’t pushy, but just let me know that it had worked wonderfully for her, and she knew several people who were doing it and loving it. I wasn’t sold on the idea... I was the first girl in a family of 10 children; my mother used disposables, and being used to that, disposables are what I used on my own baby girl for the first 5 months of her life. For convenience sake, and my sanity, I was adamant that I was NOT going to go the cloth diaper route in this lifetime or the next.

But then as our funds started getting tighter, I began looking into ways to save money and realized just how dumb I was to insist on disposable diapers. They were costing us an arm and a leg! Was I just going to have to get used to the “inconvenience”and the “stink” and start cloth diapering in order to save a buck?

The first website I ran across when I googled “cloth diapers” was “All About Cloth Diapers,” and it was a major help in delving into this new world of cloth diapers. Several hours later, my head was spinning with terms like “AIO,” and “Pre-folds,” and I was beginning to change my opinion on cloth diapering. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. There were an awful lot of moms out there who swore by their cloth diapering, and claimed that the inconvenience and stinkiness wasn’t any worse than when using disposable diapers. I decided to start out with 12 unbleached indian pre-folds, 4 Econobum diaper covers, and 1 Oh Katy pocket diaper for nighttime. A slim stash, but it would get me started.

Then, a friend found out that I was interested in cloth diapering, and gifted me her used pre-folds and Bummis Super Whisper wraps... I was 35 prefold and 35 wrap covers richer!

Still trepidatious, I put a Bummis wrap and prefold on my squirmy little girl... it was too easy. And cute. My Oh Katy pocket diaper went on at night, was washed in the day, and dried in time for bed again! I realized that I needed more of these things and ordered 3 Kawaii pocket diapers, including their special Goodnight HeavyWetter one!

I was shocked to realize I was enjoying this cloth diapering adventure! Having a baby was supposed to be all about ease and convenience, and what was more convenient than simply throwing a diaper in the trashcan and not worrying about washing it? To find that putting a cute cloth diaper on my baby girl, and smiling as I hung cloth diapers on the line to bleach in the sunshine was very new and very intriguing to me. Cloth diapers are just as easy as disposable diapering and a lot more fun! I’ve fallen in love with cloth diapering.

I’m still anxiously awaiting another couple of orders from Kelly’s closet. I’ve branched out and am going to try other brands like FuzziBunz, bumGenius, Swaddlebees, Thirsties -- and I have grand plans to cloth diaper my next baby, starting from day 1! To me, the joy of cloth diapering to is having the ability to put my baby in a diaper that is cute, durable, and is saving us money in the long run -- especially as we plan to have more children. I’m such a convert that I cloth diaper out on shopping trips, and 100% cloth diaper at night. My mother-in-law was right; it IS saving us money, and I am loving it!

I’m still working on converting other people, including my sister who isn’t 100% convinced it’s for her yet... and my mom thinks I’m a little nuts since it’s the only topic I’m interested in now, but she’s intrigued. I hope to continue to share the love and joy of cloth diapering with all around me -- and perhaps make a few converts on the way.

Anna is a first-time mom who lives in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley in MT with her husband and baby girl Kristina. Cloth diapering has made motherhood even more of a joy for her!

I Joined the Dark Side-Because They Have Cloth Diapers

Read the full story here...

My Mama Magic: Converting the Unbelievers

Whenever someone brings up my in-laws, the first thing I do is ask them a question: Have you ever seen Everybody Loves Raymond? My in-laws are Frank and Marie in almost every way. Spending time with them is very much like living in a sitcom. My father-in-law grumbling about having no dinner to eat (he would never make anything himself). My mother-in-law escorting my nearly-four-year-old to the bathroom because after more than a year, she’s still not convinced that he’s actually potty-trained. Arguments over how to correctly wipe up condensation on the counter top. The downside, of course, is that there is no “stop” button in real life when I get tired of watching.

We waited for four months to tell my in-laws that we were expecting again. At some point, you have to learn to pick your battles, and listening to their laundry list of reasons why we weren’t ready to have more kids was one we weren’t ready to deal with. Eventually, we did break the news, but we later faced a new obstacle: telling them we planned to cloth diaper. We didn’t use cloth on our older son, though now I feel guilty for having put him in disposables for three years. We had a cloth diaper shower coming up, and I knew we had to tell them before then.

Finally, my husband just blurted it out one day. And the reaction was as expected. After the initial shock wore off and the echo of “WHY??” finished ringing through the air, my mother-in-law pulled out the scare tactics.

“When Jamie [my brother-in-law] was a baby, the nurse pinned his diaper through his skin in the hospital.”
“You know you’re going to have to wash laundry every single day, right?”
“All that dirty laundry is really unsanitary to keep putting in your washing machine.”
“You’ll be too busy with your kids to be able to swish them in the toilet like you’re going to have to do.”

And in his all-too-class way, my father-in-law had only one question: “Who’s going to shake the [bleep] out of them?” Nice.

Still, we were happy with our decision. My mother-in-law didn’t come to the diaper shower, though she did end up giving us money to get “whatever else we still needed for the baby,” which of course, we spent on diapers.

Fast forward two more months, and we had a tiny new tenant in our house. During a visit from my in-laws, he needed a diaper change. Great, I thought, let’s open that can of worms again. But something happened. While taking off his OS snap diaper, a shadow fell over my back. “That’s a diaper?” my mother-in-law asked. And I knew it then. I could convert her. I went through our stash, showing her how far cloth diapers have come since she diapered her kids in the 70s, and she seemed genuinely interested.

Two weeks later, we went to their house to introduce our son to the rest of my husband’s family. And as babies tend to do, he messed up a diaper. Getting ready to change him, I got up from the table, but my mother-in-law grabbed my son from my arms and said, “Oh I can do that.” With a confused look on my face, I made sure to tell her there were some disposables in the diaper bag. But peeking in the bedroom, I saw her cleaning him up, BumGenius in hand. And it occurred to me: if I could manage to get my beyond-stubborn mother-in-law to use cloth, there’s nothing I couldn’t do. I haven’t changed the world… yet. But believe me, I’m working on it!

