More on diapers
Went to our first elimination communication meet-up yesterday morning. Most of the new people there had really tiny babies. I don't know why it took me so long to find other people in the area who do EC. It was so hard for me to figure out HOW to do it when Xavi was really little. Now he's getting close to six months and I may have missed the window. The leader of the group was encouraging, though she directed a lot of her attention to the people with newborns. I tried to ask a lot of questions but I'm beginning to realized I'm just not much of a group person. I'd much rather meet up with an individual for coffee than try to have a conversation with 6 people I don't know. Maybe I'm socially anxious or something. But I digress.

I am newly re-interested in using cloth diapers for Xavi and getting a good EC thing going. Here are my reasons:

(1) The accoutrements are so much cuter. Soakers, woolies, cutie diaper covers, snappis... Purely aesthetic, but style is important, and it gives me a great excuse to be crafty.

(2) We've long worked out the ecological and economical implications of using disposables over cloth. For us, the cloth diapers with the diaper service are poor quality and Xavi got rashes.

Using Fuzzibunz or Bum Genius or any other pocket diaper or all-in-one was close to impossible because we don't have a washing machine. Three loads of double (or even triple) wash diapers a week meant (wash $1.50 x 6) + (dry $2.00 x 3) = $15. The diaper service cost about that, plus the cost of covers. Disposables cost less than that.

The carbon footprint for all that water + gas to get to a laundromat (because ain't no way I can do that much laundry in our one-washer 15-unit building four flights below our apartment with a 22 lb baby who I can't leave alone upstairs and who is really hard to carry up and down over and over) plus the cost of it all was just not making sense. Because we rarely drive, we live in a fairly energy-efficient small one bedroom apartment, and we don't consume excess amounts of water, we figured we could feel okay about using disposables.

The thing is, I know they'll sit in a landfill until kingdom come and there's a lot of crap that goes into making them, and the process of making plastics isn't exactly eco-friendly. That still bothers me. Mostly, the fact that dioxins and gross diaper gel are right on Xavi's tush kind of skeeves me out.

So here's a possible solution: If we use plain old trifold cloth diapers and wash them ourselves twice a week, the cost is $7 plus the diapers, which we'll need to invest in. And with better quality, Xavi probably won't get a rash.

(3) I've basically taught Xavi to poo and pee in his pants. Babies have an awareness of when they soil, and a natural tendency to not "soil the nest". Instead of learning to be aware of their potty cues and working with them, we teach them to ignore their natural instincts with diapers. Some babies don't protest sitting in it. Some don't protest because of the new-fangled disposable diaper they're sitting in, which wicks away moisture so well that they just don't feel it! Some babies hate to sit in moisture, and I'm hoping Xavi will once again be that kind of baby. If he's more aware of it, he's more likely to let me know when he's gotta go. He already has cues, I just have to pay more attention to them. (It's the peeing that's hard for me to get. The pooing I can recognize because he's obvious. But I never know when he's peeing or going to pee. That's where #4 comes in.)

(4) Diaper free time will be easy for us. I plan on spending a lot more time with a bottomless Xavi when we're at home. This way I can pay more attention to his cues. And start with "psssssssss"ing him every time he goes.

So, in short, we need a baby potty (because I just don't have the wrist power to hold my baby over the toilet or a bowl now that he's gynormous) and some good quality cloth diapers.

I'm really excited to know some folks who do this, who I can sit down with and get some pointers. I've got at least two friends on my FList who do it, too, and love it. I just hope Xavi isn't too old.