Green Options

Guilt. Augh, the guilt.

Many of us practice some form of natural parenting. Many of us choose breastmilk, cosleeping, babywearing, and whole foods for our babies and families.

But lately, I’ve noticed that something is lacking with a few vocal members of the attachment parenting community. Empathy. Yep, that’s putting yourself in another’s shoes.

You don’t have to agree. You don’t have to sanction. But it’d be nice if some APs would understand that it’s not as easy as popping a baby on a breast or in your bed. Life is not the same for everyone out there. Our experiences are different. Our reactions are different.

And until the Attachment Parenting community isolates the elitists, it will be hard to gain ground.

In the cloth diapering life, parents get on this quest to find The Perfect Cloth Diaper. Now, I’m not sure that I have my grubby little hands on the Holy Grail of cloth, but it’s darn close.

It’s the Fuzzi Bunz One Size diaper.

In my perusing the cloth diapering world and in my experience working for a natural parenting store, I’ve definitely had the opportunity to check out many nappies. I even snagged a few hand-me-down Fuzzi Bunz fitted diapers before Baby E was born. Soft, durable, great absorbency.

That’s why I was so excited to give the new Fuzzi Bunz One Size a whirl.

I’m a Bum Genius gal. I mean, my son makes me a Bum Genius gal…I don’t personally wear them! They were the first cloth diaper I tried. And I liked that I could switch to cloth diapers when my older son was hitting the potty training months and then still use the diapers for the baby in my tummy. It was a real, “Why haven’t I been doing this all along?” moment for me.

See, one size diapers are like that. They can last for your child’s entire cloth diapering life, and then you can pass ‘em on to the next kiddo.

The biggest learning curve for me as a cloth diapering newbie was how to clean up all the mess my little one made. There were lots of trial and error, but I think I finally got the hang of it. I know many parents are put off by the output of their offsprings, but for some reason; the baby daddy and I didn’t seem to mind scraping off poo off of the cloth. We even felt cheerio about it. Of course, there was the occasional face when things got out of hand. We even attempted to cloth diaper without having our own washer and dryer. However, we got to really know the coin laundry attendant REAL well. So without adieu, here’s the simple way to clean cloth diapers.

To cloth diaper full time, I recommend anywhere from 24 to 36 diapers. The 24 if you want to wash every other day; 36 if you don’t have your own washer (could do without the dryer if you utilize the clothes line) or wash every 2 to 3 days. It does take time to build up your stash so in the meantime you might want to consider chlorine free diapers like 7th Generation or even Gdiapers (didn’t work out for me but seems to be favorite among many green moms).

There is NO NEED TO USE WET PAILS. I repeat, NO WET PAILS. It’s a drowning hazard and the modern washing machine has gotten so good, there’s no need to dunk or let the diaper sit in poopy water. Either use a dry pail, nylon bag, or throw them in the washer. When the diaper bag, pail, or washer is full.. here’s a quick and simple way to wash cloth diapers.