Frugal Foodie Mama: I'm a Natural Parent- BUT...

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Friday, September 7, 2012

I'm a Natural Parent- BUT...

Welcome to the second edition of the "I'm a Natural Parent - BUT..." Carnival This post was written for inclusion in the carnival hosted by The Artful Mama and our feminist {play}school. During this carnival our participants have focused on how mainstream society has affected their natural parenting and how they have come to peace with this.
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I do not cloth diaper with my baby girl.  I know.  <Gasp!>, right?

We babywear.  We co-sleep.  We breastfeed.  We follow baby's natural schedule (I am a stay-at-home mama, so that is the only reason we are able to do that one.).  I make my own baby food from local fruits & veggies we buy at our farmers market each week.  We have switched over to almost all eco-friendly cleaning products (heck, I have even started making some of our own cleaning products!).  Baby girl uses all natural, organic baby wash and lotion. 

But, we do not do cloth diapers.  
I think most people just often assume that we do because of all of the other natural parenting practices we subscribe to.  Sometimes friends will post little cute things about "fluff stashes" and cloth diapering humor to my Facebook page.  And I have to admit that we do not cloth diaper... I then feel a twinge of natural mama guilt.

Now, this isn't to say that I haven't thought about trying it.  But I will be honest- it is daunting and somewhat overwhelming to me.  There seem to be SO many different kinds of them out there!  Ones with removable inserts.  Ones with sewn-in inserts.  Ones that need covers, and ones that do not.  How can you know which ones you and baby will like best?  I often see the cloth diapering veterans advising that you buy different kinds and try them each out, and that brings me to another obstacle that seems to be keeping us from going the nappies route...
The cost.  
Very often the cost of just one cloth diaper is about the same as one entire jumbo pack of disposables. (In our defense, we do buy the natural disposables made without the chemicals and such.) We are on such a tight budget doing it all on a single income.  I know everyone says it saves you money in the long run, but I think that maybe that would have been true for us had we started cloth diapering from the get-go.  Baby girl is now nearing 7 months old.  
And to be frank, the idea of washing all her diapers (especially the messy poopy ones) almost every day?  It doesn't appeal to me.  In the slightest.

Now, I will tell you what does appeal to me...
This. ^^^ 

And yeah... this ^^^ too. ;)
How crazy adorable are these??  I would love to see my baby girl's cute little bum in these! 

Please someone convince me to take the plunge.  (Oh, and then convince my husband to get on board with me too! ;P)

Both of the cloth diapers above are made by my good friend Kassandra over at Green Grizls.