Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Aug
14
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“I Can’t Continue To See you If You Insist On Using Those Here. They’re UnSanitary & Will Get Other Children Sick.”
“I can’t continue to see you if you insist on using those here. They’re unsanitary and will get all the other children sick.” – Pediatrician to mother using cloth diapers due to prolonger diaper rash and diaper area infections with disposable diapers.
There are 92 comments to this post.
do you some how think that I am planning on leaving a dirty diaper here for other kids to play with? …. honestly… atleast I take my dirty diapers with me … with disposables you leave them there sure they are in the garbage but… other people have to touch them (or could touch them) and cloth diapers are so much cuter 
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Jena Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:58 pm (Quote)
The other day someone left a poopy disposable diaper in a parking lot; it had been run over. So gross.
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Holly Reply:
March 23rd, 2013 at 6:45 pm (Quote)
Here at all the peds offices I have been in, we are FORBIDDEN to leave a dirty diaper (or even wet) behind. We have to ask for a bag and take it with us. There are signs everywhere at our peds office and if they see it in the trash, they will ask if it is yours, wrap it up for you and hand it to you! LOL! No leaving dirty diapers behind. Biohazards and stink the room up.
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Do you not have running water and soap? Nothing is unsanitary when you’ve got that. And I’m sure you have antibac jel on every shelf in this entire place.
But really, what difference is there between me wrapping up a dirty cloth diaper and putting it in a bag for me to take home, versus me wrapping up a dirty disposable diaper and putting it in a bag for me to take home. :-S
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AllThingsMommy had this to say,
Aug 14, 2012 @ 9:36 am (Quote)
You know what’s funny is that disposables almost ALWAYS go into a garbage container that’s left OPEN and cloth diapers go into a wet bag or a draw bag. Now, tell me again about diapers and germs?
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Because they’re so much different to plastic ones? I tend to put either in a plastic bag and tie it – One bag in the bin, one in the nappy bag to wash at home. Neither are left for children.
Actually at my son’s 4-week appointment today, both the nurse and student nurse commented on how cute his China Cheapies were so this post is such a contrast to my day. lol
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Oh, this is like the Olympics, right? Where athletes can’t be seen drinking Pepsi because Coke is the official sponsor. You’ve got a Pampers endorsement, don’t you?
The only problem my kids’ ped ever had with cloth diapers was she couldn’t figure out how to put it back on once she was done with that part of the exam. She let me do that. I really can’t fathom how disposables are supposed to be more sanitary.
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I had seen this pediatrician for literally MONTHS trying to figure out what was going on with my daughter. She had bleeding, oozing sores and blisters covering most of her diaper area and even inside her vagina.
I cannot prove what happened, but based off what I saw and what I have read happened to other parents (some that could and some that could not prove it), my daughter got a package of the Pampers Swaddlers with DryMax that was not marked as DryMax. I have heard unsubstantiated rumors that the packages that were not marked were diapers with which the company was experimenting with how much “DryMax” chemicals to add, and some had more than others. I do not know that for certain although it seems plausible based on the reaction. I opened a new package of diapers, put one on my daughter and then changed her 45 minutes later because I knew she had wet in it.
After only 45 minutes, she had bleeding sores on her diaper area, and I immediately call the pediatrician because something was clearly wrong. They said (on Monday) that they could not see me until Thursday after noon, and I needed to make sure I didn’t wait so long to change my baby’s diaper the next time. If I just put some cream on it, she should be fine. I tried to explain what had happened, but there was no use. I made an appointment and figured the doctor would listen even if his front office staff did not.
When I went in, I explained the entire story and again received a lecture about leaving wet and dirty diapers on my child. I ended up trying 5 or 6 different brands of diapers, 4 different OTC powders, 7 different OTC creams, 1 Rx powder, and 3 or 4 Rx creams over the course of about 2-3 months. He told me to stop using commercial wipes as they can make rashes worse and to instead use baby washcloths with plain water. He told me to use the creams he prescribed so thick that you could not even see her skin, and they clear up some (because her skin was not touching the diaper) but always came right back.
I began doing my own research, and found similar stories. I happened to have an appointment (again) that afternoon, so I told my pediatrician about what I had read and my new theory that the package I had bought had too large an amount of the chemicals and caused an over-sensitization. He literally snickered and said it was impossible to be allergic to disposable diapers and left it at that. Even though he was the one that unintentionally started me on that path by telling me that the commercial wipes made it worse.
