The Cloth Mama Spotlight: Issue #13

A Monthly Newsletter Celebrating All Cloth Diapering Mamas in Singapore

September 2022

Meet The Mama

Nishidha was formerly from Bhopal (City of Lakes) in India and moved to Hyderabad after getting married in 2018. Before relocating to Singapore a year ago, she was working as a Pediatric Dentist and a Senior Lecturer in preventive dentistry in India.

The 33-year-old is now a stay-at-home mother to a 2.5 year-old boy, Urv. In her free time, she gets to explore her passion in photography and embroidery. She says, “I have done all milestone pictures for Urv myself. I also do all his birthday decoration myself, all handcrafted. Recently, I’ve been doing embroidery hoops.”

As an art enthusiast, she also dabbles in Indian Folk paintings such as Gond, Pichwai, Warli, Madhubani and Appian etc.

She has even completed an online certification course and is now a certified artist!

On her toddler, Urv, she smiles, “He cuddles and give me kisses when he wakes up in morning and from naps. If I get too busy at work, he will come to me and say, “Maa, enough working, come sit with me and eat something”. Urv is a very active boy and attracts people everywhere, whether it is on MRT, buses, parks or at shopping malls. He’s never afraid of strangers and makes friends with senior citizens because they pay more attention to him. He loves dancing and making funny stories all the time. His favourite food are milk and fruits. He hates to walk… if we forget the stroller, then we have to carry him.”

The Cloth Diapering Journey

Nishidha started to cloth diaper Urv when he was 1.5 to 2 months old. At the beginning, she confessed that she knew nothing about the cloth diapers. There was no much advertisements on these products and disposables were the norms.

She says, “I chose disposables as Urv was born in India at the peak of a cold winter and I used disposables for him so that he wouldn’t catch the cold.” However, she would soon discover that Urv reacted adversely to disposables with bad rashes. In her search for better solutions, she came across modern cloth diapers on Facebook and has never looked back since.

She continues, “I tried out Superbottoms, Bumpadum and some local brands in India. I absolutely loved them!”

The family members are supportive of cloth diapers but remain a little apprehensive of its bulky appearance. They were concerned that it might interfere with developmental milestones such as rolling over, crawling and walking. She shrugs, “They were all proven wrong when Urv achieved all milestones on time.”

She even managed to win the family over. She giggles, “Before they can even protest, I was so fascinated by the beautiful prints that I said that these are designer diapers and specially designed for kids by renowned designers, which is true isn’t it!! They would then get really impressed.” Now Nishidha is so confident in her routine that she has attempted to cloth diaper when the family travel (post-Covid restrictions).

Challenges of Cloth Diapering

What started out as an experimental project gradually saw Nishidha transition to full-time cloth diapering by the time Urv turned 6 months old when she had figured out the right fit and wash routine.

However, the beginning was challenging. She laments, “I had issues with the fit so the diaper would leak after one pee. I said to myself that even if it leaks I don’t have to throw it in the trash as I can wash and reuse. I then searched for some help then found a cloth diapering group based in India. There was a mentor assigned and guided me through a video call (as it was still Covid period).” In fact, before moving to Singapore, Nishidha joined CDSG Facebook group to find familiarize herself with the cloth diapering culture here and detergents used here.

Favourite Diaper Systems & Brands

Nishidha like All-in-ones (AIOs) as they can be perfectly paired with prefolds which dry in shorter time and don’t need to do as much folding as in flats. So what are some of her favourite brands?

“I love Superbottoms and Bumpadum! I like the fleece lining of Bumpadum diaper as it’s so durable and soft compared to other brands. They are economical and I own most diapers from these 2 brands. I also have Big Snug so that I can stuff extra boosters in pockets for night time diapering.” She owns a modest collection of 20 diapers in Singapore and has another stash in India whenever the family goes back for a visit.

Potty Training

Nishidha started Elimination Communicaton with Urv when he was 6.5 month and could sit without support. “I made him sit on the potty when he wakes up in morning and from naps. Urv likes to make faces before he poops so it was easy to catch the right moments. He could also point at the potty whenever he wants to poop.”

She was really happy to have successfully get Urv to be toilet-trained from 9 to 13 months. However, the happiness was short-lived when the 13th month rolled by and Urv started to jump and run.

She recalls, “I used padded underwear but he would pee and stay in wet undies without telling me. I was struggling and about to call it quits. I started to cloth-diaper him all day again. When he was 26 months, I decided to explore with the “bare-bum” method, and thankfully, it worked well!” It was trying. Whenever Nishidha made him wear diaper or padded undies, he would pee in them only. She later changed them to normal cotton underwear and there were a few accidents. She explains. “Urv never likes pee flowing down his leg so he starts to tell me when he needs to pee and now he is fully toilet trained in the day.”

Advice to Newbies

Nishidha said that most first-timers are hesitant because they do not know the correct way of washing the cloth diapers. She thinks that determination and sincerity are key towards successful cloth diapering. Likewise, neglect doesn’t work as a consistent wash routine is important. She advises. “Just give it a try once, take help from local CD community and I promise you won’t regret it! In fact, the use of liners and biget spray is highly recommended for easy poop cleaning.”

She is also thankful for affordable rental services for cloth diapers (The Nappy Nook) in Singapore. She exclaims, “These rental services are incredible! They give parents options to try on different cloth diapering systems on their child, select which suits them before buying! Now there’s even a service for the CD washing in the pipeline which I believe would give newbie parents a strong push to try out cloth!”