Why I got cloth diapers :)
Hey! Welcome back!
Today I want to share a little bit my experience on how I decided I wanted to use cloth diapers with my baby girl Mila.
One of the main consequence that disposable diapers have, is the amount of trash we produce by using them. For me, the idea of useless, senseless trash included: plastic bags when you buy vegetables at the groceries (the little ones), sanitary pads, plastic straws, plastic eating utensils, among a few others and of course....disposable diapers. For this reason, I didn't really need a lot of convincing when it came to deciding between disposable diapers or cloth diapers. About 8 years ago, a dear friend of mine had her first baby boy and when I went to visit her I saw that she had a few. I didn't ask how many, how to use them or her wash and care routine (eight years ago I didn't eve consider the remote possibility that I would ever become a mom), but I do remember two things: the first one was the beautiful green colour of the diaper her baby was wearing, and second, I thought that was an amazing idea on how to avoid producing so much unnecessary waste, so they were perfect for us.
Fast forward eight and a half years and I find myself choosing which designs I wanted for our diapers. We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl until the day Mila was born so I chose a bit of everything, purples, dinosaurs, owls, greens, avocados, newspaper print, pineapples, and a few other.
There are many other good reasons that might motivate you to give cloth diapers a try, for example: it reduces the possibility of your baby getting diaper rash because you baby's skin is in contact with breathable natural materials, Mila has never had a diaper rash in her life and we have been using them for a year now.
It's a one time investment that saves you significant amount of money compared to buying diapers each week, I know that as long as I keep my every two day washing routine I will never run out of diapers. This was especially helpful during this coronavirus health crisis we are going through; in the supermarket near our house there were a lot of "panic purchases", especially of diapers and toilet paper.
I have to be honest and say that I'm the first to recognise that disposable diapers are much easier to use (put on-change-throw out-never think about it again-repeat)! Your world changes with having to deal with a a newborn baby, maybe you don't have a lot of help around the house, trying to figure out how to take care of a tinny person, starting your new life as a parent, mom brain (which I think is a true miracle how without sleep we can still function) and probably many other situations in your day to day life that make it look like using cloth diapers is just a lot of extra work.
My advice is to go easy on yourself, and remember that each time you use a cloth diaper, it is one less diaper that goes to the landfills for a loooong time. If we look at the big picture, if all the moms and dads in the world that use disposable diapers would use one or two cloth diapers a week, the impact even then would be enormous, so start with an open mind give it a try and go one day at a time.
In my case, I feel worse using disposable diapers so that's how I got my initial motivation; after the first or so month, it just became a part of our daily routine. I got to know my baby and understand how many I would use in a day, how many to have in total, when to wash them, etc.
Finally I just want to say to everyone reading this to be safe during this health worldwide crisis; I hope you and your family are healthy and that it is possible for you to stay at home for this period of time. If you must work or not, if you have more kids or family members you must take care of, or simply if you have a hard time staying home for a long time, I hope this time brings new knowledge about ourselves and a lot of happy family time.
Maria