Hello my name is Amanda Rosi and I have a son named Nicholas who is 8 months old. I write a blog called Trying my Best. The main purpose of my blog is product reviews for parents that are trying to move to a more green lifestyle. I cover anything and everything from personal care products to natural cleaning products, and beyond. As of next week I will be adding a weekly segment called Fluff Friday this will be about my cloth diaper journey and review products that I am using in journey. I realized that I wanted to and needed to change many of the products I was using in my home when I was pregnant with my son to avoid all of the nasty chemicals is what motivated me to start my blog. Now lets talk cloth diapers!

Making decision to cloth diaper

There are so many choices that have to be made when you are pregnant. Natural birth or epidural; circumcision or not; breast or formula feeding and many many more. Just like for many other first time expectant mothers I was overwhelmed by everything going on. I made all of the decisions above before I even went to the hospital to give birth to Nicholas, but one decision I put off was cloth or disposable diapers.

I looked into cloth diapers a little bit while I was pregnant but could not seem to make a decision so my husband and I realized with everything we had going on that we probably should start with disposable diapers and later consider cloth again when we had a little less on our plate and minds.  Well some what recently the talk of cloth diapers came up again and this time we decided we would give it a try. I am still very new to cloth diapering so I am still facing the challenges of a new cloth mom, but I have to admit it was much easier than I ever expected. 

For me the decision to cloth diaper had many aspects. Like I talk about in my blog I am moving to use more natural things for myself and my family. For me this is not only a movement about being more environmentally friendly, but also very much about moving away from all of the nasty chemicals that exist in mainstream products.  

The other big aspect that encouraged me to cloth diaper was the cost. I was sick and tired of seeing so much money come out of our monthly budget for diapers to just be peed or pooped on and put in the trash. 

Choosing Diapers. Dealing with Poop & Laundry

If you have even done any research into cloth diapers you probably have a thousand questions like I did before I started. For me the questions centered around three main topics what kind of diaper to choose, poop, and laundry. 

Choosing the right kind of diaper is the most difficult question to answer, because this is a matter of personal preference. Finding the right one is really a matter of trial and error. For me I was able to rule out flats and prefolds because I didn't feel they would fit my families life style. I am still working my way through this trial and error process, but at this point my favorite is pocket diapers. 

Poop is one of the things that scared me the most about cloth diapers, but the reality is as a mother we are going to have to deal with poop one way or another. With my son being as old as he is and eating full meals of solids his poop is for lack of better terms “real” poop. For me that means I am able to just plop in the toilet flush and its gone. 

There are liners you can put in cloth diapers to make the removal of poop easier and they are even flushable, but for me I don't feel they are necessary. 

Laundry was my biggest worry because honestly I hate laundry, but in reality it hasn't been that bad. Many cloth moms are able to do laundry every other or every third day. All you have to do is throw them in. 

Facing Challenges

There were some challenges for me when I first started using cloth diapers. One of my challenges was that I had so few diapers in my stash that I had to do diaper laundry every night while my son was sleeping in a disposable diaper so that I could do the laundry and still have enough diapers for the next day. 

In the interest of full disclosure my son is still sleeping in disposable diapers because we have not found an overnight solution yet that keeps him dry all night. (If you have any recommendations please comment). Even though my son is not a heavy wetter during the day he is at night, and now we are on a mission to find an overnight option that works for us. 

That brings me to my other challenge that is finding the absolutely perfect fit for my son and our family. Like I said before we are still in the trial and error process in our house, but I can tell you now that since I have started cloth diapering I will not go back to disposables full time ever again. 

Family and Friends Support

I know for some people they worry about what their friends and family will say or how they will react when you tell them you have decided to use cloth diapers and I was the same way. My mother was very skeptical of my cloth diaper journey because she knew she could not handle it when my sister and I were babies and didn't think I would stick with it either, but the reality is cloth diapering today is very different then what our parents faced when we were young. 

My sister has always called me “the tree hugger” in the family so honestly I don’t think she was really all that surprised when I started cloth diapering even if she did tease me and call me a hippie; that is just the dynamic of our relationship. 

My friends though were extremely supportive of my decision and my best friend loved getting pictures of his latest new adorable diaper we got. At the end of the day don't let what other people say or even the fear of what people will say keep you from at least trying cloth diapers, because honestly I feel like it was the best decision I ever made. 

Final Verdict

My recommendation to all of you is that if you are even considering cloth diapering DO IT! 

It is not the world of plastic pants anymore; modern cloth diapers are so easy and simple to deal it. Now I wish I would have started cloth diapering way sooner than I did for so many reasons. 

Another thing I highly recommend is if you are going to go for cloth diapering start with more then one days worth of diapers, because if I could start over again I would start with many more diapers. Even if that means you have to start with more affordable diapers or preloved diapers and slowly buy higher quality diapers as your budget allows you will not regret not having to do laundry every night. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my guest post and if you have any questions feel free to comment or tweet me and I will be happy to answer any and all questions you may have. If I don't know the answer I will do my best to find the answer for you. 

Visit my Blog: Trying my Best.

Follow me on Twitter @MrsAmandaRosi

~ Can you relate to Amanda's story and tell us about your cloth diapering experience?~