Making the transition to cloth diapers

 In recent years the newest trend seems to be going green, from the new healthy eating chains popping up in my town, to all of the women in my own circle using cloth diapers. I must be honest, I was always intrigued by the idea, but something about washing diapers didn't float my boat.

I am not a poop person by any means, and I can tell you about a number of stories involving my oldest as a newborn in a poop soaked outfit, gags that you could hear on the third floor of the apartment building we lived at during that time, and a garbage bag which the outfit went in because I just didn't want to deal with it, and physically couldn't with my gag reflex. If you had told me in that moment that I would be washing poop in two years, I would have informed you of your slipping sanity.
 
The more I heard about the new cloth diapering comeback, the more I was interested. These diapers were some of the cutest things ever, and they seemed pretty easy to use. Heck, if Emily who is one of the laziest mothers I know can do it, I think I can!  By this time, my first born was heading to being a three year old, and working on potty training, and we had welcomed another little boy into our family. My gag reflex and gross out factor had become tamed, because lets face it, as Moms, we can't hurl every time we see or smell poop because we would never survive the first year.
 
I started to e-mail around to a couple cloth diaper companies to start a series of blog posts called The Cloth Diapering Convert. I got passed over by a ton of them, because apparently this isn't the first time a Mom Blogger has tried to get something like this going. And all the while I thought I was going something original (Haha!)
 
I eventually struck gold with Apple Cheeks, based out of Canada. I built not only a business relationship with them, but I created an amazing friendship with one of the owners, which I now chat with about everything from help with my diapers to pacifiers and husbands!  
 
The transition has been way more smooth than I ever imagined, although getting my husband on board seems near impossible. I have yet to get him to change one cloth diaper because frankly, I think he is intimidated by them. He has no idea how they work, and seems like he isn't interested every time I attempt to show him.
 
From washing, to wearing, folding, and accessorizing, cloth has probably been hands down the best parenting choice I have made thus far.

Environmentally, I never knew it took a disposable diaper nearly twenty years to break down, I never knew how many were used annually in our country, and how many land fills were filled with diapers or could be filled annually. It makes me truly disappointed that I didn't start until now.

Financially, two kids in diapers, averaging a case of diapers a month, if not more, was running us upwards sometimes of $200 a month.  Cloth has cut that huge expense out of our monthly budget.

Thinking of switching to cloth? See these additional resources for more information:

• Cloth diapers exposed: the facts and the fiction (The Diaper Jungle)
• Life-cycle assessment: cloth versus disposable diapers (Appropedia.org)

(Photo credit: Applecheeks)

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