I went home and bought some cloth diapers, and by our next appointment (after my daughter had been wearing cloth for only 5 days), her rash was completely gone. That’s when he told me I couldn’t continue to use them.
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Holly Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:03 am (Quote)
He also told me I needed to turn her around forward facing (at 11 months and 16.5 pounds- she is very petite and just broke 30 pounds right before her 3rd birthday) and repeatedly told me “you can stop breastfeeding now” because she was almost 1. I did not stop seeing him at that point (although she did continue to wear cloth diapers). It was several months later after she fell and hit her head, quit breathing, and had a seizure that I saw him for the last time. He told me I was overreacting and had a voice recorder for notes in which he recorded “patient’s mother insists patient quit breathing” after telling me she was holding her breath. She ended up being diagnosed with a brain stem problem caused by her prematurity called “Breath Holding Spells” in which her brain stem does not always take over and cause her to inhale again after she has exhaled all her air. It’s very poorly named and causes people to think she is just holding her breath, but it is a brain stem problem. (This is my 35 weeker from the previous stories by the way.) It took me a while to learn from my mistakes, but I’m pretty picky about my doctors now 
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Arzt4empfaenger Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 4:32 pm (Quote)
Wow, the ped sounds like a horrible and useless person. 
Breath Holding Spells… is that the same like Undine syndrom or does/did your daughter grow out of it?
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Holly Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 7:49 pm (Quote)
I have never heard of Undine syndrom. The official diagnosis is “Breath Holding Spells.” We were told she would grow out of it. Neurologist said he had never heard of a case in a child above the age of 7. She has been having fewer and fewer of them. He photocopied 2 pages from a textbook and gave it to us, and that was what it was called in the textbook also.
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arzt4empfaenger Reply:
August 16th, 2012 at 10:14 am (Quote)
Maybe it|s a country-specific name, it is also known as congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, so I thought it sounded pretty similar, but as far as I know the one I mean is permanent – I had not heard Breath holding spells as medical term yet, and I was hoping it was something she could grow out of. We have a family with a congenitally ill son in our town, who for years already hire medical students as night watch sitters for their kid – just in case the alarm of their monitoring goes off. It sounds like a very frightening condition, no matter if the reason is prematurity or congenital, but I hope you can deal with it well until she grows out of it. Best wishes for your little one!!
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xanthina Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:08 am (Quote)
Disposables triggered my older DD’s eczema… which is why we’re cloth with DD#2.
Just because Many or Most don’t have an issue, doesn’t mean ALL will be fine.
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christine Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:17 am (Quote)
“He literally snickered and said it was impossible to be allergic to disposable diapers and left it at that.”
My oldest was in cloth (well, all 3 have been), but on the odd occasion we’d use disposables. If I used the store brand he would break out in a rash anywhere there was elastic; lower back, hips and around the legs. Something used in the manufacture of generic diapers triggered an allergic reaction. Impossible my ass.
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Nica Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:26 am (Quote)
It was my understanding that allergies to disposable diapers are quite common. I think this doc suffers from selective hearing as well since I can’t imagine he didn’t see other patients with similar issues.
Hope you found a better pedi!
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Mama Wrench Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 3:00 pm (Quote)
I’m sure he’s seen it before, it’s just that all THOSE moms were making it up, too
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Julie Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:33 am (Quote)
This is unbelievable and the car seat part is scary! Way too little to be turned ff! Thank goodness you are an educated mom. Think of how many parents just blindly follow everything the doctor says without doing their own research! We used cloth diapers too and my former pediatrician once got mad trying to snap the dipe closed after an exam. She said is a disgusted voice, “Ugh, I can’t do this. You’ll have to close this diaper.” I’m so glad to hear you found a new doc!
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Rebecca Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:04 am (Quote)
Luckily the only comment we got was the nurse who said after we stripped our daughter down to her diaper for a weight check that “we need to strip her down to her diaper” at which point we told her that was the diaper and she looked closer (and later asked about the diapers, which were one-size)
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Lizzie K Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:10 am (Quote)
I had a similar issue with my oldest. For the first year, we couldn’t use generic or any of the “cheap” diaper brands, had to be Huggies or Pampers. He would get oozing sores on his bottom with any other brands. After he turned a year old, we were able to switch back to the cheapies, though. We never even tested our other two, just kept them in Huggies or Pampers until a year old. (Huggies only for the first couple of months because Pampers leaked horribly in the beginning) and we’re going to be doing the same when the new little one is born.
