Bum Essentials Essay Winner!

Sporting my new REVERSIBLE Bum Essentials Bum Bag!

I am so excited to share with you the essay I wrote for the Bum Essentials “Saving the Planet 1 Diaper at a Time” Essay Contest! As a result, I won 2nd place, and a wonderful prize pack of 3 Bumbino Diapers, 3 Bum Pads, and 1 Bum Bag. I’ll be sharing a journal of my experiences with these new diapers next Friday.

Here’s the essay (2 minor edits for continuity):

New To Cloth Essay:
There was a time when the only diapering was cloth diapering. This was long before I was born. I was born into a disposable society, where convenience has become paramount. However, my life led me down a simpler path. For whatever reasons, (frugality, probably), my mother cloth diapered all her children in the 70s and 80s – so cloth diapering has a history in my family. And as destiny would have it, when I was very young (thirteen), I landed a regular job in my neighborhood as a mother’s helper to a lady who, for health and ecological reasons, was cloth diapering all her children. Did I mention she had quadruplets? So, at the tender age of thirteen, I was happily cloth diapering (with pins!!) four babies at a time several days a week! We would fill a 13 gallon diaper pail nearly every day [with prefolds]!

Sure, I babysat other children, watched baby cousins, and participated in our church nursery, where disposables reigned. But cloth diapering had already found a place in my heart and mind. So twenty years later, when I gave birth to my first baby just four months ago, we had a decision to make – would we sacrifice health, economy, and ecology (cloth diapers) on the altar of convenience (disposables)? I began to research.

Imagine my delight when I discovered cloth diapers were no longer plain white pre-folds with plastic covers and safety pins! As my belly grew, so did my absorption with the rainbow of colors, prints and styles of the “new” cloth diapers now available. Pockets, fitteds, one-size… what wonderful inventions! I didn’t glance back. The decision was easy: a cloth-diapering we would go!

I’ve chosen cloth because it is what I know. And what I know is: cloth diapers are healthier, safer, and, let’s face it, easier on my wallet! The choice made, I found myself immediately immersed in a crazy, exciting, and ever blossoming culture of women who desire the best for their babies when it comes to diapering. I am now the proud new member of a fun, health-conscious … community of mothers. Cloth diapering mothers. Because for us, the only diapering is still … cloth diapering!