Do You Remember This Diaper?

How I became a Full Time Cloth Head

So, during each pregnancy I have devoured diaper sales and rummage through every Sunday paper in search of fabulous coupons! By the time my last pregnancy ended, at over 41 weeks, I had 96 packages of diapers! Very proud of my bargains, I stacked them by size and stood back to admire my stash! We happily diapered our 4th baby boy in disposables for 6 months. I had never ever giving any positive thought to cloth diapering. “ That “ was for people who had tons of time, not a busy mom like me, and didn’t care about scrubbing poop! Boy was I wrong. If you had told me that by my sons 8 month birthday that I would be full time cloth diapering mom I would have told you that you were off your rocker!!

My current obsession with cloth started innocently on You Tube as I watch videos of moms that clothed their babies. Then I posted my own video about my slight interest in cloth and the encouraging response was overwhelming! I decided I would purchase I few super cheap diapers on eBay……it was all down hill from there! I soon discovered much bigger sites to feed my need for cloth! After figuring out the lingo: inserts, Bummis, AIO, OS, I was hooked!

Today we are a 100% cloth family, with a good sized collection of fluff and even have cloth wipes. I am still shocked by the amount of wonderful product to chose from and the warm knowledgeable community that surrounds cloth but I am over joyed to now know enough to share my experience with other mothers who inquire about cloth. Nearly one month after a life of disposables, we barely have any garbage, will save a ton of money with our next baby (whenever that is ) and whole heartily enjoy putting our chunky monkey in his adorable fluff! Needless to say we have returned all the disposables to the store!


By Guest Blogger: Jennifer Suess - Cloth Addict

CDAA – Cloth Diaper Addicts Anonymous

It all began as a way to save money. We needed to cut back on things and we had two (yes two) in diapers and the one thing that always came up when money was tight or non existent was diapers. Oh how I hated buying diapers on my grocery shopping trips. Here I was making sure I was watching what I spent and with one quick swipe, you added $40 dollars (for two) to your bill and on top of that, with one quick change, that $40 got thrown in the garbage!

So after much research, we decided to try cloth. At first it was completely economical. I did however love the way their little bottoms looked all fluffy and cute in their cloth diapers but because if costs, we couldn’t afford to completely cloth all the time so we slowly had to build our stash (and in ours I mean mine).

So I was introduced to Nicki’s Diapers. Oh Nicki’s how I love you and hate you, (really I love you but my husband might hate you). At first I was a little overwhelmed but then I got my first deal. I bought 4 diapers for $25! Ok I was hooked and for about a good month I couldn’t stop looking. I had to make sure I got the best deal. I was able to get a bunch of Fuzzi Bunz and for awhile I was satisfied (ok not really but the money maker… aka husband needed a break)

Well I convinced someone to get me diapers as a present (this should have been the first sign there was an…issue). So I was introduced to brand new fluffy, soft, never been used diapers. Oh I was in love! I wasted no time putting them on my son and oh the bright little bottoms waddling around… how can you not love cloth.

For a while I was ok. I stayed away from any of the websites. Luckily the nearest diaper store was an hour away so going that was not an option. So for awhile I think the addiction died down. My son grew out of our first stash and we didn’t have money to buy another one so we switched to disposables (oh the wasted money). I passed on my stash to a friend for her to use (is it normal to miss your diapers?) I did keep the new ones because they were OS so I planned on still using them (ok ok and because I couldn’t bare to part with them).

Well money got tight again and those dreaded disposables were killing me. I started using my 4 diapers and just washing every day. I was then lucky enough to find out our store was giving away free boxes of Econobums. I packed my boys in the car and we drove the hour (over an hour with a two year old and one year old) and got our diapers. This was all it took, one trip to the store and seeing all those cute diapers. I was hooked!

Well I had all these new econobums and some prefolds I bought so I needed come cute covers right? Well I found out that a store opened up locally (oh no, this could be trouble) so I headed there. $50 later I walked out with 2 thirsty covers, fleece liners, disposable liners, some snappi’s and a full blow love and addiction to cloth. It doesn’t help that every cloth diaper store I have been in has a play area so I can shop in peace and my kids are happy.

So here I am, completely in love with cloth diapers. I see it this way; I have boys so I am limited to my fashion choices. How many football shirts or blue shirts can one have? Cloth diapers are my way getting cute without going over board. Who can argue with a little baby bottom in a cow print (I’m expecting that diaper next week and can not wait)? Who cares if I would rather buy diapers then new clothes for myself? So what if my dream job would be to work at a cloth store and get paid in fluff. That doesn’t mean anything…


Ok so I might have a slight problem… Hello name is Christina and I am a cloth diaper Addict!


