Before having a baby, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to go out of my way to make my kid organic. I may have even rolled my eyes at the Crunchy-Mom-type who treats high-fructose corn syrup like poison, who puts flax in her kid’s birthday cake, who refuse to purchase Johnson & Johnson baby products, and who carries around wet bags for poopy cloth diapers. I was never going to be that Mom. In my opinion, kids deserve treats in moderation. My house always had juice and soda in it while we were growing up, and my sisters and I are relatively healthy. And cloth diapers? Come on! Do people seriously expect me to handle and wash my kid’s poop on top of all the other parenting crap I have to deal with? All of it just sounded too hard.
And then I had a kid.
Everything about my first baby was beautiful. His tiny little fingers. Those wiggly little toes. That round little belly. I couldn’t keep my lips from kissing his chubby cheeks. His skin was softer than anything I had ever felt and his butt was unbelievably cute! (Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks a nekked baby is the cutest thing in the world!?) My baby was perfection.
But, he started to get diaper rashes. Then, we started to notice rashes all over his body. He’d get hives for reasons we still can’t figure out. Even those perfect, kissable, incredibly soft cheeks started showing signs of eczema. Slowly, the products we used in the house started to change. I started using a Calendula soap to help combat cradle cap and skin rashes. I found a besswax ointment that helped with the diaper rash. I even switched to a hypoallergenic laundry detergent after an outbreak of hives that we couldn’t place (my favourite smell is fresh laundry, so this was a big sacrifice for me).
But I didn’t mind these changes. They were making my kid’s life better. I would do anything for him. And honestly, although my clothes didn’t smell like anything and despite missing out on that “new baby” smell that is actually Johnson’s baby wash, these changes were really easy to implement. They just required shopping in a different aisle of the grocery store, or looking one product over from my typical purchases. I didn’t have to do much at all to make life a little healthier for my entire family.
Still, there were some changes that still seemed too hard.
Like cloth diapers.
People told me cloth diapers were no harder than regular diapers. They told me that in the long run, they were cheaper than disposable (it never seems cheaper when you’re investing hundreds of dollars into starting a stash though!). And I could already see how fashion forward the fluffy butts were.
So, I dabbled in them. I bought one here and one there when they’d go on sale on the baby deal sites. Even those discounted prices seemed like a lot once they started to add up. I never really got into cloth diapering because I never really amassed enough of a collection to get started. But I could say I tried. Go me!
Cameron started getting older, and I got pregnant with Gavin. As I started to pull out the baby clothes, I found my very tiny collection of cloth diapers. A thought flew into my head. Maybe, just maybe, I could cloth diaper my second child. Maybe, just maybe, it would actually be cheaper in the long run if I started right from the very beginning. Maybe, just maybe, I could actually convince my husband to get into the cloth diapering action. Maybe. Just maybe.
This led to another problem. There are so many cloth diaper types and companies! How would I choose which one was right for me? When faced with multiple options, I get stressed out! Thankfully, my obsession with buying discounted baby items paid off because thanks to the small stash of diapers I already owned, I could narrow down the possibilities. I knew I preferred one-size diapers. I knew I liked the idea of pocket diapers with inserts instead of prefolds. So I looked into my options and wanted to cry when I realized that the going rate for the diapers I wanted was about $20. Each.
There was no way I was going to get my husband to agree to that price! I needed another option.
Enter Hipkiddo.
I came across Hipkiddo after my sister started using them for her newborn. I instantly fell in love with the company.
First of all, Hipkiddo is a Canadian company. I know that might not sway many of my readers, but I love to support local. And sometimes, in the age of the Internet, local can mean 6,000 km away. Secondly, Hipkiddo sells the type of diaper I wanted: Gorgeous, one-size pocket diapers. Finally, and most importantly, these cloth diapers are affordable! I was pretty sure I could even get my husband enthusiastic about cloth diapering at their prices! While other diapers are $20 each, Hipkiddo‘s diapers are as low as $10. As a bonus, Hipkiddo isn’t even just a normal Mom and Dad run company (who doesn’t love supporting those?) but they are a nice Mom and Dad run company. In fact, they’re so nice that they use some of their profits to send cloth diapers to an orphanage in Zambia!
See? Even my husband is excited about the cloth diapers!
Sometimes, choosing the right path is actually really easy.
People? I just love these cloth diapers. I love cloth diapering my kid. But those stories are for a different time. And trust me, they will come. You’re reading the first of a monthly feature about my cloth diaper journey. But before I start that, I want to encourage you to start your own cloth diaper journey, if you haven’t already. And to do so, Hipkiddo and I am giving one of my readers a FREE HIPKIDDO CLOTH DIAPER! How cool is that?!
**All you have to do is head on over to Hipkiddo’s website and let me know which cloth diaper you’d choose. They have three types: Classically Hip (standard cloth diaper for an awesome price), Intelligently Hip (high quality, excellently designed cloth diaper made of waterproof PUL fabric and polar fleece), and Naturally Hip (cloth diaper made out of bamboo and organic cotton). Pick your favourite diaper and your favourite colour, fill out the Rafflecopter form below and you can be on your way to a new cloth diaper!**
If you’d like more ways to get some cloth diapers, jump on over to Hipkiddo’s Facebook page where you can enter to win an Intelligently Hip diaper.
If you’re like me and have horrible luck, you can still get a great deal on these dipes! Until August 15th, Hipkiddo is giving my readers a 10% discount code on your next order (limit one use per customer). Head on over to www.hipkiddo.com, check out the deals (they have a special deal where you can get a free cloth diaper if you order multiples) and use the code mm72012 when you checkout for 10% off!
And come back next month to hear how my cloth diaper experience is going!
The Small Print: Hipkiddo is generously providing the coveted cloth diaper prize. Hipkiddo has also graciously provided the materials necessary to cloth diaper my baby for the purposes of this blog series, but they did not provide me with my opinions. All opinions are 100% my own (for more information, see my disclosure policy). As you can see above, I sought Hipkiddo out because I truly believe in their company. This giveaway is open wordlwide so make sure you enter! Contest ends Wednesday, July 25th at 12:01 EST. The winning entry will be verified and then the winner will be contacted within 24 hours. The winner has 48 hours to reply before another winner is chosen.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MommysMiracle/~3/etEgNHH74WQ/mommy-gets-fluffy.html
