| by Jennifer Margulis

the diaper

Dress up your baby’s bum in earth-friendly attire— use cloth. It’s easier than you think.

When Shawna Cummings was preg-

nant, she had every intention of using cloth dia- pers. She was concerned about the environment, she knew cloth diapers would save her family money, and she didn’t want chemicals or plastic next to her son’s skin. Even more compelling, Cummings had a friend whose dog had gotten into the diaper pail, eaten part of a disposable diaper, and died. “I know toddlers will get into anything and eat anything,” Cummings told me. “T e idea of having something that toxic around my child was just horrifying.”1 T ough cloth diapers seemed like a good

50 mothering | May–June 2010

idea, no one Cummings knew was using them. Even in her environmentally conscious Cana- dian town of Nelson, British Columbia, most of Cummings’s friends used plastic diapers. When Cummings babysat as a young adult, the families had used disposables, and when she had a baby shower and requested cloth diapers, many of her friends brought her disposables instead. With no friends or family to show her how to do it, the idea of using cloth seemed overwhelming. Before even trying cloth diapers, Cummings felt it would be too much work. “I was afraid of the piles of laundry,” she admits.

LAURA SIEBERT

MELYSSA HOLIK Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109