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AllThingsMommy Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:21 am (Quote)
My 2nd child had really really bad rashes all the way until she was potty trained. I’m POSITIVE it was from disposables. Red open sores all over her bottom, the screaming and crying…. She had scars on her until 2 months after she was potty trained.
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:24 am (Quote)
I have a small business selling geek-chic diaper cakes and I’ve been known to advise my customers to wait until after the baby is born, if they can, because you never know what diapers the baby might need. I’ve known a few to be allergic to Pampers and need Huggies instead, a few who couldn’t wear Huggies so they wore organic instead (just examples). I’d hate for my customers to buy a gift for someone that the person couldn’t use because the baby ended up being sensitive to a certain brand of diaper.
In a way its actually kind of funny that I sell so many disposable diaper cakes considering that I use cloth diapers and encourage my friends who show an interest in them to do the same. Of course, I’d never push someone who was happy with disposables but if they ask me my opinion, I’ll tell them.
I just can’t get over how ignorant your former Ped was about the issue. Many people cloth diaper and I highly doubt you’re allowing other children to play with your daughter’s dirty diapers in the lobby. Poop is pooop, who really cares what you catch your kid’s poop in so long as it works and you’re happy with it.
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Jane Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:50 am (Quote)
It sounds like this doctor is a great doctor until the moment someone gets sick.
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Penny Mae Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 1:48 pm (Quote)
So glad to hear you got rid of that doctor! How is your little babe doing now?
I applaud you for sticking with your mommy-gut on this one. You are your child’s best advocate, and it proves you are just an awesome mommy!!
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Sada Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 2:56 pm (Quote)
The super-absorbant polymer in disposable diapers (what the brand you were using apparently calls “DryMax”) has actually been found to cause skin lesions, poor wound healing, and encourages the growth of staph bacteria. It’s the same kind of stuff that was banned from use in tampons after women were dying of toxic shock syndrome.
(Interestingly enough, it’s also been linked to breathing disorders. I used newborn disposables on my daughter for the first 2 weeks after birth, because someone had gifted me the box and everyone kept telling me it would be “easier” than having “all those cloth diapers to wash”. And she was raspy and phlegmy for those two weeks, and everyone kept telling me “oh, that’s normal for newborns”. Funny how the day that I started using the cloth diapers (before I even ran out of the box of disposables, because I couldn’t stand the way they smelled!), her breathing issues completely disappeared…)
And all that’s aside from the fact that disposable diapers contain traces of dioxin and tri-butal tin…I mean, of all the stupid things to wrap in plastic and strap around a growing human’s genitals… And yet somehow, cloth diapers get the bad rap as being hard to use/time consuming, and unsanitary…one of those things about our “modern” times that’s always made me scratch my head.
So far as this hack…I always remind myself of that little saying: what do you call someone who graduates from medical school with a D average? Doctor.
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Leigh Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 3:11 pm (Quote)
My second son very clearly had a problem with certain brands of disposable diapers. Most of the time he was in cloth, sometimes he was in 7th Generation expensive disposables. Never got rashes or sores or anything. But on a few occasions his diapers would get swapped with another kids at daycare, or we’d need one from a friend at a playdate, and BAM he’d get these open sores on his testicles, the underside of his penis, and all along the seam-line of the diaper on his inner thighs. It was amazing. He doesn’t have a latex allergy (that was my first guess) so I have to conclude it is something else, perhaps the dryness chemicals, in certain brands. Anyone that claims that is impossible is fooling themselves.
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OldMaman Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 3:19 pm (Quote)
I had a *horrible* rash from disposables when I was an infant (granted, that was 1974ish.) They were only used on me once, at my Aunt’s wedding (my mother was using cloth otherwise.) There are pictures of the rash, I’m red EVERYWHERE in them, ouch! My DS18months *has* rash problems with cloth sometimes so we switch to disposable, treat the rash and then switch back. I dunno if it’s our hard water or ???. Ugh.
