Cloth Diapers

When I was growing up, my mom used cloth diapers. I was one of the older children in a larger family, so I got the priviledge of changing more than my share of diapers before I ever had children of my own--and most of the time when I was changing diapers they were cloth diapers!!! I decided I would never use cloth diapers when I had children of my own! But what you can't plan on that far in advance is what you'll be able to afford or what kinds of new items will come out that you didn't anticipate.

So, when I was planning what I would use with my first child, I automatically planned on using disposable diapers. But, then a friend who was planning to visit a cloth diaper store asked me to go along. I agreed and went with her. After all, it was a chance to spend some time with her, and I had to admit I was impressed with the cloth diaper system she had. Although it included prefolds--the kind of diapers my mom used, which I absolutely detested--it also included a way to put them on the baby without using pins! And furthermore, there were other things that fascinated me, like all-in-one diapers, and covers that weren't plastic pants. So the idea of seeing more items like this definitely piqued my interest.

All it took was that visit, and I had a new perspective. I wasn't convinced that I would use cloth diapers for sure, or all at once or even right away, but it gave me the motivation to at least give them a try. Thus, I started purchasing the basic items I would need: 24 Prefold diapers, 8-12 covers, and 4 snappis; beyond the basics, I even purchased a couple pocket diapers and a few all-in-ones. I was also impressed with a couple products that I didn't purchase right away, but just from seeing them and knowing how they work--and the fact that they now exist--I was able to realize that this is something I can do. These items are the diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet so you don't have to dunk the diapers, and the flushable liners.

When my baby was born we started using disposables right away. After a couple weeks I decided I really should use the cloth diapers I had purchased, but getting going wasn't quite so easy. My baby was on the small end of the normal weight range of a newborn and didn't have a lot of baby fat on his legs, so the diapers ended up leaking a lot. I realized that though I saved a little money on my cloth diapers, I would have been better off purchasing the newborn size instead of hoping that the next size up was going to cut it right away. So I kept using the disposables, but I felt bad that I had bought all those cloth diapers and hardly used them, even though I could just find someone to buy them from me, but after all, I already had experience with using cloth diapers. How in the world could I let something defeat me that I had already mastered!?! So I kept giving it a try. I did it during the day because Henry seemed to know when he was wearing a cloth diaper and want it changed right away once it was wet. That is one of the advantages of cloth diapers--the baby feels the wetness and it can be used to help the baby keep from getting used to sitting in wetness and sometimes it can result in potty-training the child earlier. Well, for both Henry and me it was an adjustment, but we made the transition gradually, and by the time he was about four months old I was using cloth diapers full time. It helped that he was a little bigger by now and the diapers fit better, but I had also gotten better at putting them on him with a fold that fit him better. I also got some diapers that were more absorbent for night time.

Well, everything went pretty well till I started feeding him table food. I had been trying to train him to go on the toilet even as early as a couple months old (once he could hold his head up), but now he was starting to fight being on the toilet, and his when he went there were a lot more solids when he pooped.  I put up with it and cleaned it off the diaper before putting the diaper in the pail, but I was getting really frustrated with it. I wanted to get a diaper sprayer, or sometimes just wanted to switch to disposables, but now I was stuck in cloth diapering because it was what we could afford! We hadn't thought that it would make that much of a difference financially, but when Henry was about five or six months old we realized how desperately we needed to budget and stick to the budget just to make ends meet, but eventually so we could get out of debt and start saving, and down the road fix up some problem areas on our house. So, I stuck to cloth diapering.

Well, one day I was talking to my friend and telling her my dilemma, and she reminded me about the flushable liners! Oh yes, I remembered now, that was one of the things that I saw that made me realize that I was okay with the idea of using cloth diapers in the first place. So the next time I was able to, I fit it into the budget, and when payday came around I made the purchase immediately. It shipped the next day, and the day after that they came in the mail. Well, how do I feel about cloth diapering now? I don't mind it. I know that with the flushable liners I can keep doing this as long as I need to. When Henry has a messy diaper, I just take him in the bathroom and take off the diaper and put the soiled liner in the toilet, give it a couple minutes for the water to soften it and then flush it down, and go put a clean diaper on Henry. We have a septic system, so I am careful only to flush the liners that are soiled. The wet ones I just put in the garbage. The liners are safe for the septic, but do take a few days to break down once they are flushed, so I keep from overloading it unnecessarily. I do hope that I can get a diaper sprayer eventually since it pays for itself more than the flushable liners, but I do wonder if I will even like that method one I try it since I like these liners so well. I guess I will just have to find out.