Cloth Diapers

I don't know what it is about landfills, but they bug me. Something about taking care of the Earth that we've been given...

We were not placed on this Earth to harm her, we were put on this Earth to be good stewards of it. Now, you can decide for yourself what it means to be a good steward, and whatever you decide you just go ahead and do. We all have our free agency. 

For me, I've decided one of the ways I can be a good steward is to reduce, reuse and recycle, even if at times it may seem inconvenient. That means recycling everything that can be recycled, and not just plastics and papers and metals and stuff that can go in the blue and green can...old clothes and things that I'm not going to use but that can be donated and someone else can put to good use...old clothes and things that can be remade into things if they are no longer fit for their original purpose...I love printing double sided on paper, and if it wasn't then to use the back as scrap before recycling it...I love composting, while smelly at times I love seeing it turn into black gold for my garden next year and then only having to take the trash out once every two weeks...I don't let the water run, hardly ever...when I can I hang the laundry outside to dry...I buy things in bulk and freeze them in reusable containers instead of ziplocks so that I don't have to throw a bag away...

For me, it brings me joy to try to reduce my "carbon foot print". And now having a baby, I was shocked at how hard it was to find things that were reusable. Everything, and I mean everything is disposable! Nursing pads (you could go through 2-6 sets a day, depending on how your body works), breast milk storage (depends on how much you pump, but that could be at least 2-3 a day), diapers (10-20 a day) and wipes (at least 2 for every diaper, and then a couple for faces and hands a day)...and that adds up to a lot of things being thrown away! Thrown away, sitting, in a landfill...not decomposing...for like ever. 

I don't know if I have a mental disorder, but it seriously hurts me to throw something away. So call me crazy, I want to use reusable things with my baby. I had to do a lot of research to find them, but I did. I found reusable breast milk storage, I found washable nursing pads (honestly, they are so much more comfortable and breathable than the disposable ones), and I found cloth diapers. 

Now cloth diapers was the hardest to research. There is a lot of information out there, some of it helpful and some of it not so helpful. So if you would like to know, here is what I found (so you don't have to go out and do all that research). 

 At the heart of a cloth diaper brigade, you have a cloth diaper and a diaper cover. 

They have really fancy ones, and for some reason they like to make it confusing.

 I like the idea of the more traditional method, just a diaper and a cover. Why make it so complicated when it doesn't have to be?

This was my favorite site for information.

Thirsties Baby

Out of all the blogs, and all the websites you can purchase from, this was the most concise, most informative, and unbiased.

Out of all of the diapers I got, my favorites are Gerber, they have the most fabric and are the most absorbent.

My favorite covers are here.

Yeah, sure, they stain a little. Many people have asked if it's sanitary...newborn urine and poop is water soluble, they're pretty darn clean. I keep them in a metal pail to keep the smell down, and I smell nothing. I have experienced just as many leaks and blow outs in disposables as cloth.

I also love my cloth wipes. Instead of buying expensive cloth wipes, I made my own. I think I used these? They looked like tea towels, they didn't have pre-folds. This is my go to site for different recipes for my wipes.

I use baby powder to help keep him dry, and I just keep up on diaper rash so I don't have to use a lot of diaper cream so that I don't have to buy special cloth diaper diaper cream.

I line dry them, the sun really takes out the stains.

Basically, I'm loving it. Most of all, I love not having to buy a lot of expensive disposable diapers and wipes.