The Diaper Chronicles meta blog entry

I followed a link from Strollerderby (ha ha, get it?), which is a group parenting blog at babble.com, to Kendra's blog entry about cloth diapering. Kendra and her husband admit that they are pretty hard core about it. They certainly are. And here was my reply. It's kinda rude, I don't know what possessed me. Sorry, Kendra.

That sounds like WAY too much work. I am more committed to disposables than ever. 17-20 per day. I don't know if you guys are martyrs or kamikazes. Good for you, though.

Kendra responds...

We're neither martyrs nor kamikazes (though we admit to being pretty hardcore) - and the number of diapers per day has diminished considerably. I did have to use an emergency paper one when we were out longer than expected two days ago, and couldn't even tell whether it was wet or not! Those are freaky.

I lightened up and responded...

Okay, okay. Lemme be a little more open-minded. Either my imagination is too vivid or I lack imagination entirely but I can't imagine the switch to cloth now that I'm a year into disposables. But we if we have more children and if cloth is really better, then it might be worth investing now. It's not just the folding and washing, the increased amount of changing and waking is also daunting. Or are these myths? I do know that I never used 17, let alone 20 disposables in one day. Disposables can be wet more than once (much more overnight) without bothering the baby. Some questions:

-Will an otherwise sleeping cloth-diapered infant wake up at night for diaper changings?
-How often does a cloth-diapered infant need to be changed during the day?
-during the night?

Kendra tracked me down here and gave me some helpful information...

Hi Karen - What a beautiful boy! Just wanted to respond to your comment on our blog. We cloth diaper for many other reasons - to save money, to save landfill waste, to avoid disposible diaper chemicals (some contain known neurotoxins!), and because we like the way it feels! We sleep with our son, so if I hear him poop in the middle of the night I change him. If he's just wet, and I am quick enough with feeding, he sleeps on. I haven't really been counting changes during the day, but yes, it's more than disposables. He feels it more when he is wet - and supposedly, this will help him not like being wet and potty train faster (may be a myth too!). In any case, we're pretty new at this, so we'll see how it goes. But I love being able to cloth diaper.

Kendra gives me more credit that I deserve. Of course, the question I meant to ask was, "Will an otherwise sleeping mother be awakened to change a wet diaper?" The baby feeling the wetness of a cloth diaper may help with potty training (less diapering later) but I'm guessing it means more diapering now.

I know that the new pocket styles make cloth diapering easier than ever and Dion and I are pretty, er, frugal, but ... I still don't think I'm game. Add that the jury is still out on the environmental considerations* and I'm sticking with the Seventh Generation disposables. Indeed Becky and I drove to Richmond Hill to get some on sale the other day. Of course, I bought many, many more than she (24 packs! versus her 4) because Becky has switched over to cloth. I saved 28% compared to my local health food store and Becky saved 39% compared to hers. I saved $124.

*A pretty major UK governmental study undertaken to justify a "real nappy campaign" proposal found that it was a tie. Hence, the campaign never happened. Advocates on both sides criticise the study's assumptions, which are pretty much worst case for both sides - cloth diaper service (transport, high temp/lots of detergent laundering) versus landfilling bleachy disposables. Many people home launder and disposables can go in Toronto's municipal compost.