I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Cloth Diaper Love
photo credit: tiffanywashko
Once upon a time I was disgusted by the idea of cloth diapers. I turned my nose up at them, made faces at the idea of washing and reusing a diaper, and became grossed out when I read other bloggers talk about them.
And then I had a child with a severe reaction to the chemicals in disposable diapers.
Evan was only 9 months old and covered in a blistering rash that nothing could touch. I tried every cream on the market, let him be naked as much as I could, and took him to the doctor over and over again. Finally, frustrated and a bit scared, I bought some cheap cloth diapers and tried them on him. Within a week the rash was gone. He stayed in cloth until he potty trained, and while there were few a rashes nothing to the degree that I had seen.
Finding out that the diapers were causing so much pain on my poor baby made me spend a lot of time reading more and more about them. Do you ever see tiny pinpricks of red on your baby when you change a diaper? That’s the chemicals burning through the tender flesh. Ever see gel-like globs in the diaper? Chemicals baby, chemicals.
When my cloth diaper stash was ruined a year ago I was devastated. We were in our financial downfall so there was no money to get new ones, in this cramped house I had no room to pull out my sewing machine to make more, and our washer and dryer died making cloth a moot point anyway. I wiped away the tears and did the best I could do (towels make great cheap day diapers).
Now that we’re moving into a better house I’m so ready to go back to cloth. I need to take my machine in to be cleaned and cared for, then I’m hitting the thrift shops for flannel and wool. Old sweaters, old shirts, anything soft and sturdy. I know exactly where I can set up my machine to sew, sew, sew and build up a new stash.
Saffron will know real diapers soon, and her butt will thank me.
Do you Dumpster dive? Trash picked clothing makes superb, FREE cloth diaper fabrics! I just picked a flannel sheet from the curb yesterday that I’m going to make into more cloth wipes.
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Summer Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I occassionally look in some dumpters, like the ones behind the thrift shop. But I seen to have no luck. Maybe now in the bigger town I will.
I can’t wait to start sewing again! I’d like to do some flannel cloth wipes. Dipes would be challenging but so worth it- if I could pull it off. If you do it, you’ll have to post the pattern…!
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