Green Daily

After using cloth diapers for two years, only one person has applauded the practice upon noticing my daughter's larger-than-other-kids lump pooch in her pants at the playground. The rest react with a dropped jaw and sometimes ask, "How do you do that?"

I respond as follows:

I fold a diaper into a Velcro cover (no need to use pins anymore) and put it on. When it gets poop in it, I dump and flush it and throw the diaper in a pail with a deodorizing disc. For wet diapers, I skip the first step. When the pail is full, I or my husband (yes, my husband) dump the diapers into the washer and do a cold pre-rinse cycle followed by a wash cycle with detergent, Borax and white vinegar. We do use an electric clothes dryer and the occasional slightly eco-friendly disposable diapers for outings and travel. But our environmental blunders don't compare to the landfill contributions of most parents.

Cloth diapering can be done. Yet I only know two other parents that are currently doing the same thing. And I know a lot of parents. I'm not sure if I've inspired any converts, but I'll keep proudly answering the question and hoping I have for the sake of our kids' future. Interested? A good place to start would be here.

The other day someone gave me kudos for keeping with cloth diapers after two years. I told them that it was really my stubbornness that kept my daughter in her Fuzzi Bunz and out of disposables. When I was pregnant with my first child I spent hours trolling the internet on everything from cribs to bottles to diapers. I came across these things called, "Fuzzi Bunz," a product which guaranteed not to be the cloth diaper of days yore.

Investing in this brand was not cheap and probably saved me little money in first few months. However, I knew that I was not only investing in diapers for baby #1 but also any additional offspring. As I sit here pregnant for the second time I am comfy in the knowledge that I don't have to buy any more diapers ... ever. Lastly, the resale value of brand name cloth diapers on eBay is fantastic so as long as I keep them in good shape, I can recoup a lot of my costs.