DH and Cloth

[Sculpturegirl]

DH is a super guy and helps around the house better than any man alive. He is an avid recycler and composts everything. He cleans out the gutters with his bear hands, but is totally grossed out by the idea of cloth diapers. He said that he's willing to try, but he's not enthusiastic about it. He grimaced with I showed him the diaper stash that I got from Calliope. The list of "pros" didn't seem to sway his grossed-out aversion to cloth diapers. He's twice as grossed out by mama pads, by the way. But if we're cloth diapering, I may have to make the switch.

Are they really that much grosser? Do your DHs have a problem with cloth?

[hopeforchange]

my dh just didn't change cloth diapers. :shrug3 when we switched to PFs, he never learned how to fold them. when we did FB he would occasionally change those. but i used a mix of cloth and disposable, so he still changed his fare share of diapers.

this time, he's gonna have to learn though, lol!

[Happygrl]

My DH is great about the diapers. Skeptical at first but he willingly changes them. He does let me deal with the dirty diapers (past the EBF stage). He prefers pockets or AIOs but will change fitteds (the PUL outer helps him feel less weird, I think). He is scared of PF though. :giggle

He also prefers aplix over snaps--he has a hard time figuring out what snaps go where. :lol

[AngelaVA]

My DH is great about them and he's not very crunchy. He likes what they do for our budget. He especially appreciated it when we had a brief time of buying 'sposies for 2 after I had our second daughter. We didn't start until my first DD was 1 so we were dealing with the yucky ones from the start but you can get a diaper sprayer or even try disposable liners if you want to make it a bit easier.

[Naked Camper]

yeah, my DH doesn't change diapers in our house. he will if I'm not home, but it's not often he's left with Corban and has to change a diaper. :shrug3 He's a little icked out by it, but has seen how much money we've saved over the years and therefore is very supportive of us using them.

[appalachiamama]

Mike LOVES cloth, but hates cloth pads. Of course, I haven't needed them in 18 months. When I was sick back in the winter, he kept on with the cloth even though he was the only one doing diapers.

[jewelmcjem]

It just took actually seeing, and not smelling them. He was sure our house was going to smell like pee and ammonia -- his mom had done cloth with his little sister back in the wet-pail days. He had memories of swishing dipes in the toilet. When that was not the norm -- and I didn't get behind on the laundry causing piles of icky smelly dipes -- he was more than happy to jump in on the diaper changing. He'll even use prefolds and snappis! Oh and even use cloth when there are sposies in the house (we keep them for the sitter). He was very pleasantly surprised it wasn't as icky as he thought it was.

And he didn't even flinch when I started talking about mamacloth!

Oh, and he is NOT green in any sense of the word. Thinks recycling is a nice thought, but if they don't have curbside pickup he doesn't do it. He only recycles cans b/c MI has a .10 deposit. Etc, etc, etc.

[kiloyd]

My dh said he was not going to change cloth when i said I wanted to try. And he is stubborn and 8 yrs later (by now on baby #3) still won't change cloth. Occasionally he has put on a snap fitted diaper.

He really has no reason, just stubborn.

[ValiantJoy07]

I'm a bit frustrated in this aspect at the moment. Our rule has always been that since I'm in charge of "input" (breastfeeding and having spent hours nad hours of my life with a person attached to my body whether via pregnancy or nursing) and doing all the cooking for the family- when DH is home HE is in charge of "output" - unless he is working on some house project or helping me out in some other way- and it's more convienant for me to change dd's diapers DH does all the diapers on the weekend. He is also in charge of cleaning her up/wiping her off after meals (more output hehe) :heart

Lately he has become very grumpy about diaper changing, epsecially the poopy ones- he complains the entire time he is changing one and if I'm doing some thing else near by walks me through every.single.step of the diaper change ("babe, where are the wipes?" [they are in the basket on the changing table where I ALWAYS keep them] "what do I do with the messy diaper it won't shake out" [do the best you can, or put it on top of the diaper pail I'll deal with it later], "what diaper should I put RJ in?" [ I don't care!!!!!] :blush ). I don't know why he does that becuase I don't critisize the job he does and I always tell him how much it means to me. He's not a big fan of cloth at the moment, but he loves the money we're saving every month and he changes the diapers becuase he knows I change them all day every day and I really need the break on the weekends- which is partly why his walking me through every step is soooo frustrating. He definitely doesn't feel confident in his diapering abilities at this point, but he DOES it grossed out or no. Honestly, toddler dipes gross me out soooo much but we don't have the $$ for sposies.