BIO: Charlotte Justine Butler is a photographer from South Georgia with two amazing boys, 9 weeks and (almost) 4 years old. When she’s not busy shooting weddings, she enjoys reading and being the Robin to her son’s Batman.

My Mama Magic: Converting the Unbelievers

Read the full story here...

Making the Switch: Why We Decided to Cloth Diaper

A few months ago my husband and I made the decision to start cloth diapering our now 16 month old and 7 month old. There was a lot of thought that went into the decision. At the beginning it was a bit scary and overwhelming when we first started to do some research online about all the different types of diapers available. After research, discussions with other cloth diapering mommas, and taking a look at all the pros and cons, we decided that cloth diapering was simply a win-win decision.

The following are the reasons why we decided to make the switch. I’m so glad that we did! I would never go back to disposables. What would motivate you to make the switch?

1. I imagine that finances are probably the biggest reason most people make the switch. We have 2 babies in diapers. Even though I looked for the best deals and clipped coupons, we were still paying about $.20 per diaper, and $.03 per wipe.

Lets imagine that I change my boys every 2 hours except during the middle of the night when they go 8 hours without a change. That’s 12 diapers a day. Now, doing the math:

12 diapers X .20 a diaper = $2.40
24 wipes (2 wipes per change) X .03 = $.72

Together that is $3.12 a day, or $21.84 a week. That’s $1135.68 per year! Assuming my kids are geniuses and potty train at 2, that’s $2,271.36.

In contrast cloth diapering, buying the most expensive diapers and wipes, creating a 2 day stash of 48 diapers (again, to change every 2 hours), and 48 cloth wipes, would cost about $1000! That’s less than half the cost even with some of the pricier diapers!

We haven’t spent anywhere near that much. Bargain shopping, sewing my own, and utilizing cheaper options (like prefolds/flats and covers), we have been able to create a stash of 38 diapers, including 7 of the premium diapers, for around $300! And our cloth wipes were free because they were either sewn out of towels and flannel blankets we had around the house or are newborn washcloths that I never use.

2. The second biggest reason for the switch was due to the health of my babies. Ever since the most recent changes in diapers, and the introduction of the newest absorbing materials, my sons started getting red bums. I could not clear them, no matter what I tried.

Discussing the issue with one of my friends, the idea of trying cloth diapers was suggested. Not wanting to put my money into it, I grabbed some flannel receiving blankets, safety pins, and googled ways to fold the blankets. Just using them part time, at home, I began to see a vast improvement in the rashes. Before long I was completely sold on the idea of cloth.

3. There is a trend going right now to be more green and conscientious about our earth. Its not a new trend but I have seen it increase. I’ve always tried to do my part to help protect our world, but when it came to diapering, I never even thought about how much of an impact disposables would make.

When my second baby was born, we started filling our diaper pail within a couple of days. Seeing the huge bags of diapers that we were filling our trashcan with started to really gnaw on me.

I knew that disposables did not disintegrate, and I hated the idea of contributing to the huge piles of trash. I do not want to leave that behind for my kids or grandkids. With cloth diapers, I know that I am leaving a much smaller impact on our world.

4. The final reason for making the switch is for the cuteness. Who can help but to fall in love with such a cute tush?

Dana G is the proud stay at home mother of 2 handsome baby boys and the wife of a marvelous man who serves our country in the Air Force. You can check out more of her tips and stories on adaynasmile.wordpress.com.

Making the Switch: Why We Decided to Cloth Diaper

Read the full story here...

I Proved my own self wrong, how embarrassing!

So as I look back on things people have said to me over the last few months of starting to cloth diaper, I want to laugh. Literally laugh out loud. Only because I used to be the same way! Ask silly questions, and laugh when I picked up a pack up cloth prefolds at babies R us wondering "Why would people want to do this!". That's all I knew though. We, in today's age, always hear "Back in the day, I clothed diapered you and used pins and you came out just fine." I told people they could save their breath, because the whole washing poop and pee was not for me. I sadly had mistaken, little to know that I would soon completely change my mind in a matter of minutes.

Myth #1 - Cloth diapering means you have to touch the babies poop, and it gets on your clothes in the wash.
-No, actually spending $44 on a diaper sprayer has saved my life, if we have a poopy diaper, I flip the switch on my BumGenious diaper sprayer, hold the diaper over the toilet (only touching the outer part) and spray away. Only to find poop in the toilet where it belongs, my hands barely wet from the clean water coming from the sprayer, and a pretty white diaper! And, what do you think washing your hands is for anyway? Don't you wash them after changing a disposable? Or after those disposable blowouts? Blowouts get on the babies clothes too right? Busted!!!!

Myth #2 - It takes too much time to cloth diaper, wash, fold, I don't have the patience.
-Then why on earth on you a parent! LOL. Patience is everything in parenting. But, I tested this myth myself. I wash diapers in between chores while I'm at home doing absolutely nothing. Wash, watch a show, rinse, do the dishes, rinse, nap, hang to dry, forget them until the sun goes down, stuff while I'm watching my shows. Then take a minute to obsess over how cute my dipes are and how much cuter they'll be on his tush! But, when I was using sposies, I would find I frequently would get down to 1 diaper!!! On a poopy day! Now, I had to get dressed, dress my baby, drive 5 miles to wal mart, use gas to get there (3.80/gallon), dig for a 3.00 off coupon for the diapers because I knew deep down what a rip off it was, wait in line, check out, use my cash (planned on eating with that), drive 5 more miles, unload a heavy car seat, feed my baby by now because I took an hour, then I can get back to my laundry. Only to dread doing it over again after going through these next 30 diapers in 4 days! Busted!!

