Cloth Diapering! Is this for Me or Not for Me?

This can be a very difficult decision to make, since there are so many pressures and options to choose from out there. We have demands and pressures on our time, cleanliness, money, and also different styles, preferences, and lifestyles, etc. Things can get really overwhelming.

I hadn't thought a lot about cloth diapering before my baby was born, or until I started to run out of the disposable diapers people had gotten me at showers, etc.

I mentioned earlier, I had a mother who cloth diapered 7 children using flats and pre-folds, or even old shirts at times, and cleaned them out in the toilet. This really didn't sound like something I wanted to do since I had been sick a lot of my pregnancy, and after my baby was born I was recovering from the delivery. I was busy trying to figure out how to balance all the new demands of being a mother, with the demands of marriage, as well as how to get my personal needs and wants met.  

However, I wasn't aware of how much things had changed over the years in the cloth diapering industry, and it seems many of my family and friends hadn't either, since I only received flats, pre-folds, and disposable diapers from them at showers and such.

Once I started looking into doing cloth diapering though, I quickly realized there were many different ways to choose to cloth diaper my baby. It is great how cloth diapers have evolved overtime to meet more of our modern day demands, but it is really hard to decide what option will suit a persons needs best.

At first I was looking for an alternative to disposable diapers, as a way to save money, and my time. I wanted a diaper that didn't leak, and didn't take a lot of time to clean up when it was used.

I was tired of getting poop or pee on things, and then having to take time cleaning up the baby, myself, clothes, bedding, etc, to keep things sanitary in my house and prevent staining, etc.

Later, I learned more about the health advantages to my baby by using cloth diapers, which helped keep me going. As well as my desire to care for the environment. It was still tough at first though.

What was hard about starting to cloth diaper verses using disposables for me:

Money
Time
Health

I felt a lot of anxiety and pressure because I only had a certain amount of money I wanted to spend on cloth diapers. Since I wanted to make sure I was really saving money by using them I wanted to like what I got. I wanted diapers that didn't leaked and wouldn't take a lot of time to clean and were as sanitary as possible to clean and use.

Since there are so many different types and brands of cloth diapers available now, this was quite a challenge, especially where I couldn't find any off line to look at, etc.

In later posts I will share more about what I discovered from using cloth diapers that would save money, time, etc. Thanks for reading :) Until next diaper engineering time.