Cloth Diapering

I have always been an advocate of cloth diapering ever since Spud was born in my bid to a) be more environmentally friendly and b) save money. While we attempted to cloth diaper Spud in her early days into this world, our well-intent plan went down the drain for a little while. We did try for a few days when she got home but eventually gave up because the reusable diaper were all too big for her tiny bum-bum then; making her legs spread too wide apart because of the thickness of the cloth in between her crotch. (She looked quite pathetic…a chunk of cloth protruded out and sandwiched between her crotch!) Besides, as we found out, breastfed newborns’ poo are usually extremely liquidy and mustardy, and when she did her poo, they all went splat and all over the place! Those harmless looking, but toxic smelling poo would stain the cloth liners of the diapers pretty bad. So bad that we could not get the yellowy-mustardy colour out even after several washes! (talk about being environmentally friendly in having to wash so many times!)

So we went on the disposable diaper route mainly to wait it out till she gets big enough for the reusable ones I bought off an online shop, I have to say though, when it comes to having to be out and about, travelling, emergencies and just being plain lazy, nothing beats the convenience of using those disposables.

Okay. So I know those disposables are terrible for the environment and not to mention hideously expensive. That, for me is enough a convince, to push through with cloth diapering, given my strong advocacy for being environmentally friendly. However, I’d be lying if I say I can manage cloth diapering 100% of the time despite being a very strong advocate for the greater good of planet earth. For reasons given in the previous paragraph, I think it would be unreasonable to totally write-off disposable diapers.

Enter then me, the part-time cloth diaperer in action. I have heard and researched that when it comes to the technological advances of cloth diapers, their paper counterpart fails in comparison. Apparently, when it comes to potty training, cloth diapers win hands-down. But I guess we can’t really have it all and I have got to be practical about things as it is just not realistic to push through 100% cloth diapering all the time (washing use a lot of water too, you know! So one could also argue how that can’t be as environmentally friendly). My take is, even if we manage cloth diapering only half the time, we still make that little bit of difference.

Besides, those reusable diapers are pretty funky looking. They certainly are not as boring as the disposable ones, and they come in all sorts of colours and designs. I think that alone is enough a reason to go cloth.

And trust me, since Spud turned about 6 months old, she has got quite a pretty cool looking bum to boot! (okay, at least I think so.) Just check out those funky looking bums.

Watch this space for a review of the different types and systems of cloth diapers I have tried and tested.