Am I Nuts to Use Modern Cloth Nappies?
By: Courtney Baker On:16 August 2021
"I kept meeting people talking about cloth nappies, It felt like a hint to look into it"
This post comes from Courtney Baker, long-time running wo-man of an awesome website called Man Versus Debt. On the site, she and husband Adam, who is also a documentary film-maker, share their accounts of their own journeys to remove barriers – primarily debt and excess clutter. They try to empower and inspire others who find themselves on similar paths. In this post, Courtney, relates her experiences with whether to use cloth nappies for her second child.
"I had heard about cloth diapers in a “back in the old days” kind of way. I didn’t really understand how cloth diapers worked; and when I had Milli, cloth diapers weren’t even a thought. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with Charlotte, my second daughter, that I realized cloth diapering was making a come back.
All of a sudden, I kept meeting people talking about cloth diapers, and it felt like too much of a hint not to look into it…
- First, I had a friend come back from living in India where the children in his community wore cloth diapers. Disposables weren’t really an option, and he talked about how it was surprisingly easy.
- Then, I met a cloth diapering mom at Milli’s preschool. She was on her second round of cloth diapering with the same diapers! She was more than happy to show me her system. Thankfully, she didn’t think I was a creep when I would inspect her baby’s underpants!
- The tumbling point came one afternoon when I discovered a free Cloth Diapering 101 class at a local baby boutique. I sat in on the class, learned about the many different types of cloth diapers, and chatted with other parents.
With a real life screaming, messy, unpredictable baby … I really had no idea what I was getting into, but I loved the idea of it. As I tried to decide the next step, a million questions came to mind:
- Which kind of cloth diaper should I use? (There are at least three different methods.)
- Would it really save me money?
- Would it be too much extra work?
- Would my baby like them?
- Is it worth it?
It was all a bit overwhelming, but I decided the best way to learn was to get my hands on a handful of diapers and start slapping them on Charlotte to see. Well… it only took a few weeks for me to be hooked."