Cloth in Hospitals… is this far fetched? Well honestly, it was less than 50 years ago that it was the norm. 50 years is not that far removed from us mamas now. Only a few generations. We just need to remind hospitals that cloth is better for babies.

Can we do that? Can we get them to see all the trash they are adding to the landfills? I don’t know… but that is our quest. Cloth in Hospitals has a blog and also a fantastic Facebook page titled “We want to see cloth diapers in Hospitals!”

The beginning of this group was small and insignificant really. I was chatting on Twitter with a few friends and said wouldn’t it be nice if we could get more hospitals to use cloth diapers. Well the next day one of the mamas told me that she had made a FB page. LOL! Just like that! Then the other mama was like hey you should promote it with a big giveaway only do it like a telephone game. BUT have the participants call the hospitals. So we posted lots of info for the first week and built up our numbers. The we had a huge giveaway with some amazing sponsors. I make cloth diapers and thought a “diaper mascot” would be fun! So I hurried and whipped out a diaper and got it on a baby and got some amazing pics of it to make a button for our blog and FB page.

Feel free to grab the button and put it on your blog!

I even sell the “Hospital Diaper” through a Nifty Nappy retailer with $2 from every sale going to the Real Diaper Association.

We had amazing participation in our big contest in which people received points for helping the cause (contacting hospitals, spreading the word, etc) and it was fun to read though all the comments. We had so many people contact so many hospitals. We had hospitals that responded that they were interested in looking at literature about it. We even found a few that are already using cloth. This was exciting because we had the chance to ask them a few questions and get some information that can help us in the future.

This is where I need some help though. I don’t know how to proceed. I feel very overwhelmed. I am a WAHM with 6 kids and I feel like I have bitten off more than I can chew… but I know I don’t have to do it alone.  Perhaps some of you RDA supporters might be willing to lend some time / ideas? If we all do a little together we can do a lot!

We need to keep the momentum going.  We need to get people to take the information to the hospitals they called. We need to keep them motivated, and we need to collect all the info in one place. We tried to start a discussion on the FB page where people could post information they had gathered, and a few did, but not nearly enough.

I know I don’t need to preach to you… you are the “choir” so to speak! We know the best choice, but we need to help the hospitals see this. I would love to have you join in the movement and get any idea you might have. You can feel free to email me any time with ideas or suggestion.

What can you do to help get Cloth Diapers back into our Hospitals?

Vilate Thacker, Nifty Nappy, vilate@niftynappy.com

Have you gotten the latest issue of Mothering magazine yet? It features a HUGE spread on cloth diapering – comprehensive, thorough, and clearly in favor of 100% reusable cloth diapers! Lori Taylor, President of the Board of Directors, and RDA member Angie Gregory, of Mother Herb Diaper Service in Northampton, MA, were quoted in the article. Supplements include a 2-page pictorial explanation of the different type of cloth diapers, a page of troubleshooting advice, a listing of cloth diaper resources on the web, and an excellent article on elimination communication, particularly in conjunction with cloth diapers.

Jennifer Margulis, author of the article, is following up with a week of cloth diaper-themed blog posts at mothering.com. So far she’s written three: “I Heart Cloth Diapers”, “Cloth Diapering 101 or Everything You Need to Know About How to Get Started with Cloth Diapers”, and “Can You Really Travel with Cloth Diapers?” (her answer, like ours, is YES!  Learn more about our efforts to support parents in using cloth diapers on the road here.)

In support of the article, mothering.com has also introduced a series of video resources on cloth diapers and a Q&A Forum related to cloth diapering.  All this follows a long tradition of support for cloth diapers from Mothering magazine, highlights of which include editor Peggy O’Mara’s “A Tale of Two Diapers”, Lindsay Evans’ “Dumping Disposable Diapers”, and “The Politics of Diapers”.  There have been more published, and a number of additional articles and resources available on the site. Many RDA business members also advertise in Mothering magazine, connecting readers to sources they often cannot find locally.

Want to spread the word about cloth diapers? Buy a few copies and give them out to family and friends!

The Circle already has an on-base home (at the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base), but is working on an off-base location to serve the local civilian population as well. Heather is also in training to be a La Leche League Leader, and does a lot of local babywearing support as well. She hopes to bring all three together in a common space and time to help spread interest and support across the natural parenting spectrum. With three children that she is homeschooling, Heather is quite busy, but she is also dedicated. When she began cloth diapering, she was completely on her own, knowing no one else using cloth diapers. Being persistent, and convinced that cloth diapers were the right answer from environmental, health, and financial standpoints, she struggled through it, and now wants to share her knowledge so that other people won’t have such a tough time figuring it all out.

If you (or someone you know) are in the local area, check out the Facebook group for the Real Diaper Circle of Wayne County, NC. Join the group to connect with cloth diaperers and find out about upcoming meetings and other local resources!