Myth #3 - It doesn't save money, you waste more energy and use electricity washing and drying them.
-OK, so you spend a little to get started, but they say you can CD your baby to toddler age for under a $100. It's only if you want name brand, cute prints and such that things get pricey. 1 pack of name brand disposable diapers (30 ct Size 2) is $9.99. OK, 8 diapers a day, roughly, that's stretching 4 days worth (3 if my baby goes to daycare-due to overchanging). So $10/3days=100 bucks in a 30 day month. $100 X 12 months= $1200/year X 3 yrs=$3600 (roughly). Then your diaper genie liners, and trash bags. O, wow! And I could have just bought a pretty good stash of Cloth diapers with that first 100! I compared my electricity bills before and after CD'ing. Water bill stayed the same no matter how many rinses I did, electricity actually went down.....O, maybe because I hang my diapers to dry. Even with a little high heat fluffing in my dryer for my inserts only, it's lower. Interesting....Busted!!!

Myth #4 - It just sounds dirty and it smells.
-Actually, the sun sanitizes your diapers when you line dry them. My diapers smell quite nice, pretty much like nothing. A couple of cute smelly diapers in a cute little wet bag that will be washed the next day seems to be more logical then old dirty and wet diapers that sit in a diaper genies for weeks. Diaper genies can hold up to 100 diapers. Eww, that's days worth. Talk about the trip to the trash can with old dipes, or the drive to the apartment dumpster, with possible leaks. No thanks!! Busted!!

Can't believe, looking back, I asked these same questions as if I was too good for cloth diapers or something. Now I am completely opposite. It's amazing. I'm so ashamed, but just laugh at myself. I'm starting to think I'm too good for disposables, and my baby's bum is too good for those chemicals! I'll use my $3600 I save up to buy things for my new house....maybe use a little for some new prints I have my eye on!

BIO: Traci has been cloth diapering her baby boy since he was 6 month old. Started with the cheapies, but couldn't resist the prints! Now, a self proclaimed diaper addict, she enjoys her days off, when her list consist of washing diapers. Sad, but true.

I Proved my own self wrong, how embarrassing!

Read the full story here...

Natural Childbirth was as 'Green' as I Planned on Getting

Well I would say I am pretty young, 23 to be exact. I have never been a typical person, I guess I didn't fit the profile of doing things the way I did. LOL. People say I have an old soul. I've always wanted to be a mommy. So me and my high-school sweetheart grew up, got married young, he joined the army, and we finally started a family when I was 22. From the beginning of my pregnancy I knew I wanted a natural birth, completely, no doubts, no questions, no hesitation. The looks I got from my family were priceless. And their looks made me want to do it even more. 18 hours of labor and a natural childbirth brought my beautiful son into this world. But that was as "green" as I ever planned on going.

So on to parenting and working in L&D as a RN. I had tons of free disposable diapers from the hospital I work at that I collected throughout my pregnancy thinking "Diapers are the most expensive thing, I'll collect all the samples I can!" That should have been a sign right there. Never the less, I prevailed collecting enough sposies to last 3 months of his life (awesome savings, horrible waste!). Then it was back to clipping coupons for Huggies, and adding that to my grocery list. Diapers, wipes, Desitin…the typical last 3 things on my list. That got old. I also was doing the typical store bought baby food, talk about high grocery bill. I changed that real quick when I found out that I could buy fruits and veggies at the commissary at a discount, blend them and feed more organic things to my precious baby for CHEAP!!!! Loved that. Now $1 of veggies makes 12 servings of something. Awesome! So I considered myself a good mom ya know?? My family was like "You make his own baby food, like handmake it??" LOL. "Yes!" And I was proud of it. But, that was as "green" as I was going to get.

Well while sitting at work one day with a girlfriend, delivery baby after baby, one of my patients mother's told her daughter in labor "At least you don't have to use cloth diapers like I did way back in the day..". My friend said "I use them, and love them!" After seeing the looks on their faces, and asking "someone in 2011 uses cloth diapers?" I was sold! I wanted more info. NOW!!!!

So we sat down, got online to Kelly's Closet and she went over it with me. I wasn't convinced yet, but I had an open mind. I never thought of it!!! The #1 question that I asked was : "How do you handle the poop because I'm a germaphobe!?" So she made everything sound so easy. She made me get out my debit card and order a Econobum trial pack that day. I was excited for something new, for something different, for something no one would expect from me….it would be perfect! Haha. I got my prefolds in, used one of them and got right back on Kelly's Closet to do some research. I thought to myself "If I just spend a lot of money on them now, I'll have to use them because I won't to waste my money." So I debated, and debated for hours. Then hit that payment button! . I bought 6 Rumparooz, 6 Happy Heinys, 5 bumGenius Artist Series, 2 Kawaii Babies, 3 Fuzzibunz, some detergent, liners ect. So I waited and waited. Got my order, washed them and started CD'ing. OMG, this is what was missing from my "all natural" life. I posted it on facebook. I got so many negative comments: "You won't last a day"; "Have fun with washing poop"; "Let me know when you give up": "Are you serious??". Yup negative all the way, no supporters what so ever, and it made me want to love it even more!! MY DH was on board so that's all that mattered. I really think I thrive on the weird stares and questions because as a nurse, I thrive on educating people about things they know NOTHING about, which is usually the case with cloth diapering.

So I love CD'ing, I'm addicted. Been doing it for a solid month now, got my babysitter hooked. I left the daycare facilities because they wouldn't cooperate with my CD'ing. I work full time night shifts, make my babies food in bulk once a month, wash my diapers and love it, and I love diaper changes. No rashes, shorter grocery list, weird stares, more money in my pockets, and one less sposie in the landfill. It's funny, the more I educate people on it and post random facts on facebook about it, I am starting to get compliments like "wow your such a good mommy". Makes me feel great, but hate the stereotypes you get when you do things atypical. So education is key, time to go convince another momma to CD! And I think this is as "green" as I can get. LOL!!!

