I’m sure this doesn’t come as a surprise to you reading this blog, but I’m a cloth diaper junkie. I love the look of them, I love the variety of patterns and colors, I love the feel of them, and I love the ease of use. I also love that fact that I can use as many as I want without worrying about wasting my money or running to the store and buying more. If I run out of cloth diapers, well, I just do a load of laundry.

There have been a few times I’ve had to use disposable diapers and I’m glad that they’ve been there when I needed them.

The first time (well, other than the few days we were in the hospital after she was born) was when our daughter was six weeks old. We were moving out of our house in Hawaii and on our way to Alabama. For two weeks, we were living in a hotel in sunny Waikiki (I know, I’m not complaining) and then for the next few weeks after that we were driving across the country from Los Angeles to Alabama, stopping at various friends’ and relatives’ to visit, until we finally got to our new home and our goods were delivered. It was six weeks of disposables for us! It was just easier in the long run for us to pack the diapers and buy as we went.

Of course, once we got our cloth diapers back, I was thrilled and anxious to get her back in them. She was oh so cute too!

The next time was another trip when she was five months old. It was only a couple days at a friend’s house, but with a six-hour drive, I just didn’t want to mess with dragging the cloth diapers with us. Lazy mom, right? It worked out fine though. The next time after that, another trip when she was nine months.

The most recent disposable adventure was about a month ago. Our daughter got a bad yeast diaper rash. I did some research and found that the way cloth works, the yeast could actually multiply on the diapers, so it was best to keep her out of it. There are ways around it, with liners and such, but for us it was just easier to use disposables while I stripped the diapers and treated the rash.

Now we’re back in them, and hopefully for some time! It’s been nice to have the convenience of disposables when I needed them, but I’m still all for cloth diapers.

Chantal Shelstad, a self-proclaimed “crunchy” stay-at-home mom who lives in Alabama with her daughter, Penny and her husband, a pilot in the Army. Chantal is more than happy to own up to the fact that cloth diapering parents have to face plenty of difficulties, transitions, stigmas (and yes, plenty of poop!) …but it is still worth it in the end.