Friday, December 20, 2013

Giving

My last post was about sharing.  This one is about giving.  Every now and then I hear a story of a family wanting to cloth, but don't have the means to get started. None can be more truer than a local family that just had identical triplet girls.  I met the parents of these miracle girls after they attended one of my cloth diaper classes.  They wanted to know all about cloth and how they could do it with three at once.  

Cloth diapering multiples is not any harder than CD'ing just one.  In fact it's going save you twice as much in the end.  Just takes a little more diapers and a some slightly fuller loads of laundry.  You will still be washing every 2 to 3 days and each baby would need at the most 20-25 diapers.  The most economical way to go are prefolds and covers.  Simple, cost-effective and you can re-use the covers throughout several diaper changes.  They are also easy to care for and clean.  For them I recommended 60 prefolds and 15 covers.  This could last them two days in-between washes.  

When diapering multiples it's also best to keep in mind that getting one size diapers will be best.  Not every baby grows at the same rate and that was so true with my twins.  My big guy was born a whole pound bigger than his brother and to this day maintains a 5 pound lead.  Sized diapers did not work for me since I wanted to be able to use the same diaper on either twin. With multiples it's all about ease and lighting speed changes. 

As you can imagine multiples require a lot of diapers.  If I used disposables I would need 2400 in just the first year.  For me, all I needed was 50 cloth diapers at the very most and I was set for life.  Sure, the upfront expense was a lot more, but overall I am saving thousands.  Right now Huggies diapers sell for .33 each.  Times that by 2400 and I'm up to $792 in just the first year whereas I can spend $200-300 and have all the diapers I will ever need until they potty train.  Not only am I saving money, but think of the waste I'm not putting out there.  2400 disposables sitting in the landfills...yuck!

So after meeting with the triplet parents and seeing how much they would need I started a small donation drive for them.  Facebook is by far the best way to reach a great number of people at once.  I posted in several CD groups and the donations came pouring in.  Since babywearing was essential to me with my twins and goes hand-in-hand with cloth diapering I thought why not see what wraps and carriers I could get for them.  So I posted in several babywearing groups as well.  Again, the response was amazing.  

Several mamas across the country sent in 100% free items to this couple and their new family.  I couldn't more thrilled with the results.  We collected a ton of stuff including several prefolds, covers, pocket diapers, fitted diapers, wraps, carriers, custom onsies, snappis, wet bags and diaper cream.  The holiday spirit is certainly alive in the CD and BW community.  I'm so honored to be apart of such a giving group of parents.



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