BIO: Traci is an army wife, full time working mom, photographer, and a RN in Labor & Delivery, who just started cloth diapering her first born son of 9 months old. Her goal is to educate every momma she works with on cloth diapering, breastfeeding, and being green!

Natural Childbirth was as 'Green' as I Planned on Getting

Read the full story here...

My Journey to Cloth

I have distinct childhood memories of my mom using cloth diapers on my younger siblings – big, scary, and sharp looking pins appearing to nearly stab their little sides, poisonous fumes emanating from the bathroom where the dirty diaper bin was stored, my mom sticking her BARE hands into the toilet with a dirty diaper to rinse it out, and later looking into the toilet to see it so cloudy with poop I couldn't tell if the diaper was still soaking –so I'd flush the toilet anyway, hoping with all my might a diaper wasn't actually still there so I wouldn't get in trouble for clogging the toilet - again. Needless to say, I was NOT interested in ever using cloth diapers when I had kids!

Fast forward to this past fall when I was pregnant with for the first time. Still "traumatized" by the diapering of my siblings, cloth was still too gross and intimidating of a process for me to consider. Therefore, using disposables seemed liked the logical and only option for me to use on my son when he was born. I was so indoctrinated by society that I didn't even think about the many downsides to using disposables.

But then I had a sinking realization; my husband and do not have trash pickup (instead, we take it to the area dump for free in order to save money), meaning we would have to endure smelly diapers piling up between trips to the dump. And that was definitely not something we wanted to have to endure – especially with a baby that was due in the spring, a long and hot summer ahead, and a house without A/C! Add all of those things together, and I knew the smell was going to get ugly fast.

Reluctantly, I decided to do a quick internet search to see if any diaper services were in the area and how much they cost. I was happily shocked to discover that they would cost the same price as disposables, and my husband and I set our minds to doing so. I even began to warm to the idea as I studied the websites of the diaper services and realized how much diapering had changed over the years.

I was not going to have to use those "giant" pins, and one of the services (which made it my favorite!) didn't even require that the poop be washed off! I also loved the comfort in knowing that I would always have clean diapers on hand, and would not have to worry about washing a single one. The only additional materials I would have to supply were diaper covers – which I was slowly realizing had changed drastically from the plastic underwear-shaped ones of the past.

However, I am always looking for a way to cut costs and therefore I couldn't leave it at that decision. So as "D-Day" crept closer, I started to wonder why I couldn't get and use my own cloth diapers. Why should I pay someone week after week for something that I could handle? "But you don't have a washing machine!" –cried out my inner child, as it realized I was suddenly seriously considering taking a much more active role in cloth diapering. "You can't take those dirty diapers to the Laundromat, people will get angry with you when they think you're contaminating the machines!" But I was determined to give it some serious thought, and after some quick number crunching, I began to realize just how much money I'd quickly be saving! And with that I was sold! Only later did I realize that in addition to the thousands of dollars I was going to save, I was NOT going to contribute a couple tons of diapers to the landfills, nor was I going to be exposing my baby's bottom to as many chemicals! Finally, I love knowing that I will be able to use these same diapers on my next baby, whenever that one comes!

Rebecca Brown is a working first-time mom who is learning how to balance work, motherhood, and marriage. And while she misses sleeping in stints of more than 3-4 hours, she loves every moment of motherhood!

My Journey to Cloth

Read the full story here...

All The Cool Moms Are Doing It

The moment I found out I was pregnant with my first son, I immediately knew certain things. I knew I wanted to breastfeed, use safe cleaners so as not to expose my son to chemicals, but diapers didn't cross my radar.

When he was a few months old we began dealing with diaper rash and yeast from the antibiotics he was having to take. At that point my mother suggested cloth diapers. No sooner had the words left her mouth than visions of playing in toilet water began to haunt me. Now, I will admit that I still don't like swishing the dirty diapers, but there are so many great tools that have been developed to make that part of things easier.

At this point in time, neither I nor anyone I knew had any clue that anything besides flat cloth diapers existed. My mom taught me how to fold and pin the diapers and we were set. So naturally when I found I was expecting again 6 years later I stocked up on flat diapers, pins, and plastic pants once again.

It wasn't until my third son came along that I learned about a whole new class of cloth diapering options. But so many! What's the difference? Which one do I pick?

I was introduced to Rumparooz and ended up mostly with those and a few GroVia diapers. Holy cow you can't get much easier than that! Now, there are still TONS of other options available, but those were the ones that I was able to see and feel before ordering.

I have since learned that you can cloth diaper on any budget, seriously. If you are worried about the initial investment, save up first. Compare the $500 or so that you would invest in cloth diapers (and you can get some pretty awesome dipes for that amount) to the $3000 or so you would spend on disposables (or chemical diapers as my friend calls them). You would have to multiply the $3000 by each child that you have, but the $500 can be used on subsequent children. You may choose to buy a few more or replace some, but you only have to make the large investment once.

Can't decide where to start? You can host your very own diaper party. This is where you and your friends can get together and see and touch several different cloth diaper options. Not only that, but you can also get incentives this way.

I myself am diapering a 6 month old and a 2 year old. I can never go back to "sposies" now that I know how easy the cloth diapering can be.

Brandy Is a stay at home mom with three boys and a blog. Confessions of a Crafty Housewife is all about how we live, love, play, eat, and search for better ways to raise our boys and protect the planet.

All The Cool Moms Are Doing It

Read the full story here...

Why Cloth Diapers?

I don't know about you- but I've been asked this question many times by mothers, friends, and family members who think I've gone insane when they see my little one's fluffy bottom.

I would love to look at them surprised, and say "why not?", but I don't, because I've realized that some people really don't know.

