Cloth Diaper Review: CDS FAP

I am what I call a very practical parent at least as far as “monetary” things are concerned- sigh! So I am not somebody who would spend a zillion on toys or clothes or anything fancy – I would rather spend the money on a family vacation! What we have though, are loads of books, simple wooden and Montessori toys, crayons and paint brushes, some good old denim dungarees and lots of tees to mix and match!

When this little man was very “little” – he was a poop master! He would poop like 10 times on a good day – so imagine the number of diapers we would use in a day! And then there was this incessant fear of diaper rashes! Also the waste bin overflowing with disposables pinched the naturist in me. Did you know one disposable diaper takes decades to decompose. It was then that I went looking for some “alternatives”. I came across this wonderful group on “Cloth Diapering India” on FB.

And what a world of “CD”(Cloth diapering) did I discover – from the good old flats to the more modern and convenient “Pockets” / “Diaper Covers” / “All in Ones”. I have to mention here that I was totally flummoxed on how to use them! Poornima was one of the first ones to help me take the baby steps – she is a mompreneur who deals with CDs. Now this is noteworthy, because I had not even bought one single diaper from her then – I really appreciate how selflessly she reached out and helped me! Few months down the line, we had a set of “China Cheapies” (Called so as they are made in China) which were doing their job just fine – all those exhorbitantly priced imported US ones were not my cup of tea! I have been told they are much superior in pee absorption and fit – but honestly I did not see the point in paying through my nose for them (3-5K for a single diaper – no thank you!). I would rather use disposables for night times and outings!

It was around this time I heard people raving about “FAP”\”Marvy” that was the brainchild and designed from scratch by Poornima of CDS. People who were until then using those pricey ones started shifting loyalties to FAP\Mervy! And the topping on the cake was that, it costed a fraction of the imported ones! That was all the push I needed to try this one… And man am I surprised or what!! They fit like a dream on my leanie-beanie (and I have seen pics where they fit equally well on much chubbier babies) but most importantly just after few uses I am now confident enough to use it for day outings also. Now it did take me a few more days before I was brave enough to take the giant leap of confidence and put it on him at night – only to realize I should have done this months ago (and saved myself some good money while doing a favor on long suffering mother Earth!).

But what I really love about these FAP diaper is the ease of usage. They are as convenient as a disposable diaper – all you have to do is snap them up on the little one and it is good to go! There is also no inconvenience of changing it every one or two hours (which is the biggest bane of normal CD) – they last as long (if not more) as your disposables! The recommended weight limit is 3- 15kg – So you are good to go from new born days all the way until they are 3 years! And did I mention, the inserts are made of organic cotton which are great at absorbing pee  and is perfectly safe on babys skin!

So if you have a child who isn’t yet potty trained, do your pockets (and nature) some favor and hop on to CDs. And it is super cute to see their bums move up and down as they crawl around in these uber cute prints.

 

This is the fav dipe of my “mee-mee” lover(fishes are mee-mee in his language)

For all of us who are money-conscious here are some interesting statistics. Did you know (even by very conservative standard) that we end up spending a good 20k per year on disposables – which means you would have spent at least 40-50k before the child is potty trained. Now, if you were an exclusively -cloth diapering parent, you could comfortably diaper your child for almost one third of that amount!

#InfertilityNotATaboo

Those long waits at the doctor’s reception, those scan visits, those incessant pokes and shots, those insensitive doctors and folks, those endless temple visits and poojas, planning your everyday schedule around your chums, the anxiety following and leading up to each visit to the doctor not to talk about how harrowing it is when all you need is an extra line on the pee stick- sigh! These are the thoughts that pop into my mind as soon as I hear about “infertility”.

So there we were, a 20 something happy couple who knew next to nothing about the ABCs of conceiving – not that it stopped half the world from conceiving! When things didn’t work out the way we wanted to, we made half hearted attempts and began exploring our options – meeting gyneacs, infertility specialists. And ho before we knew we were caught in a barrage of tests – which meant rushing into a scanning center minimum of six days a month right in the middle of your work hours only to be prodded and poked at by nurses and colors who seemed to lack any kind of emotion or warmth. Worse were the medication prescribed, making you throw up randomly and giving hopes leading to a heartbreak to everyone at home who’s waiting for a good news. Then the emotional see-saw you go through – a teeny-weeny hope at the “start” of every cycle, the fervent praying that this should be the one, those butterflies in the tummy when you wait to see if that second line will appear on the pregnancy homesite, the urgent prayers to your Gods to make you parents!
Finally when even after waiting for more than the prescribed time, the pee stick doesn’t show the second line, how noiselessly our hearts broke, careful not to let others hear lest they too feel sad for you. A sense of loss and hopelessness settles in by this time and you almost reach the end of your rope of hope.
We made more than one half hearted foray – we did as many as 5 failed IUI (and a laparoscopy to boot) with the best of the doctors in town – imagine travelling to the other end of the city in the crazy Bangalore traffic! All this while people around seemed to be popping out babies like it was a walk in the park!
Everything seems to be going against us and we were purely exhausted.
We were so tired and this close to giving up! On a whim, we decided to ditch all the specialists at the other end of the town and go to this new, unheard of infertility clinic in the neighbourhood. We still have no clue what happened, but guess what! The very first cycle of IUI worked! Things finally began to look good for us, like our prayers were finally being answered. And today we have a 20 month old gurgling happy boy to show
So was there anything different we did – actually no! So much so, that in the last scan it was found that one of my fallopian tubes was damaged rendering the conditions more unfavorable than our previous IUI! Was it the doctor or the new medicines? I don’t think so! As clichéd as it sounds I think it was just that the “Time was right” – I remember the number of times I have rolled my eyes when people told me that before we had our baby!

What kept me sane was my husband-man and both sides of our family and friends. My friends were this amazing circle of women – almost all except one who stays next door are my “blogger friends”! They helped me realize this is just a part of life and not life itself! But my daily dose of sunshine as I call her was a dear friend who was sailing in the same boat of infertility. It amazes me, how much she could perk me up even when she was going through dark times herself! Despite sitting oceans away she was this virtual rock I could lean against whenever I was about to sink! No words would ever do justice in describing what her presence in my life meant to me at that time. Caught in the storms of despair and hopelessness, she was my lighthouse.

Honestly it is about time the world – from family to employers to insurance companies – accepts infertility as a health condition. Would you be made to feel guilty if you are down sick with say jaundice – then why should I feel guilty about my “unexplained” infertility! It would take off the stigma, the anxiety and make this journey a little more bearable if people were more supportive and accepting of the fact that infertility isn’t something you invite upon yourself or your partner, rather it is a health condition that has the potential to affect both the physical and mental well-being of a family.

This blog is to #SpreadAwareness about Infertility through Infertility Dost, India’s first website that facilitates couples to brave infertility with support and knowledge. You can find other links  on Write Tribe.