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Missy Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:08 pm (Quote)
Could it be ammonia buildup in the diapers? That can cause skin irritation. I don’t know off the top of my head how to get rid of it but I’m sure you can just do an internet search and find lots of info.
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Kel Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:21 pm (Quote)
We have hard water too, and a front loader, and that causes some challenges– I’ve had good luck with the following tricks:
- do a full cold wash cycle without detergent as the pre-rinse.
- hot wash with extra water and rinse, detergent, and a dash of Calgon water softener
- another hot wash cycle if necessary, to get out any extra suds
On top of that, I strip monthly (three extra hot washes without detergent to thoroughly rinse out any detergent residue) whether the diapers “need” it or not, and if I ever get any stinkies, I run the inserts through with a 1/4 c bleach.
Doing all that, the cloth rashes have disappeared, unless she stealth poops.
We switched to cloth in part because of occasional chemical burn type rashes. Nasty. I’m glad they didn’t happen too often!
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Christie Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 4:26 am (Quote)
my toddler is like that, the only disposable i can use over night (he sleeps 12 to 13 hours) is huggies, anything cheap left on for more than an hour he gets awful burn like rashes. i love my cloth but in winter just arent practical, cant wait for the weather to warm up then we can finish this toilet training!
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jenni Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 7:09 pm (Quote)
my daughter did THE SAME THING! cloth, 7th generation, and the huggies pure and natural diapers were waht we used. pick up some wrong brand in a hurry? terrible rash AGAIN. and where she didnt’ have sores looked like a burn. it was terrible. good thing she potty trained….
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Anna Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 6:32 am (Quote)
I’m so sorry you had to deal with such an idiot as doctor, sorry for the strong word – but clearly that guy was horrible!
My DS too had rashes from Pampers – we used them cause the hospital had them and I never thought about cloth. We had rashes on and off, not bloody (it was pre drymax) but bad enough. THe ped said it’s normal to have constant diaper rash. Oh brother. I switched to cloth et voila, no more rashes. Luckily the only comments I ever got from our family doc (which is who we switched to) is how cute that is and how advanced those diapers are these days (we use prefolds only in the newbie stage, then Bumgenius and WOHM made print pockets, so ueber cute).
I also LOVE peds who tell you when to stop breastfeeding, yikes – my FP supports breastfeeding for as long as kids want to and finds it awesome (while my old ped threw a fit that I wouldn’t wean and give cow’s milk and juice at 12 months – oh well military peds are obviously the bottom of the class)! It’s just as wonderful as peds who think they should hand out parenting advice (again, military peds vilify cosleeping, and advocate crying it out at 4 months, per medical group printed sheet). YIkers. Again my FP leaves it between me and my child when to wean, how to sleep and eat.
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I am so sorry to hear that this Pediatrician has the misconception that your choice (soft washed sanitary cotten diapers that were used for hundreds of years to protect baby’s bottome) disgusts him. You can either change your diapers to Pampers and stay with him, buy a box of Pamers which you will use only when you take the child to see him, or leave this backward thinking doctor.
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Sugaryfun Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 12:02 am (Quote)
Just to play Devil’s advocate, the fact that they were used for hundreds of years doesn’t mean they were good, just that they were once the only option. I’m sure they were pretty darn unsanitory in the days before indoor plumbing, washing machines, proper sewerage systems etc.
I used cloth nappies for my bubs and cloth pads for myself.
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Mrs. Gamgee had this to say,
Aug 14, 2012 @ 10:49 am (Quote)
Hmmm… and our doc calls cloth diapers “real diapers”.
I think the doc in this tale is just a bit squeamish.
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Nessa Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 12:15 pm (Quote)
At home I call cloth “real diapers” and my husband calls disposables “real”. We were raised two VERY different ways.
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genniemom Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 12:37 pm (Quote)
Lol. At my house, neither diaper is ‘normal.’ We call them clothies and sposies. My older son uses sposies and my younger uses clothies.
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 12:50 pm (Quote)
Disposables were the norm growing up for me. I never even heard of cloth diapers until I was pregnant with my first. But I did some reading and really wanted to try them. My husband put his foot down and said absolutely not. Apparently his mother used them for one of his younger siblings and she was not so great about taking care of them properly so all he could remember was the horrible smell. So I caved and used disposables with our first.
