I am not a crunchy mami. Google will explain that a crunchy mami is a “mother who supports homebirth, breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, etc”. Ok, I’m guilty now – I am a crunchy mami. But before having children, I never imagined I would be!
During pregnancy I spent most of my waking hours researching the best products to use for everything baby-related and I quickly encountered the strange and intriguing world of modern cloth diapering through YouTube. Many practical young moms of YouTube seemed to be really love and advocate for the use of modern cloth diapers. Make no mistake – these diapers looked nothing like the large sheets of cloth and pins our mothers used with us as babies. These diapers were printed, bright, fluffy and looked super cute and comfortable!
I was all in. I needed to learn more, so I did.
I learned that:
1. Cloth diapers were reusable. And reusable. And reusable. They could be washed in the washing machine and dried in the dryer! No need to ever touch the poop. They were used from birth until pre-school years (7-35+lbs). They could be passed on from sibling to sibling!
2. Being reusable meant they were cheap! Ok, so each cloth diaper is not cheap, but the fact that they were never thrown away, meant I no longer needed to buy THOUSANDS of disposables, and that I would be saving THOUSANDS of dollars for my family. Ok, now I was really sold, but I kept on researching.
3. Cloth diapers are free of chemicals, so they are very gentle on baby’s skin and make the risk of diaper rash almost non-existent. I was not yet a mother while reading on cloth diapers, but I had heard lots about and seen many pictures of terrible diaper rash from other parenting groups I was a part of. Rash that was so badly affected by harsh diaper chemicals that it became bloody. I knew that I never wanted to risk that for my precious babies.
4. Because cloth diapers are washed and reused, and reused even for future babies, they are very good for the environment. Disposable diapers fill the landfills and take about 500 years to decompose. This contaminates ground water and poses a health risk for us all. Cloth diapering meant no discarding of dirty diapers, thus reducing the health risk mentioned above.
I was psyched. I sold the idea to my husband, who was willing to give it a try and we dived right in! We sampled various brands and eventually chose to build up our supply with Sunbaby pocket cloth diapers.
Cloth diapering so far, has been one of the best decisions we have made for our family. Our babies are now ages 7 and 5 (yes, I know, they’re no longer babies! ☹), and we cloth diapered them both from birth to potty training. We used one size pocket diapers, which spared them of any diaper rash, and saved us so much money! We were also happy to know we were doing a little to help the Earth.
What are some of your cloth diapering questions or fears? Ask us in the comments below.
