Why I Cloth

For hubby and me it was a no-brainer. You know how every now and then the Red Sea of marital debate and discussion parts and you find yourselves on exactly the same page at exactly the same time?

That’s how it was for us when we took a stroll one Saturday morning after breakfast, and our hearts thumped and our hands clasped as our gaze rested on this bad boy at the Eco store.

The “bad boy”. As modelled by Inez c. 12 months of age

Isn’t he the cutest? Still my favourite. So, my predilection for cute badass undergarments aside, it was settled from the start for both of us that we would do cloth. Which is lucky, seeing as though the bulk of the poo-scraping falls to my dear Benjamin.

So, here, as I see it, are the reasons to cloth…

Please note, I have tried to not make this sound like propoganda. There are some downsides.

1. They’re cuter. Obviously. See justification above.

2. They’re cheaper. Seriously. The maths has been done. Around $2000 per year, anyone? And then you can hand them down, use them for the next kidlet, or sell them. Ka-ching!

3. They’re better for the planet. Every now and then some cynic pops up on their soapbox and they’re all like, what about all the water you are using when you wash? what about the detergent? To me, these people are a bit like climate change deniers. The research is in, people. The major brand disposable nappies sit in landfill for ever. Consider using a more eco-friendly detergent. And you use half as much detergent with clothies than for a normal wash.

4. They’re better for bums. Now, you might need to change them more often because dispos apparently contain some gel that draws away moisture. Picture the pad ads with the blue water. And now refer to point 3 above, and remember that plastic, like diamonds, is forever! Cloth nappies can benefit from an antibacterial wash every now and then, and you’ve got to avoid mould and nasties accumulating on them. But personally I’d rather wear absorbent underpants than a plastic and paper chafing undergarment.

5. They’re not needed for as long. Kids toilet train sooner on cloth. An added bonus! They learn to associate the feeling of being wet with having just gone wee wees, and this helps them build the association and anticipate their wee wees. Even better, give the kiddles as much nappy-free time as you can. This saves your nappies, saves their bums, and helps kiddies learn to use the toilet. Yay!

6. They’re heaps better than the good ol’ days. No more pokey pins and pilchers. This I find to be the biggest myth I get asked. No, things have evolved past the terry cloths people.

7. They’re not that much [extra] work. Bubbies make a lot of mess. They puke and smear food and upend their drinks and snot and sometimes, even disposable nappies LEAK POO! Yes there is more washing with a bub in general and I find the nappies are not noticed as an extra burden. You might need to rinse away the poo before washing (we’ve found we have to do this), and there is no denying that this sucks. We just tell ourselves points 1 through 6 above and that it’s an act of love. Luckily, you will not be disgusted by your own child’s poo. It’s not gross, it’s just work.

And lastly, ok, I’m going to spout all high-and-mighty from my mouth orifice for a minute here. What an indictment on our society it is that we consider disposable and single use objects to be the norm. People would think it absurd that we would use plastic plates and cutlery for all of our meals. No mess! No fuss! Just schlep it all into the bin at the end of your meal! No more dishwashing in an old-fashioned sad old kitchen sink. Think of all the pollution from water use and detergent! What a load of rot. We normalise something like dishwashing because there hasn’t been some massive campaign by major corporations to convince us using disposable options are its easier, more hygienic, somehow the better option. We confine “party plates” to where they belong, parties and events where it is impractical to cart around ceramics and stainless steel. Disposable nappies should be the same. When we went travelling in Japan, we used disposables. For home and everyday, we use cloth nappies. Let’s all help to make this the new norm.

The clever marketing toward “harried housewives” works extremely well, and when you think of it is actually quite insulting. Yes, taking care of babies is extremely hard work. But it’s hard because most of that work is confined to the home, it’s repetitive and often thankless. Children are relentless in their need for attention and comfort and stimulation and care. Cloth nappies do not add to this burden. Parenting is hard for many reasons, but an extra load of wash every few days is NOT one of them. End rant.

The next blog post will talk about some of the ins and outs of cloth. But whether you use them all the the time, or only for a bit, I can not for the life of me find a good argument why you would NOT use cloth nappies. I think they are more awesome now than when we first fell in love with them on that breezy Saturday morning when I was only 13 weeks and really hoping I was about to start showing [be careful what you wish for, ay?].

Go on, I DARE you to tell me something to spoil my rose-coloured view on cloth.

I…. think, i can…?

Can I?

A brave new world. A world without plastic. A new year. A good time to start.

How, and where, and how, to start. I know the what. Or, should I say, I know the not.

No… plastic, single-use, non-recyclable, commercially manufactured items will be purchased or enter our home over the next year.

And now, if only I can figure out the how – how the heck are we actually going to do this? And the what – what does that leave us? What is left that we can buy? How, how, HOW do we do this?

Oh yeah, I also know the why. I’ve called this blog PLASTSICK for obvious reasons. Yes, I’ve always been a lefty, I’m now a card-carrying member of the Greens party, and I support efforts to reduce our human impact on the globe. But, I’m also a mum to bubby twins who just turned 1. This makes me very busy. This makes me very forgetful, mindless, and sleep-deprived. I think it has also made me a bit more conscious of the earth and the future. Blah, blah, blah. Wah, wah, wah. But, in truth, it all began with the nappies.

I always intended to use cloth nappies with the bubs, and thought initially, “well, we’ll just see how we go, I’ll use disposables when we need to”. Wouldn’t want to get all Nazi about it. But, the trouble is, I could literally feel my stomach churn every single time I reached for a disposable. We used them for the first 4 weeks or so – we had a few brands of cloth nappies but none seemed to fit our little’ns, they were 2.5 and 2.7 kg at birth. We used them on holiday. In order to quieten the gut-churn, we bought and sought more eco-friendly disposables. But I just couldn’t escape the fact that every single time I reached for a disposable over a cloth nappy, I’d visualise it laying deep in the earth for hundreds of years. Caked in baby sh*t. Even some parts of the eco-friendly brands.

And, then, there were the other plastics. I never realised that babies attracted so much of the stuff. Dummies. Bottles. Toys. Rattles. Teething rings. Hanging rings. Tubs. Blocks. Medicines. Creams. I’m glancing around my lounge room right now just clocking all the plastics. And the single-use items, like bum wipes, just started driving me crazy. Expensive, and full of chemical additives! And, they’d dry out. And you’d have to buy more! We were so lucky to have received so many handed down baby items while I was pregnant that we could not possibly want for a single thing once the baby shower time came around. So we asked for nothing, and still got more plastics.

So, I’ve been driven by this churn in my guts, and possibly by sleep-deprivation delirium, to make a bit of a personal protest for 2013.

No more plastic!

I have no idea how to do this, though. Will you please help?

I plan to post about our journey, and to share any hints and tricks I come across along the way. But I’ll also need help! Seriously. Help, I’m drowning in plastics.