Then after our second was born, I finally said, I’m their primary caregiver, I’m doing it my way. 3 weeks after I made the switch my husband thanked me. He said he never knew they could be so easy, he loved not having to run out for disposable diapers all the time, loved the cute patterns, loved that they saved us money.
I think more people would cloth diaper if it was something they were exposed to as a child. However I think that experience has to be a positive one. I’m not sure what my MIL did (or didn’t do) that caused her cloth diapers to smell so bad that my husband was so against them, but I think I’ve managed to undo the damage by exposing him to a more positive experience.
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Jena Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 12:10 am (Quote)
I use cloth diapers with my daughter, though my mom used disposables on my sisters & me (actually, she wanted to use cloth on me, but it seems I was allergic to my own urine, because I kept breaking out with the cotton diapers she used). And Mom was pretty impressed the the diapers I chose; she talked them up so much that now my sister uses them part time, too.
And at their house for New Years, we gave their guests an impromptu demo of our daughter’s cloth diapers. The moms were very interested.
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 1:34 am (Quote)
I can’t tell you how many times my son has been on a playdate when one of the other moms will notice me grab a cloth diaper from the bag to go change my daughter. It almost always ends in the diaper being passed around a table or a picnic blanket because the other moms all want to get a good look at how it works, lol.
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Jense Reply:
August 18th, 2012 at 4:50 pm (Quote)
I was rasised with cloth diapers. My father even said, “no plastic will touch my precious baby’s bottom!”. My brother was raised on cloth too, and we were both toilet trained just before our 2nd birthdays. My mom claims it’s because “children in cloth diapers learn how uncomfortable it is to sit in their own pee so they want to learn to use the toilet, nowadays modern diapers keep you too dry that babies never learn.”
Nowadays, cloth diapers are more convenient, cute, and simple to use. Back when my parents used them, they were just folded and pinned. I would totally go cloth.
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Sugaryfun Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:52 pm (Quote)
My GP (we don’t have a paediatrician) got excited when she saw DD’s nappy and said “Oh! Is that a proper nappy!”
Sorry to hear about your DD’s trouble with ‘sposies OP. I wonder whether she will have similar problems in later life with disposable menstrual pads and tampons since they have similar (the same?) chemicals in them. There’s always cloth pads and cups if that happens.
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My second daughter had horrible issues with disposables. We tried every brand, every wipe, no wipes and it just got worse and worse. I got so upset and frustrated one day that I left her naked on a towel with my husband sitting next to her and went to Walmart to get some prefolds. The diapers weren’t very good quality but her horrible rash cleared up in 5-6 days and tides us over until the diaper service quality prefOlds arrived. That doc sounds like an idiot. All your other updates just make him sound worse
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I’ve cloth diapered and EC’d both kids from birth and only experienced mild curiosity and confusion from the doctors and nurses that we’ve seen. Even if the baby didn’t have all of those terrible diaper issues, why on earth would a doctor call cloth diapers unsanitary? The fact that the mom was using cloth BECAUSE the baby had a terrible reaction to disposables makes the doctor just useless imo.
People assume all of the time that I have baby wipes because I have a baby, and I always have to remind them that my baby goes in the potty, lol!
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Nana Renan had this to say,
Aug 14, 2012 @ 3:35 pm (Quote)
My oldest got a really bad heat rash at 6 months that turned into a diaper rash that would NOT go away. We happened to be visiting my mother and discussing the possibility of using cloth. She pulled out my old cloth diapers and taught me how to fold them. Before the week was up, the rash was gone. From then on, every time she wore a disposable = INSTANT RASH.
When she was 27 mo., her brother came along and he had a rash before we left the hospital. I had two in cloth for about a month — Thank Goodness for diaper service!! I’d load the diaper bag with as many as it would hold, plus one disposable at the bottom, just to get us home. Every time, if he was in it more than 30 minutes he would break out. And there was only one brand of waterproof pants he could wear, the elastic in all the others broke him out.
Babies 3 and 4 had no problem with disposables.
Go figure.
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Not to hijack this thread, but can someone recommend cloth diapers, either brands or types?