Congratulations, Heather, and thank you for joining RDA in advocating for 100% reusable cloth diapers!!

If you are interested in helping with cloth diaper advocacy and support in your area, find out more about Real Diaper Circles in this blog post.

If you are looking for local support outside of Wayne County, NC, check out the Real Diaper Association’s local resource directory.

Heather McNamara
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association

I’m still on a high over the whole thing, though that may be due to the fact that my week didn’t end there. My co-leader, Rachel, and another Circle member (Jenni) staffed another booth for us on Earth Day itself at Hewlett-Packard’s fair, getting a lot of interest from the several hundred attendees.

And, of course, the #GetRealDiapers Twitter party that night capped it all off with 1700+ tweets in one hour amongst the 400+ preregistered attendees! There was a lot of fantastic information provided – you can view the transcript of the event here. Prizes were awarded EVERY FOUR MINUTES throughout the hour, including entire diaper stashes for some parents new to cloth diapers. Preregistered attendees were also subsequently provided with discount codes from the sponsors as well as information from the Real Diaper Association to help them realize their commitment to cloth diapers.

Did you take advantage of Earth Week to advocate for cloth diapers? How? We’d love to hear about your experiences!!

Heather McNamara
San Diego Real Diaper Circle Leader
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association

The current board members have diverse backgrounds in areas such as project management, small business management, social media, education and advocacy, and accounting. However, we lack significant experience in the area of fundraising.

As a board member you would

• have an opportunity to use your knowledge and experience to help the Real Diaper Association grow.
• help set priorities of our organization and adopt policies and procedures.
• guide our executive director as she manages the affairs of the organization.
• help develop, lead and participate in ongoing projects; like our current 100% Reusable Cloth Diapers Campaign.
• become a national advocate and help put more babies in real diapers.

Send your resume or summary of experience along with your top three ideas for raising funds by May 20th to Angela Imes, Treasurer of the Real Diaper Association board of directors at angela@realdiaperassociation.org.

A couple of months ago in our weekly Monday night cloth diapers Twitter chat, a person called @MrMikeSings appeared, talking enthusiastically about the cloth diapers that he uses on his child. In the six months or so that I’ve been attending these chats, I have seen VERY FEW men participate, so, even though these chats sometimes happen at warp speed, I took note and began chatting with him. (Frankly, he was probably overwhelmed at the welcome since I was not the only person there wooed by his male presence.)

As it turns out, Mr. Mike is originally just Mike, but picked up the title after working as an early childhood educator. His background in guitar and songwriting combined with that experience and led him to record and release a kids’ CD, which led him into the Twitter universe to talk with parents like him who might have children like his who might want to hear his CD. And there our worlds collided.

Someone suggested that Mike write a song about cloth diapers.  After a little research about why people choose cloth diapers, he worked up a lyric and some music, and VOILA – “I Use Cloth” was born!

“I love the idea of this song because I feel like it hits on the reasons why people use cloth, some of the feelings behind the cloth diapering movement, and a few inside jokes while, at the same time, appealing to folks looking for a cute, upbeat, catchy song.” – Mr. Mike

With a new anthem, cloth diapering is set to storm the planet!  Thanks, Mr. Mike!

Mother of two girls, Michelle is also the owner of Snooty Booty Diapers, and the blogger behind Cloth Diapers Made Simple. She also guest writes for other blogs and publications and exhibits at local fairs, all to spread the word about cloth diapers. Having introduced many people to cloth diapers, she is following up with the next step – providing a Circle where those people can continue to get and give support to one another. Michelle’s enthusiasm for cloth diapering, and her tireless efforts to find the right cloth diapering solution for every situation for her family and for others will make her an excellent RDA representative. The Jersey Shore is lucky to have her as a Leader!

To find local support near you, check the RDA’s local resource directory.

Heather McNamara
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association

After a good amount of initial research (we shared the results of our survey here), a planning group, comprised of RDA and Real Diaper Industry Association (RDIA) members, produced a proposal for a joint project to facilitate the acceptance and use of cloth diapers in the daycare setting.

I am pleased to announce that both the board of the RDA and the board of the RDIA have approved this proposal and we will be moving forward with the project over the course of the next year!

Based on a cost-benefit analysis of our various options, we decided to move forward in two main areas.

The first is in guiding parents to find or convince a daycare to use cloth diapers.
a. To help them find a daycare to accept cloth, we plan to create a cloth diaper-friendly daycare directory. Parents will contribute data to this directory, and it will be available for others to search for daycares in their area.
b. In lieu of finding an already-cloth-diaper-friendly setting, we will also produce and distribute a “tip sheet” to guide parents in how to ensure a caretakers’ acceptance and use of cloth diapers for a child in their care.

