Cloth Diapering a Squirmy Worm

My experience with cloth diapering has been a breeze for the first 10 months of my son’s life. You place him on the changing table, sing songs, take all the time you need to delicately snap each snap, and all in all this was a wonderful encounter. Then enters the child that is into everything and changing his diaper is an infringement on his freedom. We are now reduced to changing his diaper somewhere on the floor after tackling him down, whilst using both my arms and legs to restrain him, and trying to keep him from twisting his body in a way that would make a gymnast proud.  I was becoming less of a fan of my cloth diapers solely for their time changing factor but I would never change my cloths for anything, no matter what the disposable marketing has thrown my way.  

  Let me remind you that cloth diapers are not like the days of old where we are fussing with pins and rubber pants, per se.  I use a mix of Bum Genius aios and Motherese one size and covers, both of which are awesome at holding the scariest of diapers.  So the changing time is shorter than the past, but not certainly as simple as the new disposables that you just pull on a super wiggly baby.  This being said, I realize that I just need to become more creative with my diversions while we are in the midst of changing a diaper. My songs have become more interactive, there is now a plethora of toys within arm’s reach, and I often just give him the bottle of lotion to mouth and play with so that I can get the diaper on.  I do become frustrated with the time that it is taking to get both the diaper and a cover on him, but I know that this time that I am taking is well worth the cost of buying diapers and the cost of disposing of them, tenfold.  Cloth diapering is much like a great piece of mothering knowledge that was passed to me from a friend, who put the bug in my ear to even consider it.  My love of it has been passed on to two other friends, so I am emphatic that the gift of paying it forward is worth the tribulation of struggling to get each diaper on a toddler.