A Cloth Calling

Many people are perplexed when I tell them I'm making the switch to cloth. Many people look down on it and will even voice their opinion. I feel as though many people are not educated in cloth diapers and are afraid of the unknown. My own parents are iffy about the entire idea and still don't full agree or understand why I would want to take on the extra work.

My choice to cloth diaper came from many influences. I never realized how strongly I felt about parenting choices until I had my daughter. Many people say it's the "first time mom syndrome" but I would have to disagree. I have full faith that I will give all of my children the same love, attention, and support that I give Allie.

Although I don't follow any parenting style to a T or read much of anything about parenting styles, I would have to say I can relate to Attachment parenting the most. I wear my daughter (as much as my back will allow), I bedshare on occasion, she sleeps in the same room as me, and I am a gentle parent. Many people do not understand this and can become very mean towards me, I've had people attack my views and opinions. Although I would never force my opinions down anyones throat, I feel very strongly about these beliefs.

I feel like I lean towards the more natural side of parenting too. I breastfeed my daughter and any food she eats is homemade with fresh ingredients. I use Baltic amber for teething pains and try to stay away from chemicals entering her body. I don't classify myself as an over protective mom though, I let her learn things on her own. She bumps her head, she gets dirty, she is figuring out her way in this world. I'm here to love her, guide her, and pick her up when she falls down.

I wanted to start cloth diapering when Allie was about 3 months old. It seemed like a fun things, the diapers were cute and it would help the environment. It sickened me to learn how long disposables sit and rot in landfills, YUCK! So I started slowly looking around, realizing how expensive it is and wondering how I was ever going to talk Matt into this. Around the time Allie turned 6 months old a friend from a mommy group posted a picture on fb of her sons bum. It had a huge (probably the size of 2 quarters) blister on it. She took him straight to the ER, he did not have any rash or anything before the previous diaper change. They told her it was a common chemical burn from disposables, she had recently switched brands and the new brand had stronger chemicals in them! I won't name brands but I'll just say it was a name brand, they weren't some generic diaper you get from the dollar store or something. It was a leading brand!

I was frantic, I needed to learn how to cloth diaper. Thankfully a great friend of mine leaded me to a diaper co op. I began investigating and ordering diapers! In my next post I'll break down all the diapers I have ordered so far! =]