We are hardened cloth diaper veterans, after using them through two children. Not only is it easier on the second child, but you’re getting a bigger benefit, since your up-front cost is now amortized over a longer period. I firmly believe in cloth diapers, and I couldn’t really see a reason why we would stop using them, until it turned out we had no choice.

Ollie’s skin trouble just makes it impossible. Even in disposables he has horrible, bleeding diaper rash pretty much all the time. With the cloth diapers there’s just nothing you can do. No matter how often you change him, his skin is just too easily irritated, and it gets bad, fast.

We went through a really bad period of worse than usual diaper rash and reoccurring yeast infections that spread to cover his entire diaper area, to where it looked like he was wearing a diaper cover even when he wasn’t. We would temporarily switch to disposables until we could get it under control, but every time we would switch back to cloth, it would flare up immediately. (Yes, we took steps to kill the yeast from the cloth diapers, repeatedly) The dermatologist made it pretty clear that she was anti-cloth diapers, due to the moisture factor. Ultimately, we just felt like the poor guy has enough to deal with regarding being covered with eczema, and it wasn’t fair to put him through this with diaper rash as well. So we switched to disposables full time.

I’m sad to have to use disposables, but at the same time, I feel like we need to balance what’s right for him with what’s right for the Earth. Still, it really kills me when I have to change a diaper that was hardly used. I just think about how long that thing is going to sit in a landfill somewhere, and for what? Nothing highlights how unnatural these things are more than seeing the amazing way they can absorb liquid and yet feel totally dry. In terms of sheer amazingness, it has to be one of our highest achievements as a species. On the other hand, it couldn’t be less natural. It’s like alien technology or something. When you hold it in your hand, you can just tell there is not one thing that is biodegradable in there. And you generate quite a few of these things.

Oh well. We *almost* made it through two kids with cloth diapers. That’s certainly a lot better than none.