I like big butts and I cannot lie

Well.... THIS kind of big butt that is!

The kind of big butt that makes you want to run over and smack it just to hear the owner of the BB giggle like crazy.

Disposable diapers just don't give that kind of satisfaction if you know what I mean.

Don't

get me wrong, I understand all the reasons why you would want to use diposables. My eldest daughter has been wearing them from birth, apart from a very short per

iod in which we used washables only to run screaming back to the pampers and huggies.

All that rinsing, washing and drying... All those smelly diapers everywhere... the leaking, the terrified baby's who are completey immobilized by their huge bums... No sir, that sooo NOT my cup of tea!

But then I discovered that the diapers I tried out were kinda...you know... oldfashioned (sorry mom!). They were made of 100% cotton with a poor fit and a huge seperate cover that leaked like crazy. They also looked really boring. I know that's one of the most stupid reasons to like or dislike somthing that is made to be covered by clothing most of the time and that is also used to absorb POO. But hey, I'm a sucker for anything colorfull and I hate anything white and boring.

So after daughter number two suffered from her weekly severe diaperrash topped off with her fourth painfull yeastinfection I decided to give the new generation of washables a try again.

The plan was to use a few every day and to combine that with disposables for the night and the trips outside the house.

It only took a day or two before she was in a washable diapers24/7.

Forget the endless soaking and rinsing. Forget the endless lines of drying diapers. Forget the boring white babybums. And most of all: forget the huge amount of disposables that you are carrying into your house every week, only to carry them out a couple of days later.

I'm not really an environmentalist (not that I don't care about the environment, I'm just not that much of an activist) but It really shocked me to see the huge decrease in garbage we throw away every day. Most of our trash consisted of diapers, think of what a HUGE pile of smelly filthy trash that makes in a year... Let alone all the diapers of all the baby's in this country...

Through the months I collected 30+ diapers from several different brands. Most of them are secondhand, some of them brandnew. All of the are extremely easy to use and best of all: my little girl hasn't had a single sore spot on her bum.

Yesterday I realised that the complete diaperstash was clean and dry, apart from the one that was on my daughters smooth and painfree bottom.

So I let my eldest daughter sort and stack all the diapers (she had so much fun) and I took a picture to show you how colorfull diapers CAN be!

See those polkadotted ones on the second pile from the right? Don't you just love those?! They are ittibitti's and they are made of a very soft minky/plush fabric. My daughter is wearing a pink one in the top picture.

I know, I know.... I can almost hear you thinking: "yeah, those are cute as a button but they still need WASHING!!!"

Yes. They do. But since having two children gives a huge pile of laundry even without the use of washable diapers I almost never have a complete machineload of diapers. I just throw the used diapers in the closed pail in the bathroom (no soaking, just throw them in dry after shaking out the poo in the toilet) and everytime I load up the washingmachine I throw in a couple of diapers. Only the real dirty ones get a washingcycle of their own.

If I'm lazy, like I am most of the time, I throw them in the dryer but I try to save a bit of money and some trees by drying them in the sun outside.

Most of the diapers we have are pocketdiapers which means that they consist of a waterproof layer on the outside and a fleecelayer on the inside between which you can place an absorbent inlay made of microfiber, cotton, bamboo or hemp.

Because you seperate the inlay and the outer diaper both of them are dry in a couple of hours. I put the inlay back in the diaper and then they are ready to use again.

It might still sound like a lot of work but the truth is that loading and unloading the washer and dryer and restuffing the diapers only takes a couple of minutes every few days. Not more then it would take to pick up, store and throw away a pack of disposables.

If you are interested in trying out washables for yourself, Twinkleontheweb might be a good place to start. They have a survey you can fill in to see what kind of diaper might suit you and your family best. There are also some dutch store selling washables but unfortunatly diapers are considered a luxury here in the Netherlands so they are incredibly expensive compared to diapers (or should I say nappies!) bough

t in the UK.

One last pick to win you over!