Why I cloth diaper...

There are many choices that we all make as parents, and we have to make the ones that work the best for our own families.  I chose to cloth diaper for a variety of reasons.  My mother used mostly cloth on all five of her children...the old fashioned kind, pre-folds, pins and rubber pants.  When I originally thought about using cloth, that is what I thought that I would have to use too.  But I figured if my Mom could do it, so could I, because I had so many reasons why I thought that I needed to use cloth. 
1.  The environment did play an important role in my decision.  I just couldn't get out of my head the sheer numbers of disposables sitting in landfills, and how much more my one baby would add to all that trash.
2. Money played a larger role in my decision to cloth diaper.  My husband and I were struggling financially at the time, things are better now, but still very tight.  When I was pregnant I couldn't stop thinking about the three main things I would have to provide for my baby:  Food, Clothing and Diapers.  Food was easy, I planned to breastfeed, so that took care of a huge expense right there, Clothing...well we were fortunate enough to have friends with a baby girl exactly one year older than ours...that left diapers, so cloth seemed the logical and inexpensive, and necessary way for us to go.
3. There are so many kinds of cloth to choose from.  When I was sure that cloth was the way I wanted to go, I met with a good friend of mine who was cloth diapering her baby.  She showed me the different types of diapers that she had in her stash and showed me how to use them.  She gave me tips on caring for the diapers, and showed me exactly how many diapers I would need if I wanted to do wash about every other day.  When I saw how many different choices I had...I started to get excited about building a stash of my own. 
4.  My baby's health.  This factored in a little later for me.  I was a little overwhelmed at first with my baby, being a new Mom and recovering from an unplanned c-section.  I used cloth sporadically for the first couple of months.  I was still not sure how easy cloth was, and I didn't really have enough newborn size diapers, and people gave us disposables after my daughter was born.  However, on several different occasions, I felt that I literally had to peel the disposable off my baby after a bowel movement, enough so that the mesh marks were imprinted in her skin.  This really bothered me.  And she also got several nasty rashes in those first couple of months.  Since I switched to cloth exclusively, the only rashes we have had have been directly related to teething.
The choice to cloth diaper was a very personal one for me.  I understand why many families choose to use disposables, people have to make the choice that is best for them.  However, my main source of frustration, as I stated in my previous entry, is that people do not have the information necessary to make an informed decision to use cloth or disposables.  When most people think of cloth diapers they still have the vision of diaper pins and rubber pants.  My goal, and the goal of many in the cloth diapering community is to give people the information that they need to make an informed decision.  As someone who has struggled financially, I really don't want other families to feel like they can't provide diapers for their babies.  Cloth diapering is an easy solution, with so many different options to choose from.  Over the next few weeks I plan to share with you how I cloth diaper.  I will describe and review the diapers and accessories I use, to help you make an informed decision about how you want to diaper.  I will also provide you with some resources to do further research on your own.