Most people don't know the facts or the good things about using cloth- and I'm sure the first thing that comes to their mind is pre folds, diaper pins with plastic pull up covers, and of course, poop. 
So, let's take a breather before we begin ranting and just naming out reasons, and lets really educate them on the Why's. You never know, you could change someone's entire way of living by taking the time to educate them, like many of ours has been changed!

The Environment
Cloth diapers are better for the environment. I know, I've heard people say that there is not a difference because of the energy and water we use washing the diapers, verse theirs sitting in a landfill forever. Even though we do use more water & energy, it takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone! Even the biodegradable diapers they have now are not all that degradable. Those diapers have to be exposed to air & sun in order to properly degrade, and well...it's pretty hard for that to happen when being covered by millions of pieces of trash and dirt. Which means it can take even the "biodegradable" diapers hundreds of years to decompose. And really, the amount of water used per week to wash cloth diapers at home is comparable to the amount consumed by an adult flushing the toilet four or five times daily for a week.

Skin and Health
I don't think people realize that disposable diapers are chemicals, plastic, and dyes. I didn't before researching cloth diapers. Really, how can you say that it's good for your baby to use the bathroom and sit in a bunch of chemicals? The Consumer Protection Agency reported disposables to include chemical burns, noxious chemical and insecticide odors, babies pulling disposables apart and putting pieces of plastic into their noses and mouth, choking on tab papers and linings, plastic melting onto the skin, and ink staining the skin.  Plastic tabs can also tear skin if the diaper is not properly put on the baby. YIKES. I bet if you told any mom that, she would seriously consider cloth, I would hope.

Cost
This is one of the major reasons why we cloth diaper. It is cheaper, by far! Yes- even after you add the extra water and electric! I mean c'mon, you can get a complete cloth diapering kit by Econobum for $97! Add some detergent and pail liner for the basics, and your done for less than $140. With a baby, you will have spent that much in disposables in about two months, money right in the trash, literally. That's not even using the "top of the line" disposables. Use one of the many cloth diaper calculators here to find out how much you are, or can be, saving by using cloth diapers. It is so nice to be saving that money, or spending it on something else! :)

C-U-T-E-N-E-S-S
Face it, fluffy bums are CUTE! The colors and prints are CUTE! Even pre folds are CUTE!  The styles are CUTE! They are soft and fluffy. They are bright, or light. They can match what my baby is wearing. The accessories you can buy are CUTE!

To sum it up (this is not even ALL of the reasons, just the major), cloth diapering just ROCKS! The pro's out-way the con's drastically! Try to keep some of this in mind when someone looks at you like your crazy and ask's "why in the world you would put your poor baby in cloth?". Oh, we have plenty of great reasons :)

By Shay P.

Why Cloth Diapers?

Read the full story here...

Eye on Cloth Diapering: CBS Reporter Turns Modern-Day Cloth Diapering the Topic Du Jour

Natali del Conte Morris, a reporter for CBS's Eye on Parenting online series, had no idea that diapering was such a heated topic... that is until she did her first segment on diapering titled "The Diaper Wars: Cloth vs. Disposables" featuring Dr. Alanna Levine. The segment featured only old-fashioned, clunky cloth diaper options - no mention of any modern, easy to use diapers like bumGenius, Rumparooz and FuzziBunz - the brands we know and love!

After the segment aired on November 4, Natali says she was inudated with emails and comments about how unbalanced her segment was and how poorly it portrayed cloth diapering. The latest of the 370 comments left says, "Wow, this is a terribly researched and inaccurate piece of journalism. I'm very disappointed. I've used both disposables and cloth so I am well aware of what both involve. They were anti-disposable and didn't mention so many of the great aspects of cloth diapering. I'm quite appalled overall." This comment nicely sums up what moms were saying about this TV spot.

After realizing her error and anxious to make things right with moms again, Natali accepted what she called a "Cloth Diapering Challenge." She agreed to try cloth diapers for one month and then blog about her experiences online. Her conditions:

1. She wanted help from the cloth diapering community - CHECK! The cloth diapering community showered her with advice and words of encouragement. The cloth diaper manufacturers showered her to treats to try out at home too!  I think her collection might be bigger than mine!
2. She asked that no one personally attacks her (we agree, some of the comments were not so professional) - CHECK! Once she agreed to the challenge, the cloth diapering community rallied around her.
3. She said she couldn't promise a follow up video - but she would try to make one (more info on that later!)

So after a month of trying cloth diapers, Natali said herself that she is a "convert." She and her producer became well versed in cloth diapering and invited the mother of the modern cloth diaper and founder of FuzziBunz cloth diapers, Tereson Dupuy, to do a "modern cloth diapering 101" segment on December 9th. This segment showcased the latest modern cloth diaper brands and discussed why moms are going retro in their diapering choice today. Tereson showed that cloth diapering is easy, cost-effective and even fun to do! Watch the full video here!

The comments from this new and improved segment were quite positive. This mother sums it up best when she says, "Thank you so much for re-visiting this and showing the benefits of the different types of cloth! Throughout this trial, you have truly been the "average" woman - one like me who started with disposable and once introduced to cloth, never went back. I wish more women would realize how much better cloth diapering is!"

I think we can all agree that cloth diapering is worth a look and try. That said, we recognize it's not for everyone. The goal is for moms and dads to be open-minded like Natali. It's also important that moms do their homework and take the time to consider each option carefully... doing so will open the door to new and exciting opportunities now and in the future!

Eye on Cloth Diapering: CBS Reporter Turns Modern-Day Cloth Diapering the Topic Du Jour

Read the full story here...

The "Only a Little Wet" Syndrome

I developed a bad habit in my former life as a 'sposie user. Time and time again, I've seen parents leave a disposable diaper on the baby “just a little longer” -and I'm embarrassed to admit I was guilty of this - because it's “not that wet”.

