“You mean, like…rubber pants?”

This question, along with a wrinkled nose and a skeptical eye, was the general response from the majority of my friends when I told them of my plans to cloth diaper our third child.  Assuming that I had lost my mind in the hormone-induced haze of my third trimester, most would go on to remind me that I detest laundry, that I would soon be the tired and overworked mother of three small children, and that dirty diapers were…well, gross.  I couldn’t begrudge them their skepticism, though, in light of the fact that the decision had come to me rather abruptly and surprised even my own husband.

At six months pregnant, I had wandered past the reusable diaper display at Bellani and was intrigued.  It made good sense from a financial, environmental, and health standpoint.  I asked Shannon for a quick pep talk in order to assure myself that I could do this.  Bob and I returned that weekend to make our first of many cloth diaper purchases:  24 assorted colored Bum Genius diapers.  We were both convinced that with a user-friendly design and several helpful accessories available, the diapers we chose would be easy for our active family to maintain.  To their credit, I will say that the ladies at Bellani were right.  The transition that lessened our financial strain, carbon footprint, and concern about chemicals was super easy to make.  A year and a half and about a gaggle of diaper changes later, I’m kicking myself for not making the switch sooner.  I guess the cloth diapers I had always pictured included rubber pants and not the cute, colorful fashion accessories that my little one has been sporting.

Since we spend a lot of time out and about, I got myself set up early on with a system for quick changes on the go.  My bag is always packed with a few diapers, liners, a case of cloth wipes, a spray bottle of bum spray, and a wet bag.  A fresh bottom is as easy as removing the diaper, giving her bum a quick spray and a wipe, tossing them both in the wet bag, and putting on a new diaper.  Anything requiring more attention can be dealt with at home, where our bathroom is now well equipped with the fabulously powerful Bum Genius diaper sprayer.

We started planning our summer several months ago, making preparations for a few much-deserved vacations.  Instead of sticking with our tradition of purchasing disposables for the trip, I decided to deviate from the norm and investigate a travel-friendly cloth option.  I knew that I wouldn’t want to be lugging around my entire stash or trying to fit diaper washing into my jam-packed schedule, but still didn’t want my girl in disposables all week.  I checked Bellani for a cloth/disposable hybrid and was pleased to find that Flips fit the bill quite nicely.  I am currently sitting on a lounge chair at the beach, writing with my little nursling on my lap.  We are midway through our first week-long vacation with cloth on board and happy to report that it is going great!

We hit the road on Friday toting an arsenal of flip inserts, covers, and a wet bag.  To cut back on the work load, we chose to bring disposable inserts and wipes and have found the flip covers to be fabulously easy to wipe out or quickly rinse and hang dry when necessary.  The flip inserts are working out great, and we have not fallen victim to a single leak, even during our overnight stays.  Again, I am kicking myself for not figuring this out sooner and wondering how other cloth families are diapering on their summer vacations.  Do you vacation with your diapers, or from them?

~Colleen~

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 9:23 am and is filed under Product Review, Snapshots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.