and baby giraff es, cloth diapering has become
With adorable patterns like
leopard skin, cowhide, interlocking swirls,
cute.
frogs and hearts,
“I was afraid of the smell and the grossness factor of poopy diapers.” Instead of starting with cloth as she had intended,
Cummings, 37, put her newborn in the disposable dia- pers given to her. When those were used up, she bought more. It wasn’t until her son was over a month old that she fi rst tried a cloth diaper. She was surprised at how easy it was. “I didn’t really notice myself doing more laundry once we started with cloth,” says Cummings, who used the Mother-ease one-size-fi ts-all diapering system for both of her chil- dren. “My cloth-diaper pail, with water and vinegar in it, didn’t smell nearly as bad as the garbage can full of disposables.” When I fi rst used cloth diapers ten years ago with my
Goshen, Massachusetts, told me. “In the summertime, I would just put her in a T-shirt because her diaper was an outfi t unto itself! And boy, did people comment! I remember one person at Look Park saying, ‘Wow, cloth diapers have sure come a long way!’”2 T ough users of cloth diapers are still in the minor-
My cloth-diaper pail, with water and vinegar in it, didn’t smell nearly as bad
as the garbage can full of disposables.
SHAWNA CUMMINGS
ity in America, an abundance of anecdotal evidence suggests that sustainable diaper use is on the rise. “In the past two years I’ve noticed more and more people are using cloth,” says Angie Gregory, 29, a mother of two and owner of Mother Herb Diaper Service in Northampton, Massachusetts.3
Gregory, who used fl at cotton-hemp diapers with wool covers with her
oldest daughter, I, like Cummings, had no idea where to start. I knew only one mom who had chosen a cloth- diaper service, and, a graduate student on a modest income, I didn’t feel we could aff ord a laundry service. So my husband and I went to Babies-R-Us and bought the only diaper option on the shelves. I had no idea how many diapers I needed, how to wash them, or what to do about nighttime diapering. T e past ten years have seen a veritable revolution
Cloth
diapering these days
has nothing to do with
rubber pants.
diaper
pins or
in cloth diapering. Most parents no longer use the old- fashioned fl at diaper, a single rectangular layer of cot- ton cloth folded into place. Instead they use prefolded cotton diapers with some kind of waterproof cover that closes with Velcro or snaps. In addition to this tried- and-true method, there are now several convenient and versatile new diapering systems to choose from. With adorable patterns like leopard skin, cowhide, interlock- ing swirls, frogs and hearts, and baby giraff es, cloth diapering has become cute. Far from being a chore, it’s actually a lot of fun, and the wide choices of patterns and fabric have helped it appeal to more fashion- conscious parents. “I was able to convince my friends to use cloth just based on how adorable Penelope’s butt looked when she was wearing JamTots!” my friend Pam McMahon, 37, a mother of three who lives in
52 mothering | May–June 2010
children (ages two and six), has seen her diaper-laun- dering business expand exponentially since opening it a year ago. A parent educator for new and expectant families, Gregory says that almost all of the 12 to 18 families who attend the monthly meetings of Cradle, a community resource center for families, diaper their children in cloth. “People have more options than ever,” Gregory says.
“T e way adults learn is the same way children learn— through mimicking and education. Now that more families are using cloth diapers, more parents are will- ing to make the commitment and use them too.” Cloth diapering these days has nothing to do with
diaper pins or rubber pants. Instead, there are now prefi tted cloth diapers that use elastic at the edges to conform to a baby’s legs (the better to avoid diaper blowouts, my dear), many diff erent all-in-one (AIO) diapering systems in which the cover and the diaper inside are combined, and pocket diapering systems where cotton prefolds (or fancy hemp liners) are inserted between a fl eece fabric that wicks moisture away from a baby’s tush. T ere are even all sorts of fancy accessories, such as organic woolen training pants and stylin’ phthalate-free waterproof bags for carrying soiled diapers. Since my fi rst child was born, there has been a pro-
liferation of small makers of cloth diapers, and a robust cottage industry has sprung up of mostly work-from- home moms who sell cloth diapers via the Web. T ere are Internet chat groups that discuss how best to use diapers, blogs devoted to cloth diapering, and a thriv-
JANIE OSBORNE
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