First, the End.

I try to be a conscientious person. Walk lightly. Leave no footprints. When we don't have houseguests or we're not traveling, I diaper my 10.5 month old baby in pre-fold cotton diapers with waterproof cloth covers (Bummis Super Whisper-Wraps) during the day, and All-in-One diapers (Fuzzi Bunz and Happy Heiny's) with cloth liners at night. I CD, as the initiated say. But I grow weary of my commendable behavior. No, it's not the laundry I do every third day. That is manageable. And we rarely have leaks or mechanical malfunctions. Baby N reacts no differently to a wet cloth dipe than he does a wet disposable. The problem? Sorry, folks, but it’s the poop!

As an infant living solely on breast milk, N had little liquid poops that smelled sweet, soaked in, and washed out. And to save diapers and laundry electricity and water, I EC’ed him into a Baby Bjorn Little Potty every few hours. (What the heck is EC?) When he started solids and his poops changed for the worse, I turned to disposables at the times of day when the sometimes runny, sometimes more solid poops were expected, and continued to try to EC. My methods continued to work for us all pretty well.

But now at 10.5 months, N's too heavy (20 lbs.) and too squirmy for me to pin to the Little Potty, he eats lots of solids every day and is still breast fed, and his poop is only firm 50% of the time. Is something wrong with him? I’m going to ask the pediatrician at the 1-year visit if it's normal that half of the time N's diapers could be declared a Superfund Site. I frankly don’t know what to do with a cloth diaper so badly abused. I will admit to having thrown away one I couldn’t stomach. Other CD-ing mothers tell me they “shake” or “knock” off the poop into the toilet. Yes, when it’s neatly formed like a stuffed grape leaf. But what do I do when it’s hummus? AAAAAAgh. I’m ready to give up.

Tonight, while researching the issue, I've happened upon a product that might restore my faith in my self and my methods: rice paper flushable liners. So, I’ve just now ordered a package of 100 from earthbaby.com. I’ll let you know what they're like and how they do. That is, how they handle doo.