It is NEVER too late…

IGNORE NO MORE
Information overload. That pretty much sums up my initial feelings about cloth diapering. My gut told me I wanted to cloth diaper, but I was overwhelmed to the point that I ignored my gut. I felt the twinge with every disposable I threw away. Through colic and exhaustion and teething, I continued to ignore that little voice in my head. After about 10 months, I was out of survival mode and clarity returned – I could ignore the voice no more. I dove in to the pool of information and I didn’t drown. In fact, I actually felt like I was swimming within days.

INFORM
Questions filled my head. What kind of diapers do I use? What else do I need? What do I do with the dirty ones? How do I wash them? So, I tackled them with some research. Google® was my best friend over those first excitement filled days as I picked out and ordered my first diapers. I was as impatient as my two year old during Christmas as I waited for my first diaper to arrive.

What kind of diapers do I use? It really depends on your situation as to what fits your lifestyle best. At the time, my daughter attended daycare and I was lucky enough to have a provider that was open to cloth diapering. I decided to make it as easy as possible on her and chose a diaper that also had a cover. We chose to use a combination of pockets and all-in-ones since both types allow for quick and easy changes.

Pockets are great because they are just like a disposable for an “end-user” and are generally a very affordable option. You do have to stuff them with an insert after washing. An all-in-one also goes on just like a disposable diaper and they have no inserts. However, they do tend to be more expensive. We do use some fitted cloth diapers at home and they are the best at containing any leaks, but they also require an extra step of putting on a waterproof cover when putting the diaper on.

What else do I need? What do I do with the dirty ones? There are so many accessories available for a cloth family – talk about adding to the confusion! We decided to stick to the basics. A 13-gallon plastic trash can with a pail liner serves as our diaper pail. And no, it never really stinks. We like that our WAHMies Pail Liner has a seam of fabric attached so that we can add essential oil to help mask any possible odors. Cloth wipes and a spray bottle of water mixed with some baby soap serve as our wiping method. We use some flushable liners when she is “due for a big one” to make clean up much easier. We rounded it out with some wet bags for travel and that has worked well as the basics for us.

How do I wash them? This was the most complicated issue for us. The one that held us back and overwhelmed us the most. Everywhere I looked, there seemed to be a different method or suggestion for a washing technique and detergent choices. I highly recommend looking at the laundry page at Mom’s Milk Boutique for a ton of valuable information.

While every machine is different, we have found great success with the cold rinse, hot wash, extra cold rinse. In plan English, rinse your diapers with no detergent, wash them on hot with detergent and then rinse again with no detergent – checking the final rinse to make sure the suds are gone.

The most important thing is to make sure to rinse enough to get the suds out or else they can cause build up. It is a fine art in determining how much detergent is enough to get the diapers clean, but not too much to cause buildup. Just like you do with everything as Mom, you’ll find the right balance.

IN LOVE
Cliché as it sounds, I can honestly say my only regret is that I ignored my gut for so long and didn’t start cloth diapering sooner. We have seen so many benefits from cloth. Besides the obvious environmental ones, my older daughter’s problems with diaper rash instantly became a distant memory and my younger daughter (cloth baby from birth) has never known what a diaper rash is.

From a young age, my older daughter also took great pride in getting her diapers out of the dryer and helping Mom put them away. As an added bonus, she now loves to do all kinds of chores at home and I credit the early days of dryer duty for that. Cloth made her very aware of being wet and she potty trained so easily at two.

Cloth diapering was and is one of the best decisions we made as parents – for ourselves, for our children, and for our environment. It is never too late!

by Christina Evans, guest contributor

Comment and tell us when you started cloth diapering and enter to win a WAHMIES Pail Liner! Contest will run through 10 am MST on 6/5/10. Void where prohibited by law. Winner will be announced 6/6/10. It is the winners responsibility to contact us to claim their Pail Liner!
WINNER – Jen on May 28, 2010 at 6:35 pm – contact abbie@momsmilkboutique.com to claim your pail liner!