The truth is, even the “stay dry layer” doesn't leave the baby dry. More comfortable, yes, than no layer at all, but not dry. Of course, a parent could get away with less frequent 'sposie changes because superficially the baby seems dry (that is, their jammies aren't sopping yet), but just because those disposables absorb more fluid than most children can produce over the course of a few hours doesn't mean we need to play a game of chicken with the diaper to see who will give in (give out?) first. There was an episode of Malcolm in the Middle where the dads had a contest to see whose baby's diaper weighed the most. It was funny on TV (I just loved Malcolm in the Middle) but not so funny in real life.

How did so many of us come to believe that it's okay to let our babies sit in damp diapers for extended amounts of time just because the disposable “doesn't feel that heavy”? I believe that the high cost of disposable diapers has trained us to change diapers less frequently in a twisted desire to get the most value out of our purchase. Disposables run $0.20 -$0.30 each (that's the cost of an entire roll of toilet paper!), so changing just a few extra 'sposies per day can cost an extra $20 -$40 per month (and for bigger families, just multiply that by the number of children in diapers). That's an entire mega-case of 'sposies every month! That's a few trips to Starbuck every month. As parents, we try to be frugal, and since advertising has convinced us that disposable diapers stay dry next to baby, we tell ourselves that it's an acceptable (and even sensible) practice to wait until a diaper is noticeably wet before being changed. The bad habit becomes ingrained and can be unconsciously carried over to cloth diapering.

If this sounds like you, free yourself of your bad habit! You are no longer at the mercy of your $0.25 'sposies! The cloth diapers are already paid for and they are re-usable. In fact, the MORE you use your cloth diapers, the more value you get from them! (If you spend $500 on your cloth diaper set-up and change an average of 10 times per day for 2.5 years, your diapers cost a nickel per use). Let's wipe, er, eliminate, er... DISPOSE OF the phrases “not that wet” “not that full” and “only a little wet” from our vocabularies.

Tip: Get instant feedback on how often your baby really wets by putting her in coverless fitteds, pinned prefolds, or pinned flats for a day.

By Angie S.

The "Only a Little Wet" Syndrome

Read the full story here...

What’s Your Conversion Rate?

For my husband and I, cloth diapering was the only option when we discovered I was pregnant. With all the costs associated with having a baby and me transitioning from working woman to at-home mom, the economic reason alone convinced us. Selfish, I know, as some parents put the environment as their top reason for forgoing disposables.

The environmental impact was definitely on our minds though. We couldn’t fathom every poop and pee coming from our little girl weighing in at less than 7 pounds to have such a permanent effect on our world. It just didn’t seem right for the generations to come. The irony is that every mom I talk to wants the best for their child—healthy baby food, organic bedding, BPA-free everything—yet isn’t that a bit short-sighted?

None of us are perfect and we could all do more, and when doing more looks so darn cute it is a no-brainer! I am proud to have single-handedly convinced several moms to convert to cloth diapers. Sure, I am kind of crazy when it comes to how excited I get about fluff; I’ll admit I tone it down a bit when surrounded by non-cloth diaperers. But what if we all converted just one person to cloth diapers? Even if those people just cloth diapered part-time, the results would be huge.

Have you been successful in converting other parents to cloth diapers? What did you do that was so convincing?

Ann J. is a cloth diaper fanatic with a 9-month-old daughter who has the cutest diaper butt on the block!

What’s Your Conversion Rate?

Read the full story here...

I’ve convinced my biggest critic to use cloth diapers; my sister

When I first announced to my family that I was going to cloth diaper my first child the response was mixed. My mother had used cloth diapers in the early eighties at least part time for both of her children and was supportive of the idea.

My younger sister on the other hand looked at me like I had proposed diapering my daughter in paper towels and scotch tape. “Eww, what about the leaks and the poo? Every time someone holds the baby, they’ll get wet.” Now in her defense, her knowledge of cloth diapers is apparently leftover from the 19th century because she wasn’t aware that modern cloth diapers, (even those from the 1980s) require a waterproof outer layer.

Once I explained the conveniences of All-In-One and Pocket diapers, and the leak protection and stylish qualities of brightly colored gusseted covers she was still disgusted. I explained that my husband and I had made this choice mostly for financial reasons, but also for environmental ones. The statistics of how many tons of disposable diapers and accompanying raw human sewage go into landfills every year made me feel sick to my stomach.

My sister wouldn’t budge. To her credit, she and my mother bought me a lovely basket of cloth diapers for my baby shower. She still thought the idea was borderline barbaric. In the beginning she refused to help change my daughter’s diaper unless I used a disposable. Even when my daughter’s disposable diaper leaked poo all over my sister’s new dress, she still wasn’t convinced. But slowly she began to adjust to my choice. If she was babysitting she would use All-In-Ones, but nothing else. Soon she would change Pocket or Fitted Diapers, but refused to deal with the hassle of Prefolds. I was so grateful for the free babysitting that I wasn’t about to complain about her diaper changing habits.

My sister and her husband are planning to start their own family within the next year, something that we talk about a lot. Last week as she was entertaining my daughter while I rinsed a poopy diaper, my sister announced “I think Mike and I will use cloth diapers when we have kids.” I was speechless. I actually stared at her with my mouth open and sputtered. She quickly added the caveat that she would use disposables whenever she was out of the house, but I was still shocked. I began to tell her that I recommended that they opt for All-In-One and One-Size Pocket diapers for a combination of ease and affordability. She had still more shocking news in store. “I don’t think I’d have any trouble using prefolds, at least until the baby can roll over and sit up.” Again, I was floored. The woman who refused to change a cloth diaper and declared prefolds to difficult, time consuming and confusing was a cloth diaper convert.

 I still hold out hope that she may find cloth as easy as I have and decide to ditch the hassle of ever buying disposables. But even a part-time cloth diaper user in a culture where less than 10% of children are cloth diapered, is a victory. Especially when it’s my biggest critic, my sister.

