My history with cloth diapers...

Since some folks have asked, I thought I'd write a post about how I got started with cloth diapers.

The first time I ever used cloth diapers was about 7 years ago on my baby sister. We used the cheap prefolds and covers from Walmart and diaper pins. In my ignorance, I believed that if the diapers smelled, I should add more soap. Needless to say, the diapers leaked constantly and the plastic covers kept melting in the dryer. Shortly afterwards, we put our house on the market and my dad said 'enough with cloth diapers. I don't want people walking into our house and smelling them!'. I agreed and thought I'd wouldn't use cloth diapers again since they were such a hassle!

In the next few years, I came across some diapers, but the cost of getting enough was a deterrent and I still had no clue about why our diapers leaked and smelled. Fast forward to last October... I came across some giveaways, including ones for cloth diapers. Through the reviews, I learned about using a little bit of soap to wash them and about stripping them regularly. The catch now? In December 2004, my parents had a little boy with Down syndrome. In February of 2007, he was diagnosed with leukemia and was just completing 2 years, 9 months of treatment and... he weighed 40 pounds. In the reviews I had read all the diapers were One Size (7-35 pounds) and there wasn't any way for those to work.

Enter twitter! Like some have said before me, if you ever want something, ask on twitter. A friend sent us a FuzziBunz Perfect Size and that's how we learned that many diapers for special needs kids are 'sized' not one size.

In this upcoming event my mom and I are coordinating, we want to share reviews and giveaways of diapers and accessories for special needs children and diapers that work great in a hospital setting... All the time we spent looking for diapers; we want to help other families save that time.

We are also hoping to have some guest posts written by moms of children with special needs who cloth diaper them. At the end of the event, we'll set up an index page that has links to cloth diapers/accessories for special needs kids. Not all are participating in the event, but will still be linked to. One thing that we'll be including in each review of a diaper is the sizing... and what it is and means. If OS diapers and sized diapers had the sizing instead of or included on the company/retailers web site, it would help so many families. I know it would have helped us.

In the end, my goal is to share as much information as I can from what we have learned, to help other special needs families learn about diapers more easily than we did and to have it all together in one place, where even families who don't have a special needs child can still learn about it and help special needs families as well.

I hope this helps with some of your questions. If your question isn't answered in here, just email me with your questions at happilysouthernreviews@gmail.com