As I write this post, I’m thinking to myself I might be going crazy. I have decided to volunteer for a one week cloth diapering challenge, so what you might be says you are ready use cloth diaper, but wait this is a challenge of a different color.
Here are the rules:
- You MUST use Flats.
- You MUST hand wash them. How is up to you. (bathtub, sink, large wash tub, portable non electronic washing machine, or camp style washer (bucket and plunger- think churning butter)
- You MUST air dry them. (indoors or outdoors, makes no difference)
- You MUST limit your number of covers in rotation to 5 or less.
- You can use any detergent you want. (Keep in mind that you still want cloth safe detergents)
- You can still use your nighttime diapers but I ask that you try to make flats work. Maybe try a prefold wrapped in a flat.
- You can use disposable liners.
- You CAN’T use a diaper sprayer. I thought long and hard about this one, but at an average cost of 40.00 this is one diaper accessory that is out of range for many families. Dunk, swish, flush, or scrape!
- You MUST start the morning of May 23 and end the evening of May 30.
- You MUST fill out a completion survey about your experience. Results will be published here and can be republished on your own blog.
- You don’t have to be a blogger! Your conclusions about the experiment will be entered into the survey at the end of the challenge. You can share on your Facebook, Twitter, various messageboards. But if you are a blogger please share your experience on your own blog. Grab the button and let people know you are planning on joining the challenge. Recruit others! Challenge your own readers to join and fill out the completion survey. You can blog everyday updating your experience, beforehand to let people know you are getting ready for it and explain what you will be doing, and of course, after the fact to let people know how it went. If you hated it, say so. If you think it was awesome and want to continue in some aspect, say that too! Who knows, flats might be your favorite diaper!
Now you understand why this will be different. Hand washing, really? Really? My daughter is now 11 months old, which means she eats solid food, breastfeeds, is slowly weaning to cow’s milk and has formula. Can you say stinky messy diapers? Here is a little vocabulary on what a Flat diaper is. A Flat Diaper is basically a large square piece of cloth that you fold to find your baby. You use a water proof cover of some sort to cover the flat. Here are some pictures of Flat Diapers and a video on how to fold them.
http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/flat.htm
When people ask me why I cloth diaper, my simple answer is, it saves me money. With this challenge it will show that you can cloth diaper for much less than disposables. There are many families that can not afford to buy diaper for their babies. There is no government program that helps with this cost. I am hoping that I can provide information through my own experience that let's people see how easy cloth diapering is.
When people ask me why I cloth diaper, my simple answer is, it saves me money. With this challenge it will show that you can cloth diaper for much less than disposables. There are many families that can not afford to buy diaper for their babies. There is no government program that helps with this cost. I am hoping that I can provide information through my own experience that let's people see how easy cloth diapering is.
I will keep you posted of how this goes for me, the official date is May 23-30th.
