My Love/Hate Relationship With Cloth Diapers
When I became pregnant with my little lamb, I was hell bent on the fact that we were going to cloth diaper our new bundle of joy I have a friend as a resource whom I considered a cloth diaper guru, we had a variety of brands and styles to try out, and we proudly installed our cloth diaper sprayer to our toilet. We were so ready for this, or so I thought.
We decided to start our little one out in disposable diapers until we were passed the sticky meconium stage. Of course this was a ridiculous fear, because meconium is water soluble and comes right out in the wash. Some momma's do say that they had some staining on their cloth diapers, but the majority I have spoken to and read about have not had any problems. But alas, I did not know this at the time, so we used the Honest Company diapers for a while, until we were ready to switch over to cloth. Then we held off on using cloth diapers because we were too exhausted to even think about having to add another load of laundry to our schedules. Then we held off because out of no where my little breast fed bundle of joy started pooping green mucousy stuff instead of her normal blissful breast milk poops. There always seemed to be a reason to keep using disposable diapers. Finally, we tried our first round of cloth diapers and it was a disaster of leaks and blowouts. I saw all my dreams of being this cloth diapering earthy momma get thrown in the trash with each overpriced diaper I threw in our pail. And then I decided to give myself a break.
Being a first, second, third, or fifth time momma is going to come with new challenges and stresses, along with expectations that you just have to learn to let go of. We did eventually start using bumGenius all in one diapers when my daughter was 4 months old. These were the only ones my husband would agree to use, because they didn’t involve pulling pee or poop sodden inserts out of a diaper. We decided it was best for our sanity not to exclusively cloth diaper, so we started using Babyganics disposables that we found to be more cost effective, very absorbent, and chemical free. Another admission of guilt, my daughter is a fairly clockwork morning pooper, so we keep her in disposables until the deed is done. And if the poop comes later in the day, well, so does using the cloth diapers. I have admittedly had serious thoughts on more than one occasion about throwing away a reusable diaper that had been seriously desecrated by poop. I’ve sucked it up and sprayed them down instead, but there may come a day where I admit defeat and just chuck one. We also travel with disposables and rarely leave the house with a reusable on. Again, there is a fear of poop! I know this doesn’t make me the natural earthy momma I strive to be, but this is something I can live with…from time to time.
We did start using our reusable cloth wipes immediately. After trying some flannel ones that seemed to irritate my daughter’s skin, we ended up switching to organic cotton ones made by the Charlie Banana Company. I have never made a solution to spray onto my reusable wipes like some other people do, instead we just keep a glass spray bottle (we’re cutting back on our use of plastic) filled with water to spray the wipes with. Occasionally I will use Honest Company’s Soothing Bottom Wash spray for messy moments, but we generally just stick to water. I am not even going to try to lie, we definitely still use disposable wipes when there is a poopy diaper, but using reusable wipes the majority of the time decreases the amount massively to the point where we only go through one pack of wipes a month, if that.
My love/hate relationship for reusable diapers is real, but I am glad we use them, even if it is not always consistently. I love hanging them out on the line to dry when the weather is nice, I love knowing we are decreasing the amount of waste going into landfills, and I love the fact that they are very easy to use. I may not enjoy having to spray down a dirty diaper, do extra laundry, or worry whether I have them on too tight or too loose (a constant mental war I have with myself), but the good does outweigh the bad. When baby number two arrives we plan on using reusable diapers still. Knowing more about them now will hopefully make me more confident in starting to use them earlier for baby number two.
Remember that in the first year alone, most parents use between 2,000-3,000 diapers, and around 7,000 wipes, so every time you use a cloth diaper or wipe, you are doing your part to help the earth and save money. Happy diapering!
Love, Laughter, & Light,
