Pregnant with the first of my three incredible kids when I was asked if I would cloth diaper, I actually rolled my eyes and said, “Seriously? You must be kidding! No way.” I was a corporate mom, not a “tree-hugger” (not that I have a problem with crunchy granola moms-my sister is one and she’s my best friend). All that earth mama stuff just wasn’t for me-or so I thought.
Flash forward five years: With two kids still in trainers and one on the way, I finally was ready to listen. My family had already consumed more than 16,000 disposable diapers, were responsible for at least 8,000 pounds of waste sitting in landfills and had spent more than $10,000 on disposable diapers and wipes-and we were about to start all over again. Yikes! I educated myself, made the switch to cloth and never looked back.
Within a year, I even had opened Bellybum, a green store dedicated to educating and supporting parents about cloth diapering, breastfeeding and greener parenting.
I’m finally done with diapers in my home and now speak with the wisdom of having experienced both disposables and cloth:
Environmentally the decision was a no-brainer: Just thinking about the toxins my children were exposed to and all those diapers in landfills turns my stomach.
The switch was easy and not “gross” at all: I actually think I did less laundry when I was cloth diapering because I wasn’t washing loads and loads of poop-smeared clothing. With cloth, poop goes in the toilet where it belongs. When disposables “blow out” inside your baby’s bodysuit, it goes right into your laundry machine. Eww! Honesty, if you’re using disposables you know what I’m talking about…Well, that doesn’t happen with cloth-it just doesn’t!
The savings are indisputable-and this comes from a mom who decided her daughter should have the cutest bum in the city of Chicago and spared no expense making it so! Just imagine the vacations I could have taken if I’d started with cloth.
I highly recommend taking a cloth diapering class (we offer them at Bellybum). Then you can make an informed decision.
