I think everyone who has ever noticed someone else using cloth diapers wants to know WHY? What would make them want to keep the poopy diapers and wash them YUCK! I can’t lie I was there. I could not stand the thought of having to wash poop. And then I learned that some people stand over the toilet and scrape the poop off with a spatula? WHY would any one want to do this to them selves? After all disposables aren’t that bad are they? That is actually a good debate, between some different view points. One side says that using cloth diapers use too much energy to wash them and hence make a significant environmental impact that you where trying to make up for buy using cloth diapers. The other side says that there is no way enough energy put into washing them that can over come the environmental impact of throwing disposables away, even if you do scrape out the poop first, (Did you know that it says on all disposable diaper packages you must scrap out the poop before throwing away? It does. Go check yours, I’ll wait. See it’s there, in small print but there). If you don’t scrape the poop out you are throwing a biohazard martial away and that’s illegal in most places if not all. But the environment is not why I started doing it.
Of course there are the nasty chemicals in disposables. There are lots of places that tell you what they are like this one and this one but I’m not going to repeat what they already say so well. But you can use the non-chemical or non-gel ones out there. There are diapers like this and they are sold on the internet and health food stores and are easy to get. More expensive maybe but if you can get them great. But the chemicals in disposables are not what made me want to cloth diaper either.
Cloth diapers are cheaper in the long run. Sure in the first few months of cloth diapering it can cost a pretty penny but after you have bought all the diapers you need (I said need, not want) you don’t have to buy any more hopefully ever. There are cheep options; I certainly have not spent much on my stash. And I have what I need. But low cost didn’t sell me on them either.
Cute OMG there are some very cute ones out there. I want a girl to put some of those cutie ruffle butt ones on and there are some awesome prints and things for boy now too. But also not what made me do it.
So what was it you ask? What made me want to wash poop? Peer presser. OK not really but I do have a lot of friends that are using them and watching them do it, made me realize it might not be as bad as I thought. Then reading around on the internet made it really look easy. I joined a few forums and read them asked some questions. Then I made a decision. I would try it after all I already used cloth feminine pads. Hip Green Baby has a trial package to order for a very reasonable price to see what brands you like. Well I talked to my hubby and we decided we would get this trial and try for one week and see what happened. That week turned me from maybe interested in cloth diapers to committed full time cloth diaperer. I put them on our baby and he loved the soft feel, you could tell because he eyes lit up when I put the first one on him. He could tell the difference (almost anyone can feel the difference between paper and cloth) and it felt good to him. His poop did not fall into the toilet as easy as some moms I read said it would. But after a couple of shakes most of it fell in. And the rest the washer washes out with no problem. When I discovered flushable liners, any shaking or swishing I did before was over. Pull out the liner and drop it into the toilet and flush gone.
So that’s it that’s why I did it. I tried it and fell in love. Maybe you will to. After all as parents aren’t we always going to be telling our kids “How do you know if you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it?”
