The Cloth Diaper Amazingness

So, whenever I tell someone new that I cloth diaper, they think I'm crazy. "But isn't cleaning them gross!?" "I just don't have the time for that" "What about POOP?"
Those are the things that disposable diaper using parents say to me. Hmmm. When I straighten out their very wrong thoughts about cloth diapers, they do get very excited.

1) No, cloth diapers are not gross to clean. I think it's gross to put those unhealthy chemicals that are in disposables on any babies precious little perfect bottom. Yes, disposable (Paper) diapers have some very unhealthy chemicals in for absorption since there is no real cloth for absorption. Not to mention disposables are swimming in dioxin, a chemical KNOWN to cause cancer.
2) If you have time to do any amount of laundry, you have time for Cloth diapers. If you still don't have time and someone else does your laundry, then that's taken care of now isn't it? The diapers today are simple and easy to use. No extra time is spent putting them on. I don't know why people think this. You just.... put the diaper on the child. A little like clothes. You have time to put clothes on your little one, right? The "time" excuse is just ridiculous.
3) What about poop? Hmmm. Well, you clean it up. Solid poop must be flushed. HOWEVER, you must (yes, must) flush the poop from disposables as well. That is a law. Feces is never ever ever allowed in our trash. It's never allowed in any trash. There are actually specific instructions on disposable diaper packages that tell parents to *FLUSH feces in the toilet. So, when it comes to poop, the care of cloth and disposables is the same. So, that cannot be used as an excuse to not cloth diaper.

What really irritates me is that disposables are SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY. Even if you are swimming in cash, why waste it? Use that extra thousand or so you save per year on cloth diapers to go to Hawaii. Start buying organic foods. Pick up a new expensive hobby. Anything but fill our landfills with diapers. Ick. Think of your babies butt, think of your pocketbook, think of our planet!

And, hey! Cloth diapers are super duper cute. Way cuter then any old nasty paper diaper. One thing I really have appreciated is that falls on the tush are padded by cloth. Skye almost never gets upset if she falls on her butt. There's just too much to break her fall. :)

Washing is as easy as can be. I do a nice wash in Tide Free laundry detergent (no dyes, no fragrance, no phosphates), then I rinse a few times. Viola! Nice clean diapers. I, of course, never use any bleach or fabric softeners as these substances can ruin diapers. Fabric softeners in particular inhibit moisture absorption. To rid the diapers of any stains, I hang them outside. The sun is a miraculous stain remover. Even the most horrible breastmilk poo stains come right out in the sun.

I could never put Skye, or any future children I may have, in disposable diapers. That paper junk is just too...I guess I could say "yucky". I don't like the way they feel. I don't like what they are made of (the chemicals inside). I don't like how little padding there is. I don't like that every singe time I put one on Skye (I use disposables on plane trips) she gets horrendous red butt. I don't like that there are billions of used paper diapers in landfills and they are not leaving anytime soon. They decompose at a rate that is so slow, it doesn't even appear that they are decomposing at all. In other words, your children's children's children's children's children would be able to go to the landfill that held your very own poop filled disposable diaper and see it in almost the same shape it left your garbage can at home. Does that not gross you out?

I love my changing table. Filled with all kinds of brightly colored cloth diapers.

In the green bin, I have diaper covers. The changing table holds pocket diapers, inserts, prefold diapers, and doublers. There is also my cloth wipe basket in the upper left corner that has my 50 or so handmade cloth wipes. My diaper pail in on the right. And that is about it.