I HATE CLOTH DIAPER!!!!

Oh no... that's not us.... but, while I was surfing the internet, I saw some comments like that made me wonder why people have such comments.  Then, thinking about it, some parents do not want to even give Cloth Diaper a chance.  In fact, my sister is one of them. She has never tried cloth diaper before, she sees what I do, what I go through and her only comment is "I rather pay and throw away the diapers".  Well, since this time around, she will leave her baby girl with us (my mom) during the day, I will help convert her to a cloth diaper mom :)  

So, back to the statement again, "I Hate Cloth Diapers!"  Why? According to the comments from a lot of the mom, they did give cloth diapers a try but just failed, so, I would like to list what reasons they gave when they boxed their cloth diaper up or sold them away.

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• First try was on a newborn and he/ she pooped more than 5 times a day everyday!

       Having 2 babies, I do agree, I want to say the first 1-2 weeks of their life, they poop a lot!  I  didn't know why but read that in the early days, a newborn's bowel movements are thick and dark green in color. This is due to a substance called meconium that has been building up in her intestines during pregnancy. So, what can new CD moms do?

Option 1: Choose the hybrids, they can still use the diaper covers but disposable diaper inserts, just throw out and continue to reuse the diaper covers.

Option 2: Use flushable diaper liners, lay a layer on top of the cloth diaper, just throw the liners away and put a new diaper liners on top unless there are poopy over the cloth diapers, if not, just continue to do that.

• It stinks, it smells so horrible, I cannot stand the smell

Usually, when people complain that their cloth diaper stinks, it is most likely the ammonia smell.  It is very common with cloth diaper because the baby’s urine gradually turns into ammonia as it sits. 

Option 1:   Use odor remover spray – There are odor remover spray out there that you can spray a few squirt on the cloth diaper before putting in the pail. 

Option 2:   Check on the detergent that you are using – There have been advise to use a little of Calgon into the rinse cycle if you live in the “hard” area.

Option 3:   You can try stripping your diapers.  This simply means running a full hot wash cycle without detergent, repeating until the water is free of suds. Then dry as usual.

Option 4:  Replace your inserts

• I hate doing laundry and now I have to do more laundry?

        This is one of the easiest solution…. Get more Cloth Diapers so that you don’t have to do laundry that often!  Of course… that means spending more money.

• I have not been successful, the cloth diaper leaks!  
  There are a lot of reasons why cloth diaper leaks. 

Option 1:   The right settings is really important.  You don’t want the diapers to be too tight nor too loose.  My personal experience was with mama.  She cloth diapered us when we grew up, of course then, there were no fancy cloth diapers like what we have today.  every one of us used prefolds with pins.  I want to say when it came to my youngest sister (there are 4 of us we the age difference between the oldest and youngest is 17).   The Bububibi diapers were new to mama.  We didn’t know why each time she puts the diaper on for  him, it leaks but when I do, it doesn’t.  So one day, I looked at the way she prepares the diaper and put on my son.  Immediately I saw the problem.  He was so young and she had the largest setting on him and everywhere was loose.  I told her, this is not the right setting.  She said I don’t want it to be too tight on him.  I had to educate her that it is unlike the prefolds, these are gussets on the leg and bag, it really is not tight at all.  She thinks that it has to be loose fit and I said no, this has to be a perfect for the baby, if not, it would leak.  Now that we’ve got the right setting, we don’t have leak problems any more. 

Option 2: Did you include enough inserts and or did you insert them correctly? Sometimes, especially when we are in a hurry, the other kid is demanding for something or the baby is crying, you had to rush and quickly put his diaper on so that you can attend to the other kid, you just stuff the insert into the pocket without adjusting correctly.  That could make certain part of the diaper not have the insert  and cause leaking.  Also, if you have a heavy wetter like I do, 1 insert wasn’t enough for us, we had to use 2.  Lastly, the placement of the inserts do matters for boys or girls. Since I only have boys, I made sure that the inserts were always on the front and not the back.

Option 3:  Change your baby more frequently.  Some babies just need more frequent diaper change compared to others.  Just change them more often.

Option 4:  Did you damage your diapers by using bleach OR softeners?   That is one of the biggest NO, NO for cloth diapers.

• Too much work to save the environment
  I guess this is one of the hardest but then again, nothing comes easy.  At least that’s what I learn in life.  If we want something, we have to work hard for it, so, if we want to save the environment, make sure that our future generations still get to enjoy what we have today, we have to do our part.
  
  
• My husband/ family is not supportive
  This is another one where I personally do not have experience with.  My husband and family has always been very supportive in everything that I do.  I guess this is what people can do:
  
  Option 1: If $$$ is one of the things that they care about, explain to them and show them how much you can save by using CDs.
  
  Option 2:  Explain to them on how much this means to the environment.
  
  
• They are too expensive upfront
  There are many diaper brands out there.  Some cost $18- $22 each, some half the price.  That’s why as a mom, I offer the lowest price that I could.  Everything stock that I own is out of my personal  savings.  I try to offer as low as I can but often people’s mindset is CHEAP = LOW QUALITY.  I hope moms out there would understand that it’s not that most of the case and would give our BubuBIbi diapers a chance.

Option 1:  Find cheaper alternatives, try to test other diapers out there that are more towards your budget.

Option 2: Purchase used cloth diapers, sometimes you can find used branded cloth diapers on craigs, ebay where people are done with their cloth diapers or totally gave up the cloth diapers, you can purchase them at half the price.

Option 3: There are a lot of nonprofit organization out there provides free cloth diapers for those who are in need of them.  BubuBibi actually are going to be sponsor a few of them, providing free diapers every month.  Please check them out.

Cloth diapering is really fun, the thing I love most is looking at his cute butt.  It is colorful and it sticks out, makes him look like a chubby baby.  Give it a little more time, I am sure those who said this statement before “I hate Cloth diapers” would in turn tell their story and say, “I love cloth diapers” and thank goodness I gave them a little try!