Cloth Diaper Challenge

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Yes I grew up with parents that were Hippies, my mom used cloth diapers and my dad sang songs to us with his acoustic guitar. Perhaps that is why I decided to give the cloth diapers a try.  Now for those of you that are thinking that I'm using safety pins...it is a new millennium, and the diapers are much better than that now. I did a lot of research on the Internet, and decided to use BumGenius cloth diapers.

You can find them at http://www.bumgenius.com/, http://www.target.com/, or if you are in the Houston area; http://www.bebeverde.com/.  They are cloth diapers that can be adjusted to fit your baby. They have Velcro tab closures like disposable diapers, and they are extremely soft to the touch on the side that touches your baby's skin. There are inserts that come with the diapers that you adjust for absorbency. Initially we used one thin insert, but now that we have been using cloth diapers for nearly one year now, we use two thin inserts for our daytime diaper, and one thick insert combined with a thin insert for our night time diapers.

Now I'm not going to sugar coat the cost, they were expensive initially, but once I purchased enough diapers to keep up with my baby, it became more cost effective. I went to Bebeverde and attended an instructional class on cloth diapering and got a discount. I bought 20 diapers in the beginning, I could not keep up with the laundry and take care of a newborn (trying to breast feed), and sleep when the baby slept. It was overwhelming.

Now I have 30+ cloth diapers there are fewer diaper changes and cloth diapering has become a breeze! Yes I do have to wash the diapers still, (approximately every other day) and I still cannot get my husband to understand that I do not want him to use fabric softener when we wash the diapers (it makes the diapers less absorbent). The savings alone have been well worth it. I do have two older children, (used disposables on both) and I remember having "leaky" diapers and DIAPER RASH, I really didn't have those problems this time. We did have a couple of accidents, but those were indicators that I needed to adjust my inserts to accommodate a larger baby bladder.

My son is almost a year now and has taken his first 3 steps. I'm looking forward to potty training, not because I don't want to use the cloth diapers, it is because he has learned how to open the Velcro closure when his diaper needs to be changed.

Now here is the challenge, I need to convince my husband that we should have another baby!

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