(If you look carefully in the picture, you can see my daughter's Thirsties cover peeking out from the leg of her onesie. :-)


My name is Bethany V. and my husband Rob and I have cloth diapered our daughter Althea (18-months) since she came from the hospital. I love writing, knitting and of course, cloth diapers. I have a blog called The Laundry List (http://thelaundryblog.wordpress.com/) where I talk about writing, budgeting, cloth diapers, parenting, and other aspects of my life as a SAHM/WAHM.

I’ve convinced my biggest critic to use cloth diapers; my sister

Read the full story here...

Carefree Travel with Cloth

A mom has to be a little more organized (and dare I say, smarter) to use cloth diapers. Face it, disposables are spontaneous and dummy-proof. Simply buy more when you run out. That's it! With cloth, you research the styles and wash routines, calculate dirty diapers, time and money. When you run out of cloth diapers, you wash them and start over...and there's no simple run to the store to buy more.

Cloth diapering has taught me to become more of a thinker and planner at home. But, traveling with cloth takes that planning one step further. A trip with cloth requires a system, structure, and advanced preparation. I do not appreciate strict regimens invading my impulsive traveling style! Carefree disposables and I seemed a perfect match for the road, and I'd leave the planning for home. For example, some people use (gasp) a list when they pack! Not me. Even before kids (and cloth), I waited until an hour before we needed to leave, and threw some stuff into a bag. With a very busy 3 year old and 16 month old, and pregnant with our third child, there's no hope of suddenly changing my hurried habits, I'm hopelessly unpredictable when I pack and travel! I considered traveling with cloth for about 5 minutes and decided my friends and family wouldn't want me washing dirty diapers in their washing machine, laundromats are a scheduling impossibility, and I absolutely could not survive without my diaper sprayer.

Traveling with cloth sounded like it would drain the fun right out of a vacation. Then, I discovered the Cloth Diaper Whisperer's blog! I saw many different ways to pack diapers, and learned about flushable liners. I even read in the comments that one mom simply throws all her cloth diapers into a big bag and leaves for the weekend! I could do this! A month prior to this trip, I ordered a wonderful Planet Wise Wet/Dry bag from Kelly's Closet. I was remediating my helter-skelter traveling ways, and cloth was helping me do it! The day of our trip, my true colors shone brightly. I realized with absolute horror that I had not washed my diaper stash! I had only 3 clean BumGenius diapers tucked in the diaper bag! How is it possible to have EVERY single diaper dirty, when I needed them ALL clean to begin the trip? Did I mention I'm hopeless? I had a breakdown and told my husband we'd have to buy disposables on the way because of my error. "No way! We've got time, throw them in the wash. We're not spending any more money on diapers. You said so, remember?" Did I really say that? No more disposables?! But this is a cloth diaper emergency! I wasn't talking about emergencies! I tossed the diapers in the wash and glanced at the clock. Didn't he remember our wash routine includes 2 wash cycles and an extra rinse? They would still be wet and unusable...and we had a deadline. I just knew we'd be stopping for disposables that night.

Hours later, we arrived at our hotel, exhausted. There was no dryer to be found, my daughter was wearing the last clean cloth diaper, and I held a bag full of clean, wet diapers (and still no disposables). My eyes searched the room for drying locations, and didn't see many options. Inserts laid out flat would take forever to dry. Remembering the recent post where a mom showed how she hung her diapers on coat hangers, I opened the closet in the room hopefully. One lonely hangar (wooden, no bottom). But a luggage stand stood in the corner, and the light bulb went off with a brilliant brainstorm. Set up in front of the room's A/C unit, the luggage stand was the perfect travel drying rack. My inserts were dry and ready to use in the morning, along with the shells I had hung in various places around the room (I love how they dry quickly no matter where you stick them!). This trip taught me that using cloth diapers when you travel does not mean you sacrifice your spontaneity or personality. You can still be a disorganized, last-minute-packing, and too-busy-to-prepare-for-this-trip mom. You don't have to resort to disposables. You don't even need to remember important things, like making sure your stash is clean for your trip! Cloth diapers are a perfect match for ANY traveler, even the most decidedly unorganized and carefree!

By Julie G.

Carefree Travel with Cloth

Read the full story here...

Nightline Spotlights the Disposable Diaper Wars: Pampers vs. Huggies

And the excess continues……to the tune of $7 billion per year!

The other night I was flipping through channels and was stopped in my tracks when I heard the upcoming story on ABC Nightline called, “The Diaper Wars.” After I heard that the diaper market in the US rings in about $7 billion per year, I couldn’t help but think of exactly how many physical diapers that looks like. WOAH!

I also learned that Pampers employs over 500 scientists, seamstresses, and chemical engineers (yes I said "chemical" engineers) to work in its top secret research and development center. What are they doing in there? Well even some of the top level execs do not have access to know exactly how their diapers are developed and tested.

The show goes on to talk about various development and testing (the stuff that's not top secret) that goes on in the background at Pampers. Yes, folks, people actually send their baby's poo and pee to Pampers to test extensively - wow! There is so much testing that goes into marketing these little urine soakers that Pampers officials were shocked at the Facebook campaign that had moms groaning over the severe diaper rashes their babies got after using Pampers Dry Max diapers. Their research showed no evidence of that, they say. They hint that environmentalists who favor cloth diapering may have been behind the campaign.

I winced a bit when I saw how the two companies are trying to give their plastic saggy diapers a makeover - employing designers and even that crazy Huggies jean diaper that got moms in an uproar (in a good way, I think!).

As I watched in disbelief I was reminded about how much I love cloth diapering. I don't know if I could trade in my cute, fluffy diapers for anything that requires so much engineering just to soak up my baby's urine. I think I'll do it the natural way without man-made tampering.

By Sarah W.

Nightline Spotlights the Disposable Diaper Wars: Pampers vs. Huggies

Read the full story here...

