Cloth diapers were important to me long before I had kids. There are many benefits to cloth diapers but the motivating factor for me was comfort. I don’t wear disposable plastic undergarments and had no interest in subjecting my babies to wearing plastic undergarments either. When my first daughter was born it took me several months to get into cloth diapering. Then it took another handful of months to settle into a comfortable system. I used all-in-one pocket diapers with one inset for day time and two inserts for night time. I washed diapers and inserts every other day. The inserts would go into the dryer and the diapers would air dry. I handled dirty wet, clean wet, and dry diapers every day. By the time I became pregnant with my second daughter I started to loose my conviction about cloth diapers. I was still committed to the idea of cloth diapers but I was having trouble following through.
Several factors contributed to the disconnect. We moved and our new laundry situation had me going down a flight of stairs, out the front door, around the back of the house, down more steps, and into the basement. Not an easy task for a woman with a growing belly and an active toddler. I started throwing the diapers in the dryer along with the inserts. Eventually my husband started doing the laundry all together (yay him!!). Over the course of a few months the “velcro” closures on the diapers were blown and my toddler was outgrowing them. I was loosing my connection to the diapers. Once the second baby came it was very easy to buy boxes of diapers for the infant and pull-ups for the toddler. This lasted about 6 months.
I went on-line and reconnected with the cloth diaper community. I bought a few new diapers and freshened up the old diapers for the baby. I started air drying the diapers again. As I was hanging diapers it occurred to me how nice it was to touch them. I realized that this is where I had lost my connection – I stopped handling them regularly. We are once again a cloth diapering family. I still keep a few disposables on hand but by and large the toddler is in undies and the baby is in cloth diapers.
The importance of touch is not a new idea. It is important to touch our babies and our loved ones. Touch has the power to heal. And touch has the power to reconnect with what once was lost. So I encourage you to touch something today that you have lost a connection to. You might just reconnect with a “lost” passion.
