Dad's View: The Truth About Cloth Diapering

Confession: I’m a dad and I’m a cloth diaper junkie.

It’s shameful, I know. It’s perfectly acceptable for moms to go through a phase of “nesting” for their babies where they select the perfect shade of cupcake for the nursery or a particular brand of stroller- car seat carrier combo. As I dad, I’m expected to tolerate that stuff, lovingly get a little involved, but restrict my fretting to the pragmatic details of making sure all the insurance stuff is ironed out and opening college savings accounts for the future lawyer-firefighting astronaut. Real men don’t get tittered about all the cute Cabbage Patch stuff that comes with having a baby. And that was me.

For example, I knew there would be a huge financial bomb approaching of diapers. Like a “real man” I figured it would be a good move to stash up on the disposables throughout the trimesters and chip away at the accumulated supply once the baby was born. My scheme worked for a while, but once our son started crawling we were tapped out and now had a surplus of space in our little apartment. Heroically, I was ready to perform another big card swipe on disposables and repeat the process. It was then my wife convinced us to spend the same amount of money my anticipated horde of disposables would cost on investing in twenty or so cloth diapers. Half-reluctantly, I agreed. We chose to invest in the one-size bumgenius diapers—meaning our son (and future children) could wear the same diaper and we didn’t ever have to worry about having the right size. This was a huge reason why we ended up loving bumgenius and the whole cotton babies family of diapers.

**photo by cottonbabies, our favorite cloth diaper brand

I’ve since shed my grizzled manly exterior and shamelessly get just as excited about limited edition colors and prints as my wife.

Above are some of the limited edition Easter colors I (embarrassingly) couldn't pass up.

You can check out all their current cloth diaper offerings at http://www.cottonbabies.com/ and pick the style that is just right for your family (freetime, bumgenius, flip, econobum). You’ll thank me later.

This fluffy excitement stems from three fronts. First, there is the obvious (and manly) financial advantage. Once we got our stash of cloth, we calculated the cost of each disposable and kept track of each cloth diaper we washed. And by washed, I mean hand washed. We at the time were living in an apartment and that was the easiest, best, and cheapest way to wash them. Within ten months the diapers were “paid off.” Since our first son was 7mon old our family has been exclusively a cloth diapering family. We are now our third son and we’ve saved all that diaper money five times over. We have also since starting cloth, have bought a house and happily toss our diapers in our HE washer and hang to dry.

Here is our original cloth diaper chart I've kept stashed in a keepsake box: Second, like all manly men I like the idea of “roughing it.” Telling folks I cloth diaper makes me feel there is just a little more stubble on my chin. (Of course with the functional and aesthetic designs of cloth diapers these days “roughing it” is really an illusion but I don’t tell people that.) Styles- like the bumgenius- make cloth diapering as easy as 1-2-3. Stuff, wear, wash. Not much more work than a disposeable. (Important note: Diapers can easily be stuffed while watching a James Bond movie, I've discovered.)



(Background noise compliments of the big brothers.)

Finally, and I can’t link this to manhood except to the concept of just sharing a common enjoyment with your wife, cloth diapers are just so darn cute. Every time I see my sons scamper around with a wink of navy blue or hunter green peeking out of their jeans (instead of a raggedy looking disposable) I feel all warm and cozy inside. On the rare occasion we put them in a disposable, I feel like I’m wrapping their bum in newspaper rather than a sturdy and stylish undergarment. Above is our first son, Parker sporting one of his first cloth diapers.

Here is our second son, Carter happily doing his part in saving the planet and Daddy some cash.

They were both in diapers for a while. Glad we picked the one sized bumgenius. (ChaChing)

And finally, above is the newest son- Anderson rockin' a hand-me-down diaper.

I try not to proselyte too much about my diapering fancy with my sons. My wife has done a great job of this herself converting many families. I don’t want to seem too invested in the girly sides of parenting. Heck, only fifty years ago a man wasn’t even expected to change a diaper let alone think critically about one. My grandfather would have called me a disgrace. Thankfully, times have changed, and I know other young fathers have the cloth diaper bug and still find time to slay zombies on the video game console and do an oil change. I still have time to do all those things.... Right after I hang up the most recent clean cloth load.

Disclaimer: I wrote this blog after my wife informed me of a contest run by Jenn Labit, the owner of Cotton Babies. I was not compensated in any way to write this- by her or by Cotton Babies. I sure do hope that I, err I mean SHE, wins 12 bumgenius diapers for her AND 12 for a friend. If she wins, she will get to pick a person who comments on this blog to win the other 12!

What a blessing it is to be a blessing.

Details found here: http://jenniferlabit.com/2011/12/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-to-tell-the-world-about-cloth-diapers/