Now my wife on the other hand, has a bit of a hippie streak. Anyone who reads the blog would know that she has been trying to save us money and minimize our waste output by implementing the hippie marching orders that she gets from the tree hugging blogosphere. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of contributing less to the destruction of our environment and I most definitely like the idea of saving money. I just don’t like to be inconvenienced. But for the most part, I go alone with whatever new, usually very “creative” endeavors that she wants to try. All I ask, is that she leaves my toilet paper alone. There is a line and believe me I am entrenched behind it making sure that no one crosses. If Cheryl Crow wants to advocate the use of only one piece of TP then she can suit herself. However, odds are 10-to-1 that her fingers smell like poo.
The point of me writing all of this, is that awhile back Jaime had this idea to start using cloth diapers. Why? (Yeah, that was my response too.) Well, apparently close to 30 billion diapers a year, get thrown into landfills and since they are not biodegradable, they tend to hang out there for a while. So, the idea is, using cloth diapers that can be washed and reused, a family can significantly reduce the amount of waste that gets. . .well. . .wasted. Hippies love cloth diapers. How could they not? I used two thirds of their environmental game plan (“recycle, reduce, reuse”) just giving a two-sentenced synopsis. Dumping the disposables also saves a good bit of money. Anyone who has kids knows that diapers are expensive. Even the store brands (which Henry knows from experience, are nowhere near as good at keeping the “pee pee” off of the “wee wee”) are not cheap.
With that being said, I always feel that I should mention that we are not quote/unquote poor. (yes, I realize that I wrote the words instead of using “ ”. Since space in the blogosphere is somewhat unlimited, I decided to waste a little. Somewhat ironic given the context, right?) It is definitely true that I would have no need for a second wallet, but I do want to go on record as saying that we could financially afford to pay for disposable diapers if we (or just my wife) chose to do so.
We have been using cloth diapers now (daytime only) for about a month. At first I was pretty dead set against it. Remember a few paragraphs up when I said (or wrote) that I didn’t like to be inconvenienced? Well, I also do not like handling someone else’s poop. Heck, I don’t even like messing with my own for that matter. So when using cloth diapers meant that I actually had to separate little Henry’s fecal matter (or “feclits” if you will) from the cloth first before placing it in a bin to be washed . . . whoa!! Inconvenience? No, it was a full on frontal assault on my convenience! Not to mention the fact that it raises the potential of possibly coming into physical contact with whatever foul business my son was getting rid of. (If his body didn’t want it, why would I?) For the sake of avoiding argument (or losing one) I decided to go along with the cloth diaper scenario as long as I would be able to give my honest review and opinion down the road.
So far, I must say it really has not been that bad, especially when dipey changing time is only a “number one”. I have actually been somewhat amazed at how well the cloth absorbs without leaking through. In fact, so far Henry hasn’t leaked at all that I have noticed (trust me, I would notice). When he does. . .you know. . . “wet himself”, he is definitely a little more vocal about it. Obviously, the cloth does not have the sweet gelatinous goo that wisks away moisture like a Pamper’s Baby Dry. This definitely could be listed as a possible “down side” to cloth dipers, though I have read that the uncomfortableness the child feels from sitting in their own fluids can actually help them potty train more quickly. If that is true I guess it could be considered an “upside.” Either way, I am just glad Henry is not content when he uses the bathroom on himself.
Having to deal with a “messy” (by messy I mean poopy) cloth diaper is absolutely like you would imagine it to be. Crappy. (pun definitely intended) I still haven’t gotten used to it. Now, I can still compliment the cloth for allowing nothing to “escape”, but the clean up is way more difficult. The “dirty” cloth diaper has to be dealt with immediately. There is no wrapping it up and jamming it in the diaper genie, never to be seen again. Oh, no. You have to somehow get rid of the “excess” and put it somewhere to be washed a.s.a.p. or risk having your house reek of putrescence.
As I mentioned earlier, all in all, it really hasn’t been THAT bad. Little by little, “movement” by “movement”, I am becoming less and less resistant. It’s nice to help lessen our trash production and its ALWAYS nice to save money. I can’t say that I would ever want to use cloth diapers at night though. (if you have to encounter with a poopy diaper at 3am, you want to use the least amount of thought processes as possible). Final verdict: I am cloth neutral. Not as bad as I had expected them to be but not good enough to use them if Jaime was out of the picture.
So there you have it, my novel length blog post about my experience with cloth diapers so far. Since this is my first and probably last blog entry, let me end by saying thank you to all of my wife’s loyal blog readers. I think she is pretty special and I am pleased as punch to have her as a wife and mother of my child.
Blessings.
Jason A. Barks
From Jaime: Remember when I said I was gonna tackle him with my camera? I totally did!
1 comments: