We Choose Cloth.

This post is written for the Real Diaper Week Carnival with the theme “Real Simple. Real Diapers.”  We aim to educate and advocate the use of cloth diapers in the Philippines.  Please scroll below to read the other carnival posts about cloth diaper styles, how to’s or must haves. 

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"Ang mahal naman niyan!" 

Ask any cloth diapering mom, and I'm sure someone has said pretty much the same thing about cloth diapers at one point. Usually, this phrase comes after "Ang cute naman niyan!". 

Well, it's true that it can be a little expensive at first. You would need to shell out a little to be able to build a decent stash of cloth diapers. Believe me, Hubby's facial expression said it all when I first told him that I want to build a cloth diaper stash for Nathan.  This was after he saw Next9's website which I 'accidentally' left open on his browser. Believe me, the look on his face was just like telling me, "Are you out of your mind?! 1k for 3 diapers?!"

The thing is, I wasn't researching about cloth diapers just because it's cute. (Okay, I admit that was ONE reason). But at that time, Nathan was having really bad rashes because of his diapers. We tried brand after brand, we changed every after 2 hrs but we got the same results.

So, to give him a 'preview' without having to spend that much, I asked that we try Chino Pino's first. It's pretty much the old school lampin but it's pre folded already and it has velcro closures that made it a lot easier to put on Nathan. In just a week of switching to Chino Pino's, the rashes were gone. Yay!

But eventually, we outgrew the chino pino. Nathan's thigh -- well, people call it "Pata" for a reason eventually became too big for the chino pino. Hubby said maybe it's time to try out the modern ones. I swear I did a happy dance when he said that. :)

Ang-mahal-naman-nyan-rebuttal number 1: If you do the math, you'll see it's not expensive at all.

Cloth diapers are reusable. Which means, if you stick to it, you'd probably never buy another disposable diaper again EVER. I always say din, since Nathan is our first child, the probability of our second (maybe even third) child to use the same CD's are high! Investment ang tawag dun. :P

If you change disposable diapers 12 times a day and keep doing that for a year, this is what it will cost you:

Drypers: PhP7/pc = PhP30,576/year
EQ Dry: PhP6/pc = PhP26,208/year
Huggies PhP9/pc = PhP39,312/year
Kimbies: Dry PhP6/pc = PhP26,208/year
Pampers Comfort: PhP7/pc = PhP30,576/year
Pampers Baby Dry: PhP8.25/pc = PhP36,036/year
ProKids: PhP6/pc = PhP26,208/year

Confession: I didn't do the math. Next9 did.

Ang-mahal-naman-nyan-rebuttal number 2: It's really good for the environment.

When I was trying to convince hubby to switch to cloth diapers, I asked him to guess just how many years it would take to decompose a single disposable diaper. He guessed 50 years, and based on my research, 50 years -- even when it sounds soooo long already, is just a quarter of disposable diaper's life. It takes 200 years, some data I've read said it takes 500. 200 or 500, maski nga 50 lang e, that's still a very long time! That means by the time Nathan has his own grand grand kids, the diaper we used on him would still be sitting on a landfill somewhere!

It actually felt good when we started using cloth diapers. It was nice not seeing disposable diapers on the trash can. I know it's just a small contribution, but still it's something, diba? At least Mother Earth has one less disposable diaper to worry about because of us. Pwede na yun!

Ang-mahal-naman-nyan-rebuttal-tip number 3: Ang cute kaya!

Kasama talaga to sa reasons why we like cloth diapers. Haha! Because of cloth diapers, Nathan is ready for a photoshoot anytime! :P When we were using cloth diapers na, I realized how

ugly
 different it looked like when Nathan was just wearing disposables. Sure, disposables have prints too but it just looked... well, different.

Cloth diapers now come in different colors, in different prints. Some were even customizable, and if you're really crafty, I'm sure you could do loads with plain cloth diapers. Can I add, sobrang nakakagigil yung butt ni baby pag naka cloth diaper, ang tambok! :)

[caption id="attachment_129066" align="alignnone" width="423" caption="Nathan says "OK"."][/caption]

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So there, that's just three of the many reasons why we chose real diapers. It took a little explaining of course to convince hubby, but I'm happy to say that he's my number 1 supporter now when it comes to full-time CDing. Yes, we do full time! We use cloth diapers 24/7. Yay!

He now knows the benefit of cloth diapers and would even answer back for me whenever someone says "Ang mahal naman nyan!". Minsan may iba pang statements like, "Mukhang mahirap i-maintain, or magastos sa laba" pero with a little explanation, nagegets din naman. :) Proud moment ko lang is when he explained it to our friend, akala ko di siya nakikinig sa explanations ko e!

If you haven't yet, I suggest you give it a try din. The secret is to just buy just a few first and then decide which system works best for you. Oh yes, cloth diapers are so modern now and we have different systems pa! I suggest you look into it first. We're really far from the oldschool lampin na. Another yay for that!

There's a group called Modern Cloth Nappying Pinays (every cloth diaper addict mom is in that group) and you can ask them questions and for sure you'll get really good answers. I joined the group when there was just around 80 members, now it's around 700+ na! Galing! If not sa group, just google and research lang, you'll be surprised at how many moms are doing it already. (I used to watch videos on youtube on how to strip diapers! Haha)

Anyway, ang haba na nito. Just think of this as me saying na, real diapers can be intimidating at first, but still, it's something worth trying.  :)

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Please check out other entries for the blog carnival:

Next9 Baby's The CD Revolution

Tickled Mom Clarice's Stuff you need for an easier CD-ing life

Buntis' Milo's stash of real diapers

Happy Tots Studio's Matteo's Diaper Story

Hoo Goes Where's Real Diapers Our CD Journey

MrsBry's Z loves: Next9 Cloth Diapers

This Mom's Life's Transitioning to Cloth Diapers

ms. Masungit's Cloth Diapers? Where?

The Odyssey of Dinna's nurturing rafael: the cloth diaper chronicles

The Articulate Pen's Making the Switch to Cloth Diapers

The Common Mom's Surviving the Holidays with Cloth Diapers

Tickled Mom Abie's Cloth Diapers. A Quick Review of the Different Systems

Swept Away's What We Love About Cloth Diapers

Chronicles of a Nursing Mom's Going out of Town with Cloth Diapers

Organized Junk's Out and About with Cloth Diapers

Babywearing.

I knew about babywearing when N was just a few weeks old. I wanted to try it so much back then, but I didn't have the luxury to go out, so while waiting, I watched babywearing videos until I figure out how to really use it. Then on N's first month, Joy gave it to me as a present -- finally, I'll get to babywear N, right?

Wrong.

The horror -- despite the many videos I've watched, wala talaga. N would squirm when he's inside, probably because the fit wasn't okay. It says on the video that you're supposed to be hands-free when you're baby wearing, but I was putting it so wrong that if I remove my hands, N would probably fall off.

I tried -- for days until I figured I'd just try it again when N's big enough to support his head para we can do the other sling carry. Eventually, time passed and I (almost) forgot about the sling. Few months later, we were given a hand-me-down carrier which was so easy to put on, so lalong nakalimutan si sling.

Fastforward to N's eighth month, I wanted to try babywearing again. For some reason, the carrier we were using gave me nasty back ache when I'm carrying N in it. I couldn't last for anything longer than five minutes. So I took out the sling and decided to give it another try.

With enough support from Bob -- and a few tips from the net

and Dr. Lei (a new-found online friend!) ayun, nasuot ko din! N looked happy inside, and he would really behave when he's inside the sling. Maybe it helped that N is already able to support his head kaya mas madali na for us. But the thing is, it worked! I'm able to babywear N!

First Day Out

So, with a proud grin on my face -- we decided to go out and try if I could really babywear N for hours. We decided to go to SM Masinag since it's near and there's not much people there even on weekends.

Naloka ako.

I got all kinds of stares -- some curious, some amazed. We went to the infant section of the department store, and while browsing some items, I overheard two saleslady talking behind me. They said,

"Meron tayo nyan! Yan yung mahal na tela. Ganyan pala yung sling pag nakasuot noh?" 

Then they approached me and said, "Ganda naman ng upuan ni baby. Hindi po ba masakit sa likod?" 

Feeling proud (and thankful that the salesladies have no idea how I failed on babywearing once), I smiled and said, "Actually, hindi. Masarap nga e."

Went home that day and despite the number of curious stares that we got, I'm happy that I was able to babywear N and that he enjoyed it as much as I did.

Not everyone knows.

It's just sad that babywearing isn't as popular as it should be in the Philippines. How I wish meron akong makasalubong na nagbaby wear din.

Last weekend, we went to Manaoag with the family. As usual, I brought out my sling and wore N as soon as we stepped out of the van. The stares, andun pa rin. Pati relatives, may joke on how I looked like a 'badjao' wearing it, but it was okay. Tawa lang, kasi I've thought of that before.

Ok lang, kalma lang. Just then, a woman stared at me, looked at me from head to toe and smirked! Oh God. Bob saw it too and we just laughed. I said, "Dahan dahan sa pag titig ate. Konting pasintabi lang" loud enough so she can hear it. Then Bob and I laughed again. I knew right there and then that I was up for some more stares. True enough, I got the same stare a few times more, and even overheard a woman say, "Pag di ka nag behave sa stroller mo, i-gaganun kita katulad dun sa baby, nakasabit lang"

Having enough, I finally told Bob I'll remove N from the sling first.

Bob said no, and his words exactly:

"Komportable kayo ni N dyan diba? Wag natin sila pansinin. Di lang nila alam yan sling."

Take it from Bob, he knows exactly what to say and when to say it.

I realized, oo nga. Not everyone knows about babywearing. There would always be people who would stare you down and even say rude comments about it. The thing is, deadma nalang. As long as we know why we're doing it, as long as N is happy and safe, that's all that matters.

Full-time.

I’ve posted a blog before on how I really want to switch to cloth diapers for number of good reasons. Unfortunately, I’ve failed for the first few months and just settled for the easy way — disposables.

But then, Nathan started having rashes again, and it really bothers me kasi I know the reason why he’s having rashes, and I can do something about it pero sinukuan ko lang. So, I ordered few pieces of really good cloth diapers from Bamboo Dappy, very unlike my Chino Pino’s na one weewee palit agad, these are waterproof and has linings para maabsorb yung weewee.

I’m so happy to say na we’re 90% on cloth diapers now. It’s hard, but it’s all worth it when I see Nathan’s butt na so makinis and walang rashes. Hehe! I’m still learning, grabe sa dami ng research talaga to know if I’m doing it right or if there’s anything else I can do para malessen ang gastos. (Read:DIY) Ang mahal kaya ng cloth diapers! Haha.

I’m definitely looking forward to being 100% CD Mom, kahit night time or kahit aalis, naka cloth diapers. That’s gonna take a lot of practice for sure pero ok lang, kakayanin! :)

—Edit /October 26, 2011—

I’m so proud! We haven’t used a single disposable diaper for 5 days already. Karir kung karir! Although ang problem ko nalang ngayon is how to budget yung paglalaba. Right now, since konti palang yung stash namin, everyday ako naglalaba. Handwashed pa yan, kasi takot ako masira yung diapers — ang mahal kaya! Pero since supportive si Dudad, order pa daw ako para masatisfy yung stash ko para daw di ako everyday naglalaba. Haha!

Nathan’s bum is so makinis na, nakakatuwa!