Although my husband, Nate, and I had differing opinions about what color the nursery should be and what constitutes as ‘gender neutral’ clothing (we chose not to find out our daughter’s gender before she was born), one thing we agreed from day one was that we wanted to raise our child ‘green’. Some of the choices we’ve made have already posed challenges that we’ve had to overcome in order to stick to our ‘green’ plan.

My daughter, Thea, breastfed for the first time within 10 minutes of being born. I was delighted and relieved that she seemed to know just what to do. She latched right on, and though it felt a bit odd, I figured it was just because I was new at it. I thought we’d lucked out and avoided the multitude of issues I’d read about that so many new breastfeeding mothers and babies face. A few days later, however, it was evident that something was off. It was entirely too painful to be ‘right’.

With the help of a lactation consultant, we identified that Thea was tongue-tied. She was unable to flange her top lip and stick her tongue out far enough to breastfeed properly. The result was her having to work way too hard to get enough milk while causing me an exorbitant amount of pain. It was challenging, to say the least, and tempting to give in and just give her formula in a bottle. However, Nate and I took turns encouraging each other to stick with it and keep trying until Thea and I could breastfeed properly and without pain. Nate and I really believed it was the best nutrition source for her (how much more organic can you get?) . Thea ultimately had a procedure to clip under her tongue and – amazingly – we were feeding without pain later that same day. I am so glad we persisted through that challenging first week in order to reach our goal of exclusively breastfeeding.

Our next challenge was cloth diapering. We loved the idea of not contributing to the diapers sitting in landfills, saving money, and potentially potty training Thea earlier (I’ve heard that cloth diapered babies tend to train early – fingers crossed!). In theory, cloth diapers are awesome. In reality, it takes some work and dedication to figure them out.

There are a plethora of brands and styles available these days for parents to sift through and find what works best for them and their baby. After trying three or four of the modern styles, we’ve ended up in the old school pre-folds and covers. My main reasons for going that route were the price – they are far cheaper than $17 per diaper of the brands that are ‘diaper systems’ with their own style of inserts – and they are less bulky, so more of her clothes will fit properly.

Even good ol’ pre-folds took some time to figure out though, as they come in every fabric imaginable (cotton, Egyptian cotton, hemp, wool, flannel, etc.) and no one sells the giant safety pins anymore. You use something called a ‘Snappy’ instead, which has teeth and grabs the fabric. I actually prefer the Snappy, because I can’t end up drawing blood from me or the baby, plus they are made of plastic and are indefinitely reusable.

The other part of cloth diapers that served as challenging is the time dedication one must make to them. Babies in cloth require changing more often. Unlike the disposables with that nifty gel stuff that pulls the moisture away from your baby’s skin, cloth diapers simply get wet and stay wet against the skin. In order to avoid rashes, you must be diligent about checking and changing the diapers frequently.

Also, there is more time dedicated to laundry. The size of your cloth stash influences how often you have to do laundry, but I wouldn’t recommend going more than two days between loads, as those wet diapers are sitting somewhere and will probably start smelling. Adding a few loads of laundry to your weekly (or perhaps daily) laundry routine, while simultaneously caring for your child or children, is not a convenient use of time. It has to be a conscious decision one resolves to stick with.

These are just two challenges we’ve decided to take on in order to continue the green lifestyle we led prior to being parents. Accepting the challenges that come with raising a child ‘green’ is something we are willing to do, as we want Thea to grow up seeing that the environment, the community, and her own health are worth the extra efforts.

–Audra

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Do you use cloth diapers? What other ways do you encourage your little one to go green from early in life?

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