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Teresa Henderson Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 5:33 pm (Quote)
My cloth diapering pinterest page has information on my favorites: http://pinterest.com/heavenlyblessed/cloth-diapering/
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 6:00 pm (Quote)
I love my Alva baby diapers. You can buy them Alva baby for about $5 per diaper, or buy them from a wholesale shop on ebay for alittle less than that. There are dozens of decorative patterns to choose from, some silky and some an extremely soft minky fabric. The diapers have multiple snaps so they can fit newborns-approximately 30lb toddlers. And they are so easy for cloth diapering newbies: no folding, no fussing with covers. Its a pocket diaper so you just put an absorbent insert into a diaper form and snap it on the babe. When it comes time to wash, you just separate the insert from the diaper form and throw both into the washer (obviously, as with all cloth diapers, dump solids into the toilet first).
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Sarah in CA Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 6:03 pm (Quote)
http://www.theluvyourbaby.com/brands/One-Size-Snap-Closure.html
I got the one size snaps and cloth diapered from 4 months – 2.
They’re cheap, easy to stuff and never leaked! I also had some Bum Genius ones. I liked their patterns better, but they were missing a side snap that the Kawaii’s had that kept the tabs from flipping up.
$6.99 vs $20 per diaper…come on! haha
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Sheva Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 6:28 pm (Quote)
Thanks! Do I ask my husband first or just buy them and tell him after the fact…?
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 1:42 am (Quote)
HaHa, now thats an amusing thought! If you never discuss the option of disposable, and just act like cloth is the norm, (IE buy the cloth diapers without talking about them, pack them in the labor bag, again without talking about them, just do everything that people are expected to do with disposables only with cloth instead), I wonder what his reaction would be?
When he notices the cloth diapers (either while still pregnant or just after having given birth) and says something about it, you could always look at him like he’s got two heads and say, “Well of course its a cloth diaper. What else might you suggest we dress our baby in?”
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Jane Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 5:02 am (Quote)
After much discussion, the deal I made with my husband was that I’d take over all the laundry if I got cloth diapers. This was acceptable to both of us and it worked great! But I think I may have bought the first batch of 6 prefolds without telling him. (I honestly cannot remember)
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Jill Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 6:32 pm (Quote)
I tried a little bit of everything when my LO was a newborn – I ordered a few different brands from Amazon, and bought an even larger variety on consignment. Of everything I tried, the best and easiest to use were Imse Vimse diapers (especially terrycloth!) with Bummis covers. They have no snaps or buttons, which may seem intimidating, but it’s actually way simpler. I don’t even use snappis anymore, I just fold them closed and attach the cover. Another really helpful “starter” when you’re first starting cloth are flushable/biodegradable paper liners. I don’t use them anymore, but when you’re dealing with more liquidy breastmilk poop, they can be helpful and help ease you into cloth diapering. Now I use boosters and his newborn prefolds as liners.
Our doc is great about seeing our cloth. The only comment she ever made was “oh, that looks so nice and soft next to his skin.” And that was it.
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Sugaryfun Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 12:07 am (Quote)
I use an Aussie brand called Green Kids (www.greenkids.com.au). They’re all in twos (shell with waterproof outside and an absorbant insert made from bamboo). They’re the easiest ones I’ve found to use because they have velcro so they go on like disposables and they dry quickly (important during the rainy season if you don’t have a dryer). They’re one size, so you only need to buy them once. They do make toddler and newborn ones now but I have the regular size and they fits both my five month ond and my three year old.
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I just figure this one out. Does he think that disposables are more sanitary because they get thrown away? I mean, I’ve seen many a dirty disposable diaper sitting around because a parent was too lazy to find a trash can. I would think that cloth diapers would actually be better in that sense simply because they cost too much for a woman to just leave lying around!
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 11:23 pm (Quote)
I’ve seen that too and I HATE it.
Pet peeve of mine is when people do not do whatever is appropriate to do with bodily wastes. I know it sounds weird but you actually see it quite a bit where I used to live. The city council obviously didn’t have enough trash bins around town because you’d randomly see a disposable diaper under a park bench, or a bag of dog poop on the side of a walking trail.
I never understood it. If your child needs a diaper change and there is no available trash bin, then don’t you have a wet bag for carrying soiled clothes in case of diaper leak? Just throw the diaper into the wet bag and keep an eye out for a trash bin later.
And the dog poop….if you don’t want to dispose of it properly then its really better to NOT pick it up with a plastic baggie. At least when its just sitting there all natural, the rain can wash it away. When you bag the poop and leave it laying around the rain just makes it smell worse, can’t wash away a plastic bag!
