Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Another First Time Cloth Diaper Experience

I have been using cloth diapers for over a year now and I really enjoy the process.  I love using products that are better for my baby, I love that I'm not contributing to unnecessary waste, and I'm glad that I can save money by not buying disposable diapers every few weeks.
 
My journey to choosing cloth has been quite an adventure.  I started investigating the idea of cloth diapers when my first child was under 2 years old.  But at that time I decided it wasn't an investment I wanted to make since he was older and close to potty training.  At that time the only information I had about cloth diapers was what I found on Amazon.com.  I had no idea that there was a larger community for cloth diapers, and at that point I put the idea on hold.
 
Then my daughter was born in October of 2009.  I started with disposables but did quite a bit more research about cloth and I discovered a multitude of online communities that provided a plethora of information about various types & brands of cloth diapers.  It was a bit overwhelming.  I researched for 2 months before making my first purchase, which was 2 diaper covers & a set of 6 prefolds.  I started out basic to see if I would enjoy the process. 
 
I fell in love with cloth and began to increase my stash of diapers, using pocket diapers, fitteds & covers, and all-in-ones.  My husband was surprisingly supportive since he realized we wouldn't be spending $20-$30 every few weeks on diapers that would ultimately be thrown in the trash.  Literally throwing our money away.
 
Now that my daughter is 18 months old, my cloth diaper needs have evolved with her.  We now primarily use snap diapers since she is quite skilled at undoing the velcro.  I also work outside of the home part time and my parents watch my kids while I am gone.  They have found cloth diapers to be much easier than they thought, and my mom loves using them on my daughter.  It really is FUN.
 
My journey with cloth diapers will continue until my daughter is potty trained, and then I will most likely sell my stash of diapers to other parents.  That's another perk of using cloth diapers: there is resale value.  You can't say that about disposables.

~~Karen~~

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