The New & Green Mamas – Kresha
Name: Kresha, Workshop Facilitator
Children: A delightful little girl Annika, almost 3 years old.
A little “About me” Please: I am an opera singer, a writer, a model, a lover of food, wine, and beer, and I’ve been a consultant for New and Green since the summer of 2008. I absolutely love leading N&G workshops and having any excuse to talk about cloth diapers – somehow I consider this baby-care task that is supposed to be dreary and gross to be fun and engaging! I live in Vancouver with my husband and daughter. We love to travel, camp, read, play music, and just generally “do stuff” together. If you came to our house on any given evening, it would be filled with the normal dinnertime/bedtime chaos, accompanied by great conversation and lots of laughter. I have been very blessed with the family that I have.
Why Cloth Diapers for your family? My husband and I were drawn to cloth diapering when I was pregnant because we wanted to diaper in the most sustainable way possible – both for our finances and for the environment. However, we were completely overwhelmed with the options available and trying to figure out what would work for us. So, we initially started with disposables, then moved toward cloth when our daughter was about five months old. Since then, I’ve tried literally hundreds of brands of diapers, just to satiate my curiosity with the infinite number of ways cute baby bums can be diapered.
Why do I love to tell folks about Cloth Diapers? As much fun as cloth diapering is, as much money as you save doing it, as much as it reduces your environmental impact, and as much as parents who consider cloth diapering should feel proud for being intentional in choosing how to diaper their child/ren, that doesn’t mean it’s the only “right” decision, or that there is only one “right” way to use cloth. I love talking about these questions with parents one-on-one and mostly, I just consider it to be an honour to be a resource within that decision-making journey.
What’s your best tip for families new to Cloth Diapering? There is no “right” way to diaper your baby. I’ve run into several parents who feel stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed at the thought of cloth diapering and worried they won’t be able to make the “right” decision – for some that’s trying to decide between cloth and disposables and for some it’s about which cloth diapers to choose. But I want to emphasize that this is about choosing what is best for you and your baby and you should never feel guilty for making a thoughtful decision, regardless of the decision that is made.
Current Faves (long list coming!!):
1. Luxe wool covers. We love our Aristocrat wool covers at night, but during the day, there is nothing better than the cute, trim, incredibly well made Luxe wool covers. They’re waterproof, yet allow air to get to baby’s skin; they’re made of natural fibres; they’re super-trim; and they’re super-cute! They also require only a minimum of care to keep in tip-top shape.
2. Cloth wipes. We cloth diapered for a year before we switched to cloth wipes, yet now there’s nothing that could get me to go back to disposable wipes.
3. Pocket diapers. I love love love pocket diapers because they have the convenience of a grab-n-go diaper yet come apart to wash thoroughly and dry quickly. They are also very versatile in how much or how little absorbent material you can choose to stuff them with. Monkey Doodlez, AMP pockets, the AMP Duo, and Fuzzi Bunz are among our favourites for fit, durability, and quality of construction.
4. Hemp flats. Hemp is sooo absorbent. Flats are so multi-functional (as prefolds, as stuffers for pockets, as travel-size change pads, to name a few). ‘Nuf said.