A Pause for Gratitude: Being Kinder to the Earth

I could spend ALL DAY waxing poetic about our cloth diaper/cloth wipe/petroleum free-earth friendly soaps.  I really could.  But, not only am I grateful for these things, I am also tasting a bit of humble pie.  Sara Rose here and when I was pregnant with Eva, my mother BEGGED ME to do cloth diapering but I refused repeatedly.

I kept thinking about all the day care providers who won't work with it, the laundry, the HUGE creepy safety pins of olden days, the list was endless.  What I didn't realize was how much cloth diapering had changed, that there were amazing earth friendly choices that were easy for me to deal with too.  In fact, I bite my tongue in bitterness over the THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS spent on disposable diapers.  Not even ones that were 'green' or 'eco friendly'.  Just cheapo diapers filling up land fills everywhere.

I did my research when prego with Owen.  After we realized that he was most certainly sensitive skinned and allergic to disposables, my mind was cinched.  I could spend another several thousand dollars on a product that irritated my sons skin to no end, or I could just fork over a couple hundred on an initial investment of cloth diapers that grow with him, have him potty trained better and faster, and pay a little extra for healthier and greener laundry soaps.

These are ADORABLE.

I can say this- the pros outweigh the cons.  We already use both an outdoor and indoor clothes line, thus helping reduce the cost of electricity used.  We also planned it so we would have enough cloth diapers to get us though about 3 days because, even without cloth diapers, I do a load or two of laundry every 3 days as it is.  Our water usage hasn't changed terribly at all.

We keep some Eco friendly sensitive skin disposable diapers around for trips because I'm not very keen on wet, stinky diapers being in my vehicle, but we've spent way less than even $500 for those in these last 2 years than what we had already spent on Eva's disposable.

Yes, I shall take some humble pie, please.  I am so grateful for the strides made in cloth diapers, the way that my family can reduce our impact on the environment, and that I work for an employer who works very hard to educate our customers on all aspects of natural parenting, the ease of cloth diapers, and brings so much good to the communities here in Eastern SD.  Let's hope that we can inspire a lot of people to take the time to research how they can help the environment through this one simple step!