Woman of the Cloth

After trying out gDiapers for a little while now, I've decided that I'd like to take it one step of crazy further and use cloth while at home and g's while out and about. My reason for this is much more economy than ecology, but the biggest concern I have was reinforced when I suggested it to J and got the following response; "Have you ever been to someone's house who uses cloth diapers? Their whole house smells like our diaper pail." Yeah, I know. BUT that could just be that they didn't really know what they were doing.

I was confident that was the only reason, so put a message out to my mom's group talk loop as there was at least one woman who cloth diapered four times over, and she is not the type to have a stinky house, so I set out to pick her brain.

I cc'd my mom and sisters as I knew that my mom cloth diapered the four of us. Since there is that large age gap between the two sets of sisters, I knew "The Big Girls" would have some insight as well, as they would definitely not have forgotten a stinky house. My mom wouldn't have known, as she has no sense of smell.

I got some great responses from my mom's group which were very encouraging, and one mom even offered about 3 dozen diapers. From my family, however, that's another story.

Here's what I got from my sister, Sherri:

Hello Sally,

Ok, I'm going to present a theory about handling cloth diapers I'vebeen carrying around for years but have been reluctant to share. Butstay with me for a moment and see if you don't agree that this is alittle strange. I'll walk you through it:

Consider that all four of us girls were raised in the same household,in the same town, with the same diet and general lifestyles during ourformidable years. Now, think about our relative health histories,thinking first about the "big girls" and then the "little girls."There have been marked differences in the health histories of thesetwo sets of siblings.

Little girls:

Gall bladder surgery

Routine orthodontia.

Big girls:

Ovarian cysts

Blood clot

Hysterectomy

Asthma

Hay fever

Cardiothoracic teratoma

Mental illnesses including depression and mood disorder

After taking into account all of our background characteristics, only one thing can explain our disparate health issues: Exposure to andrepeated handling of cloth diapers. The big girls had to change thelittle girls' diapers, which involved "dunking the diaper" in thetoilet to remove solid waste before placing them in the diaper pail. This exposure occurred over a sustained period of nearly five years (especially for one of the big girls in particular who will remain anonymous due to HIPAA issues). I'm surprised we're not both on dialysis.

Love,

A "Big Girl"

Nothing like a little familial support when undertaking an endeavor that I'm not quite sure I'm not too squeamish for. Afterall...who really wants to handle their kids' poo that intimately? I think I'll just have to be encouraged each time I want to dry heave as I open the pail to do a load of diapers by the shit load of money I'll be saving by staying home, nursing and cloth diapering while at home. But will the pocket book win out in the end? Stay tuned...