[MomtoJGJ]

my dh is about as far from green as you can get... but he is more vocal about how easy and good they are than I am... he doesn't like changing diapers, but it's ANY diaper... he can put on a pf with pins better than snaps or velcro.

His favorite thing about cloth? Not having to get diapers at the store. never running out...

the reason we got them? It made me happy :heart

he also likes seeing them hanging on the line just as much as I do

[Herbwifemama]

We've been doing our laundry together since college, and dh has willingly washed my cloth pads with his stuff from the start. Cloth doesn't phase him. One of the many reasons I love him. :)

However, if he WAS grossed by it, we'd prolly have a stash of sposies for him to use, and I'd use and wash the cloth, and hope he adjusted. I'm pretty sure he would, eventually.

Cloth isn't gross. You have to handle poo no matter what when you're a parent. Bf baby poo is the least gross poo there is. Washing effectively removes the poo and germs. You can boil them if you're REALLY worried about it.

[BriansLovie]

Dh will NOT do pooopy cloth diapers. He will change pees. Changing poopy cloth diapers dont gross me out at all :shrug3

[~yogamom~]

my dh will change any diaper and adjusted to cloth pretty quickly-- we have pockets now, but he can snappi a pre-fold better than i can.
however, for poopy diapers, he hates scrubbing them out in the sink, so he just leaves poopy ones in the sink for me and i scrub them. not a big deal for me. :shrug3 i am happy he changes dipes!

[tiffany]

DH wasn't excited at first, but when he saw the savings in our budget he got on board with it pretty quickly. He never really had a problem with the poopy ones as much as I did even :/ I was the one who called a friend (zak!) and said 'I don't think I can do this' when we started solids. He just did it :shrug3 But now he makes a big deal when they are really bad (teething). He changes about half of them when he's home.

ETA: he hates pf, though - he only uses pockets and the occasional fitted/cover when the pockets are all in the pail.

[knitlove]

when I first talked about cloth with my Dh he was a bit grossed out and I pointed out that poop was going to end up in the washer unless we were going to toss lots of baby clothes. In the end I he was ok going with it because it is so important to me, and he is doing great - and we use only flats so lots of folding and mostly pins.

[Sculpturegirl]

My DH said that if there is too much poop he's throwing it out, cloth and all. LOL. I think he thinks that baby poop is all oozey all the time. Doesn't it get squished in the diaper? Uck. Now I'm grossed out.

[CapeTownMommy]

My dh thought I was crazy when I first suggested going cloth. Then when he actually started using them, he was 100% OK with them. So it's all good for us.

[Calliope]

My DH said that if there is too much poop he's throwing it out, cloth and all. LOL. I think he thinks that baby poop is all oozey all the time. Doesn't it get squished in the diaper? Uck. Now I'm grossed out.


Ooosey poop is breastfed or partially breastfed poop or the result of a tummy problem. Poop should be solid and will shake off cloth nicely. Any smushing will just turn it into a patty instead of a log. :shifty

I guess you could get some flushable liners if that would change his mind. :shrug3

[Sculpturegirl]

Calliope- I love your pirate siggy. I'm going to have to get a bunny siggy when my bunny comes home :kiss

We've got many options in the drawer o'diapers. I'm praying to get the potty training on asap! Maybe she'll just love going into the potty room with mommy every hour. Mommy drinks too much tea :giggle

[arelyn]

Depending on how they do it at her orphanage she might potty train poop really fast. Most Indian babies are very aware of their pooping. I was shocked when we got back from the subcontinent and was watching a friend's daughter and she pooped in her pants while sitting down and didn't even know it. Indian babies just don't do that. Even if they don't EC their version of cloth diapers are so thin that babies and caretakers can't help but notice what's going on.

Of course they also might leave her scarred to potty train if they tie her to a pot when they're pretty sure she has to go and leave her there until she's done. It happened to a little girl I know who was adopted from China. They just had too many babies and did the best they could think of to cope.

That's going off topic though. Sorry.

My DH can count all the poopy dipes he's changed on one hand and they were all while I was sick and under heavy protest. He hates changing all diapers but prefers pocket dipes that I've prestuffed. He out right refuses sposies and prefolds. :scratch He used to think mama cloth and CDs are gross but now he loves them. When we're at a friends house he'll quietly comment me on how our son/bathroom never smells bad like that and how happy he is that we use cloth.