The second area we’ll pursue is in educating daycare facilities about cloth diapers.
c. Using input from facilities already using cloth diapers extensively, as well as knowledge about local daycare provider licensing requirements, we will create materials for distribution in two ways.
First, we will attempt to “soften the market” by using a mailing list to hit some of the largest providers.
Second, we will make the materials available for printing and use by motivated “salespeople” – parents who are searching for daycare for their baby.
d. As part of this area, we’ll also examine existing relationships between daycare facilities and diaper services to produce a useful model to help more diaper services pursue these relationships in their communities.

To do all this, we’ll be using a lot of volunteer resources, so please contact me if you are interested in helping.

–
Heather McNamara
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association

http://www.realdiaperassociation.org

Our Mission: The Real Diaper Association is a collective non-profit organization in which parents and small businesses take the lead in creating a cultural shift to increase the use of simple, reusable cloth diapers. We connect current cloth diapering parents to the long history of cloth diapering. Cloth diapers are real diapers. The Association organizes local advocates and activists for cloth diapers through a member-supported resource center which plans campaigns, trains organizers, distributes educational information, supports local groups, and connects users to the U.S. Cloth Diaper industry. Local Real Diaper Circles reach users face-to-face with knowledge and tools to make cloth diapering accessible and acceptable to U.S. parents, who have the power to change the world one baby at a time.

Cloth diapers are real diapers. We love cloth diapers!

If you love cloth diapers, too, share with others. Tell the world why you use reusable cloth diapers.

Read hundreds of testimonials why Real Diaper Association members use cloth diapers.

Lori Taylor
President, Real Diaper Association
lori@realdiaperassociation.org

Cynthia Thompson
Vice President, Real Diaper Association
cynthia@realdiaperassociation.org

Marie DiCocco
Secretary, Real Diaper Association
marie@realdiaperassociation.org

Angela Imes
Treasurer, Real Diaper Association
angela@realdiaperassociation.org

Heather McNamara
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association
heatherm@realdiaperassociation.org

She calls her husband over. He voices his concerns. What do you do with the poop? What about the extra water use? Washing routines and research results are shared. Then he asks the real kicker: how much do they cost? When he hears about the huge savings real diapers can offer, the next question is usually: Where can we get them?

Often, all it takes is a conversation and a sample to set a parent on the path toward using cloth diapers. That’s why the Real Diaper Association (RDA) is committed to helping local leaders bring the message of cloth diapers to their communities. As an example, one of RDA’s active groups is the San Diego Real Diaper Circle, which was founded in April of 2008. Since then, the group has staffed booths at the 2008 and 2009 EarthFairs in Balboa Park and the BabyTime Expo at the Convention Center. They have also presented cloth diapers in childbirth classes and held more than 50 meetings in central and North County San Diego. More than 150 members support one another via the meetings and an online forum, and they have exposed more than a thousand parents and caregivers to reusable diapers.  (See here for a recent blog post about the group.)

Since its founding in 2004, RDA has put training local educators and supporting their local efforts at the core of our mission. Through local Real Diaper Circles, RDA organizes volunteers who advocate and educate about cloth diapers locally, meeting with new parents face-to-face to make their diapering choices easier. (To find if there is already a Circle in your area, check this map.) To become a Circle leader you must:

• use cloth diapers full time for at least a year (or must have done so when your children were babies).
• be a Real Diaper Association member.
• demonstrate support for and dedication to the mission of the Real Diaper Association.
• be respectful of others and enthusiastic about cloth diapering.
• be creative, persistent, and organized in doing the work to get a local Circle started.

There are several steps to accreditation.  Most volunteers find that this process takes about 30 hours over the course of 3-4 months.

• Volunteers apply to begin leadership training by submitting a short application.
• Volunteers put together a vision for what advocacy and education will look like in their area.
• Leaders in training will prepare to practice Nonviolent Communication by reading Marshall Rosenberg’s book by that name.  RDA will provide a reading guide with questions, many of which are specific to situations you might encounter in a local diapering group.
• Leaders in training will have a series of interviews, by e-mail and by phone, with an RDA organizer.
• Leaders in training will participate in an online discussion group to support one another through the training period.
• Leaders in training who are also cloth diaper business owners will develop a plan to separate those roles when working in their community.

Once a leader is accredited, Circle leadership usually involves:

• Coordinating regular local meetings.
• Organizing Circle members to conduct outreach in the community.
• Setting up an online component to support Circle members beyond meetings.
• (Optional) Raising funds to support Circle events.

The time and effort that it takes to run a Circle depends on a number of factors such as how new the group is, how many volunteers a leader develops within the Circle to take on responsibilities, and how much outreach the Circle does.  Each leader must individually decide how to balance their commitment level and interests with the needs of their community.

RDA currently has more than 65 leaders in training around the country.  If you are interested in starting a Circle, be sure to volunteer as a Circle Leader when you join RDA.  In the event that someone else from your area is also interested (or already in training), RDA organizers can help you work together to share responsibility for a common Circle.

–

Heather McNamara
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association
www.realdiaperassociation.org