Monday, January 18, 2010

Why I Don't Mind Cloth Diapering

I really don't mind cloth diapering and in fact am quite thrilled to be doing so. I find cloth diapering to be so beneficial that I would encourage people to cloth diaper, even if they aren't living with tight budgetary constraints.

Why don't I mind cloth diapering? Why do I find that the extra work is worth it?

First off, I don't find cloth diapering to be extra work in any way. I take the diaper from the drawer, grab a cover, put it on easily. When it needs changing, I take it off and dump it in a bucket and put a new one on.
When the bucket gets full, I put all the dirty diapers in the washing machine with some soap, do an extended washing on a hot cycle, dry them and reuse.
What? Aren't you supposed to scrape poo off into the toilet? Aren't you supposed to soak your diapers in a bucket filled with water? Don't you have to deal with poop water?
Shoot me- I don't do any of the above. No, I don't scrape off bits of poo from the diaper into the toilet. When a stool is firm enough, if something will roll off into the toilet I'll do that, but nothing that involves scraping or soaking or anything of that sort.
I find my hot water extended cycle to be enough to get even the poopiest of diapers clean. Even without scraping it off into the toilet. And enough water is running through my washing machine to wash away any fecal matter that comes off the diaper.
I don't soak my diapers in any sort of wet mixture. I don't find it smells. If I did, perhaps I'd sprinkle it with some scent absorbing baking soda.

I love the fact that I don't run out of diapers and don't have to go buy more. When I do feel like I am running out of diapers because I have too many in the laundry, I just do another cycle and stick them in the dryer in place of line drying if I need new diapers post haste.

I love that with my prefold diapers using the bikini twist, I am able to adjust the diaper to get a really snug fit around my son's legs so that no poo escapes. I love that I have a cover to go on top of the prefold to catch any poo that may have escaped the prefold. Since I've switched to cloth diapering, I don't think I've ever had a poopie leak. Ok, I take that back. I have had leaks with pocket diapers but never with prefolds covered by my diaper covers.
At a certain point my son got a little rash so I switched to disposable diapers to see if that would help. Not only did the disposables not help the rash, they made it worse. I was so excited to get back to cloth as nearly every single bowel movement my son had in the disposable diaper leaked onto his clothes.

I love that I have unique diapers for each situation. I have diapers that are good for when I want my son to go around diaperless and want him to look cute. I have diapers that have extra absorbency to be used at night. I have ones that are fleece lined which are good for when my baby has a rash. I have diapers for when I feel like being lazy and am not in the mood to fiddle with a Snappi. If I'd be using disposable diapers, I'd have one diaper for all times.

I love that on days when my son is having diarrhea I am not going through half a package of diapers in one day.
I love that I'm not putting chemicals on my baby's nether regions. I love that this lack of chemicals makes diaper rashes less frequent for kids in general.
I love the fact that cloth diapering helps kids be aware of their bodily functions at a younger age than average and that my cloth diapered older son was fully potty trained by day at 22 months and was fully trained at night by 25 months.
I love the fact that I'm not adding to a deplorable landfill situation by contributing many tons of diapers.
I love the fact that my cloth diapers were a one time expense, and that I'm already reusing these cloth diapers for my second kid. I love that I'll be able to use these cloth diapers for many more kids to come.

I love my cloth wipes spray. It works better than disposable wipes. I wipe my baby's tushie with cloth wipes moistened by a homemade, mostly chemical free mixture.
The mixture I use is:
1 cup baby oil
1 cup baby soap
2 cups water.
I put this spray in a spray bottle, spray my baby's tushie, and wipe with a flannel cloth wipe. I only need one or two cloth wipes for the messiest of poops that I would otherwise need 4 or 5 disposable wipes to clean. This spray lasts forever (or nearly)!

I love the fact that when people see me cloth diapering they ask questions and realize that cloth diapering is not as hard as it seems. I love helping people realize that cloth diapering is doable, fun, and easy as well as frugal and environmentally friendly!

Do you cloth diaper? Do you find it hard or do you find it as easy as I do?

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