When I was a tween, I remember my Stepmother using cloth diapers on my baby sister. They were big rectangles of cloth, put on with pins & covered with a pair of crinkly rubber pants. They smelled bad & the laundry area where she kept the bucket to soak them smelled even worse. When I was pregnant with my first (1987), I didn't even consider using cloth diapers. Money was tight, but I decided I would cut our costs by exclusively breastfeeding....if I didn't have to buy formula, I would have enough money to buy disposables! Breastfeeding worked out for us very well & I never felt an ounce of guilt for using disposables.
A few years later, my best friend had her first baby (1990). She lived in Los Angeles & knew about all the new trends. She showed me this really cool "wrap" that replaced diaper pins & plastic pants....I was intrigued, but my baby was 9 months old & there wasn't any place locally that I could buy these magical wraps. When my friend's baby outgrew his wraps, she gave me one & I packed it away with all my baby gear. Over the years we ended up using disposables on 4 more babies.
In July of 2008, I was trying to get our budget slimmed down in preparation for Christmas expenditures. One of the money saving ideas I found online was switching to cloth diapers. I looked at a LOT of websites and quickly became overwhelmed. Most of the forums I found were geared to expectant parents planning to use cloth diapers on their newborn...my baby was 14 months old. While looking at one of the sites, I clicked on a link for retailers & was THRILLED to discover that there was a local cloth diaper STORE, where I could look & touch & ask questions. My biggest fear was that I was going to spend a bunch of money & end up with something I didn't like. Before going to the store, I did some more research & narrowed down what I thought I wanted and could afford. I knew as soon as I held my first truly modern cloth diaper that I was going to LOVE using them on my baby!
Let me know if you use blogger & need the code to get MckLinky to work on your post!
6 comments:
I started cloth diapering my guy at 8 months, so I always tell people that I haven't done the newborn thing yet. I'm curious to see what my preferences will be then. I agree that there's almost too many choices and information out there about cloth diapers. But I guess you can't discount so much enthusiasm! :0)
The hardest part about cloth diapering is finding somewhere to see/touch the diapers. I know that if more people knew what was out there then more people would be willing to give them a try. Right now, I think the only people using cloth diapers are the ones that seek them out themselves, or have a great friend that has told them about them.
I hear ya on the being overwhelmed! My head went into information overload when I was first trying to figure out what style to use. And then to make sure they where washed "right" when there are a million different ways. LOL. I am getting anxious just remembering!
I didn't have a store to visit when I started so I know I spent more than I needed to experimenting with what I liked. If only I knew all that I knew now!
Anyways, I'm a blogger blog and can't get the MckLinky to post....
I definitely agree about needing to physically see the diapers to feel comfortable switching. I was also SO anxious! Looking back now, I can laugh at myself then and try to remember how I felt to encourage my friends to make the switch too!
I also can't get the McLinky to post...but I'm new at it?
At the crisis pregnancy centre where I used to volunteer, we got a girl to start using cloth on her two and a half year old.
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