Final part of the pet peeve, not in line with the discussion but annoys me none the less: adults who don’t flush the public toilet after making a bowel movement. Its not a big deal to just push a button or pull a handle. Use toilet paper to separate your hands from the flusher if you must (shouldn’t make much of a difference anyway because you still need to wash your hands). I used to work as a housekeeper in a furniture store and I remember (more than once) being called off my lunch break to flush a toilet because one customer would walk in and see another customer’s unflushed mess then complain to the front desk. Now that I’m no longer a housekeeper, I still don’t get it. I’ve flushed many other people’s crap and while it doesn’t seem like such a big deal, its not like I have to touch it or anything, I still think its kinda disrespectful to whoever comes after you to have to see it.
Those three things frustrate me so much. I think someone should write a sequel to “Everybody Poops” entitled “Everybody Needs To Take Care of Their Own Poop.” Influence the kids when they are young so we raise the next generation to avoid these disgusting habits.
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Lori Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 8:46 am (Quote)
Suzy, I just wanted to reply to your note on dog poop. If I am out for a ‘there and back’ walk with my kids and dog I will often bag her poop and leave it off to the side of the road to pick up on the way back. There are no garbage cans in my subdivision and I don’t like to carry it around for an hour if I don’t have to! So sometimes if you see bagged poop by the road or by a path it may just be getting picked up after
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 11:52 am (Quote)
Thats all fine and good. But I’m thinking specifically of a beautiful walking path near my home. Gorgeous, love taking my kids there. Except there are a couple spots which always seem to have these bags of dog poop just sitting there on the ground for days at time. Then they get rained on and they smell just awful.
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thats odd becasue my mum said that disposables only became popular here around when my brother was a baby (1994) she used cloth on my and my sister and everyone i know over the age of 20 was also in cloth, maybe australia was behind the times?
pretty soon we are going to be living in one giant nappy covered planet, seriously those things DO NOT BREAK DOWN!!!! ewww
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Jill Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 6:26 am (Quote)
It’s true – since their invention, not ONE SINGLE DISPOSABLE DIAPER HAS DECOMPOSED. It’s staggering. We use cloth, but we have a “back-up” of biodegrable disposables from Earth’s Best for sleep & babysitters. It works for us.
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Hawwa Reply:
November 5th, 2012 at 11:31 am (Quote)
Huh! Same in my country, all of my siblings were cloth diapered, only after mid 1990s disposables became popular. Now I’m the only person from all my friends who use cloth. Strange world, within less than 20years things turn exact opposite of what it used to be, that’s the reason I have hope that cloth will be the norm in future
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Emilee Mason had this to say,
Aug 15, 2012 @ 3:48 pm (Quote)
At our children’s hospital, my very sick son was hospitalized for a week. The hospital was VERY happy to use the cloth I had provided, stating that it was SO much easier to tell whether or not he had wet or was internal bleeding without a bunch of unnecessary tests. The child life specialists learned how to use them, and EVERYONE was very supportive. Can’t imagine how i would have gotten through if they weren’t.
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mm Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 4:57 pm (Quote)
the hospital where i had my little boy provided cloth nappies rather than disposables for this reason. much easier to keep track of wet nappies. we actually ‘borrowed’ half a dozen of them when we left because they were nice and small for newborns (i dropped them back a month later )
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Just out of curiosity, does anyone here use cloth pads for your monthly cycle. I’d never go back, I get SO MUCH LESS cramping with cloth.
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Lizzie K Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 8:00 pm (Quote)
I bought some of the sea sponge tampons a couple of years ago and they came with a couple of cloth panty-liners. They were much more comfortable than disposables, but they were a PITA due to the fact we didn’t have our own washer, so I quit using them.
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Melanie Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 9:16 pm (Quote)
We live in an apartment without an in-unit washer. If you’re ever interested in trying cloth again, what I do is use an old (but washed) kitty litter bucket with water and vinegar (a natural disinfectant). The pads go in there until it’s time to do whites. The bucket lid keeps the water from spilling (especially a plus if you have to haul your clothes to the laundromat), but you’ll want to put it on a high shelf if you have little ones who tend to get into everything.
You can also wash them yourself in the sink the same way you’d do bloodied panties. Yes touching bodily fluids is gross, but moms are used to diapers and are tough cookies. You can do it!
