1.21.2013

Guest Post

Hey All! First off, I am so excited to be sharing on Ms Terri's blog today; and about one of my favorite subjects no less - Cloth Diapering! Before getting pregnant, if someone would have told me I'd be one of THOSE cloth diaper moms, I would have laughed in their face. The concept, at first, conjures thoughts of pooped stained white cloth, safety pins, and sloshing around elbow deep in a toilet. Noooo thank you. After some research, however, I found my above assumption to be one of the past. Today's cloth diaper speaks to a multitude of mommy styles. Cloth diapering caters to the green mom, the organic mom, the cost saving mom, and in my case.....the "I love the adorable cloth diaper prints - I gotta have the cuteness" mom! While I like to consider myself all of the above, let's face it - they were just so darn cute I couldn't resist! There are a plethora of cloth diaper options to choose from, and all have wonderful qualities! I found a local diaper store/web site that allowed me to research my options and make a decision on what worked best for us. Itsy Bitsy Bums and Cotton Babies are amazing research and purchasing resources! We have opted for pocket diapers and all in one diapers in our household. If you clicked on the links above and got overwhelmed....join the club! Take a breath, soak in the knowledge, and choose a few to try! You don't have to cloth diaper 24/7, even 3 diapers a day can significantly reduce your nursery waste! Check out some great financial and environmental stats here. How to get started? Once we decided on exclusive cloth diapering, we checked the following off our list. Although an initial investment is necessary, it was nowhere near the up to $2000 the average household will spend on disposables per child!
  • diaper stash of 25 diapers (approx $20ea) = initial $500 investment in diapers
  • diaper pail for dirties
  • cloth diaper safe detergent 
  • anti-bacterial diaper spray
That's it. Really. We even registered for cloth diapers from our favorite sites and decreased our personal investment by receiving some as shower gifts! Yay! Now, I can't promise this won't turn into an addiction. You MAY love diapering so much, you spend a little extra on new designs/prints, and fun accessories. (Don't tell my husband, though. He thinks I'm the "cost saving" mom!) I have learned through the process that cloth diapering is not anything based on strict formulas for success. In a very low key way, we have found what works and stuck with it, as well as added a few new tricks along the way. I am a testimony to the easy breeziness of these things. If it was hard girls, I would not be talking about them! We've converted friends, taught the grandparents the ropes, as well as traveled multiple times using exclusively cloth. A decision, that was initially made for fun and eco-friendly reasons, has morphed into one of our proudest parenting accomplishments. No nursery trash at all, no diaper rash, no chemicals on bum...and one adorable bum at that! Check out pics below of our sweet baby girl, Tallan Hope, sporting her fluffy butt. I would love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions you have! Happy diapering ya'll!
Tallan sporting an Applecheeks pocket diaper

4 comments

  1. So much better for the environment too!

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  2. That cloth diaper look too rude in the picture :)
    when my kids were still in diapers I only used cloth when they got a rash but now I understand the necessity of it. Thanks for sharing.
    Jillian

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  3. I loved cloth diapering my first son. And started to with baby number 2, then with moving and buying a house and having such little time to keep up with the laundry, I stopped. I didn't necessarily do it to be green either. I was much like you thinking, hey I can save money on not having to buy disposables and they are so darn cute! I even sewed a bunch of my own for baby number 2, then he grew out of them after 2 months and I couldn't keep up with it all. I'm definitely happy I at least cloth diapered both of my kids for a little while.

    Heather from Mommy Only Has 2 Hands

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  4. I tried cloth diapering with my 2nd child. It did save a lot of money for sure but it was really difficult to do all the washing especially since where I live we have lower water and electricity rates at certain times of the day and I try to stick to that schedule. Lasted a few months on CDs and would have loved to have continued but then he got too squirmy and it was like a wrestling match just to put on a diaper! LOL

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