The Cloth Diaper Fiasco

I consider my self to be environmentally conscious. I recycle as much as I can and try to keep waste to a minimum. So when I discovered I was pregnant, I made the decision to use cloth diapers. Financially, it made sense. Environmentally, it made even more sense.

To my delight, I discovered that there was a diaper service in town that would collect your soiled diapers and replace them with freshly laundered ones. And it was very affordable. So not only could I feel good about reducing the environmental impact of my little one's waste, but I could get by without ever having to clean them myself!

However, much to my dismay the service went out of business before my little girl was born, presumably due to lack of demand. So I had a decision to make - do I stick with the cloth diapers, or go to disposables?

When I brought her home from the hospital, she was wearing Huggies Little Snugglers, with the wetness indicators (such an amazing invention!). We liked them so we decided to stick with that brand. However, McKenna is very particular about being wet or dirty - normally the strip hasn't even had a chance to change color and she is already howling to have her diaper changed. This results in many, many diaper changes each day, for every tiny little poop and pee. Not a single drop of pee is allowed to touch her sensitive little behind. Knowing we were going through more than our fair share of diapers, I started to consider cloth diapers again. I bought a trial pack, washed them several times to remove and chemical residues, and put one on her before her afternoon nap.

To make a long story short, it was a disaster. Within 10 minutes of putting it on, she was screaming for me to come and change her. When I picked her up from her crib, her blanket was covered in poop (is it really considered poop when it's yellow and runny?) and it had soaked through her pants. Upon closer examination I realized that it had come straight out the leg opening in the diaper - her little thighs just weren't big enough to keep the diaper firmly in place. I changed her, and put her back into her Huggies. For now, cloth diapers are not going to work for us. I plan to give it another try when she's a big bigger and can fill out the diaper a little better, but for now, we're sticking with disposables.