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 11:03 pm (Quote)
I’ve tried disposable pads as well as cloth pads, and disposable tampons. I found them all to be equally unpleasant. Just switched to a reusable silicone cup (Diva Cup brand) and so far I love it. Don’t know why I didn’t try it sooner.
But as with everything, its just personal preference.
I’m irked by the number of people who complain about disposable pads and disposable tampons but are unwilling to try some of the other options available to them.
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Makes me thankful for my pediatrician, who, despite being old enough to have been MY pediatrician as a child (had I lived here), is very up on the times! He saw our cloth diapers and said, “Good! I see much less cases of diaper rash on babies wearing cloth diapers than I do in disposables.” He also told us to keep our child rear-facing until at least 2 and told us not to give her juice as it’s completely unnecessary. I guess I should count my blessings to not have to deal with someone like the OP had to deal with!
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Both my peds cloth diapered their own kids. One is older and he was always interested in how different they were from the flats and prefolds he and his wife used. My other ped is younger and we would always discuss different options, and he would tell the nurses my kids had the coolest diapers. One of my twins had to have surgery at 6 months when he choked on a penny. I had to stay overnight with him in the pediatric unit at the hospital. The nurse loved his cloth diapers and she had all the nurses coming in to check them out. I gave them a crash course in all things cloth while we were there. I think it’s a shame that a health care provider would be so ignorant about something that’s been around forever.
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Add Your Comment.
“Doctor, do you believe other children are playing with my son’s used diapers in the waiting area?”
Pediatricians get so weird about cloth diapers. My kids’ pediatrician said, “Wait, you put their poop into the toilet? The city’s sewer systems isn’t designed for that.” WHAT? You mean all those adults who use the toilets — they’re breaking the sewer? The child should never be toilet-trained? And, in fact, the disposable diaper box clearly says to put solid waste into the toilet for disposal rather than throwing the whole thing in the trash.
So bizarre.
OP: so the pediatrician just expected you to allow your baby to have continuous infections for a couple of years?
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Noira Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 9:34 am Noira(Quote)
Our ped is the best.
He recommended cloth to us.
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AllThingsMommy Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 9:42 am AllThingsMommy(Quote)
Funny you should mention how weird pedi’s get about cloth. I have a funny for you. When I took my youngest in for his checkup at 3 months old, he had a prefold and cover on and he couldn’t figure the snappi out. He must’ve tried 4 times before asking for help. LOL After I helped him, he asked how well the cloth was working for us and why I chose it.
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SuzyHomemaker Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:08 am SuzyHomemaker(Quote)
The same thing happened to us yesterday at our daughter’s 6 month check up. Only difference, we use Alva baby and he couldn’t figure out where to snap it back to fit her properly. He said he’d never seen that type before and was curious how they were working for us. He’s always eager to learn. In the same appointment, he also was curious about our baby-led weaning method.
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AllThingsMommy Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:16 am AllThingsMommy(Quote)
I love it when doctors and nurses are eager to learn, instead of being STUCK on a one-track! <3
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K Reply:
August 15th, 2012 at 8:06 am K(Quote)
Our last pedi was wonderful. He was clearly lost with the cloth, but he would just say “I’ll let you do that, Mom” and pat her belly when it was time to put it back on. I love when doctors understand that being unfamiliar with something doesn’t mean it’s bad or wrong. It takes a pretty rare lack of ego.
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Holly Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:07 am Holly(Quote)
Well, Jane, he would have gotten more money in office visits if she just had infection after infection until she was potty trained
The kicker is that she was not sick (so how’s she getting other kids sick?). The only reason we were there was because of her diaper rashes that repeatedly got infected.
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JL Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 12:32 pm JL(Quote)
Ha! My Ped opened up my daughter’s onesie and said “Is this…some kind of hip harness?” about her diaper. Her eyes just about fell out of her head when I told her it was a cloth diaper.
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Kathryn Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 4:44 pm Kathryn(Quote)
She didn’t even recognize it?! Wow.
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AllThingsMommy Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 10:10 pm AllThingsMommy(Quote)
I just LMFAO’d! haha A hip harness? hahaha
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Tee Reply:
August 14th, 2012 at 7:58 pm Tee(Quote)
Guess you need to invest in a shovel and start digging yourself a poop hole!
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