Saturday 14 May 2011

Ignorant Claudia

It is official! After a few tests (or poop accidents), we are finally moving to size 1 diapers. Is it normal that I feel nostalgic about an "era" that was only a few weeks ago? And I won't tell you what I did when I realized that she could no longer be called a newborn (28 days after birth). Fine, I admit it, I shed a few tears. It is crazy how time goes by too fast when you have a baby! Sigh!!!

Now that Alice entered the "major leagues" of poop catchers, and there is a lot of it, I wonder if we should switch to reusable diapers. From my readings, I found out that diaper choice generates debates of great intensity...even bigger than Sophie the giraffe ;)

I must say that, at the moment, I'm still ambivalent. I made a long list of pros and cons (economical, environmental, ease of use, performance, day care friendly, etc.) that I won't share with you since it is pretty basic stuff. However, as basic as it is, I still don't know what to do!

So, dear nappy handlers, what should I do?

* * * * *
anneemall: Now that I have your blessings I can go shopping for Alice...ah ah ah!

little gray pixel: If only it was adult size ;)

new duds: I know! There are so many adorable kid outfits that would be perfect for adults. I used to buy clothes for me at Gap Kids (xxl) but now that I have big boobs it doesn't work!!!

kristine n: The conversation is not really over since the appointment is in two weeks (also for my intrauterine device - Mirena). Thank you for all the info. I think that I will go for it (vaccines) since some of those diseases are making a come back in Canada. Not good at all!!!

12 comments:

Lina said...

I think it's a tricky decision and I tried a bit of both with my two. If you do decide to give reusables a go, I'd urge to check out one of my friend's great range - she's a mum of four and has her own business manufacturing resuable diapers, made in Montreal and they get rave reviews..www.applecheeks.com! PS I don't make commission but I would totally use them if my children still needed them.

Lina xoxo

one claire day said...

I'm debating the exact same topic in my own head at the moment... and I can't decide either! Sorry I'm no help!

x claire

Kim U said...

We use a mix. Our daycare won't do cloth, so sposies there and then cloth at home. I think there are a lot of pros & cons to both sides. In retrospect, I kind of wish we had gone with a diaper service - all the pros of cloth, but really limited cons.

mjb said...

I like cloth but I use paper at night. I had a week where we didn't have a washer handy so I used disposables and I actually missed my cloth diapers - I think for me it's just the convenience of not having to worry about running out of diapers, even though it's easy enough to order them from diapers.com or amazon mom. I don't like the diaper genie, either, but maybe those things are just me. We use prefolds and thirsties covers, although there are lots of great options!

Rebecca said...

like everyone above, i totally agree there's pros & cons on both sides.
I've got a little one coming in July and am just getting everything ready to get the Modern Cloth nappies (diapers) going (will use disposables in the hospital, then switch once i get home). I'm hoping a load of nappies every 2 days will be enough - and we have plenty of sun in Australia so I will line-dry them to a) save $$ from not running the dryer, and b) let the sun do it's bleaching/sanitising thing.
there are some seriously cute reusable ones out there - i think they'll be addictive!

Little Gray Pixel said...

For me the decision was made by practicality. We do not have a washer/dryer handy, and we are really hateful toward doing the laundry, so much that we wait till we're down to our last pairs of underwear before we give in and do 10 loads at once. So ... disposables it was. If we lived in a home and had our own washer/dryer like we did a few years ago I'd probably be leaning the other way. But alas.

Daniela said...

Hi!!
I hope my input helps, I have a 4 week old and we've been mixing cloth and disposable, hoping to move more permanently to cloth diapering soon. We've been using Applecheeks pocket diapers (we dont use them like pockets, we use them as protectors so we dont have to wash them every time) with some home made linings which work great (tutorial): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwCtTzLVng

It is much more work, and a bit expensive to begin with, but I think it's worth a try. Disposables are easier and more practical for sure though.

I have a post on this if you want to read it :)

http://becomingoneofthose.blogspot.com/2011/03/cloth-diapering.html

Renae @ theredwren said...

I've been pondering the same decision for weeks.. We've bought disposables which I feel terribly guilty about, and i feel as though I should use cloth, however...
There's a water shortage in my part of the world so I'd also feel guilty washing nappies all the time, plus it's almost winter so in order to get nappies dry I'd have to crank up the heating and have it running all day, every day. This eases my guilt a little about using disposable, but not completely!

Celia said...

Umm... Lucia's been using stage 1 diapers since DAY 1. She was too big to ever fit into newborn. HA!!

A Loopy Life said...

Harvey used one small pack of newborn sposies only, then I immediately switched to size 1s because even in the hospital they were using the size 1s already!

julia said...

Hmmm... I'd say, do the cloth only, if you really want to do it and not out of some kind of guilt or responsibility for the baby, the environment,...

I know it's pretty much en vogue these days, at least here in Germany, to be this easy going, eco-friendly, all-natural mum - which automatically involves a lot of guilt. Feeling guilty because you feed your baby store bought food instead of home made, because you use disposable diapers, because you do put it in a pram instead of carrying it all the time, because you don't solely breastfeed for a whole year... I sometimes feel guilty but here Elisabeth Badinter steps in (sorry for insisting ;)): She says if women did all these things that are definitely good for the babies, there would be no self left and no time for this self. I was really shocked the other day as I read a thread on the internet of a woman who was a bit desperate because she had the feeling there was so much expected from her as a mother of a little baby that she couldn't fulfill without loosing herself. The answer of another mother: Well, you should've known before, if you can't sacrifice everything for the baby then you shouldn't have become a mother. I know there's a lot of dumb people out there, but still.

I'm sorry for this ultra long and maybe a bit dramatic post, I'm just super annoyed by the fact that so many guilty mothers are being created at the moment.

julia x

Cal's mum said...

I use cloth when we are home (bumgenius) and because that saves me a few pence I can afford to get the more expensive Baby NatureCare disposable nappies for night and convenience when we are out and about and they promise to biodegrade and not create more landfill. Kinda gives me convenience while helping keep the world as it is for my little one when he grows up...at least that's how it feels...we shan't think about how the nappies are shipped over from Sweden, carbon etc etc...