Tuesday, October 27, 2009

How I first learned about cloth diapers....Cloth Diaper Bloggers Carnival #4

This post is part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry hosted Cloth Diaper Carnival that is held every month. Many bloggers get together and write about the same topic. This month is “Where did you first hear about/ see cloth diapers?”

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:

Mindy said...

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)

Green Mama said...

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.

Tracey said...

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!

Anonymous said...

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....

Mama Campbell said...

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?

Alex Horton said...

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.