I went with my friend Maruxa to a meet a friend-of-a-friend who sells a bunch of varieties of cloth diapers out of her house. It was a nice time: we had a chance to see and feel different types and brands, ask questions, see the diapers in action on her 3 month old (who pooped and peed several times for us so that we could see exactly what the diapering entailed), and just relax for an hour or so. Some things I noticed about Leigh, the cloth diaper seller lady:
She is not super-organic.
She drives a regular car, not a hybrid, and her husband pulled up in a mammoth SUV just as we were leaving.
She is as busy and as stressed and as multi-tasking as any mother I know (working or stay-at-home) and yet somehow managed to cloth diaper all 4 of her children.
Cloth diapering? I know, I know. It's so very green and earthy and hippie of me, isn't it? Makes you think I'm going to denounce deodorant, bike everywhere, and buy only locally-grown organic produce. I promise you I am not. Particularly the part about deodorant.
Just by twittering it this morning, I received several rather, um, interesting replies within about an hour or so of mentioning my cloth diaper perusing, the most notable calling me "idealistic" and "naive".
Sigh. To be honest, it hurts a little. I didn't see that coming. THAT would be the naive part.
I shouldn't be surprised, really. I think I would have had the same reaction only a few months ago myself. Cloth diapering, before recently, made me think of confusing folding patterns, huge safety pins, and handling poop with my bare hands on a regular basis. It also screamed old-fashioned, expensive and highly inconvenient. However, I am happy to report that from what I saw and experienced - first-hand, I might add - this morning, none of that is true. Cloth diapering has come a loooong way from when I was a baby. What I saw was easy, convenient, and in some cases less work than an Elmo-printed plastic diaper. Behold the ease (and these are the "hardest" of them):
I don't know this guy - this wasn't from this morning, but it was a great video I found online of using cloth diapers.
And even easier:
BumGenius
I haven't totally made up my mind one way or the other. I've done a LOT of research into it - there are pros and cons to both sides - and I'm not sure that we ever have to make a firm, absolute stand one way or the other. Lots of parents do both, and in the end, we're going to do what works best for us. Frankly, I've been both highly encouraged and highly discouraged within the space of three hours, and I'm still processing all of that, too. A good friend e-mailed me during this time, too, and mentioned that she no longer cloth diapers: she loved them, but couldn't stand the misconceptions everyone had and the lack of support she got (in particular from sitters and childcare places). I don't know that I'm ready to fight that uphill battle yet. Being a new parent is going to be hard enough without having to defend my diapering choices to everyone.
Please hear me on this: I do not think that disposables are the Plastic of Satan, nor do I think anyone is less of a parent for using them. I don't believe for a moment that I'm going to get through the pre-potty-trained phase of any of my kids without ever using a disposable, even if I do decide to cloth diaper. I know, to some degree, the reality of parenting when both mom and dad have to work, and no, I don't expect everyone to be okay with using only cloth, even if I personally think it's easier and a better choice. You have to be flexible. And maybe I'll hate cloth diapering, which is why if we do it, I'm not going to spend a bazillion dollars at the outset, but just a few to see if I like it.
But I just can't figure it all out in one afternoon. I've been given a lot for my brain to chew on - and people, it chews slowly these days. So I'm off for yet another nap to prepare for another three nights of working, and maybe to lick my wounds a little bit.
If you've cloth diapered, I would love, love, love to hear from you. Particularly if you did it from the start and how you managed to do it while everyone thought you were completely insane for even trying it in the first place.
2 comments:
Shannon sent me over to remark. :)
We've been cloth diapering for over 2 years now! My own mother scoffed at me and told me I was insane, but the big thing to think about is this: "It's Only Laundry". There you go. That's it.
We send plastic diapers to daycare for my daughter and we even did cloth at daycare for awhile. I've had no luck with AIOs, limited success with pockets when I remember to change them before they leak, and we loved prefolds and fitteds with covers. I'd just wash every other day or so.
Shannon sent me over to comment :P
When I discovered cloth, I'll be honest, it was mostly because the idea of paying $15-17/week to diaper my child freaked me out. That was so much money! I was just not prepared for that expense.
I started doing prefolds and covers for the first 4 months. We had many stares, laughs and scoffs but after we discovered Fuzzibuns, our lives got much easier!
We bought 12 pocket diapers to start. 6 BumGenius and 6 Fuzzibuns. I was washing them every other day and it was wonderful. They were SO easy! All of a sudden cloth diapering was a piece of cake and no one scoffed at us when my son's cute fluffy butt made an appearance.
We've been cloth diapering now for a year and a half and I have two boys under two in fuzzi buns. I wash 3 times a week and consider this far easier, more fulfiling and much cuter than disposables.
No one scoffs when I tell them I spent $700 on my diapers which will last both boys until they are potty trained when if we had paid for disposables it would have costs us $4800.
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