Dealing with criticism from friends and family about CDing

[BlessedMommy]

For all you cloth diapering mamas: how do you deflect criticism that other people give you? For example, if someone makes a disparging comment that because you use cloth diapers, you will always be homebound doing laundry constantly. Or, they imagine that CDing means leaking cotton, rubber pants, and pins. Or, they assume that if you don't use bleach on your diapers, the baby will get a rash from the germs and if you do use bleach, then that's chemicals so you may as well use disposables.

Other people can do whatever they want, in regards to their babies. I just choose to cloth diaper. So why is that people can be so negative about it?

[Madre]

Ruth, when our oldest kids were little we used cloth diapers (and, yes, that meant leaking cotton, rubber pants and pins :lol: ). We used disposables on our youngest two. I say do what you want, smile and say something like, "This is working out just fine for us. Thanks for your concern, though." :D

Hmmm... perhaps you could say something like "we are going to save a ton of money this way" or "at least we are not putting over a ton of waste into landfills with disposables".

Also there are fitted cloth diapers that don't need to be soaked in bleach. You just stick them straight into the washing machine (after putting poop down toilet of course!) with a little Tea tree oil and white vinegar.

Also I never had issues with diaper rash from Napisan (bleach) or washing powders.
And they don't get diaper rash from cloth diapers. It is all about how often you change them and just put tons of Vaseline on their lil' bum each time you change them :wink:
Abby only gets diaper rash if she is teething or does a poop (and she is in disposables) when she is napping and doesn't get changed fast enough.
And it clears up fast. I just put heaps of Vaseline on. :wink:
IMO it doesn't matter what diapers you use they will still get diaper rash. Disposables don't make any difference.
The only good thing about them is that you can leave baby in them longer than you can with prefold cloths. You basically need to change them every 2 hours maybe 3 if you are lucky. Whereas with disposables they can stay in 1 overnight for 8 hours and during the day Abby stays in one for 3-4 hours. Usually 4.

[kassismom]

My best friend uses cloth diapers with her baby, and disposables when they go away from home. I used disposables with mine because quite honestly I had never even seen a cloth diaper when she was born. She's 5 now and if we ever have another one, I might use cloth.

I asked my friend once was that a lot of extra work on her, and she said no that they were glad to be saving money. That was the end of it- no biggie. People shouldn't be criticizing you over the type of diaper you want to use.
Like Madre said, just tell them it's working out great for you and probably they will leave you alone. :D

Ruth, I am planning on trying a form of Cloth diapers and if anyone says anything to me I am going to say "well if all you can find wrong with my mothering is CDing, I must be doing a good job then" and smile :lol:

There are gentle things too you can get to put in the wash with the babies nappies that will sanitise them without hurting the child... you can put cannesten in the wash (mind you that gets rid of fungal bacteria) and you can also use this stuff called Milton which is actually a baby friendly sterilising agent. People forget that boiling hot water is a sterilising agent (well if you steralise bottles by boiling hot water, you can sterilise nappies IMO).

You could always try carrying around some pepper spray (ROTF), do you know how much I would LOVE to do that....

[Rach]

No one has really given me any negativity. Mostly people are simply interested, either out of general curiousity or because they want to try it. Almost all my friends also CD. My siblings are childless, but said they would like to try CD when they do have children. DH's siblings are all older and have been done having children since before #1 came along.

We have had less rashes, less leaks with the cloth diapers that we use. We use them overnight and everything. Once you figure out what works for you, it's a snap. It can be tricky finding the perfect system for your little one, though.