A Surprisingly Sane Blog

Are you really all that surprised?

Remember, I’m the hippie freak who birthed both my kids naturally, one in a birthing center, the other in the comfort of my own living room (click on that link at your own risk…  I’m on the verge of exploding an almost-9-pound baby out of my crotch, and I kind of look like hell gone bad in a few of those shots).  The mom who eats (mostly) organic foods, makes her own baby food from time to time, and the weirdo who wears all-natural crystal spray-on scentless deodorant. You know, the one who would have 3-inch-long-braided leg hair if I didn’t care about being cute for my husband.

But I do, so I draw the line at breastfeeding and cloth diapering.  Not that I think that leg hair isn’t cute, so don’t throw a fit.  I don’t mind body hair in the least.  In fact, I think it’s been a good week or two since I shaved my legs, but I just like that silky smooth just-shaved feeling of my skin against my naked hubby’s hairy legs.  On the days where I’m not to lazy to pull out the razor, that is.

But anyway, I get a lot of interest from people when they find out I cloth diaper.  Questions like:  Is it a lot of work?  Why do you use cloth?  Is it a pain to use when you’re out in the town? Are they really disgusting to clean? Etc…

Now before I answer those questions, just take a look at my little crazy-haired chublet in her bubblegum pink Fuzzi Bunz cloth diaper:

Isn’t she heartbreakingly precious with that dimpled Popeye smile and those fat rolls? You can even see her first little tooth that just broke through on the bottom right. *Awww*

I started cloth diapering Julie in a desperate attempt to rid her of a horrendous ongoing yeast infection.  Up until that point, I never even really considered cloth diapering because it just seemed too… well, weird.  Why on earth would I want to add scrubbing poopy diapers in the toilet to my list of unending mommy chores?

Well, due to her extremely sensitive skin, which had always had a bit of reaction to disposable diapers, I did a bunch of online research and eventually decided to give the cloth a try.

I fell in love with cloth diapers the instant I got them in the mail and haven’t looked back since.  And yes, they helped her skin problems disappear like magic.

Not only are they freaking cute as hell (see the picture above), but they are much easier than I ever imagined.  They require very little extra work than the disposables, and they are simple to wash in the washing machine.

In addition, we save a ton of money on diapers.  It really makes it worth it.  Oh, and April has never had so much as a minor diaper rash since we’ve used them from the first week she was born.

As far as travel is concerned, they aren’t any more work than disposables.  I simply store the dirty diapers in a wet bag, and dump them in the diaper hamper when I get home.  They’re so simple, in fact, that April wears cloth even when we leave town for the weekend.

And these aren’t the bulky kind of Chinese prefold diapers your mama used to use while accidentally stabbing you with safety pins.  They look something like this:

To give credit where it is due, I got that picture here.

And also, just so you don’t think that I’m getting paid to market Fuzzi Bunz (although geez, wouldn’t it be nice if I did?), I’m going to tell you that they are not the only great cloth diaper out there.  There are a ton of amazing different kinds you can look into.  Just google “cloth diapers” and it’ll pop up a gazillion sites full of different types.  I have yet to hear anything but raves about all the different brands.

While I believe that cloth diapers are the best bang for the buck and that they’re also the better choice for my kids, I do want to say that I don’t think they are necessarily for everyone.

There’s gotta be risks, I’m sure.  I mean, my mom used cloth on me and just look how I turned out.  But the cloth didn’t work for my sister, and she turned out like this.

And there you have it.  My rationale for cloth diapering.  Do you still think I’m a total hippie?  I don’t care if you do, just curious.

Current Mood: Cool

Tags: Kids

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 2:13 pm and is filed under My Girls, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.