Did you know that on average from birth until your child is potty-trained, they will go through approximately 9,000 diapers?   Knowing that number, it may not surprise you quite as much to learn that disposable diapers are the world’s third largest contributor to our landfills, and due to the raw materials made in disposable diapers, they can remain in tact for up to 500 years from now!  WOW!  Can you imagine the condition of a 500-year old diaper?  No wonder landfills are so disgusting!  Imagine if each one of us decided to take a different approach to diapering our newborns what we could actually do for the environment!

Cloth diapering was something probably most of us have heard our parents talk about.  I know I was a cloth-diapered child some 25+ years ago, but in the recent times they seemed to take a back burner over the convenience of disposable diapering.   Even when my daughter was born only 4.5 years ago, I don’t remember hearing nearly as much about cloth diapering as I have been hearing in the last two years.  They are really making a comeback, and why shouldn’t they?  They are not only more environmentally safe, but they also hold health and economical benefits to many.  With all the chemicals in disposable diapers that affect some children with sensitive skin, some parents are finding they are forced toward cloth diapering in hopes of preventing the outbreaks of rashes and reactions from the disposable diapers and yet even though they are hesitant, I haven’t really met anyone that regrets the decision and wants to change back.  And what about economical benefits?  Well, over at Jack Be Natural, they gave you this example:  If your child goes through 9,000 diapers in their lifetime of diapering and you assume that 100 diapers costs about $40, you would end up spending $3600.00 over the lifetime of diapering that one child.  Taking those numbers into consideration, they suggest you probably save about $2,000 to $3,000 over the lifetime by choosing to cloth diaper your child.  Take into account having more than one child that you could reuse those same diapers and your savings goes up.  While those numbers sounded great to me, I’m a frugal shopper.  I don’t pay $40 per 100 diapers EVER!  So, I did my only little calculation.  Just today I bought a pack of size 5 diapers for my 2-year old.  The pack had 27 diapers in it, and I paid $3.00 for the pack with my coupon shopping.  Let’s just say that there were 30 diapers to make the math easier.  That’s $0.10/diaper, making your total for the lifetime of diapers $900.  When you compare those numbers, you probably are coming out about even with the costs of cloth diapering just one child, but why wouldn’t you choose that route if it’s not costing you any more money and it’s safer for your child and your environment?  And add more children to the mix, and you too save even if you are a frugal shopper!  I sure am kicking myself for waiting until I was on my third child to look into cloth diapering!  I could have been saving $1800 if I would have invested back when my first was born!!

So, now that you have read all that, I may have some of you that haven’t thought about cloth diapering before interested but your next question is where in the world to start ?  Well, that’s where Jack Be Natural comes in!  They are a great company based out of Charlotte, North Carolina carrying several different cloth diaper brands.  They have a huge amount of education and information to help you get started on their website, including YouTube Videos to watch each step of cloth diapering (including washing!).  And I would bet if you have a question you can’t find the answer to on their Cloth Diapering 101 page, that they would be happy to help answer it for you!

MY TRIAL:
Jack Be Natural was gracious enough to send me a cloth diaper (a KaWaii) to give a try with my 2-year old before I decide if I want to give this whole cloth diapering thing a try with my newborn on the way.  First, I have to say:  they are so much cuter and fashionable than the diapers my mom has pictures of me wearing.  And pins?  Yeah, mom, those are a thing of the past for sure!  I was shocked at how easy it was to cloth diaper my little guy.  He was a bit confused about it at first I think.  He kept looking down at it trying to figure out where the diapers he is used to were, but I loved it!  He seemed way more comfortable in it, and it seemed to actually fit his skinny frame better than most of the disposable brands do.   After he wet the diaper, I had my first trial of washing, and it was so much easier than I could have imagined!  Even having a poopy diaper turned out to be far less work than I had expected!

(This is a picture of my 2-year old little boy trying to figure out what this new diaper is all about!)

I have to admit that even trying them, I still would have had a lot of questions.  I was actually given the opportunity to meet with one of the owners from Jack Be Natural at a local Charlotte baby event (prior to trying the cloth diaper), and she was extremely helpful in answering my questions that I had.  My two biggest concerns were what to do when we were out and about and what to do about overnight wetting (my son has to wear Huggies overnights to make it through the night).   There are so many choices out there and so many different inserts you can place in the diapers that you can keep your baby from leaking during overnight sleeping.  And while it really doesn’t sound that complicated to deal with the standard cloth diapers while out and about, I was happy to learn about pocket diapers as an alternative that would be as easy as disposable diapers when I was out and about.  Honestly, I am still a little overwhelmed with figuring out everything I need to get started with my newborn, but thanks to all the help at Jack Be Natural, I am excited to jump into the cloth diapering world and possibly give it a try this time around!

Win it!

Prize: $15 Gift Certificate to Jack Be Natural.  Please note:  If you are chosen as the winner for this certificate, you will have to create an account HERE at Jack Be Natural and then the $15 will be credited to your account to use as you wish.

Number of Winners: 1

Giveaway End Date: June 2nd, 2011 at 11:59:59 PM EDT

Eligibility: This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry.

Random Selection: One winner will randomly be chosen by the WordPress plugin “and the winner is…” and will be notified via email. Those winners will have 48 hours to respond to that email or another winner will be chosen.

Mandatory Entry!

Visit Jack Be Natural and tell us one thing you learned about cloth diapering that you did not know before!

Additional Entries: (just in case you want them)

(Complete the Mandatory Entry and the Additional Entries for eight total entries and eight total comments. The mandatory entry must be completed before the optional entries count).

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Disclaimer: I received a free product sample for the purpose of the review in this post.  Opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation. The sponsor of this giveaway is responsible for prize fulfillment.