The Ups And Downs Of Cloth Diapering

When I tell people I cloth diaper, I am not looking for a pat on the back.  I usually only mention it following a comment on Little Man’s girth or how much he weighs.  He looks like a little wrestler in his cloth diapers and a string bean in disposables.

I say this often, but I never thought I’d cloth diaper.  I mean it.  I was in the “That’s way too much work. I can’t even keep up with my own laundry.” camp, just like everybody else.

Living in Colorado and choosing a birth center for my birth introduced me to a whole world of supportive cloth diaperers.  There were also several local cloth diapering shops nearby.

Today, as I procrastinate on doing the laundry that needs to be done, which happens to include a load of Little Man’s Rump-a-rooz diapers, I am reminded of the downside of cloth diapering.

Keeping up with my laundry.

The thing is, it’s also a really good motivator to keep me on top of the already increased laundry pile thanks to my little mess maker.  That, and it’s the easiest load of laundry I have.  No need to fret over what temperature to use to make sure I get all the stains without colors bleeding together, because I get to follow the same exact routine every.single.time.

Then the other list of positives on the side of cloth diapering are:

• I pretty much never have to run out to the store to pick up disposable diapers. I just dump the ones I have in the wash when I’m halfway through my stash of 24.
• I don’t have to worry about keeping up with wipes because I use cloth wipes, which are GREAT because they don’t fall apart and, even with the messiest BM’s, I rarely have to use more than one and never more than two.
• Little Man has blown out of more disposables while traveling than he ever has his cloth ones.
• I have dealt with very few diaper rashes as long as I keep up with changing him every 2 hours (during the day, not overnight).  With his little constitution, that’s pretty much necessary anyway.
• And my favorite: Little Man’s room never smells like a diaper because all his BM’s get flushed!

Unfortunately, we do use disposables overnight.  I wish we didn’t, but I have yet to find an alternative reusable diaper that keeps him dry enough and doesn’t leak.  As it is, with disposables, I buy the next size up.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Clearly there are many advantages to disposable diapers, but cloth diapers are not nearly as hard to stick with as I thought they would be at first and they give me a sense of peace.  I enjoy knowing most of his diapers aren’t sitting in a pile of waste somewhere, forever preserving his BM’s because they are unable to break down along with the surrounding garbage (though there are a few :/).

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