I am going to tell you a story about how I decided to cloth diaper. In 2002, I had a friend that was pregnant with her first. At the time she was also recently single and broke. She had said that she was going to cloth diaper to save money. When she went to Babies R Us the only thing that was available were prefolds and cruddy plastic pants. Ask any grandma, plastic pants suck. They always have, they always will. They are reminiscent of a shower cap with leg holes. Except this shower cap was designed to keep the moisture in. HA! Slightly disappointed in what was available at big box retailers, I turned to the internet. I quickly found Fuzzibunz. At the time I thought they were the coolest thing ever, but alas was not inspired enough to run out and have a baby.
Fast forward to 2010, I am pregnant and reminded of my find 8 years prior. Yes, Fuzzibunz have been around that long. So I jumped online and found that there was much more than just Fuzzibunz, there were Fuzzibunz, GroVia, AppleCheeks, bumGenius, and more. I was quickly overwhelmed with the options available. I was completely aware of prefolds (ref afore mention friend) but fitteds, pockets, and all in ones were a completely new ballgame.
When I told my husband that I wanted to cloth diaper, he quickly told me that I was a complete lunatic. My husband is the second out of five boys. He remembered cloth diapering with those sucky plastic pants, prefolds, and pins. The conversation went a little like this:
“I am not washing diapers out in the toilet,” he told me.
“But honey we can cloth diaper at home and disposable while we are out. We will save a ton of money.” I replied
“You are crazy. I don’t care how much money we save. I am not swirling anything in the toilet.”
“Ok fine, we can cloth diaper at home and disposable while we are out, and *I* will take care of the laundry. You just change the diaper.”
“Whatever, but I still think you are crazy”
So that is what we did. We started out in pockets, but I wasn’t thrilled with fit or absorbency. Still confused by the difference between a fitted and an all in one, I decided to attend a Cloth Diaper 101 at my Chiropractor’s office. We picked up a couple All in Ones, a GroVia and a Bottombumpers .
Within a few weeks, my husband was helping me stuff our stash of pocket diapers. He exclaimed, “Just be done with this and go with the All in Ones!” HE was hooked. From that point on, my son was in cloth 100% of the time.
Now when my husband hears somebody is having a new baby, the first thing he asks is if they will be cloth or conventional diapering. The average answer is similar to what his was in the beginning. Now his response to their objections is simple, “Cloth is awesome!”
Credit: Valerie Cannon Photography
Tiffany, owns and operates the Fort Worth Cloth Diaper store, Simple Baby. She is an advocate for natural birth, breastfeeding, and real diapers. She is a chapter leader for Tarrant County Birth Network, the largest chapter of Birth Network National in the nation.