By Guest Blogger - Christina McMahon

My Unlikely Journey to Cloth

My cloth journey began unexpectedly after venting about my "trash guilt" on Facebook.  I had three little girls all in diapers and the sheer volume of trash that created each day was insane.  I am a big recycler and recyle anything and everything I can yet we were producing an average of one bag of trash per day filled with almost nothing other than diapers.  In my status vent I did not mention anything about cloth diapers, just my guilt over all the disposables. Yet, suddenly everyone wanted to help me learn how to use cloth.  I had no clue so many of my friends even used cloth.  I was shocked and touched at their willingness to help me.  They were all so excited about it and kept using all of these strange and unfamilar terms.  I decided I would humor them and give it a shot.  One awesome friend even offered to send me some cloth diapers to get me started because my number one complaint, or should I say excuse, for not being able to switch was the start up costs.  How could I say no to that?   I agreed to try knowing it would be too hard and I would fail at it.  I had three girls in diapers after all, no one would fault me if I couldn't do it.  Then I could go back to disposables guilt free and be able to say "I tried, BUT......"

I received the diapers in the mail a few weeks later and decided to start slow, using cloth only on my oldest daughter at first.  I didn't want to jump in feet first trying to cloth diaper all three girls 100% of the time because I knew that would overwhelm me quickly.  I decided I would start out part time, only using the cloth during the day while we were at home.  I still used disposables on her anytime we went out and at bedtime.  The first few times I put the cloth on her it was awkward, for both of us.  Diaper changes went from taking about 30-60 seconds to easily lasting 5 minutes as I clumsily tried to get everything on just right.   I couldn't help but chuckle after each diaper change as I watched her walk away funny, like she had been riding a horse all day.  The extra fluff would definitely take some getting used to.
After about 2 days I was shocked to realize I was already getting the hang of it.  It was WAY easier than I had ever expected.  Dare I admit it?  Did I actually enjoy it?  This couldn't be happening, everything was going all wrong.  This was not the plan at all.  She hadn't pooped yet, I knew that would be the end of this silly journey.  Bring on the poo baby girl.

Later that day SHE POOPED!  Finally it was surely over!  I went to change the poop and it wasn't that bad.  What was happening here?

Laundry time rolled around.  I knew this would be "the end".   There was no way the diapers would wash clean.  I started the laundry and it wasn't as gross or hard as I thought.  Our washing machine had so many different options like a prewash, soak, and 2nd rinse cycles, perfect for cloth diapering.  The diapers came out so clean and fresh.  Now what?   Bring it on!

A few days went by, everything was still going smooth.  Dare I try two in cloth?  Sure, why not.  So I put the youngest in cloth as well.  I was still a tad concerned about trying my middle girl out because she is my little soaker.  She can soak through a disposable in an hour to the point where her clothes are wet too.  I knew there was no way these silly little cloth diapers could contain her when a hefty disposable could not.
A few more days passed, now I had 2 in cloth and 1 in "sposies."  OH MY!  What just came out of my mouth?  Now I am using "their" language.  Sposies? Prefolds? Pockets? Covers?  Snappis?  What was this strange new language I was speaking?  My whole day was filled with diaper speak as I bragged to all of my friends about how our journey was unfolding.

 A week in and it was still smooth sailing with the two.  No accidents, no leaks, no blowouts.  I kept waiting for something, anything to go wrong so I could give it all up but nothing ever did.  Then I asked myself  "Do I make the leap?  Do I add a third into the mix?"  Oh what the heck, why not.  So I added a third tush into the rotation.

Now I was proudly cloth diapering all three girls.  Still only part time, only at home and while they were awake but I was doing it.  I had wanted it to be hard.  I wanted to fail so I could say I had tried.  I wanted to be able to say I had put my best effort into it but it was just impossible with three.  Who would blame me then?  I had THREE!  Maybe if it was just one little baby I could do it, but surely not three.  No one would expect that.  I felt so guilty knowing I had started with the intention of failing but ended up enjoying it so much.

So here I am, a little over 2 months into this journey and yes, I have to admit I am loving it.  I am hooked now.  I talk about it constantly to anyone who will listen, willing or otherwise.  I have all of these new words added into my daily speech.  I take pics of my girls in nothing but diapers because they are just so gosh darn cute.  I have 4 kids age 4 and under yet I find myself occasionally catching a little "baby fever" just because I want an excuse to buy some of the teeny tiny newborn cloth diapers.  I have even been using cloth overnight and outside of the house for the last month or so.  So I guess I only have 1 thing left to say......

My name is Christy, and I am a cloth diaper addict.
Ah, it feels so good to get that off my chest.