Your Cloth Diaper Stories Inspire Me!

You guys are amazing!

Things have been crazy around my house this week…

First, Sterling began potty training.  Unexpectedly, which left me feeling a little overwhelmed by his “bigness”.  Day one went as you might expect, a few successes and a few messes.  Day two was going awesome and then the stomach bug hit him.

I have never, never, never, never (ever, ever, ever ) felt as helpless as I did Wednesday night.  To see your child begging you for water and having to deny all but a teaspoon is ridiculously heartbreaking!  Of course we have had accidents but since he doesn’t have that much output it’s very manageable and quite forgivable.

But, in the midst of all that I have been able to sneak into my office and read a story here and there.  You guys blow me away with your passion for cloth diapering!

Here are just a few snippets from some amazing stories:

I had been researching and stashing cloth diapers since before we started TTC’ing. This is my first baby, now 7 weeks old, and only a few months after we got married I knew I wanted to start researching how to parent most naturally. -Renee

Once I read about all the nasty chemicals manufacturers put in disposable diapers & how modern cloth diapers now are- I was hooked! At that instant it became less about money & more about my baby’s health. -Heidi

I love cloth diapering. Why? Let me tell what my husband said about cloth diapering, it tells everything. He said that he likes it because it is personal. It is not just a single use product that just use then you throw it away. You care about it. -Gabriella from Budapest, Hungary

I knew a little about modern cloth diapers but hadn’t really researched them. I just couldn’t get my head around what I thought would be so much extra laundry when adjusting to motherhood. I never stopped thinking about them though. I hated the idea of generating so much non-biodegradable waste. I have a real issue with encasing the most biodegradable thing in the world in plastic and putting it in a landfill. -Laura

Should I go on? There are so many, many good stories!!! Here’s one more excerpt just to tease you.

Convincing my DH that this was all a good idea was a different story. He wanted to know why I was so in love with cloth. Why was it such a good idea? He didn’t understand why I would make extra work for myself with all the washing they required. I honestly couldn’t answer him at first. I just knew that I liked them. But then I thought about it and here’s what I came up with:

· I was tired of all the waste that using disposables created; cloth could be used over and over again, and for multiple children!

· It was softer on my LO’s bottom

· The water I used to wash the diapers couldn’t compare with the carbon footprint required to create and transport disposables, not to mention that we don’t know how long it takes them to decompose!

· They were cute! And really, who doesn’t love an adorable baby bum?

· I discovered that dealing with the poop right away by rinsing the cloth diaper in the toilet was a lot more tolerable than having to smell gross diapers every time I opened the pail for the disposables (did I mention that I also had to take out this “garbage” as my DH refused to because it made him want to vomit?)

· We don’t know if there are any long term effects of the chemicals used to make disposables.

· There is some research showing that disposables cause increased scrotal temperature in boys…could that effect their fertility?

· I’ll never admit this to him but I’m stubborn and had poured way too much time, effort and money into cloth diapering to just give up on it.
It defiantly hasn’t been easy. I have very little in the way of support for what my DH calls this little “project” of mine. -Christy

I’ll be sharing more stories in full with you over the next several weeks. At times I think there is a common theme between all of cloth diaper moms then I step back and see that we all have very different reasons why/how we cloth diaper! It’s amazing.

Truly I feel humbled to play a part in your journey. You inspire me.