[amyhntr2]

My DH also thought that the cloth idea was the craziest thing he had ever heard me suggest...(although crazier things have come since then lol- holding a baby over a potty for them to go in!?! haha) When he realized how important it was to me he agreed on the condition that I do all the poopy ones. I was more than happy to oblige. Since we got the sprayer attachment for the toilet and the "Potty Pail" he's not worried about it being gross in the washer anymore either. His sister did buy him a box of disposables to "have pity" on him but so far we haven't used many.
I think in the end the reality of using them is very different from what we imagine it's going to be. Once you take the initiative to do it, hopefully he'll warm up to the idea.

[aleigh]

We use Bum Genius & my DH always changes them. He doesn't have a problem with them at all. He was skeptical when I first told him I wanted to use cloth with our 2nd, but once he realized how easy the BG were, he got over it.

[JenLovie]

My husband was a bit reluctant when I was pregnant, but he's all about the cloth now. We use prefolds and covers.

[cro]

DH isn't grossed out by the idea at all. Poop is poop. No matter what kind of dipes you use, you're gonna have to see it, smell it, wipe it. But w/ sposies, you get a lot more blowouts and that means messes all over the clothes (which you have to remove from the child somehow - my least favorite part).

Nonetheless, my dh is somehow intimidated by cloth - even AIOs - and refuses to change a diaper unless I get sposies.

[christineka]

My dh was originally against cloth diapers, but I change 99% of the diapers, so he really had no choice. He's now all for cloth (as long as I am changing the diapers) because it has saved us a ton of money. Currently with the new baby, dh is in charge of the toddler's diapers. Toddler is in sposies while tiny baby wears cloth and dh actually washes the diapers for me:) When dh goes back to work toddler will go back to cloth.

[Littledisciples]

DH don't mind using cloth he just won't wash them. I don't mind like I tell him just change it and leave it for me later. I have used both but with our next baby we are using cloth 90 percent of the time. I plan on just having some sposies for him to use. I figure it won't cost that much more and it will be easier on him. :shrug3 Maybe you can do something like that for him. My DH isn't grossed out on cloth pads either he just doesn't want to see them or wash them. Of course I wouldn't let him anyway. I am good about keeping both seperate and washed seperate too.

[believer]

I never did cloth and don't think I could handle it. To me, it is that gross. I even threw away some pooped in underpants a few times when my kids were potty training and had accidents because they grossed me out and I could not deal with cleaning them.

[canadiyank]

Like others have said, poop is poop, you have to deal with it one way or another. Find some easy AIO's to have on hand for him to use. I had babysat kids in cloth growing up and when dh's gma bought us 8 wks. of diaper service I was like nooooooooo! But then they turned out to be really easy (prefolds and wraps) and so I did it myself after that. Dh has never had a problem with them and he used to be grossed out just walking down the feminine hygiene aisle. :lol

[mummy2boys]

My husband was wonderful when our kids were little and in nappies. He changed as many nappies as was needed and he is fully supportive of me using mama cloth.

[Littledisciples]

One good point to make is that if you use disposables your suppose to dump the poop in the toilet anyway. Read the instructions it does say that. So no matter what you have to handle poop to a degree.:shrug3 After I got done dumping the poop out I figure might as well wash it rather then throw it away. Just a thought

[canadiyank]

That's true - also, poop washed in the washing machine gets treated properly at the sewer or in a septic system, versus sitting encased in a landfill as a potential contaminant.

I'm pretty "green" and one of the things I've really appreciated about cloth is how many kids it can go through! All my diapers have gone through 3-4 kids! Can't say that about a disposable. :shifty :lol

[DragonfliiMama]

I was totally expecting to have to do some persuading when I suggested using cloth. I was left with my mouth hanging open speechless when dh's response was "Oh, sure, I've been meaning to ask you about that anyway." :giggle He went to a local cloth diapering class with me to figure out what kind we wanted to use and went over price comparisons with me to decide whether or not to use a service and for how long and everything. He has no problem with it at all. We ended up buying a "everything you'll ever need" type package from a local place. We did have to use sposies the first couple of weeks b/c Gabriel's been too small for the cloth. We had 2 packages of preemie sposies and 1 of nb that other people bought for us, not realizing we were planning on using cloth. It worked out perfectly, by the time we finished up the preemie packages, he was big enough for the nb size. We finished that up today and dh put the first cloth on this afternoon. His comment was "I'm so glad we never have to buy another diaper ever again." Of course, I'm going to want more covers, we started with kind of a minimum, but if we're careful about the laundry, we shouldn't technically NEED them. We're set until he potty trains and the next one too! :mrgreen