I reached a bittersweet milestone in my parenting journey in the last 2 weeks: I finally packed up all my cloth diapers! After consecutively and simultaneously cloth diapering two babies since 2009, it was my first time to start doing loads of tiny undies instead of cloth diapers.
I did, however, make sure to pack the cloth diapers safely after washing and stripping so they are more than ready for another baby that might come along…I am relatively sure that this is not the absolute end of my cloth diapering journey.
As I look back on my time in the trenches of cloth diapering, I know that I’ve gained a lot of valuable experience. It was both harder and easier than I thought it would be. I never felt like the cloth diapers added more than I could handle to the challenges of raising two babies virtually at the same time, but there were also hiccups in leaking, washing, and repairing that I wouldn’t have envisioned when I started.
Out of all the advice I would give to parents who are looking into or just starting their cloth diapering journey, there is one resource that I would recommend above all others: a book by Kelly Wels, Changing Diapers: The Hip Mom’s Guide to Modern Cloth Diapering.
I received this book from Kelly after BlogHer 2011 and reviewed it here. I find it such a valuable resource that I still do not want to get rid of my copy. But, good news for all your cloth diapering parents: I received another copy this year as part of the EcoFab50 event in Chicago! Since hoarding two books is probably not cool, I am going to give away my second copy of this book to a family who is just at the beginning of their cloth diaper journey. It doesn’t have to be your first baby. You might have been cloth diapering for a few months and just now hit some snafus that this book can help you overcome (and it can!). Or you might be someone who works with young parents (a doula, a pregnancy resource worker, social worker, adoption advocate, etc.) who could give this to someone who needs it.
I’m going to run this contest for one week, ending Thursday, August 22.
In giveaway entry form, I’m asking newbies to share their #1 cloth diapering question and I’ll answer it. For those of you who are already on your cloth diapering journey, I want to know who you’re planning to give this book to!
As a soon-to-be cloth diaperer, I am most concerned about getting my family, especially those caring for my children regularly, on board. My mother in law is very traditional and openly does not support my decision to cloth diaper. What can I do to help persuade her that not only is this best for the environment, but so much better for her grandchildren and worth a little extra effort?
Good question! There is a chapter in the book about this called “Daddies and Diapers” including the “Dad’s Dirty Dozen” of ways to make it easier to acclimate. My personal experience has been that when you show an actual diaper, preferable a one-size pocket diaper with hook and loop, to someone who is resistant (i.e. they are scared), it doesn’t look scary to them. BumGenius 4.0’s are perfect for this, it looks and works exactly like a disposable except it’s cloth. Also, if you assure the caregiver that all they have to do is put the soiled diaper in a bag and you’ll do the washing, that calms a lot of fears too!
Enter to win a copy of the Changing Diapers book on the Conscientious Confusion Blog! Jenny calls it “My #1… http://t.co/8uA6ugCpFY
I’m going to give it to a friend who’s expecting her 4th, and wants to start cloth!
We just started and are finally getting into a routine. A question I have is how to organize and store clean and dirty diapers. We aren’t really organized and sometimes I feel like the diapers just go from the dryer to the booty without getting organized. Tips or suggestions?
In Chapter 9 of the book there is a great portion called “How to Handle Wet and Soiled Diapers” which pretty much describes what I did — once the baby started eating solids, I used a diaper sprayer to spray solids and threw the pee and just-sprayed diapers right into my Planetwise Wet Bag which was in a basic plastic garbage can with lid. I used the same 2 wet bags interchangeably (one being used, one in the wash) for the entire 3.5 years and they’re still good!
For storage of clean diapers, I cleared an entire drawer in the bureau that was topped with the changing table cover and used that drawer exclusively for clean diaper storage. When they came out of the wash, I’d stuff and fold them (usually while watching TV!) and then put them back into the drawer so they were ready to go! There is actually a whole forum on DiaperSwappers.com where people share pictures of how they store their diapers, too! I highly recommend it, you can find it here.
I want to win! 🙂
#greensisters Changing Diapers: the end of my journey, the beginning of yours? http://t.co/TAi87Ku30b @_conscientious
After my daughter gets out of diapers, i plan to donate my diapers to a good person who is in need of diapers for their baby/babies and i will be able to give them this book to enjoy their first adventure into cloth diapering their baby. I began to cloth diaper my baby after realizing that they gave my baby horrid rashes, and i dont want any other little innocent baby in this world to go through that.
I am a cloth diaper veteran! I used cloth on both of my boys and now my sister-in-law is pregnant. She is open to using cloth, do this book would be perfect for her.
I love to include this book with a cloth diaper, wetbag, cloth wipes & CJs Butter as a baby gift!
That is such a good idea!
I love “converting” my friends to cloth and I think at least 4 or 5 of my friends have switched. I would hang on to this as a shower gift for my next friend who gets pregnant (along with a nice cloth diaper, of course!).
Get all the basics of #clothdiapers in one book in a giveaway via @_conscientious http://t.co/1UbHdA0pJU
I would love to read up on this book….I have been cloth diapering for a few months.
I’d love to read this to learn more!
I really want to do this for so many reasons. But I’m clueless as to how to introduce this into my family life. I believe it’s very important to consider. But again incredibly clueless on what’s involved and what’s a typical day is like.
Changing Diapers: the end of my journey, the beginning of yours? http://t.co/h0omtf1RfB via @_conscientious
Changing Diapers: the end of my journey, the beginning of yours? http://t.co/o0RM8qqnFt via @_conscientious