by Kris Mery

Created on: July 16, 2008

I was one of those people completely against cloth diapers. My husband was cloth diapered and had a more balanced view of it. I received some Gerber prefolds at one of our baby showers to use as burp cloths, and I remember him telling me afterwards that maybe we could use them around the house to save some money. I said ok while thinking absolutely not. Sometime shortly after that I did a tiny bit of research on the subject, just enough to find viewpoints of how it is not really a money saver and how inconvenient it is. I walked away bolstered in my decision not to cloth diaper.

Around the time our daughter was six months old I read a post on Cafemom about a diaper sprayer. I was intrigued. I wanted to know what that was about so I started looking stuff up. I found more posts (and some groups) on cloth diapers and found out it wasn't as gross as I'd assumed. I also learned that I should have been cleaning out the disposable diapers, something that makes no sense to me still. Around that time my dad told me about washing his brothers diapers and how easy it was... even explained how he did it. The next day we had a blowout that left poo in my daughters bloomers. I cleaned it out the way he explained and saw for myself how easy it would be. More research showed sites with converters that tell you how much you save or spend going cloth. They showed me how very wrong my initial research was. That was when we decided to go cloth.

We decided to go with prefolds, the cheapest route, with Gerber nylon covers and pins. We used the ones from the shower while we waited for the better Indian prefolds to arrive. Soon after we ordered some snappis to make my husband more comfortable. I loved my new prefolds and the nylon covers do work well at holding in leaks. Immediately we saw a dramatic difference in the number of leaks and blowouts. Instead of four or so a day, there were none.

After a couple months we decided to spend a little more for better covers. The nylon ones were wearing out quickly and don't breath so well. We got a Thirstie, an Imse Vimse and a Bummi. We also decided to get a few pocket diapers (BumGenius 3.0) to use at night and for sitters. We love them, both the covers and the pockets. Imse Vimse is my favorite cover... but since then we've bought a second of each of the other two because they are cheaper and still work well. We've also gotten a few more pockets. My husband prefers them because of how easy they make it.

Looking back I wish I hadn't been so dead set against it in the beginning. I'm looking forward to cloth diapering our next child from the beginning. There are so many advantages to it. Besides, they are so much cuter!

Learn more about this author, Kris Mery.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.