How I Converted a Friend to Cloth

I entered the world of cloth diapers for the first time right around my son's first birthday. Determined to encourage successful potty learning sooner rather than later, I invested in some basic prefolds and Bummis Super Whisper Wrap covers with high hopes that using them would help my son "connect the dots," so to speak.

I wasn't outspoken about my rather idealistic goals. I knew most people would think I was crazy, probably doubly so for using cloth and for trying to potty learn at an early age. Mostly, I just kept my head down and my mouth shut. I did share what I was doing with a few close friends that have young children, since they couldn't help but notice the switch. But I never set out to convince anyone to cloth diaper. I wasn't fully convinced yet myself. It was merely an experiment.

As the grand experiment continued, I began noticing some "side benefits" to my cloth diapering decision: no huge, smelly trash bag full of diapers in my garbage, no more costly store trips to stock up on something I was just going to throw away. I bought my last small package of disposables when my son was 14 months old, and they lasted a good two months. And wow, disposable diapers smell bad to me now, even when they're not dirty! I had never noticed. This change just might work for us....

Over time, my friend Rachel began asking me questions about what I was doing: "How much do cloth diapers cost? How do you wash them? Do you like them? Do you think it's working?" I answered as honestly as I could; I was very open about sharing my successes and struggles -- what was working, what was driving me nuts. She could see the benefits on her own -- not having to shell out the cash for disposables was something even our frugal husbands could get excited about!

Now I'm convinced that cloth diapering is a great decision, and I can see so many benefits that I didn't see before. However, I didn't actively try to persuade Rachel (or anyone else, for that matter) that cloth diapering was a good idea. After all, I never would have tried cloth myself if I had not come to it with ulterior motives! I simply answered questions when asked, showed others what I was doing, and let them form their own opinions. Most people are pretty good at doing that, anyway! I'm learning sometimes the most convincing argument is the one you arrive at all by yourself.

The day finally came, a few months later, when Rachel called me with a question, "Um, could I borrow some of your prefolds and covers? I'm thinking about this cloth diapering thing."

I grinned to myself. "Sure! Absolutely!"

Our sons are both two years old now; they've mastered the potty and ditched the diapers. However, we have many cloth diapering days ahead and we're both adding new little members to our families. Rachel just had a baby last month, and I'm expecting in a few more weeks. We've both decided to try cloth diapering a newborn, only this time, we'll be experimenting together. We're having fun trying different diaper combinations on Rachel's accommodating, sweet new baby to see what works and what doesn't. I'm very excited to begin cloth diapering my newborn with a supportive friend! If we just so happen to influence a few more friends to join us along the way, so much the better!

-- By Jennifer H.

How I Converted a Friend to Cloth

Read the full story here...

That's Way Too Much Work! A Mom's Story On Converting To Cloth Diapers.

I received a wonderful email from a customer recently who won a BumGenius one size diaper during our BUZZZZ day, Black Friday promotion. She emailed me an adorable picture of her son Grant and I replied back by asking her if she would share with us on how she got started using cloth diapers.

Here is Emily and Baby Grant's story:

When I gave birth to my third child, a son, in June I thought I knew everything there was to know about baby care. I wore the title of "been there done that" mom proudly. I did everything I could to give him a great start in life; breastfeeding? Check. BPA free bottles? Check. Organic cotton onesies? Check.

Then one day, a friend of mine, a first time mom no less, pulled something foreign out of her diaper bag.
"Look at this," she said. "It's called a BumGenius One Size Diaper."
"What is it?" I asked skeptically.
"It's a cloth diaper," she said. "Isn't it neat?"
"Cloth?" I said disapprovingly. "That's way too much work."
She just looked at me and shook her head with a smile.
"No it's not, it's super easy to do, plus these things are practically leak proof."
At that moment my darling four month old decided to play devil's advocate and pee through his expensive disposable diaper right onto my jeans. Hmph.
So that night I got online and searched, searched, searched. What I learned surprised me. I wondered why no one had ever told me that disposable diapers have carcinogenic chemicals in them? Or that they required large amounts of trees, oil and energy to produce? And most disturbingly, the carefully wrapped little packages of poo would still be sitting in a landfill 500 years from now. Hmm, disturbing.
I called my friend the next day and very casually asked her where she'd ordered her BumGenius. It was really hard for me to admit that this first time mom knew something I didn't, and she didn't miss the opportunity to sneak in a couple 'I told you so's!
From that day on I began a love affair with diapers. Who knew diapers could be so much fun?
At first my husband thought I was crazy. But when he first strapped a BumGenius 3.0 on our wiggly baby he was an instant convert as well. "These are pretty cool," he said. "Do they come in college football patterns?"
It really was a much easier switch than I imagined. The only snag I ran into was what to do with my disposable wet wipes. When you don't throw away the diaper there is no good place to throw away pooey wipes. A quick phone call to my friend solved the problem.
"They're called 'cloth wipes' Emily. Try them."
So I did, problem solved. More Money Saved? Check.
My entire family including both Grandma's are very supportive of our new 'greener' baby bum. And while I'm a stay at home mom, I've since learned that many childcare centers are now welcoming cloth bottomed cherubs with open arms.
The greatest part for us (aside from the obvious money saving benefit), is that our little boy wakes up dry and happy every morning. We have had no diaper rash, no messy, poo stained clothes, and most importantly he looks simply darling in the wide variety of cloth diapering choices.
I wish I would have figured this out with my first two kids, but hey, better late then never right? Recently our society has become much more aware of things like the environment, energy independence and of course the need to live frugally. These are uncertain times our little ones have been born to, but we all can do little things to make a difference. One thing I know for sure, is that cloth diapering has to be one of the most fun ways to do that!
Thanks Kelly for making cloth diapering so accessible to so many people!

-Emily and Baby Grant

That's Way Too Much Work! A Mom's Story On Converting To Cloth Diapers.

Read the full story here...