Cheating on Cloth

I've seen this floating around Facebook the past few days on a few different pages I follow.  I think its a good reminder for all of us.

To the mom who's breastfeeding: Way to go! It really is an amazing gift to give your baby, for any amount of time that you can manage! You're a good mom.

To the mom who's formula feeding: Isn't science amazing? To think there was a time when a baby with a mother who couldn't produce enough would suffer, but now? Better living through chemistry! You're a good mom.

To the cloth diapering mom: Fluffy bums are the cutest, and so friendly on the bank account. You're a good mom.

To the disposable diapering mom: Damn those things hold a lot, and it's excellent to not worry about leakage and laundry! You're a good mom.

To the mom who stays home: I can imagine it isn't easy doing what you do, but to spend those precious years with your babies must be amazing. You're a good mom.

To the mom who works: It's wonderful that you're sticking to your career, you're a positive role model for your children in so many ways, it's fantastic. You're a good mom.

To the mom who had to feed her kids from the drive thru all week because you're too worn out to cook or go grocery shopping: You're feeding your kids, and hey, I bet they aren't complaining! Sometimes sanity can indeed be found in a red box with a big yellow M on it. You're a good mom.

To the mom who gave her kids a homecooked breakfast lunch and dinner for the past week: Excellent! Good nutrition is important, and they're learning to enjoy healthy foods at an early age, a boon for the rest of their lives. You're a good mom.

To the mom with the kids who are sitting quietly and using their manners in the fancy restaurant: Kudos, it takes a lot to maintain order with children in a place where they can't run around. You're a good mom.

To the mom with the toddler having a meltdown in the cereal aisle: they always seem to pick the most embarrassing places to lose their minds don't they? We've all been through it. You're a good mom.

To the moms who judge other moms for ANY of the above? Glass houses, friend. Glass houses.
We should never judge another mom, but be the best influence we can be.

Now with that said, I'm cheating on my cloth stash.  We put C in cloth dipes around 3 to 4 weeks and never looked back.  We battled through figuring out absorbency issues for daytime, leaking issues at night which ultimately introduced us to wool covers and figured out the best way for us to protect our cloth while protecting C's bum while fighting all his many diaper rashes.  Yet here we are 15 months later and C is wearing Pampers.

I'm not happy about it.  I'm actually quite devastated about it and feel horrible about it.  But our stash of 35 FuzziBunz Elites don't fit C anymore.  My 15 month old chunky monkey weighed in at 30.2 pounds on Friday at the pediatrician and our Elites are meant to fit up to 30 pounds give or take.  While they still fit fine around C's waist, his legs are the issue.  The cloth dipes just aren't fitting his legs.  They are leaving red marks that after wearing them got worse and were actually cutting into my poor boy's skin.  Around the same time that happened was when C got diagnosed with strep on his bum.  We gave into disposables to get his legs cleared up and use the medicated treatments to get his bum cleared up.

Despite wavering a bit, I packed all of our cloth and we headed east to Virginia for a week.  I had contacted FuzziBunz and their customer service suggested I could try removing the elastic from C's leg holes altogether to make them larger.  While in VA, RCW went through and took out the elastic in the legs of all C's diapers.  Then RCW left and C got the stomach bug.  And due to the nature of his poop and the lack of elastic in the leg holes we had leaking dipes.  And I gave back into disposables so we could get home to KY without a massive mess in the car.  We kept C in disposables during graduation weekend with all the going and coming and making sure he was over his stomach bug.  

But last Monday, I persevered and got back into cloth.  We were in cloth, still without the elastic in the legs hoping it would help make the diapers fit C's legs.  Sadly, by Wednesday he had red marks all over his inner legs AND another diaper rash!!  And not just a diaper rash, but it looked like yeast.  I actually was terrified it was strep again, I thought maybe the virus had lingered on his cloth somehow despite all the washings.  When we took C for his 15 month checkup Friday, our pediatrician confirmed it was a yeast infection.

He also asked about the red marks on C's legs - that's how bad they are.  He explained that we all have yeast and the tendency to get a yeast infection. And that in his best guess, C's newest yeast infection diaper rash could have easily been caused by the red marks on his legs from the cloth diapers which were causing skin irritation and had broken the skin.  

So now our cloth wasn't just leaving red marks on C's legs, it could potentially have lead to his diaper rash. 

Friday afternoon I bought a mega case of Pamper's Size 4 from Sam's Club.  And I admit, I'm hanging my head in shame.  It felt like we had gone through so much and yet here we were admitting defeat.  Not to mention forking over massive dollars on disposables!  (Sidenote: C is still in cloth at night with his wool covers.  Even disposables can't handle our super soaker!)

RCW and I discussed the options.  Which were 2: 1. stick with disposables for a while to get C healthy and his legs and bum all cleared up again or 2. invest in a new stash of cloth.  For option 2 I did order a FuzziBunz Perfect Size Large that is suppose to fit between 25 and 45 pound babies.  We tried it on C and while the legs are better, the waist is huge on him, even snapped as tight as we could make it.  RCW's concern is that while C weighed in 30.2 pounds, he is growing like a weed in height.  Our baby who started off on the short side is finally catching up and in the 75th percentile for height.  RCW thinks C will start slimming down and his old cloth may fit him again in a couple more months, while the Perfect Size Large will just continue to get too big.  Not to mention, we didn't want to invest in a whole new stash or quite frankly go through figuring out if another brand besides FuzziBunz would work for us.

So now instead of a cute fluffy butt, C is running around with Sesame Street characters on his bum.  And it's making for one sad momma.

Not to mention E is still in disposables too.  Oh the shame!  E's tiny little legs don't have the meat on them to get a good fit in our FuzziBunz Elites yet.  I've tried a few days with him and ultimately he ends up leaking out and requiring numerous outfit changes and crib sheet changes.  To be honest, I think we're having issues with fit and with absorbency and to be even more honest, it just hasn't been something I've been willing to figure out yet.  We still have a ton of disposables that fit E that were gifts from well meaning neighbors and RCW's coworkers who didn't know we used cloth so I just haven't found the time or energy to figure it out. 

We both want to get E into cloth.  We both loved the months we had C in cloth and hope to get C back into cloth in the future before he is potty trained.  But for right now, both my boys are in disposables.  Sigh.

If any cloth diapering mommas read this and have any tips or suggestions, I'd love to hear them!  The ultimate goal is to get back to cloth, but not sure when that will be happening!  So, yes, here I am, the momma who advocated and would encourage cloth dipes to anyone, cheating on my FuzziBunz stash of now 42 (we added to it once we had E) and buying Pampers in bulk from Sam's Club.