At the time I was four-months pregnant. My first thought was, “Wow, a diaper-free baby! It would be great for baby not to have plastic diapers against the skin.” It seemed miraculous that a mother could train her baby to go at regular times and not have to spend money on diapers.
When I told my husband, he immediately wanted us to try it. We eventually let go of the idea because it seemed too much to handle with the stresses of being new parents.
Nonetheless, thanks to this article, the seeds of alternatively diapering our child were planted. It led me to think, “What is the next-best-thing to a diaper-free baby?” The answer came to me like a revelation: “A baby in cloth diapers.
Obstacles to Cloth Diapering
At first, many negative assumptions prevented me from cloth diapering my daughter. Comfort was very attractive, but not enough to convince me to take the leap.
Images of my aunt cloth diapering her baby came to mind. I had helped her fold, stack, store, and change the diapers. Sometimes the baby wet the diaper so heavily that it would completely drench the person holding him. I remember this happened at the most inconvenient times.
I cringed at the thought of constant and unexpected leaks. As if that wasn’t enough, the diapers were also hand-washed and then separately soaked at boiling temperatures in huge pots, for sterilizing.
Visualizing this archaic system suffocated any hope in me to try cloth diapers—it seemed too dangerous, and I panicked. I told myself, “I could never do this.” It wasn’t until last April, after having used disposables on my baby since birth, that I seriously considered switching to cloth diapers.
As we experienced our first heat wave, however, my 9-month-old daughter developed a severe and persistent diaper rash. I became alarmed and took her to the pediatrician. To my surprise, the pediatrician recommended that I try cloth diapers for the summer months because they were much cooler and would help ease the rash.
Faced with the urgent need to start using cloth diapers, a load of questions came up. I didn’t know a single person using cloth diapers. Frankly, I did not even know how a modern-day cloth diaper looked. How hygienic were they? Where could I purchase them, and what would they cost? Why weren’t more people using them? I needed to find answers fast.
Learning More
To learn how to cloth diaper a baby in this age of disposable diapers, I searched the Internet, read magazine articles, and talked with diaper makers and cloth diapering mothers.
I was pleasantly surprised when I found plenty of Web sites where parents shared their insights, recounted positive experiences with cloth diapers, and stated they would never go back to using disposables. Many Web businesses are owned by mothers (work-at-home moms or WAHMS) who make cloth diapers at home.
I quickly learned the pros and cons and the myths behind cloth diapering. I also became aware of some unsavory details about disposables—the toxic chemicals they contain, the millions of diapers added to our landfills every year, and other health concerns.
I felt obligated to research these issues, and so cloth diapering my daughter quickly turned into a matter not only of providing her comfort and easing her rash but also of protecting her health.
Next week: Environmental and health effects of disposable diapers.
