How I learned about Cloth Diapering

"This post is part of the Cloth Diapering Bloggers and Dirty Diaper Laundry hosted Cloth Diaper Carnival that is held every month. Many bloggers get together and write about the same topic. This month is “Where did you first hear about/ see cloth diapers?” (Quoted from the Dirty Diaper Laundry site)

I knew that cloth diapering was an "old-fashioned" concept, which I thought had pretty much died out. When I first became pregnant, a co-worker of mine asked if I would be cloth diapering since she knew I was attempting a lifestyle of "crunchiness" (i.e. green, granola) and her "hippie sister who lived in the mountains" had done it with her children. My response to her was nothing short of "he** no!" I had thoughts of handwashing poop out of diapers and pricking a little baby with pins in mind.

Months later, I saw a flyer for a local baby fair in SF, catering to green living. I went with hubby, looking forward to checking out the newest in baby products and sitting in on presentations, especially one on baby signing. I saw that there would be a presenter on cloth diapering so I thought, "What the heck, I'll check it out." The presentation was put on by a Bay Area diaper service, who gave a brief overview of the different types of cloth diapers out there. Of course, since she was pushing to promote her company, the main emphasis was on prefolds and wrap covers, which she passed around amongst the audience. We even had the chance to cloth diaper a stuffed animal and to my surprise, pins weren't used! I was amazed at the snappi, which was a modern invention for cloth diapering. The best way I can describe it is similar to ace bandage "claws" that snag fabric together.

Here's a photo from the Green Mountain Diapers site:

Learning about the benefits of a huge savings (upwards of $1000+ for 3 years of diapering) compared to disposables, better health for baby (less diaper rash, no chemicals next to baby's skin), earlier potty training since toddlers can feel when they're wet (on average, 12 months), and less environmental impact (with disposies being the 3rd leading item in landfills) At that point, I was pretty much sold on the idea of having a diaper service.

And then the obsession of researching cloth diapers on line began and I swear I spent hours each day discovering the differences between prefolds and flats, fitteds, pocket diaperes, all-in-ones, all-in-twos, one-size diapers, etc. I found an awesome deal on some new prorap diaper covers on craigslist, which was my first purchase. My second was on ebay which I regretted since the diapers ended up being really cheap Gerber prefolds (blech!) but I did get a snappi out of it. I also purchased the "Changing Diapers, Changing Minds" package through Jillian's Drawers, which allowed me to try out various cloth diaper systems for just $10. At that point, I was smitten. And the rest is history... =)

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