A Green Mama is a Good Mama: My Cloth Diapering Revolution

In the past few years, "going green" has become "the thing" to do. Whether you are genuinely wanting to help the environment, trying to save a few bucks for the ever looming tax season, or you are just in it for those fabulous green grocery bags, you have probably made efforts to become more "green". Whatever your reasons, improving our environment by doing (or not doing)certain things is admirable.

I have tried to do my part by using less paper towels, doing my washing and drying in HE front loaders, turning down the thermostat, turning off lights, and using earth-friendly cleaners. I think the most adventurous of them all has been using cloth diapers.

It had never crossed my mind to use cloth diapers. Ever. I never saw my mom use them (although I found out later she did use them for a short time with my older sister before I was born) and I only knew of one family who had used them, but never actually saw them in use.

I was searching that wonderful world wide web one day while my first bouncing baby boy was napping, and somehow came across an article about cloth diapering. There were testimonials, examples of how easy it was to do, lists of all the chemicals found in disposable diapers and the risks of such chemicals, and the most persuasive of all... the charts of how much money I would save by cloth diapering! I could save enough to feed a small third world country (or at least the children)! Money was also huge in convincing my husband to give it a go.

The idea of saving so much money was very appealing, but it was only part of the reason I wanted to try out cloth diapering. I found it fascinating! I know that sounds really strange, but I thought it sounded kind of fun! I found it so interesting that for thousands of years cloth diapers (or no diapers) were the norm. That is what people did. It wasn't disgusting, gross, or looked on as unsanitary. I wanted to see for myself what it was like to cloth diaper my baby. I guess maybe it made a distant historical world come alive for me. To have a glimpse of how my ancestors cared for their babies. It was all a big adventure.

And so my adventure began! I drove to my nearest Walmart and picked up a pack of Gerber prefolds, diaper pins, and vinyl plastic pants. Wow, I had no idea what I was doing. That is for sure! I was so excited, but my excitement soon turned to frustration when the pins stuck, the plastic pants tore, and the prefolds leaked.

I was a little put out, but didn't give up. I did hours of research and joined a diaper sewing yahoo group. Not long afterwards, I sewed myself some fancy fitted pocket diapers made of scraps I had around the house(tight budget and flannel (on sale), sewed some covers, and went to Sam's and bought myself some new and improved microfiber towels from the automotive department. This worked quite well, and I was very proud of myself for sewing all those lovely fitted pockets.

I did that system of stuffing the fitted pockets and using a cover (or many times when around the house, no cover)for quite some time. I really liked doing it most of the time. There was an occasional poopy diaper that just about did me in, but other than that, things went fairly well.

Washing the diapers was interesting. I did have some stink issues, but was able to resolve them. It turns out microfiber towels are very talented at holding in stink! I would have liked to have bought a diaper sprayer to spray the poop off with, but it wasn't in the budget. It would have been nice to have quality, brand name diapers, but my home made ones got me by just fine.

I eventually bought enough PUL to make regular pocket diapers (with the waterproof layer built in). Whoo hooo! I was moving up in the cloth diapering world! I also bought my first pattern- the Chloe's Toes pattern. One of the best purchases I made in the realm of cloth diapers. I made some Chloe's Toes diapers with some variations to see what types I like best. I was using hook and loop instead of snaps like the pattern called for, so it took a little trial and error to find what I liked the best. (I'll post my variations for comparison later.)

I found a whole bunch of wool sweaters at my favorite thrift store for dirt cheap, and have made two longies and one short wool cover. So adorable and fuzzy! I have yet to make the rest of them up for lack of time. I also have a bunch of pocket diapers (already cut out)that are hanging over me as well.


So to sum up, I did cloth with my first son from about 7 months until I became pregnant with my second son, and it was just too much for me at the time. Whenever I felt well enough, and had the energy, I would pull them out for a while. While awaiting baby No. 2 I sewed as much as I could manage and tried to get enough diapers ready for two little ones.

So after my second son was born, I was ready once again to go to cloth, but to my dismay after one day in total cloth, I ran out of diapers! Every one was dirty! Who knew boys could pee so much.

So, in the here and now, I have a bunch of cloth diapers sitting in the boy's dresser. And guess what... they just sit there. They are not being used at the moment. Bad green mama (as I slap my wrist)!!! A person can only do so much, and I have discovered this recently (and I am reminded quite often).
I hardly have time to squeeze in a shower let alone sew up a stash of diapers. So I just keep trying to find a moment to sew a diaper here and a diaper there. I am hoping that by January/February I will have enough to try again. My new green mama motto: I'll try again in 2010!

Kate