Then and Now: 18 Months of cloth diapering in review

This morning, as I was sitting at the kitchen table stuffing diapers, I got to thinking about when I first decided to use cloth diapers. Back before my son was even a glimmer in my eye, I always knew I'd use cloth. My mother has always told me how she had to use cloth with me because I was horribly allergic to disposable diapers. I'd just always assumed that if I had been allergic, my child would probably be allergic as well, so it made more sense to start with cloth instead of risking a nasty reaction.

At some stage, W and I were chatting about kids and I mentioned my cloth diapering inclinations. W, having two daughters from a previous marriage that he had seen through diapers and toilet training, raised an eyebrow and let out a somewhat patronizing chuckle.

"They don't work", he stated, simply.

"Oh no? What were people using up until 30 years ago then?", I said.

"Yeah, exactly- so let's be thankful for progress. I just don't see how they can be absorbent. The pee and poo will just get everywhere", he said.

"I just don't see how you can think that a few layers of paper and plastic could be more absorbent than CLOTH!", I sort of shouted.

"Ok baby- you use cloth and I'll use disposable. I guarantee that after one week you'll be over it", he said, chuckling away.

Well, as anyone who knows me can attest, the best way to get me to do something is to tell me that I won't, or worse, can't do it. Yes, I do love a challenge. Truthfully, I was a bit surprised and annoyed by W's reaction. It wasn't until I got pregnant about a year later that I realized how common his viewpoint actually is. A lot of people seem to scoff at cloth. I hate to point a finger, but the majority of scoffers were already parents. Parents. Man, they used to really get on my nerves back before I became one of them. During pregnancy, there were a lot of instances where I started a sentence with the phrase, "When I'm a parent, I will NEVER ". Nothing seems to irk an experienced parent more than when a soon-to-be parent makes all sorts of lofty assertions in front them. There was a lot of, "Ok honey, you'll see" followed by knowing chuckles and smarmy smirks. It seemed to me that the smarmiest of smirks were garnered by talking about cloth diapering ("You're going to touch the POOP?!", "You think you're going to have time to wash diapers?!", "Yeah...that'll last..."). No one seemed to really think it was realistic, except my mother, who came from the pins and rubber pants era and STILL thought it was a breeze. Looking back, I have definitely had to eat my words on a few things- but not cloth. A load of dirty cloth diapers is truly the only load of laundry that I'm NOT annoyed to have to do. In my household, laundry needs to be done every day, so I really don't find washing diapers to be an extra task- it's just part of the mix. I really love cloth diapering my son. I love the money that I've saved (literally thousands), I love the community of cloth diapering in Hamilton that I've become part of, I love how incredibly cute the darn things are and I LOVE that W has transformed from nay-sayer to unwavering advocate.

By the time my due date was looming, W was pretty much on board with the cloth thing. He struggled a bit with the newborn diapers (as we used flannel fitteds that were secured by pins with a cover over top- a bit daunting for me as well), but by the time sweet baby was four weeks old, we were into the bumGenius pockets and it was smooth sailing from there on out. A couple months in, sweet baby developped a rash on his bottom. It took forever to figure out that he was sensitive to vaseline and our diapers needed to be stripped, so in the mean-time, we used up a stash of disposables that had been given to us. A few days in, sweet baby had a major blowout of a poop. It was all up his back and down into the legs of his sleeper. W was cursing away under his breath and as he was cleaning up sweet baby, he said to me, "Baby, we have to get the cloth thing sorted out because these things are just...CRAP!".

Oh, sweet, SWEET victory.

Now here we are, 18 months down the road and still loving our bumGenius. About a month ago, I noticed some cracking in the PUL and was really concerned that the diapers were wearing out and I was going to have to replace my stash. Twelve of my sixteen diapers appeared to be affected and that adds up to roughly $300- so it was looking pretty grim. I sent off an email to Cotton Babies (the makers of bG) and they responded immediately informing me that although my diapers were past their one year warranty, they would do me a one-time customer service of replacing all affected diapers. Joy of joys! I sent away my damaged diapers and my new ones arrived this past week. Nothing gets a cloth-loving mama more excited than fresh, fluffy new diapers. Cotton Babies also sent me ten of their Refresher Kits to replace the worn elastic in the legs of my older diapers so I can spruce up my existing stash. Comparing the diapers side by side has prompted this then and now post. I actually had no idea how worn the elastic had become until I compared my new and old diapers. The good news is that even though the diapers are pretty dingy and the elastic was pretty worn in the legs, I've never had any issues with the absorbency. In fact, they were still working perfectly. Reading over the information that Cotton Babies had sent me, I realized that I've committed just about every crime on the "Do not" list. Adding vinegar or baking soda to the rinse? Check. Soaking the covers? Check. Even the most heinous of crimes, putting the covers in the dryer? Sadly yes, I did it for months before I figured out that it was bad for them. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to ask Cotton Babies directly about how to care for the diapers- I'm a little embarrassed to say that I truly never thought of it and instead went onto various diaper forums to ask my questions. Diaper forums are enormously helpful, of course, but the fact is that not everyone is using the same diapers and therefore the care regime is different for all the different types.

Well, lesson learned. I've got a second change with these new diapers and I'm confident that they'll last through to the next baby. W and I made the trip out to Ikea to pick up some stand-alone potties for sweet baby and we hope to have him out of diapers in the next six months.

Stay tuned for my next photo-post comparing a brand new bG diaper to one that's been beaten up for eighteen months.