DiApErS: Cloth vs. Disposables

When I got pregnant with little bird, I started thinking about diapering options. A majority of people don't realize they have a choice. Usually people just register for disposables and call it a day. I, on the other hand, had a lot of time on my hands and researched all sorts of things while pregnant from home births, baby food making, baby wearing techniques to cloth diapers.

After talking to a few people about cloth diapers, I decided that was something I was going to TRY. I registered for chlorine-free disposable diapers and a few cloth diapers. I even noted on my registry that I was going to cloth diaper. THEN the questions and comments started pouring in from everywhere.

Why are you cloth diapering?

What is a cloth diaper and how does it work?

Are you using a diapering service? No. Are you crazy? Do you realize you have to clean them?

Blah, Blah, Blah...

I sounded like a broken record. Why, did I have to defend MY decision to TRY cloth diapering? At first, I got defensive but then I educated others on their lack of knowledge of the topic. I'm by no means an expert on cloth diapering but these were a few of my reasons:

• It's better for the environment ("it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing.")
• It's better for my hubby's wallet (since it's cheaper in the long run because you are reusing them instead of buying more and more diaposables)
• Babies who wear cloth tend to get diaper rash less often.
• They look cooler (they come in all different colors and prints).

When little bird was born, she wore her disposables for the first week or so, then I started her on newborn cloth prefolds with cute covers. She looked so cute! But truth be told, I didn't really like the prefolds because she seemed to pee right through them. I was still new to using them so maybe I didn't pre-wash them enough.

Either way, I started shopping around for All In Ones (AIO). But at 5 weeks old, little bird was put in a pavlik harness for her hips and it seemed that she wouldn't be able to use cloth diapers because they would be hard to get through her leg straps. So, we decided to use disposables till she got the harness off a few weeks ago. Everyone assumed I gave up on cloth diapers but that was hardly the case. I couldn't wait to TRY them again. 

Yesterday, was the first time I put little bird in her first AIO cloth diaper. I was hesitant, as with anything new to try...but I just jumped right in. I have always liked a challenge and diapering is no different. Why are so many people scared to TRY it? It wasn't bad at all. She pooped in it, I took it off, cleaned her and put another cloth diaper on. Then I put her in her crib and took the cloth diaper to the sink and washed off what I could and threw it in her wet bag to clean later. It was easy and today I washed them. 

At the end of the day, I think I'm going to use both and figure out what works for our family along the way. 

  Doesn't she look cute?

Do you cloth diaper? If so, which brand do you like the most?

P.S. If you have any cloth diapers that you would like to donate, please do...always looking for some to try on my little bird.