swaddlebees owner Mclure with baby Isabel Cortez
it was never a question for me of whether to use cloth or disposable diapers. the question was, how do i go about doing it? living at the very bottom of the road where i would gander there are probably less than a hundred or so births a year, you ccan bet your own bottom that there aren’t any cloth diaper services to be found. so, strike that option out. and get yourself situated with a good washer and dryer (thank you, granny mo!), cause baby, you’re going to be doing some -l-a-u-n-d-r-y!
but really, it’s not as hard as it may seem. the diapers get tossed into a bucket filled with a little oxywash and water, where they soak until the bucket is full (or you run out), dumped and piled into the washer for a regular doody (i couldn’t resist) i mean duty cycle. simple.
the hard part for me was figuring out WHAT KIND of diapers i wanted to use. there are scads of them out there, and it’s not like you can return them if you don’t like them. so you do what most people do: you do tons of research, pick one or two styles, cross your fingers and hope for the best.
we were brave. after scads of hours on the net, we picked one brand, ordered about $250 dollars worth …and were delighted. the brand we picked? Swaddlebees, invented by Margarita McClure and recently featured in Entrepeneur magazine for her green approach to business. considered the “cleanest diapers on the planet,” these organic, USA made diapers are also super cute and fit great. we use their hemp inserts to stretch each diapers use a bit, simply removing the insert and replacing it with a fresh one when Seava has a pee or poo and we’ve missed the cue (these work great with our attempts at Elimination Communication).
Seava hasn’t had one diaper rash with them. They wash well, are soft, and cute enough to wear out of the house with just a tee-shirt. (which i personally prefer to onesies, as Seava hates all things that have to go over her head).
We were lucky enough to order ours from Betty Cortez, who we found on Amazon.com. When we ordered from her again (as Seava grew and needed the next size up), she gave us lots of assitance with our order, helping us order just what we needed, including a few one size fits all so that we wouldn’t be back for more for a while. (as i said, the initial cost seems like a lot, but in the long run, you are saving yourself lots. not to mention the environmental benefits!).
I hope this helps any of you parents out there who wonder about the whole cloth diaper dillemna. Whatever brand you choose, you’ll find that the pros outweigh the cons more often than not. One extra load of laundry every other day surely has to be worth it having your babe swaddled in good, organic, USA-made love Every Day.
